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President Bush: Innovative Environmentalist
Bush and the environment
Date: 5/14/2006 1:27:32 AM ( 18 y ) ... viewed 2647 times President George W. Bush understands the importance of the environment. He also knows the importance of the economy. AAEA believes that he has demonstrated a balanced approach to addressing the environment and the economy. Specifically, President Bush knows that one of the biggest issues facing energy firms today is regulatory risk such as uncertainty around market design issues and environmental regulation. Traditional environmental groups do not acknowledge this reality because they do not have the awesome daily responsibility of providing energy products and services. President Bush should be given the opportunity to implement his innovative policies, which will reduce uncertainty, efficiently provide the amenities of the American way of life and allow aggressive capitalism while protecting the environment.
We are deeply concerned that, while responsible ecology groups provide valuable information to the public, some environmental extremists are abusing the public with unnecessary scare tactics in the ongoing environmental and energy public policy debates. These tactics are hurting the environment and the economy. We have important clean air, energy, water and other environmental issues that must be balanced with America's mighty economic engine: housing starts, car sales, retail sales, DOW industrial average, employment, national security and more. President Bush has proposed numerous innovative environmental policies that are not generally covered by the press. We will continue to encourage him to implement and publicize his environmental agenda.
White House African American Newsletter Sept 2005
White House African American Newsletter Feb 2006
White House African American Newsletter Mar 2006
No Oil Drilling Off Florida Coast
In 2001 the Bush administration agreed to exclude Florida waters from a lease of offshore drilling rights and to buy back leases from oil companies in another area of the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Clean Air Diesel Rule
The Bush administration finalized new rules to prevent harmful emissions from off-road diesel powered vehicles, such as bulldozers, tractors and irrigation equipment. The vehicles are among the largest sources of pollutants that are linked to premature deaths, lung cancer, asthma and other serious respiratory illnesses. The regulations should reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide and other pollutants from diesel engines by more than 90 percent in the next eight years. EPA believes the new regulations will prevent approximately 12,000 premature deaths and will save billions of dollars in hospital and medical costs.
Clean Air Interstate Rule
The Clean Air Interstate rule permanently caps emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the Eastern United States. When fully implemented, CAIR will reduce SO2 emissions in 28 Eastern states and the District of Columbia by over 70 percent and NOx emissions by over 60 percent from 2003 levels. CAIR will mandate the largest reduction in air pollution since the reductions set by the Acid Rain Program under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.
Clear Skies
President Bush's Clear Skies Initiative (CSI) will lead to significant (70%) emission reductions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury: three air pollutants (3P). African American groups supporting Clear Skies or similar multi-emission reduction plans: 1) African American Environmentalist Association, 2) American Association of Blacks in Energy, 3) National Conference of Black Mayors, 4) National Black Chamber of Commerce.
Global Climate Change
The Bush Administration initiated the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate, which aims to use the latest technologies to limit emissions and to make sure the technologies are available in the areas and industries that need them most. The pact includes India, China, Australia and South Korea, which account for approximately 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
The U.S. is a Party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has the ultimate goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous human interference with the climate system. This can be accomplished in one of two ways – through short-term excessive regulations like those that would be required for U.S. compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, or through the development of new low- or zero-emissions energy technologies that will allow us to make larger long-term reductions in emissions while maintaining economic growth. The Bush Administration has chosen the latter approach: the Bush Administration will spend billions of dollars on climate change science and technology R&D and has requested increases in key investments in FY 2005. President Bush also supports billions in tax incentives to spur the use of clean, renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies. AAEA supports nuclear power as a zero-emission energy technology. Reprocessed spent fuel and mixed oxide from nuclear warheads should be included as renewable energy resources.
Clean Air Mercury Rule
Mercury emissions from power plants are not currently regulated. For the first time ever, the Bush Administration will impose a mandatory 70 percent cut in mercury emissions from those sources by 2018. The EPA Clean Air Mercury proposal cuts will be achieved by using either a proven market-based, cap-and-trade approach that will better assure compliance and enforceability, or a more traditional command-and-control approach utilizing Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT), which would reduce nationwide emissions of mercury by 14 tons (29 percent) by the end of 2007. Both proposals are currently receiving public comment.
Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site: Georgia
President Bush's FY 2005 proposed budget request includes $1,000,000 to provide support to the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The King Center is comprised of Dr. King's Crypt, a reflecting pool, Chapel of All Faiths, Freedom Hall, where artifacts of Dr. and Mrs. King are displayed, and an administrative building that houses staff and archives. Funding is used to operate and maintain the facility, as well as provide interpretive and educational services. Maintenance projects underway since FY 2002: $ 2.8 million and 5 projects
Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site includes a number of facilities that are operated in partnership with the National Park Service, Ebenezer Baptist Church and The King Center. Within these facilities the visitor can learn about Dr. King's life and his influence on the civil rights movement in America
FY 2005 EPA Budget Empowers Agency to Accelerate Environmental Protection
President Bush's 2005 budget provides $7.76 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency, a $133 million increase over the 2004 budget request.
National Energy Policy
AAEA President Norris McDonald was invited by the White House to attend the August 8, 2005 signing of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The signing ceremony was held in the Steve Schiff Auditorium in the Technology Transfer Center at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico. White House guests were picked up by buses at Kirtland Air Force Base and taken to the historic event at Sandia.
Norris McDonald and Senator Pete Domenici at the ceremony
President George W. Bush holds the box (above) containing the energy bill after signing H.R. 6, The Energy Policy Act of 2005. Also on stage from left are Congressman Ralph Hall (R, TX), Congressman Joe Barton (R, TX), Senator Pete Domenici (R, NM) and Senator Jeff Bingaman (D, NM). White House Photo by Eric Draper
President Bush (below) delivers speech on the Energy Policy Act of 2005
Energy Policy Act of 2005 Conference Report
House Conference Report Vote
Senate Conference Report Vote
Energy Policy Act of 2005 - Summary
President Bush Signs the Energy Policy Act of 2005
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President Bush Signs 'First Civil Rights Law of the 21st Century': No Fear Act of 2002
Discrimination judgements against agencies now come out of the offending agencies budget instead of the general treasury. The No Fear Act orginated with a discrimination lawsuit won ($600,000 judgement) by Marsha Coleman-Adebayo at EPA during the Clinton administration. She lobbied Congress for relief, which led to the No Fear Act. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo is currently working with famed actor Danny Glover to develop a movie based on her experiences.
Wildfire Prevention & Recovery Efforts
The Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 (H.R. 1904), patterned after President Bush's Healthy Forest Initiative, expedites procedures for tree thinning on 20 million acres of federal forest threatened by fire.
The Bush Administration is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to provide help for wildfire recovery efforts and to address the tree mortality emergencies in the West. This includes funding for emergency environmental restoration work in southern California. These funds will provide technical and financial assistance to local project sponsors to help heal the watershed and prevent further damage following wildfires.
Over 1,000 to be Trained for Environmental Jobs in Brownfields Communities Nationwide
A new round of Brownfields Job Training Grants will teach environmental-cleanup job skills to 1,080 individuals living in low-income areas near Brownfields sites in 16 communities. To date, more than 60 percent of people completing Brownfields training programs have obtained employment in the environmental field with an average hourly wage of $12.84.
A total of $2.4 million will be awarded to 16 communities in 13 states (Wisconsin, Washington, Illinois, Alabama, Ohio, Alaska, Hawaii, Rhode Island, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Missouri), to provide environmental job training at Brownfields sites.
Brownfields Law
The Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2001 encourages development of polluted lands, contains increased funding and flexibility to state and local governments for cleanup of brownfields. It also gives prospective redevelopers assurances that the federal government will not come after them for past pollution at the redevelopment site, and has small business liability reform.
Bush National Water Quality Trading Policy Proposal
The Bush administration’s proposed National Water Quality Trading Policy would allow water polluters to purchase "credits" from lesser polluters to bring them into compliance with the Clean Water Act. The proposal is similar to a sulfur dioxide market-based trading system that has operated successfully under the Clean Air Act to limit the threat of acid rain. The administration believes it is a cost-effective alternative to traditional regulations that require industry to install expensive anti-pollution equipment.
The new policy uses economic incentives to enforce water quality regulations. It would allow industrial, agricultural and wastewater treatment plants to meet their regulatory obligations by purchasing offsetting credits from facilities in the same watershed that have exceeded their mandated water quality standards or from non-regulated farms that have helped clean up water.
