FRIEND to industry, foe to the environment 鈥� that鈥檚 how critics summarise George W. Bush鈥檚 record on green issues.
As his terms ends, the outgoing president seems to be living up to his reputation, despite recent moves by the White House to create large marine conservation areas in the Pacific (快猫短视频, 22 November, p 9). In a flurry of last-minute rule-making, Bush looks set to weaken protection for endangered species and hand concessions to oil companies.
One such rule, issued last week, allows companies to apply for commercial drilling licences on 800,000 hectares of largely undeveloped public land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. The oil there is held in a type of sedimentary rock called shale, and flushing it out would mean draining large amounts of water from an already arid area.
Advertisement
The process is also enormously polluting: greenhouse-gas emissions, both from generating the energy needed to power the process and from gas escaping during extraction, are up to 50 per cent higher than with regular oil, says Adam Brandt of the University of California in Berkeley.
Research into the ecological impact of shale drilling is ongoing, notes Brandt. 鈥淲e need a decade before commercial extraction can begin,鈥� he says. Any applications for commercial drilling will undergo tough environmental review, says the US Bureau of Land Management, which is behind the change.
New rules can be reversed, but this must be done within either 30 or 60 days of being issued, depending on how major the change is. The shale decision will have been in effect for 64 days when Barack Obama takes over on 20 January.
Other rules being pushed through include one that would allow guns to be taken into national parks. Critics say the rule, which is in the final stages of approval, will endanger rather than protect visitors. Unless the gun-owner is a very good shot, say rangers, they are more likely to wound and anger an animal than kill it.
鈥淥ne rule that the Bush administration is pushing through would allow people to take guns into national parks鈥�
Endangered species are under threat from Bush, too. At present, government projects to build new roads or dams must consult the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service, which can demand more detailed assessments if the plans appear to threaten rare species. The new rule would ditch that requirement. 鈥淭hey call it self-consultation,鈥� says Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council. 鈥淭he name says it all.鈥