Spring Break
The air isn't the only thing polluted
Kris Anderson
Issue date: 9/26/07 Section: Opinion
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And by Birkenstocks, I mean common sense. And by wool ponchos, I mean wool ponchos because it gets cold in Washington D.C. around this time of year.
And by manifest destiny I don't mean the historical expansion to the West, but rather, the steadfast and gradually increasing manner in which the Bush administration avoids green issues.
On Monday, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chair of the House Oversight Committee, released a series of e-mails sent within the Department of Transportation.
The correspondence began at the behest of Mary Peters, U.S. secretary of transportation. She ordered her staff to lobby Congress and state governors in an effort to block - cough cough - California's current petition migrating through the Environmental Protection Agency, a petition that calls for more stringent emission guidelines for the state.
It's a move by the Humvee-driving Governator to regulate tailpipe emissions in an effort to combat the excessive release of greenhouse gasses.
In one of the e-mails published by the San Jose Mercury News on Tuesday, Jeff Shane, undersecretary for policy, relayed Peters' message.
"(Peters) asked that we develop some ideas a.s.a.p. about facilitating a pushback from governors (esp. D's) and others opposed to piecemeal regulations of emissions as per CA's waiver petition," Shane wrote.
But this is where it gets interesting: The White House knew about her efforts and did absolutely nothing to stop them.
It took the chair of the House Oversight Committee to step in and publicize the e-mails to shed light on such a grievous administrative error.
The Mercury News quoted Waxman as saying, "The administration is trying to stack the deck against California's efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles."
Breathe for a second - if the smog isn't too heavy today - and think.
Take a moment to fathom what possible line of reasoning could drive an official to say, "More clean air? I can't stand for that!"
Waxman went on to say that political considerations will inform any decisions on the matter, as opposed to the "merits of the issue."
Peters, while not breaking any laws or anti-lobbying regulations, did throw the Bush administration under the bus with a severe lack of tact.
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