Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Crazy 'Bout a Mercury
One of the criticisms leveled at NBC's The West Wing has been over its romantic and sometimes pious idealism. Critics say it manifests itself like this: The Bartlet Administration (the man spells his name wrong, by the way) is brought some proposal that has a lot to recommend it, or something distasteful that would be politically wise. Debate ensues. But then somebody--maybe the president himself, maybe his loyal aides Josh or Toby, maybe even his press secretary, C. J., has moral reservations of some sort, and so the administration decides to take the high road and refuse it. Some critics of the show find this terribly precious and not especially real.
Well, maybe, but, it turns out something like this happened when the new mercury pollution guidelines announced by the EPA this week were run up to the White House during the Clinton Administration. The administration determined that the guidelines violated the Clean Air Act and posed environmental and health risks, so even though the energy industry really really really wanted them, Clinton refused to approve them because they were bad for regular Americans.
Of course, the Bush White House, those great guardians of the public good, who always operate under the white-hot light of moral clarity, was happy to enact those same guidelines. Utility groups were invited to the White House to discuss them this past fall, but not environmental groups. The guidelines were announced Monday after a secret White House/FDA/EPA summit called to make sure that all three agencies spouted the same line, after the FDA issued a health warning on mercury just as the EPA was announcing the new and less stringent mercury pollution guidelines.
As it happens, these guidelines will benefit more Bush campaign donors. But that scarcely merits a mention anymore. We can stipulate that the whole damn country is for sale to Bush's Rangers and Pioneers and not waste any more space talking about it.
Recommended reading: Americans have a tendency to think that our economic problem right now is mostly that things are not getting better. We don't really believe that it's possible for things to get worse. But in the Guardian yesterday, Albert Scardino pointed out the economic challenges still facing the United States--none of which are going to respond to the capture of Saddam. The plunging value of the dollar compared to other world currencies seems arcane to Mrs. and Mrs. America, but its effects are not. Remember the oil shock of 1973 and the recession that followed--the one that wrote the obituary for the post-World War II economic boom that began in 1946? The dollar was falling then, too.
One of the criticisms leveled at NBC's The West Wing has been over its romantic and sometimes pious idealism. Critics say it manifests itself like this: The Bartlet Administration (the man spells his name wrong, by the way) is brought some proposal that has a lot to recommend it, or something distasteful that would be politically wise. Debate ensues. But then somebody--maybe the president himself, maybe his loyal aides Josh or Toby, maybe even his press secretary, C. J., has moral reservations of some sort, and so the administration decides to take the high road and refuse it. Some critics of the show find this terribly precious and not especially real.
Well, maybe, but, it turns out something like this happened when the new mercury pollution guidelines announced by the EPA this week were run up to the White House during the Clinton Administration. The administration determined that the guidelines violated the Clean Air Act and posed environmental and health risks, so even though the energy industry really really really wanted them, Clinton refused to approve them because they were bad for regular Americans.
Of course, the Bush White House, those great guardians of the public good, who always operate under the white-hot light of moral clarity, was happy to enact those same guidelines. Utility groups were invited to the White House to discuss them this past fall, but not environmental groups. The guidelines were announced Monday after a secret White House/FDA/EPA summit called to make sure that all three agencies spouted the same line, after the FDA issued a health warning on mercury just as the EPA was announcing the new and less stringent mercury pollution guidelines.
As it happens, these guidelines will benefit more Bush campaign donors. But that scarcely merits a mention anymore. We can stipulate that the whole damn country is for sale to Bush's Rangers and Pioneers and not waste any more space talking about it.
Recommended reading: Americans have a tendency to think that our economic problem right now is mostly that things are not getting better. We don't really believe that it's possible for things to get worse. But in the Guardian yesterday, Albert Scardino pointed out the economic challenges still facing the United States--none of which are going to respond to the capture of Saddam. The plunging value of the dollar compared to other world currencies seems arcane to Mrs. and Mrs. America, but its effects are not. Remember the oil shock of 1973 and the recession that followed--the one that wrote the obituary for the post-World War II economic boom that began in 1946? The dollar was falling then, too.
