The world is still reeling from the evil reign of ex-VP Cheney and the Bush Administration. With no regard for the people nor the environment, Cheney and his "Secret Energy Task Force" proceeded to destroy the very essence and foundation of all that America stands for - equality for our fellow man, checks and balances, democracy, truth and freedom. What remains in his wake is a government hell bent to sate their greed -- along with its entrails - lies, deceit and hatred....From 2004 "The head of the Forest Service is Mark Rey, probably the most rapacious timber industry lobbyist in American history. The head of public lands is Steven Griles, a mining industry lobbyist who believes public lands are unconstitutional. The head of the air division of the EPA was Marianne Horinko, whose former job had been advising corporate polluters on how to evade Superfund. The second in command of EPA was a Monsanto lobbyist. If you look at virtually all of the sub-secretariats and agency heads in the Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Interior and EPA, the same pattern holds. Polluters have been put in charge of the agencies that are supposed to protect Americans from pollution. As I show in my book, these individuals have not entered government service for the public interest, but rather to subvert the very laws they’re now charged with enforcing." ...Robert F. Kennedy from his book "Crimes Against Nature".
CHENEY: A MAN WHO HATES
A partial listing of Cheney and his Secret Energy Task Force's big "give-a-ways" to corporations (BP, Sempra et al) at the expense of all aspects of the environment, taxpayers and the health and safety of US citizens. Cheney's Energy Policy Act of 2005 (H.R.6.):1. $10's of billions in subsidies for Big Oil and other forms of dirty energy. Including a special interest energy bill with $33.5 BILLION in tax breaks for dirty energy...paid by deficit spending.
2. Exempted hydraulic fracturing (invented by Cheney's former employer -Halliburton) - contaminates ground water. From the Safe Drinking Water Act. (Sec 322)
3. Dozens of provisions to reduce or eliminate royalties paid by Big Oil to taxpayers -including one that waived royalties ($865 million), for millions of barrels of oil from deep water wells. (Sec 345)
4. Dramatically expanded the circumstance under which drilling operations forego environmental reviews- and to be approved almost immediately under so-called "categorical exclusions" from the National Environmental Policy Act. -- this legislation is directly responsible for BP's Deep Water Horizon Spill. (Sec 390)
5. Permanently exempted oil & natural gas construction activities - roads, drill pads, pipeline corridors, refineries from having to obtain a permit for controlling polluted stormwater runoff - Previously required by the Clean Water Act. (Sec 323)
6. Eliminated environmental and safety reviews to enhance corporations (BP, Sempra, et al) ability to exploit our natural resources with little or no oversite and with maximum profit. Required a study to eliminate "impediments" (environmental, cultural, economic including policies and regulations) wildlife, human health, fish, wild lands, cultural, historical..(breaking the promise of citizen's rights and protection in the US Constitution). (Sec 357) ----This provision of malice and hatred towards the people, wildlife and environment - in total opposition to our US Constitution - is the only reason why the Sunrise Powerlink has not been thrown out of our USA courts.
7. Weakened state's ability to have a say in projects and federal activities (limiting appeals), for pipelines and drilling. Coastal Zone Mgt Act. (Allowing outside corporations more "rights" than the people of the USA). (Sec 381-382)
8. Allowed people who represented Global Corporations (Sempra and BP are just a few), to attain and hold high level offices within the US Government ..(The only loyalty Global Corporations have is for the profit of their company...and how they can change laws and regulations to benefit their company...and what war they can fight to gain domination and resource exploitation for their company...They do not represent or care about the United States or any other country...They only care about profit and domination).
9. Sweeping new authority for the Department of Interior (ex-Sempra lobbyist, David Hayes is currently Deputy Director of the Interior) to permit new energy projects in the Outer Continental Shelf without adequate oversight or standards. (Sec 321) Ex VP Cheney also contributed to deep and widespread corruption within the Interior Department (including the BLM and Mineral Mgt Service). The government agency officials received gifts, engaged in drug use and illicit sex with employees of energy firms, and showed favoritism in handling contracts.
10. The Interior Departments's Minerals Management Service (responsible for managing oil and gas resources on the Outer Continental Shelf and collecting royalties from companies), allowed oil companies, rather than government, to determine environmental impact analysis for deepwater drilling...and even let the oil industry fill out their own inspection reports.
