(5/15/2005) George W. Bush has had the worst environmental record imaginable, and it looks a lot like his fiscal record. He has rolled back fifty years of pro-environment legislation while claiming to be helping improve the environment. He has opened up the national forest to logging companies, he has relaxed coal burning emissions regulations, he has removed barriers to mountain top mining, he has opened up oil drilling in national parks, he has transferred the cost of toxic clean-ups to the taxpayers, he has rolled back drinking water regulations, he has rolled back air quality regulations, he has broken a campaign promise and opened up Yucca mountain for disposal of nuclear waste, and the list goes on and on.

Bush's record on the environment is typical of how he and the GOP misrepresent their position while bending over backwards to serve the big corporate interest that are raping and polluting our planet at unsustainable levels. They obviously believe that if they keep telling the same lies over and over again people will be fooled into believing them.

Bush's spin on the environment reminds me of the book "1984" by George Orwell. In Orwell's story the oppressive authoritarian government gives their departments and legislation nice friendly names when in reality the departments and legislation are designed to do things that are very sinister and ugly. For example, Bush calls one his programs "Clear Skies", but this legislation actually rolls back tougher emission regulations.

Following is a list of some of the ugly and sinister things Bush has done to our environment during the past four plus years:

• Administration seeks to weaken efficiency standards for air conditioners (02/12/01)

• Bush withdraws new arsenic-in-drinking-water standard (03/20/01)

• Bush administration rejects Kyoto Protocol (03/28/01)

• Bush seeks to relax requirements of Endangered Species Act (04/09/01)

• EPA drops objections to Florida rule that undermines Clean Water Act protections (04/26/01)

• Cheney sketches out a misguided energy policy (04/30/01)

• Bush administration won't release information on industry participants in Cheney energy task force (05/10/01)

• Bush administration formally suspends arsenic-in-drinking-water protections; NRDC rips decision (05/22/01)

• Bush will not change fuel efficiency standards (06/19/01)

• Bush outlines an 'all talk, no action' approach to global warming (07/13/01)

• White House favors limiting president's authority to protect federal lands (07/17/01)

• Bush seeking to weaken federal environmental enforcement (07/23/01)

• EPA wants to scrap air pollution regulations for power plants (07/26/01)

• Tongass and other forests open to road building, logging (08/12/01)

• Bush administration appeals federal judge's decision to ban drilling off California's coast (08/17/01)

• Norton reneges on agreement to protect endangered desert tortoise (08/27/01)

• Bush backing away from pledge to clean up federal facilities (09/07/01)

• Corps official uses terrorist attacks as excuse to weaken environmental protection (09/21/01)

• EPA issues an arsenic-in-tap-water standard higher than that recommended by public health advocates (10/31/01)

• White House plans deep cuts in environmental spending (11/28/01)

• EPA may lift ban on human testing of pesticides (11/28/01)

• NRDC sues Department of Energy to expose Cheney energy task force secrets (12/11/01)

• DOE weakens standards for Yucca nuclear storage (12/14/01)

• USFS guts protections for undeveloped forest lands (12/14/01)

• More logging in the Pacific Northwest (01/18/02)

• New NRDC report documents sweeping rollback of environmental protections by federal agencies (01/23/02)

• Bush administration intends to shift Superfund cleanup from polluters to taxpayers (02/23/02)

• EPA official admits that Bush clean air plan is weak (02/26/02)

• Top EPA official resigns in protest of Bush's pro-polluter policies (02/27/02)

• Energy Dept. ordered to release task force records to NRDC (02/27/02)

• White House misuses clean energy funds to print dirty energy plan (03/25/02)

• Energy Department papers show industry is the real author of administration's energy policy (03/27/02)

• Pentagon seeks exemption from environmental laws (03/29/02)

• EPA watchdog resigns in protest over Bush policies (04/22/02)

• White House rejected more stringent EPA air-pollution proposal before issuing so-called "Clear Skies" plan (04/28/02)

• Bush administration rolls back air conditioner energy efficiency standards (05/23/02)

• Bush-Putin Summit Produces Deeply Flawed Nuclear Arms Treaty (05/24/02)

• Bush administration lets construction companies off the hook for protecting environment (05/24/02)

• Bush administration blames wildfires on environmentalists (06/25/02)

• EPA stymied investigation of Yucca Mountain radiation standards (06/25/02)

• Bush slashing EPA funding for toxic cleanups (06/30/02)

• Bush administration plans to give away oil and coal holdings in Utah (07/25/02)

