More than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was fine by the nine to have the Environmental Protection Agency take steps to regulate global warming (Republican spin masters, by the way, have deftly inserted "climate change" as the new softer, friendlier way to describe the warming planet, but we're not buying it), EPA chief Stephen Johnson last week, no doubt under the extreme pressure from the Bush administration, declined to do anything of the sort.
This irritated California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who has been trying to bring to his state tougher emissions standards. But he said any hollow gesture in this late hour of George Bush's presidency, would be pointless and insincere.
The best thing about Republicans is that they are amazing at playing politics. When you think of the war, for example, and how they manipulated world thinking their way, you've just got to take your hat off to that. Except that, it's not a game and there are thousands of men and women and children who are dead forever because of, let's be real, this country's lust for oil.
It's not surprising that Puppet Bush, who is owned by Big Oil, has done nothing meaningful to control pollution in this country nor to set an example for other countries. Still, looking into the opportunistic sensibility that is the Republican mindset, one would have thought that Bush and friends would have seized the chance to pursue new revenue avenues especially when faced with a limited oil supply. Bush could have empowered the free-thinkers of the country and the world and challenged them to develop new, cleaner energy ideas. Instead of having the lowest approval rating ever for a president, he could have had the highest.
Instead, he lifted the ban on oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge so his friends can replenish their bank accounts as their real estate portfolios have taken a recent nose dive.
Instead, Bush pressured Johnson to shut up and keep his head down. Instead he, along with the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, pledged to cut emissions in half by 2050. He'll be dead by then, so he may as well have promised Jesus Christ at Carnegie Hall.
For the most part, being inventive, creative and bold is what got us here in the first place. It's what we can be most proud of, too. A lot of corrective work must now be done to get us back to that place.[[In-content Ad]]