11. Massive budget cuts for clean renewable energy research and development. Opposes expansion of renewable energy. At the same time the "fossil fuel" budget increased over $10 MILLION.
12. Opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling, oil and gas exploration - which was always a top Bush Administration priority.
Source: AP/Pablo Martinez
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/06/cheney_deregulation.html Source: AP/Cliff Owen
Source: AP/Charles Dharapak
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his new book "Crimes Against Nature," details how President Bush has rewritten the nation’s environmental laws in favor of industry and filled his administration with former lobbyists and corporate executives who now oversee the regulation of their former industries. Kennedy argues that the Bush administration consistently favored corporate interests over the environment and public health, assaulting the very idea of a common good."
"The best measure of how a democracy is functioning is how it allocates the goods of the land, the public trust assets. Does it maintain the air and water under control of the people for the benefit of the public, or does it allow those assets to be privatized by politically powerful entities?" The disastrous impacts of the Bush/Cheney administration don’t just go to the environment, but also to our democracy. My book is really not just about the environment, but more about the excess of corporate power and the corrosive impacts of excessive corporate power on our democracy." ...Robert F. Kennedy, from his book "Crimes Against Nature", 2004
"The Bush Cheney administration made an unprecedented effort from beginning to end to rewrite our nation's laws and rules to benefit their allies in the oil industry. They installed incompetent or corrupt cronies in important regulatory and oversight positions. And what they could not achieve legally, the administration pursued by other means."
" Eight years of Cheney and Bush created an insidious, pervasive rot throughout government - a rot so severe that it prevented the government from carrying out its most basic functions and, as we now have seen, could not be easily undone by a new administration. The pro-oil, anti-regulatory culture, agenda and ideology relentlessly advanced by Cheney and others in the Bush Administration unquestionably led to the catastrophe that now threatens to destroy the environment and economy..."
Brilliantly observed by Joshua Dorner, Communications Director for Progressive Media at the Center for American Progress.
MORE MARKS OF CHENEY:
He intervened in Oregon to help farmers get irrigation water- he helped reverse a decision to protect two Endangered Species listed fish from the Klamath River. With his help, the water resumed without controls to protect the fish...which resulted in the largest fish kill the West had ever seen, with tens of thousands of salmon rotting on the banks of the Klamath River.
Cheney was a powerful force behind the decision to rewrite and basically reverse a Clinton-era land-protection measure that put nearly a third of the national forests off limits to logging, mining and most development. A Federal judge has since reinstated the forest protections after she ruled that officials didn't adequately study the environmental consequences of giving states more development authority.
Cheney was also insistant on easing air pollution controls and rules under the Clean Air Act. These two policies were later rejected by the Supreme Court, and his actions were rebuked for not regulating greenhouse gases associated with global warming.
Cheney also failed, with overwhelming Department of Forestry and public opposition, in his attempts to change the way national parks were managed. The plan would have emphasized recreational use over conservation.
Cheney aided the investor-driven, for profit (to shareholders only), business of Sempra Energy/SDGE by ordering the BLM to approve the Sunrise Powerlink without any benefit or regard to environmental studies. Cheney was fully aware that the Powerlink would be used to connect to Sempra's natural gas powerplant in Baja...and that Sempra/SDGE had conspired to deceive the public by claiming the Powerlink would be used for "renewable energy".
SDG&E's CEO, Debra Reed sits on the board of directors of Halliburton Industries, the oil services giant formerly run by ex-VP Cheney as well as a company known for its billion dollar "no-bid" contracts in Iraq.
http://ramonasentinel.com/printFriendly.cfm?articleID=18459
http://halliburtonwatch.org/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/11/halliburtons-return-oil-s_n_571308.html
Based on his past history of attempting (and always failing), to cheat the environment and the people just for the sake of a few large corporations (including his own) -- Cheney's endorsement of the Sunrise Powerlink will guarantee that the courts will overturn the BLM's approval and stop this project of pure greed from ever being constructed.
"Leaving No Tracks"by Jo Becker and Barton Gellman
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/leaving-no-tracks/
