Daily Kos: Now That's Some Leadership!

The Wall Street Journal is reporting the White House continues to fight tooth and nail to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency's from publishing a report of greenhouse gases mandated by the Supreme Court. Their motive? According to the Journal, to prevent even the possibility of the EPA establishing and enforcing any kind of restriction on greenhouse gas emissions (Subscription only):
The draft document, which has been viewed by The Wall Street Journal, outlines how the government, under the Clean Air Act, could regulate greenhouse-gas emissions ... The OMB instead wants the document to show that the Clean Air Act is flawed and that greenhouse-gas regulations should be developed under new legislation, several people close to the matter said.
The EPA document gained national attention last week when it was revealed that WH personnel refused to open the email containing it. It reportedly lays out a road map for how the EPA could regulate dangerous greenhouse gases as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. Why might the Bush Administration be reluctant to hear about greenhouse gas regulations? Well, like any good rapacious neocon with their microbrains buried in the sand, they despise the Clean Air Act. Their concern, at least according to this Journal article, is that by allowing this to go forward, it might threaten Bush's legacy as a ... well I guess as a full blown, toxic, industrial sociopathic tycoon hell bent on unleashing climate destruction on a global scale. The Wapo fills us in on another ugly angle:
The Defense Department, the nation's biggest polluter, is resisting orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up Fort Meade and two other military bases where the EPA says dumped chemicals pose "imminent and substantial" dangers to public health and the environment. The Pentagon has also declined to sign agreements required by law that cover 12 other military sites ... The contracts would spell out a remediation plan, set schedules, and allow the EPA to oversee the work and assess penalties if milestones are missed.
Aha! Makes even more sense now, eh gentle readers? Now, normally this would be a good thing, because it could mean big fat no-bid clean up contracts, with zero government oversight, for a wholly owned subsidiary of Neoconia, Inc. But that jig works best when it's in a freefire zone on the other side of the world, cloaked by expedient Executive Privilege, far away from prying eyes, and it's mostly up when Bush leaves town anyway. And in the aftermath, as the imperial corruption unravels on a scale that may well leave the nation's head spinning in disbelief, senior contract fat-cats foolish enough to remain in the US and bid might find their asses sharing a cozy prison cell with WWWCrook.Com Bernie Ebbers. So the enthusiasm has, shall we say, dulled.Meanwhile, ice at the North Pole might all but disappear this summer; the western US and Canada are in the middle of a decade of drought; radiocarbon isotope ratios and paleoclimate proxies confirm the unique anthropogenic origin of today's rising CO2 levels; gas is rocketing to five freak'n dollars a gallon and heating bills will follow suit in a few months; we're pissing a trillion dollars into the Arabian sand to maintain the status quo and help prop up terrorist friendly regimes across the entire region thanks to George Bush and John McCain. But Exxon and Halliburton are making out like bandits, so you know, it's not like they see any need to worry about fossil fuel dependency.Besides, what's really important for the Republican fringe: they don't want to let anything happen that might make the next President's job easier in dealing with the vast shitty mess they're created, because it might help him look good to the rest of the nation, heaven forbid, maybe even better than Shrub. Yeah, that's some leadership, huh?

Daily Kos: Now That's Some Leadership!