THE GREENING OF RED AMERICA:

Bush Faces Hostile Environment: His record has been distorted. From air and water pollution to forests and wildlife, things are getting better. (Gregg Easterbrook, October 14, 2003, LA Times)

Now it's true that there are some major defects in Bush's environmental policy — mainly its lack of global warming reform and its failure to seek meaningful fuel-economy increases for SUVs and the misnamed "light" pickup trucks that increasingly dominate auto sales. But otherwise most of the charges made against the White House are baloney — baloney being rolled and deep-fried with cheese for purposes of partisan political bashing and fund-raising.

Meanwhile, Bush has implemented three major new environmental reforms for which he has received zero credit. He ordered that diesel fuel be reformulated to reduce its inherent pollution content — over the howls of his natural constituency, Big Oil. He ordered that new diesel trucks and buses meet significantly stricter emissions standards — over the howls of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, in whose Illinois district sits an enormous diesel-engine factory. Third, he imposed new emissions standards on a range of previously unregulated machines — construction vehicles, outboard motors, all-terrain vehicles and others.

Taken together, Bush's three dramatic anti-pollution decisions should lead to the biggest pollution reduction since the 1991 Clean Air Act amendments.

Why is the Bush environmental record so relentlessly distorted? Because it could ruin the instant-doomsday script. Democrats are bashing the president for political reasons, just as Republicans bashed Clinton for political reasons. Environmental lobbies raise money better in an atmosphere of panic, and so they are exaggerating the case against Bush.

We've frequently argued at the environment, though not big "E" Environmentalism, should be a conservative issue.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 29, 2003 1:38 PM