Look for more stories like this as the Bush Administration enters the homestretch. It’s already won the prize for worst in history going away, but it will sprint to the finish to make sure its record is never exceeded:
The Bush administration is set to issue a regulation on Friday that would enshrine the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal. The technique involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the rubble into valleys and streams.
It has been used in Appalachian coal country for 20 years under a cloud of legal and regulatory confusion.
The new rule would allow the practice to continue and expand, providing only that mine operators minimize the debris and cause the least environmental harm, although those terms are not clearly defined and to some extent merely restate existing law.
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The regulation is the culmination of six and a half years of work by the administration to make it easier for mining companies to dig more coal to meet growing energy demands and reduce dependence on foreign oil.
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Environmental activists say the rule change will lead to accelerated pillage of vast tracts and the obliteration of hundreds of miles of streams in central Appalachia.“This is a parting gift to the coal industry from this administration,” said Joe Lovett, executive director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment in Lewisburg, W.Va. “What is at stake is the future of Appalachia. This is an attempt to make legal what has long been illegal.”
We’ll be seeing more of this. After the election, assuming the Democrats don’t blow it (and even if they do, most likely) Bush will set to work giving gifts to corporations like a drunken Santa. There might be some solace in the thought that a Democratic president can undo the harm, but that doesn’t necessarily follow. Clinton, you might remember, tried to do good in his final days, but Bush will be true to his inner Cheney, and do evil all his days.
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