Bush's environment program draws fire

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Loose regulation, now blamed for ills ranging from the U.S. financial crisis to imports of tainted Chinese goods, is drawing increasing fire from opponents of the Bush administration's environment program.

In the final months of President George W. Bush's two terms in office, criticism about the use of regulation instead of legislation to craft environmental policy has grown louder.

That is amplified by the campaign for the U.S. presidential election on November 4, with both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama staking out environmental positions at odds with the current administration.

The environment is important to U.S. voters but ranks far below their top concern, the economy and jobs, according to a sampling on PollingReport.com.

A CNN poll in July found 66 percent said the environment was important or very important in choosing a president, compared with 93 percent who said the same about the economy.

On a broad range of environmental issues -- climate-warming carbon emissions, protecting endangered species, clean air and water preservation, the cleanup of toxic pollution -- opponents in and out of government have taken aim at the White House for failing to tighten some rules and loosening others.

"The Bush administration's long-standing efforts to weaken environmental regulations to benefit narrow special interests come with a terrible cost," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who has led the charge.

"If you can't breathe because the air is polluted, you can't go to work. If your kids can't breathe, they can't go to school."

Frank O'Donnell, of the advocacy group Clean Air Watch, agreed, saying that "the hallmark of Bush administration policy on the environment is a lack of regulation."

One Capitol Hill staffer familiar with legislation on global warming accused the Bush administration of actively seeking to undermine measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions that spur climate change.

"They were the biggest obstacle to progress," the staffer said. "They did everything possible to ensure that nothing would happen."

James Connaughton, who heads the White House Council on Environmental Quality, vehemently disagreed, saying the Bush administration has equaled or exceeded the environmental accomplishments of its predecessors, sometimes through regulation and other times by the use of incentives.

Connaughton took aim at states, notably California, for setting high environmental standards but failing to meet them. He specifically faulted Congress for failing to reinstate the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which would have curbed power plant pollution, after a federal appeals court rejected it in July.

EMISSIONS AND POLAR BEARS

Bush promised to regulate carbon emissions when he ran for president in 2000 but quickly reversed course once in the White House, saying any mandatory cap on greenhouse gases would cost U.S. jobs and give an unfair advantage to fast-developing economies like China and India.