Climate Change

The Bush administration is spending these last days in office pushing through hundreds of rulings. One of those rulings has to do with limiting greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. According to the Washington Post: "A 2007 Supreme Court decision required the Environmental Protection Agency to issue such a ruling, but the White House made it clear in its e-mail [sent last week to city mayors] that it does not think that is a good idea."

This is just one more indication of the bankruptcy of the Bush Administration, an administration that gave us: an unnecessary war; the suspension of habeas corpus against not only foreign enemy combatants but American citizens; a grossly politicized Department of Justice; the poor (and almost criminal) response to the Katrina disaster (a study indicates that kids who stayed in trailers provided by FEMA are extremely sick); an astronomical debt; an economic crisis of enormous proportions--to name just a few.

The Bush administration's poor record on climate changes seems particularly egregious in light of recent results of climate studies. Kevin Drum has links to some very gloomy prognostications here on his blog at Mother Jones: "Climate Change in the Himalayas."

Juliet Eilperin, "White House Prods Allies to Oppose Limits on Greenhouse Gases," The Washington Post, Wednesday, November 26, 2008. (h/t Matthew Yglesias)

Mary Carmichael," Katrina Kids: Sickest Ever," Newsweek, online November 22, 2008; published in magazine issue dated Dec. 1, 2008.

R. Jeffrey Smith, "A Last Push to Deregulate: White House to Ease Many Rules," Washington Post, October 31, 2008, Page A01.