Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 20:10:39 -0500
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Lyndon Hawkins <hawkins@empm.cdpr.ca.gov>
Senior Research
Scientist
State of California,
Department of Pesticide Regulation
Integrated Pest
Management
Dear Lyndon, I thought you might like to see the environmental "record" of the Republican who is running for President and what his employees think about him: the web site article is entitled: Toxic Texas - The Environmental Legacy of Governor George W. Bush
Texas Governor George W. Bush wants to bring the agenda he championed as governor to Washington D.C. as the next U.S. president. But so far little has been made public about the actual substance of those policies, particularly concerning the environment.
As an organization made up of public employees who are concerned about Texas' environmental policies, Texas PEER feels we're in a unique position to explain Gov. Bush's actual environmental record in his home state to the rest of the country.
After five years in office, Gov. Bush's mantra for governing, "Let Texans run Texas", more correctly should have been stated as "Let Texas Industry run Texas." His administration's environmental policies have consistently catered to the interests of industrial moguls, big landowners and large contributors, particularly at the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, the state environmental agency.
Under George W. Bush's leadership, Texas ranks number one in a many categories of pollution and environmental degradation. For example, Texas is:
#1 in the Emission of Ozone Causing Air Pollution Chemicals
#1 in Toxic Chemical releases into the Air
#1 in use of Deep Well Injectors as method of Waste Disposal
#1 in counties listed in top 20 of Emitting Cancer Causing
Chemicals
#1 in Total Number of Hazardous Waste Incinerators
#1 in Environmental Justice Title 6 complaints
#1 in production of Cancer causing Benzene & Vinyl
Chloride
#1 Largest Sludge Dump in Country
Texas air quality has worsened significantly under Gov.
Bush's administration. The Houston-Galveston area has had eight of the top ten
ozone (smog) peaks in the nation, far surpassing Los Angeles. But as concern
over the health and environmental consequences rise, the governor's policy has
been only to fight the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's attempts to
impose stricter air quality protections.
When confronted with the option of enforcing regulations or bypassing them, Gov. Bush has consistently chosen the latter. After research showed that 1,000 unregulated, "grandfathered" industrial plants accounted for a huge proportion of Texas air pollution, Bush opposed legislation that would force the companies to clean up and instead cut a back room deal to install a "voluntary" program. The heads of these companies include some of the Governor's largest campaign contributors.
The Governor intervened to ask the federal government to let the state handle planning to protect endangered species, then supported legislation and other actions to allow development and other threats to the species to continue, so far indefinitely.
Under Bush's watch Texas has deregulated many aspects of its environmental policy, including policies governing wastewater discharges, pesticides, air pollution and even certain types of nuclear waste.
Industry consultants and board members of polluting companies have been appointed to run Texas key regulating agencies. As a result, state environmental regulators have become largely ineffective, with inadequate resources or direction to enforce even the regulations still on the books. Texas environmental agency inspectors are now actually required as agency policy give notice of compliance inspections one to two weeks in advance. Texas PEER frankly fears for the nation's environmental well being if Gov. Bush's agenda rises to the federal government level. Governor Bush has said, "What Texans can dream, Texans can do." Clearly, Gov. Bush never dreamed of cleaning up Texas' environment.
Over the next few months, Texas PEER will explore all these issues and many more related to Governor Bush's Texas environmental policies. Once per week Texas PEER will be updated to include one or more new stories related to the Governor's Texas environmental record. (If you'd like to be notified when new material is posted to this site, please sign up for our Texas PEER mailing list.)
Other Stories availabe at Texas PEER:
1. Airing It Out In Texas (intro 3 part story) 2.225,000
Texas Children Attend School near Grandfathered Polluters (Part I)
3. The Bush Environmental Agenda in Action: Protecting
Grandfathered Air Polluters (Part II)
4. Polluters Bet Big On Bush On The Campaign Money Trail
(Part III)
5. The Privileged Class: Bush pushes secrecy for
environmental audits (Part I)
6. The Privileged Class II: Promoting compliance or
facilitating a cover-up?
7. The Privileged Class III: Bush Contributors Back Audit
Privilege Law
8. Home on the Range at the Nation's Largest Sewage Dump
9. Bush's quiet little war on the Texas environment: Assault
on the regulatory front (Part I)
10. Bush's quiet little war on the Texas environment: Assault
on the regulatory front (Part II)
11. Superfund a Super Deal for Texas Polluters (Part I)
12. Bush's quiet little war on the Texas environment (Part
III): Merry Toxic Christmas in Texas
13. Superfund a Super Deal for Texas Polluters (Part II)
14. Superfund a Super Deal for Texas Polluters: Money Talks
(Part III)
15. "Local Control" - Texas Style (Part I)
16. "Local Control"- Texas Style: Special Favors
for Special Interests (Part II)
17. Privatizing Texas Public Parks - Public Land, Private
Profit
18. Bush Presides Over Hazardous Waste Barbecue
19. Bush Romances the Atom in Texas
Well Lyndon, as a public employee will you protect the people and the environment or will you protect your "boss" and your "registered" POISONS? I cheer these public employees who are actually trying to protect our people and our precious environment rather than their "boss" and the polluters! It seems to me that if we would not elect the Dad why would we elect his kid?
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten.
Please!
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