• Another EPA official resigns in protest over Bush policies (07/25/02)

• Bush uses national security to gain corporate secrecy and immunity (07/26/02)

• Bush administration weakens whale protections that hindered oil and gas industry (08/22/02)

• Interior Department allows more air pollution at national park (08/22/02)

• Bush calls for increased logging in the name of fire prevention (08/22/02)

• U.S. undermines renewable energy proposal at World Summit (08/27/02)

• Bush administration plans to lift federal protection on wolves (09/25/02)

• Bush administration relinquishing federal water rights (09/30/02)

• Bush administration rewriting rules to boost logging in Northwest (09/30/02)

• New EPA water quality report shows U.S. waters are getting dirtier (09/30/02)

• EPA halts funding at several Superfund sites (10/31/02)

• Bush administration reverses snowmobile ban for national parks (11/12/02)

• Bush administration opens national park to drilling (11/22/02)

• EPA proposes weakening of Clean Air Act (11/22/02)

• Forest Service rewriting rules to increase logging, remove wildlife safeguards (11/26/02)

• White House begins process of relaxing government regulations for industry (12/19/02)

• Bush administration weakens federal program for cleaning up dirty waters (12/21/02)

• EPA exempts oil and gas industry from stormwater pollution rules (12/30/02)

• Bush administration wins court victory on mountaintop removal mining (01/29/03)

• Bush administration seeks waiver on ozone-destroying pesticide (01/30/03)

• Bush administration sets sights on drilling in Western Arctic Reserve (02/26/03)

• Bush air pollution plan weakens current law, threatens public health (02/27/03)

• EPA seeks to weaken endangered-species protections (02/27/03)

• Bush administration rejects wilderness protection in Alaska's Tongass (02/28/03)

• EPA backtracks on pledge to close loophole for California air polluters (03/25/03)

• White House bans EPA from discussing perchlorate pollution (04/28/03)

• EPA reports record drop in fuel economy (04/30/03)

• Bush administration cuts wildlife protection, boosts logging in Northwest forests (05/23/03)

• White House forest-fire plan axes environmental protections (05/30/03)

• White House whitewashes EPA environment report (06/23/03)

• Bush administration calls for more gas drilling on public lands (06/24/03)

• Bush climate plan all study, no action (07/24/03)

• EPA hides research on Senate clean air plan (07/30/03)

• Corporations shaped Bush energy policy, GAO says (08/25/03)

• New EPA rules ignore mercury pollution from chlorine plants (08/27/03)

• EPA officially rolls back Clean Air Act protections (08/27/03)

• White House recommendations could shut the public out of environmental review (09/24/03)

• BLM opens millions of acres of wilderness to energy development (09/29/03)

• EPA changes rule to exempt hazardous waste requirements (10/23/03)

• EPA refuses to tackle rising mercury pollution in Great Lakes region (10/29/03)

• EPA may allow continued phosphate dumping in Gulf of Mexico (10/28/03)

• Superfund cleanups lag for third straight year (11/04/03)

• Park Service workers speak out against Bush policies (11/13/03)

• Bush administration seeks increase in use of ozone-depleting pesticide (11/14/03)

• Judge criticizes White House pro-industry mining rules (11/18/03)

• Bush administration streamlining oil and gas permits (12/23/03)

• Another senior EPA official resigns in protest to Bush administration policies (12/23/03)

• Court blocks Bush administration's Clean Air Act changes (12/24/03)

• Forest Service drops "survey and manage" rule for loggers (01/23/04)

• EPA's mercury pollution plan mirrors industry's recommendations (01/30/04)

• Federal mining whistleblower silenced, demoted (02/24/04)

• Bush cuts funding for endangered species (02/25/04)

• Court orders Bush administration to stop hiding forest documents (03/30/04)

• Church leaders chastise President Bush for bad air policies (04/22/04)

• EPA lifts ban on drilling in Gulf of Mexico (06/24/04)

• EPA goes soft on pollution control for oil refineries (06/25/04)

• EPA resists further mercury studies (06/25/04)

• BLM holds largest federal lands auction in Utah history (06/25/04)

The earth is being threatened by global warming, over population, decreasing supplies of fresh drinking water, thinning ozone layer, higher CO2 concentrations, more pollution in the air, and resource depletion and the Bush administration has made all these problems worse.

The Bush administration is obviously more concerned about their campaign contributors profits than they are about protecting our environment. As a result the earth and its inhabitants are becoming sicker.