Bush SOTU Silence On Environment Damning - Dems' Response Likewise

[hatrack]

"What are we to make of the fact that President Bush completely ignored the topic of the environment during his defensive State of t the Union address? Somehow the environment rated a goose egg—like the dud idea of sending people to Mars—and did not rank up there with such urgent national priorities as keeping professional athletes from taking steroids or making sure our tax money flows to "faith-based" charities.

EDIT

Leavitt is spending much of his time speaking to anti-environmental big business audiences rather than to state, local, environmental or health groups. (Though Leavitt is planning a "newsworthy event," as the EPA invitation letter puts it, on January 26 to tout the arrival of 2004 model year low-polluting cars, SUVs and gasoline. Leavitt hopes to use health and environmental activists as political props. Of course, Leavitt isn't noting that the new products are the result of decisions made by President Clinton in 1999, over the bitter objections of most oil companies.)

EDIT

And it's understandable that the president was reluctant to discuss his increasingly ludicrous "voluntary" approach to the climate issue. (One of the president’s “Climate Leaders” is the General Motors Corporation, which has actually been a leader in efforts to block better fuel economy standards.) He did put in a cursory plug for pending energy legislation: "I urge you to pass legislation to modernize our electricity system, promote conservation and make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy." But you would've missed it if you had blinked. And, of course, the President failed to mention that this legislation would also encourage the EPA to postpone deadlines for meeting clean air standards in many communities throughout the nation.

But maybe the real reason the President dodged the environment is that the Democrats aren’t talking about it, either. Last night’s official “Democratic response” was significantly silent on the topic, as the loyal opposition missed a golden opportunity to note that the anti-clean air Bush policies are actually causing job losses in the pollution control industry and related jobs among construction workers, etc.

EDIT

http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9804