How Bush Gets His Way On The Environment

RON EDMONDS/AP
Bush, helping volunteers in the Adirondacks on Earth Day 2002, has paid a low political price for his environmental actions

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Instead of announcing new logging quotas, for example, Bush traveled to Oregon last August to announce the Healthy Forests Initiative. Judicious thinning of trees which the Forest Service calls "management-caused changes in vegetation"--would prevent the fires that were raging across the West, he suggested, pointing to ecological research. It was left to bureaucrats to explain later that the initiative would provide for the logging of trees as much as 30 in. in diameter and would make it easier for forest managers to circumvent time-consuming environmental-impact statements when drawing up logging plans.

But ecologists' views vary widely on the right ways to manage forests. Wally Covington, a Northern Arizona University professor, believes the President's forest-restoration project is on the right track, although he acknowledges the potentially corrupting role of private logging interests. "Suspicions are not unfounded, based on history, that when you start [restoring], commercial interests might be the tail that wags the dog," he says. "None of us in conservation ecology want to see that happen."

When more intractable environmental disputes arise, the Administration tends to shunt them toward its allies in Congress. Bush's recent proposals on amending the Clean Air Act allow older power plants to avoid installing costly pollution controls that are mandatory for newer ones. The White House says the plan will encourage old power plants to pollute less, but environmentalists say it's a free ticket for power generators to keep polluting. Nine states are suing the government to block the proposal, and it will also face a strong battle in Congress. The EPA's announcement two weeks ago that it was considering scaling back protections under the Clean Water Act was equally controversial. And attempts to open the ANWR to drilling are likely to set off another fierce struggle. The new chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Pete Domenici of New Mexico, said last week that he would try to attach the anwr proposal to the budget bill, which would deny Democrats the chance to filibuster (the budget bill requires a simple majority to pass).

Despite its loyalties to the extractive industries, the Administration ultimately runs on political expediency, not ideological conviction. When Bush's decision to drop a Clinton-introduced standard on arsenic in drinking water caused a public stir in 2001, the President quickly reversed his position to avoid wasting political capital. Although several recent court rulings have gone against Bush blocking attempts by the Administration to start logging in 58.5 million acres of areas declared roadless by Clinton, drill off the coast of California and explore for oil and gas near Utah's Arches and Canyonlands National Parks the Administration has tried to find ways to fight back. Many of these efforts are being led by Bush appointees in Interior and Agriculture who came from the industries they now regulate. "They were very familiar with the regulations they wanted changed," says Gloria Flora, a Clinton-era supervisor of the Lewis and Clark Forest in Montana. "These people were on a mission from the day they walked in the door."

How far they will get is uncertain, particularly as the President becomes preoccupied with a possible war in the Middle East and an election campaign next year. "Every corporate lobbyist is faxing their legislators' offices, saying, We need to get everything out of 2003, because 2004 is too close to the elections," says Clapp of the National Environmental Trust.

Ruby Johnson Jenkins, who routinely takes 10-mile hikes, will keep trying to save the 30-in. trees in the forest she has known for years. "They'll have meetings, and I'll go, and I'll write letters," she says. "I have to. I consider this my forest, not theirs." Unfortunately for Jenkins, the Bush Administration doesn't appear to agree.