jackassery

Bush administration ignoring environmental laws, building border wall anyway

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced yesterday that he will use authority Congress gave him to waive all environmental laws that will impede construction of 670 miles of border wall between the United States and Mexico.

The wall threatens the rare wildlife of the Southwest like ocelots, jaguars, jaguarundis, and others with extinction because it will prevent animals from reaching breeding populations in Mexico.

Rodger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, released a statement saying,

Thanks to this action by the Bush administration, the border is in a sense more lawless now than when Americans first started moving west. Laws ensuring clean water and clean air for us and our children -- dismissed. Laws protecting wildlife, land, rivers, streams, and places of cultural significance -- just a bother to the Bush administration. Laws giving American citizens a voice in the process -- gone. Clearly this is out of control. It is this kind of absolute disregard for the well-being and concerns of border communities and the welfare of our wildlife and untamed borderlands that has forced Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club to take a stand and say "No more!"

The Bush administration is aiming to complete the wall before it leaves office, likely because all three presidential candidates have expressed some degree of opposition to it.

The only hopes for stopping the wall at this point are a Supreme Court case by the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife challenging the Bush administration's authority to waive environmental laws, a so-far anemic effort sponsored by Congressman Raul Grijalva to get Congress to change the law, or civil disobedience in the border region aimed at stopping or slowing the wall.

Notable quotable

“I’ll retract the rape complaint from the wombat, because he’s pulled out. Apart from speaking Australian now, I’m pretty all right you know. I didn’t hurt my bum at all.” — New Zealander Arthur Cradock, who was subsequently charged with “using a phone for a fictitious purpose”

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria thrives in CAFO pork, and Wall Street gobbles up Big Meat shares

In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat industry. Back in December, Michael Pollan wrote a important article about the antibiotic resistant bacteria MSRA, which Pollan decsribed like this: … the very scary antibiotic-resistant strain of Staphylococcus bacteria that is now killing more Americans each year than AIDS — 100,000 infections […]

Vote for the most villainous eco-villain of 2007

Check out our nominations for the most reprehensible eco-villain of 2007, then vote at the bottom of this post. (And tell us who we missed.)

George W. Bush. You've heard of him, right?

Pete Domenici. Sen. Domenici, top Republican on the Senate Energy Committee, played a key role in neutering the just-signed energy bill, pushing successfully to remove a provision that would have required utilities to produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources -- even though Domenici's home state of New Mexico is well-positioned to profit from renewables. He also relentlessly shills for the nuclear industry.

Stephen Johnson. Bush's man at the EPA, Johnson just denied California's request for a waiver that would let the state regulate greenhouse gases from cars and trucks -- against the advice of the career professionals at the agency.

Julie MacDonald. This Bush appointee to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service abruptly resigned in May 2007, just as Congress was about to consider charges that she had altered scientific reports to minimize protection for numerous species under the Endangered Species Act (and had inappropriately released government documents). Ongoing review of her decisions continues to turn up trouble.

Robert Murray. He is owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah, which collapsed in August, causing nine deaths -- and which had racked up hundreds of safety citations since January 2004. Murray insisted his mine was safe (all evidence to the contrary), whined about federal mine regulators, complained about proposed climate-change bills, bitched about the miners union, and moaned about how hard the whole collapse had been for him.

Harlan Watson. Before attending the December climate negotiations in Bali as chief U.S. negotiator, Watson told Reuters, "We don't believe targets and timetables are important, or a global cap-and-trade system." He also argued that the U.S. shouldn't be singled out for criticism for rejecting Kyoto, because Turkey rejected it too. No surprise, then, that the U.S. gummed up the climate talks and watered down the final deal.

Americans for Balanced Energy Choices. Once ABEC, now apparently "America's Power" (perhaps the patriotism didn't come across well enough), this coal front group is the leading wedge of a multimillion-dollar PR campaign aimed at buffing dirty energy's clean image among lawmakers. Last seen sponsoring presidential debates and sending Santas out to dispense coal-shaped chocolates (really).

UNGREEN. The nefarious United Nemeses aGainst Reliable Eco Experts Network kidnapped our beloved advice maven, Umbra Fisk -- forcing her to (horrors!) eat from Styrofoam containers, use energy-inefficient appliances, and live in a sprawling McMansion. Fortunately, with the help of our readers, she was released.

Chertoff lies, wildlife dies

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced yesterday that he's going to just waive the Endangered Species Act, the Toxic Waste Disposal Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (among many others) in order to plough ahead with building a wall along the Arizona-Mexico border in the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.

He repeated his rationale that the wall could be good for the environment because migrants leave behind trash:

But there are also environmental reasons to stop illegal crossings in the SPRNCA. Illegal entrants leave trash and high concentrations of human waste, which impact wildlife, vegetation and water quality in the habitat. Wildfires caused by campfires have significantly damaged the soil, vegetation, and cultural sites, not to mention threatened human safety.

As anyone who's spent any time along the border (or, really, anywhere on the planet) can attest, this statement is a complete lie. A little pile of trash in the wilderness might be unsightly, but it has nowhere near the effect of a giant, honking, double layered concrete wall. (Which, um, is a little more unsightly, if that's the standard we're going by.)

Since when is a wall a solution to trash anyway? I think usually, Mr. Chertoff, the way people clean up trash is by picking it up. What jaguars and bobcats and Sonoran pronghorn antelope and ocelots need is not a trash-free wilderness, but a wilderness that doesn't cut them off from the breeding populations on the other side of the border. Increased Bush administration border activity and the climate crisis have already reduced populations of the endangered Sonoran Pronghorn Antelope from 500 to below 25.

Quote of the day

“I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.” — CNN and syndicated radio host Glenn Beck, on the wildfires that have raged across San Diego county, killing at least one person, injuring four firefighters, scorching 100,000 […]

White House advisor reveals Bush view of climate change policy

White House science advisor, on the options available for addressing climate change: You only have two choices; you either have advanced technologies and get them into the marketplace, or you shut down your economies and put people out of work. Remind me again how long until these clowns are gone?

And he argues that cow farts produce more greenhouse gases than cars

Check out this clip (via RAN) of the insufferable Glenn Beck running through asinine talking points while disparaging Live Earth:

I'm not the first to note this, but it is really remarkable that CNN, a formerly respected former news network, stoops to this egregious low.

Mike Brune of the Rainforest Action Network does an admirable job of keeping his dignity, not committing any felonies no matter how justified, and calling him on his bull.

If, in the unlikely event that I am ever asked to do a similar interview, my only request will be that I be within smirk-smacking distance.

Good times

Good times. He must miss them. Apparently he’s given up entirely and just started posting gibberish. (h/t reader MR) Update [2007-7-20 8:5:14 by David Roberts]: Seems they’ve taken the gibberish down. Or rather, they’ve taken that specific piece of gibberish down. Gibberish like this lingers on.