Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Even before his failed run at Congress, Bush made it clear there were two agencies in Washington D.C. that he wanted to see closed down: OSHA and the EPA.  Both of these he viewed as agencies that get in the way of doing business.

Well, he's certainly done a good job of reducing the effectiveness of OSHA and it's sister organization MSHA.  Bush administration cuts to MSHA funding, reductions in inspectors on site, and lack of enforcement played a major role in the chilling series of accidents that have plagued mining in America over the last year.

On the EPA front, Bush has also been there to keep American's health and safety from interfering with the possibility of higher profit.  His Clear Skies program significantly weakened the Clean Air Act, by allowing aging, dirty coal-fired power plants not just to stay in operation, but to expand their production (and pollution).  That plan alone could account for a doubling of acid-rain producing SO2.

With biofuels getting a boost from all quarters, Bush and his anti-EPA have once again moved to turn something that should be of benefit to the environment into another cause for concern.  Even though ethanol itself represents a better alternative to burning fossil fuels in our vehicles, the production of ethanol has always had to abide by the same environmental regulations of any other plant.  That's about to end.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to change the way ethanol plants are treated under the Clean Air Act, a move critics say could make it easier for the burgeoning industry to evade controls that dramatically reduce toxic air pollution.

The shift in policy would give a break to agricultural conglomerates and newcomers seeking to cash in quickly on the nation's growing thirst for renewable fuel. More than 40 new ethanol plants are expected to be built during the next year, boosting U.S. production by 30 percent.

Note that the beneficiaries of this ruling aren't drivers, or farmers, or that broad class of Americans known as "people who breathe."  The benefit here goes to large agri-business concerns, such as Archer Daniels Midland.  

The ruling -- which Bush can push through without a congressional vote -- came as a surprise to many.  The rapid growth of ethanol plants had already raised some alarms, and people who had to live near the new plants had also voiced complaints about run-off, smell, and other problems.

EPA regulators had decided to take a closer look at the refineries after following complaints about noxious odors add1: coming from several ethanol plants in the Midwest. The agency discovered many were emitting carbon monoxide, methanol and cancer-causing chemicals at levels far greater than the owners had reported.

If you're in the Bush administration, and you see that an industry is putting out toxic chemicals you should be regulating, what's the obvious response?  Stop looking.

Under the new proposal, ethanol plants will be able to produce 250 tons a year of toxic chemicals before they fall under the regulations now faced by plants producing less than half as much.  It will also be possible to build a plant with plans to produce this much pollution, and still dodge existing "lengthy" permitting regulations.

Even some ethanol producers are speaking out against the new rules.  After all, how can consumers believe you're producing a cleaner fuel, if you're asking for relaxed rules on pollution?

"If we are supposed to be creating a cleaner fuel, shouldn't we be producing it in a way that's cleaner?" said Randy Doyal, chief executive officer of Al-Corn Clean Fuel, a Minnesota company that distills more than 30 million gallons of ethanol a year.

Four years ago, Al-Corn and 11 other Minnesota ethanol plants were forced to install pollution controls as part of legal settlements with the Justice Department and the EPA. He and other producers contend that the new rule would give be giving the new wave of ethanol plants an unfair advantage.

Ethanol is becoming just another sign of the Bush administration's priorities: profit, profit, and profit.  The health of Americans and safety of workers will always come second to these people.

My thanks to the Chicago Tribune for spotting this change, and to AutoblogGreen for bringing it to my attention.