ENVIRONMENT: The Bush Plan

Environmental issues have taken on a greater importance as the campaign heads into the convention. The Bush plan for the environment not only protects our key resources but also does so in a prudent and resonable manner. It takes a realistic approach to.the issue.

Air Quality: The Bush plan involves introducing �Clear Skies� legislation. This historic legislation would reduce power plants� emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and mercury by approximately 70 percent over the next 15 years. Not only that, but the Clean Air Interstate Rule, will impose caps on power plant emissions of NOx and SO2 These gasses can float across state lines and effect people in other states % For the first time ever, the Bush Administration will impose a mandatory 70 percent cut in mercury emissions from power plants by 2018.
For the first time, emissions from construction equipment and other non highway vehicles would also be regulated. The Clean Air Nonroad Diesel Rule will cut emissions made by these vehicles by more than 90 percent. In addition, the sulfur content of diesel fuel will be reduced by 99%

Improving The Quality of Our Waters and Wetlands, and Resolving Water Crises. The Bush plan includes more than $4.4 billion for conservation programs that include funding for wetlands � an increase of $1.5 billion (53 percent) over FY 2001. Other plans include:

The President�s FY 2005 budget includes an unprecedented $45 million for the Great Lakes Legacy Program, almost five times the 2004 level of funding. This will help keep toxins from the food chain that could cause adverse effects on human health and the environment. The President�s FY 2005 budget includes $21 million, an increase of $13.3 million, for the Department of the Interior�s Water 2025 Initiative, a Bush Administration program that strategically addresses the problem of competing demands for a finite water supply. Water 2025 will help states, tribes, and local communities improve conservation, implement efficiencies, and monitor water resources.

Cleaning and Redeveloping Hazardous Waste Sites
President Bush is committed to the �polluter pays� principle. This requires the whoever made the mess to clean it up. However, not all of these companies are in business any more so in that light, he has proposed in his FY 2005 budget provides $1.4 billion for the Superfund, a $124 million (10 percent) increase over the 2004 appropriations. The Department of Energy (DOE) is significantly reducing the amount of time to clean up waste sites from our Cold War legacy. When President Bush took office, DOE had been working with a 70-year timetable to complete cleanup at a cost of $192 billion. DOE states its new reforms will accelerate completion by 35 years, reducing the estimated cost to taxpayers by about $50 billion.

Promoting Land Conservation and Stewardship
In 2003 the president signed and implemented his Healthy Forrest initiative. The health forest initiative will strengthen and help or forests by:

� Reduces dense undergrowth, which fuels catastrophic fires, through thinning and prescribed burns;
� Improves the public involvement in the review process by providing opportunities for earlier participation, thus accomplishing projects in a more timely fashion;
� Selects projects on a collaborative basis involving local, tribal, state, Federal and non-governmental entities;
� Focuses projects on Federal lands that meet strict criteria for risk of wildfire damage to communities, water supply systems and the environment;
� Authorizes the Healthy Forests Reserve Program, to protect, restore and enhance degraded forest ecosystems on private lands to promote the recovery of threatened and endangered species;
� Encourages biomass energy production through grants and assistance to local communities creating market incentives for removal of otherwise valueless forest material; and
� Develops an accelerated program on certain Federal lands to combat insect infestations.

The national park system will also receive and increase in funding to help with a maintenance backlog. The President has already secured 3.9 billion of the 4.9 he has promised to help maintain our parks system.

President Bush supported and signed into law a Farm Bill that enhances conservation and environmental stewardship. Under this Administration, funding has nearly doubled for these effective programs. Farm Bill conservation programs will provide more than $40 billion over a decade to restore millions of acres of wetlands, protect habitats, conserve water, and improve streams and rivers near working farms and ranches.

A Realistic, Growth-Oriented Approach to Global Climate Change - President Bush has committed America to meeting the challenge of long-term global climate change by reducing the ratio of greenhouse gas emissions to economic output, or greenhouse gas intensity, by 18 percent by 2012 compared to 2002. The United States is sponsoring, with international and private-sector partners, a $1 billion, 10-year demonstration project to create the world�s first coal-based, zero-emissions electricity and hydrogen power plant (FutureGen). This project is designed to dramatically reduce air pollution and capture and store greenhouse gases. The President has also called for tax incentives totaling $4.1 billion through 2009 to spur the use of clean, renewable energy, and energy-efficient technologies, such as hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles, residential solar heating systems, renewable energy produced from landfill gas, wind, or biomass, and efficient combined heat and power systems. The President�s FY 2005 budget includes nearly $2 billion for the Federal scientific research program on global climate change, focused on reducing significant uncertainties in climate science, improving global climate observing systems, and developing resources to support policymaking and resource management. On transportation issues, through the President�s Hydrogen Fuel Initiative, the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by pollution-free fuel cells. The Hydrogen Fuel Initiative and the FreedomCAR Partnership will provide $1.7 billion over five years to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cells, a hydrogen infrastructure, and advanced automobile technologies that emit no air pollutants or greenhouse gases. And for the first time in a decade, the Administration raised Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for SUVs, vans and pick-up trucks. Reforms are also underway that will save more fuel while protecting consumer safety and American jobs.

The Presidents proposals on the environment represent not only a chance to enhance and preserve it, but balance the needs of the economy and the American people.






[edit on 26-8-2004 by FredT]

[edit on 26-8-2004 by FredT]