National Standards For Cooling Water Intake Structures at Large Existing Power Plants
EPA finalized a rule to protect more than 200 million pounds of fish, shellfish, fish larvae, eggs and other aquatic organisms annually from impingement mortality (when fish are trapped on intake screens) and entrainment (when they are drawn through the cooling system). They are being killed inadvertently by cooling water intake structures at about 550 large power plants that use about 220 billion gallons of water each day. The retrofits, operations and maintainance will cost approximately $400 million annually. The environmental benefits of this rule include improvements to recreational and commercial fishing and are valued at about $80 million annually. This is the first time in the 32-year history of the Clean Water Act that EPA has established a systematic way to comprehensively address the environmental consequences of power plants that withdraw more than 50 million gallons of water per day. The new rule will require all large existing power plants to meet performance standards to reduce the number of organisms pinned against parts of the cooling water intake structure by 80 to 95 percent.
Hydrogen Education Effort
President Bush has called on the Department of Energy (DOE) to pursue the promise of hydrogen. Over the next five years DOE will invest $1.7 billion in research and development of advanced hybrid vehicle components, fuel cells, and hydrogen infrastructure technologies, as part of the FreedomCAR and Hydrogen Fuel Initiative.
Coal
President Bush has proposed a $2 billion, 10-year Coal Research Initiative and coal R&D budget requests under President Bush’s leadership are more than double past requests.Coal has been fundamental to America’s energy security throughout our history. The challenge now is to make clean coal a vital contributor to achieving President Bush’s environmental goals under his Clear Skies and Climate Change initiatives.
Four New Rules Will Reduce Hazardous Air Emissions
Rules requiring four industries to upgrade their facilities by installation of Maximum Achievable Control Technologies (MACTs) were announced last Thursday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The new MACT standards will protect Americans from eye, lung, and skin irritation, liver and kidney damage, cancer, central nervous system dysfunction and other health problems by reducing national emissions of toxic air pollutants by some 88,000 tons per year within five years.
The four rules issued February 26, 2004 complete the application of technology based national emissions standards called for under the 1990 Clean Air Act. With today's rules, EPA has issued 96 MACT standards to reduce toxic emissions from over 160 categories of industrial sources. When fully implemented, these rules collectively will reduce 1.7 million tons per year of toxic air emissions compared to the 1990 baseline emissions.
MACT rules announced today cover: Industrial, Commercial and Institutional Boilers and Process Heaters; Plywood and Composite Wood Products; Stationary Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engines (RICE), and Automobile and Light Duty Trucks Manufacturing (Surface Coating).
President Announces Wetlands Initiative on Earth Day
President Bush celebrated Earth Day in Wells, Maine, where he visited with volunteers helping protect a wetland that is home to abundant wildlife and helps cleanse water reaching the Atlantic Ocean The President announced an aggressive new national goal – moving beyond a policy of “no net loss” of wetlands to have an overall increase of wetlands in America each year. The President’s goal is to create, improve, and protect at least three million wetland acres over the next five years in order to increase overall wetland acres and quality. To meet this goal, the President called on Congress to pass his FY 2005 budget request, which includes $4.4 billion for conservation programs that include funding for wetlands – an increase of $1.5 billion (53%) over FY 2001.
The FY 2006 budget proposes to spend $349 million on our two key wetlands programs – the Wetlands Reserve Program and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act Grants Program -- which is an increase of more than 50% over FY 2001 for those two programs.
President Bush on Diversity Compared to Traditional Environmental Groups
Where is the Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Rod Paige or Alphonso Jackson in the environmental movement? They do not exist. The environmental movement is segregated, arrogant and secretly proud of their elitism. President Bush's cabinet is much more substantive and diverse than the entire environmental movement and former President Clinton's cabinet in terms of African American participation.
the African American community is as American as apple pie and should be appreciated for its distinction just as people crave Chinese, Italian and Greek restaurants. It should not be considered negative just because it has 'African American' in the prefix.
Traditional environmental organizations should call President Bush and Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich and ask them how to hire Blacks in high-level positions. Traditional environmental organizations do not even hire Blacks in low-level professional positions. No research assistants, no research associates, no project and program directors, no vice presidents -- nothing, except secretaries and receptionists. Simple logic dictates that we have a better chance with President Bush than with most of the traditional, condescending environmental organizations and the foundations supporting their elitism.
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