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Profile: George W. Bush
 Born: July 6, 1946; New Haven, CT
Education: Yale University, B.A. 1968; Harvard University, M.B.A. 1975
Family: wife, Laura; two children, Jenna and Barbara
Website: www.georgewbush.com
Political Experience: Governor of Texas, 1994 - 2000; President of the United States, 2000 - Present
Professional Experience: Founder & CEO, Bush Exploration Oil & Gas Co., 1975-87; Sr. Advisor, Bush Presidential Camp., 1988; Managing Gen. Partner, Texas Rangers baseball org., 1989-98.
Military Experience: Texas Air National Guard, 1968-1973
George W. Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut and grew up in Houston and Midland Texas. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 he returned to Texas where he served five years in the Texas Air National Guard. After receiving an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1975 he once again returned to Texas to begin a career in the oil industry. Bush unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1977 and served as an advisor on his father's presidential campaign in 1988. Bush became a managing partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team after purchasing a share of the team in 1989. He successfully ran for governor of Texas in 1994 and won reelection in 1998. In 2000 he was elected President in one of the closest elections in United States History.
Environmental Record
The Bush administration has systematically undermined environmental laws, weakened pollution and public safety standards, cut funding for enforcement agencies and programs, and nominated agency and judicial appointees that are openly hostile to environmental and public health protections. Despite stating on his website, "When government and landowners and conservationists and others work together, we can make dramatic progress in preserving the beauty and the quality of our environment,"(www.georgewbush.com/Environment) George W. Bush has compiled one of the worst environmental records of any President in the history of the United States.
Clean Air and Water
In February 2002, the Bush administration released its "Clear Skies" initiative, implementing a "cap-and-trade" program requiring limited reductions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and mercury by the electric utility industry. In effect, the program repeals and weakens public health protections of the Clean Air Act, diluting standards while extending the time in which companies are required to comply with reductions. Under "Clear Skies," individual facilities will actually be allowed to boost their pollution emissions, the amount of coal that will be burned by power companies over the next 20 years will increase, and greater emissions of mercury and smog-forming nitrogen oxide will occur.
In November 2002 and again in August 2003, the Bush administration altered a provision of the Clean Air Act known as "New Source Review" (NSR) to weaken emission control standards for polluting coal-fired power plants, chemical plants, oil refineries, and other facilities. In January 2003, the Bush administration issued guidelines that placed restrictions on Federal agencies regarding the regulation of "non-navigable" or "isolated" waters including wetlands, ponds, and intermittent streams. At that time, the administration also stalled enforcement of provisions of the Clean Water Act - dramatically weakening federal protection for many of our nation's wetlands and streams.
In April 2003, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed to reduce off-road diesel emissions by reducing the sulfur content of diesel fuel and requiring manufactures to produce cleaner burning engines. It is important to note that this rule has not yet been enacted but represents one of the few pro-environmental actions taken by the EPA under the Bush administration and as a stand alone policy, has the potential to have a beneficial impact on public health.
In early 2001, the Bush administration announced it would delay the implementation of regulations to lower the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water, but later reversed its position after significant public outcry. In every proposed budget, the Bush administration has recommended reducing environmental enforcement funding, undermining the EPA's ability to enforce environmental laws and regulate corporate polluters. In fact, the total number of EPA staff conducting inspections and enforcing environmental regulations is currently at its lowest level since the agency's founding.
The Bush administration has also allowed "Superfund," the fund that pays for the clean-up of toxic waste sites, to run out of money (effective October 31, 2003), meaning the burden of future clean ups would be shifted from polluters to taxpayers. Combined with declines in polluter penalties under the Bush administration, the EPA has been forced to cut back on clean-up and designation of hazardous waste sites.
Energy and Global Warming
Upon entering office, the Bush administration withdrew the United States from the 1997 Kyoto climate treaty that included 38 other industrialized nations and aimed to reduce the world-wide emission of greenhouse gasses. In early 2001, the Bush administration released its energy policy which called for the construction of hundreds of new power plants, increases in coal production and use, a long term shift toward nuclear energy, and increased domestic oil and gas drilling on America's public lands and coastal areas.
In January 2003, during his "State of the Union" address, Bush announced an initiative to fund hydrogen fuel cell research but despite a very modest increase in SUV and light truck fuel economy standards the administration has failed to institute any meaningful improvements in efficiency measures, fuel economy standards, or the renewable energy portfolio. The administration also has failed implement any significant measures to reduce carbon dioxide pollution - a major contributor to global warming.
Public Lands Protection and Wildlife
Almost immediately upon taking office, the Bush administration put a hold on the "Roadless Rule" that banned road-building and other damaging activities on nearly 60 million acres of America's few remaining wild forests. The administration is currently in the process of rewriting this historic proposal. In August of 2002, the Bush administration released its "Healthy Forest Initiative," which will increase logging in our national forests under the pretext of fire prevention. This damaging proposal limits public involvement, undermines the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and restricts the ability of federal courts to halt logging while considering legal challenges. The bill to codify the "Healthy Forest Initiative" is currently pending in Congress. Earlier in 2001, the administration also proposed a rule that undermined NEPA requirements in forest service planning processes.
In 2003, the Bush administration halted the review of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands for wilderness protections, jeopardizing the availability of land eligible for wilderness protection. Also in 2003, the administration re-activated the use of a loophole in an outdated mining law that allows local governments to construct roads through public lands, further weakening protections for wilderness areas and other special places.
Other public lands protections undermined by the Bush administration include overturning a rule to phase out damaging snowmobile use in Yellowstone National Park; a failure to address the significant backlog in basic maintenance projects in National Parks; limiting environmental review and public input to increase oil and gas permitting across the American West; decreasing protections and funding for endangered species; and a relentless push to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to damaging oil and gas drilling.
Nuclear Waste and Power Production
The Bush administration has consistently pushed for the creation of a nuclear waste depository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada as well as harmful subsidies for the nuclear power industry that would encourage the construction of new nuclear power plants and the production of more nuclear waste.
Administrative Nominations
The Bush administration has repeatedly nominated agency and judicial appointees that are openly hostile to environmental and public health protections. These nominations include Interior Secretary Gale Norton, a protégée of James Watt and long-time advocate of extractive industry; Deputy Interior Secretary Stephen Griles, a former coal company executive and lobbyist for mining and energy interests; and John Graham as the head of the Information and Regulatory Affairs Office of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), who is well known for using risk-assessment techniques to argue against regulations on nuclear waste, arsenic, and other toxics.
International Trade
The Bush administration has consistently pushed for trade agreements that lack environmental and worker protections. His administration won fast-track trade promotion authority from Congress in 2002, paving the way Bush's plan to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) across the entire Western Hemisphere, creating a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The proposed FTAA, like NAFTA, would enable foreign corporations to sue governments to undermine environmental standards.
Family Planning
Upon entering office, the Bush administration reissued the "global gag rule' policy, restricting US funding for international family planning programs. In July 2002, the administration cut all U.S. funding for the United Nations Family Planning Fund, which works in over 140 countries to give women access to voluntary family planning, economic assistance, and education.
For additional information on the Bush administration's environmental record please visit the Sierra Club website at http://www.sierraclub.org/wwatch.
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