Sunday, June 29, 2003
George Bush's short list for the replacement of EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. suddenly got shorter. Linda Fisher, the deputy administrator of the EPA, was being considered for the position by Bush, but, she also submitted her resignation. Fisher told President Bush in her resignation letter that she planned to step down July 11.
Questions arise over which issues caused the resignations. When one person from a department leaves, well, I guess that just happens sometimes, but when two people from the same department resign one right after another; it is more than coincidence. So what is the story?
Could it have been the White House mandated revision of the global warming report?
Was there an issue with the White House directing a major rewrite of an assessment of climate change, which removed all references to health and environmental risks posed by rising global temperatures? According to an April 29 EPA staff memo, The changes demanded by the White House were so extensive that the climate section "no longer accurately represents scientific consensus on climate change," It characterized the revised draft as an embarrassment to the agency.
Could it have been the Bush administration's reversal of Clinton's effort to protect the national forests? The protections had covered 58.5 million acres of federal forest, nearly one-third of all national forest land.
The Bush administration said that it will exempt the nation's largest national forest from rules banning road construction, logging and other development. Rule making to implement the change would begin by early fall. One eventual net result could be intensive logging on 300,000 acres in the 17 million-acre forest in southeast Alaska. Administration officials also said that in addition to waiving the rules for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, they will propose allowing governors to ask for exemptions from the conservation rule in other states.
Could it have been Bush's arrogance involving needed safeguards for genetically altered food?
Was it the significant potential of another billion dollar fiasco regarding another genetically developed animal food crop, which could be accidentally enter the human food chain, Could we have another StarLink corn disaster?
Back in 2000, a genetically modified corn called StarLink was developed to resist insects. It had built in insecticide. It was approved as animal feed, however some of it, actually a lot of it was mixed in with corn, meant for human consumption. StarLink was not designed for human consumption and scientists had concerns that StarLink corn could trigger potentially dangerous allergic responses in humans.
A massive recall went into effect. One company, Western Family Foods, had StarLink in their products. They marketed 6,400 products under a variety of labels. The products were distributed to more than 3,500 stores in 23 states and overseas.
Kraft also mistakenly sold some of the contaminated corn to grocery stores under the Taco Bell name. StarLink was also found in Taco shells produced by Mission Foods Inc. and they accidentally distributed it under various house brand names, including Safeway.
The EPA had not conducted long term studies of the potential health and environmental problems that may be associated with this revolutionary new product. By the way, Aventis CropScience of Triangle Research Park, N.C., admitted it could not account for 9 million bushels of StarLink, about 12 percent of the crop. This all happened in 2000, but there are still ripples from that event today.
Recently, more corn was genetically engineered so it won't contain molds. It is known as Bt corn, Initial tests have indicated, however, that it contains the mold fusarium, which can sicken animals and humans. There is also risk of another more significant side effect, sterilizaton. Agriculture Department researchers suspected some Iowa cattle and hogs became sterile after eating the potentially moldy corn. Jerry Rosman, a farmer who operates Rolling R Farms in Harlan, Iowa fed his pigs the modified corn. The sows appeared to be pregnant but produced no litters. He destroyed the herd, Midwestern farmers and some veterinarians have come forward, saying they saw reproductivity drop in hog and cattle herds because of the grain.
This new genetically modified corn has all the potential of being introduced into the food chain that StarLink had. That would be an even more costly replay of the StarLink scare . Recovery efforts from that disaster cost the food and farming industry billions of dollars.
There are other EPA disasters that could have caused those resignations as well; emission standards, clean water acts, the list goes on and on. Maybe it was all of them.
Who will lead the EPA now?
A major part of the Bush administration's selection process, seems to be the candidate's support for "message discipline". The success of cabinet members, seems, to hinge on how well they broadcast policies received whole from the White House. They are not to pass on or create or involve themselves in developing any of their own guidance. When Paul O'Neill was fired from his post as Treasury Secretary last year, it didn't take a political scientist to predict the qualities that his successor would have: consistency, loyalty and message discipline. They do not need to really serve the country, they have to serve the President.
I didn't know Bush was an expert on EPA matters, I thought his expertise only lay in foreign affairs.
He obviously has the power and the ability to deceive the country on the Iraq war, he can use those same skills and lots of campaign money, to deceive the country on how well he is handling the environment too.
Sources Cited:
Emily Gersema
MMII The Associated Press.
AP Online
Unapproved Corn Variety Found Again
Phillip Brasher
United Press International
October 25, 2000,
Third brand of taco shells contains StarLink
Marcella S. Kreiter Chicago
Bernard Sanders
Member of Congress
Miguel Llanos
MSNBC
ERIC ROSTON USA TODAY
Tom Kenworthy USA TODAY
H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer
Questions arise over which issues caused the resignations. When one person from a department leaves, well, I guess that just happens sometimes, but when two people from the same department resign one right after another; it is more than coincidence. So what is the story?
Could it have been the White House mandated revision of the global warming report?
Was there an issue with the White House directing a major rewrite of an assessment of climate change, which removed all references to health and environmental risks posed by rising global temperatures? According to an April 29 EPA staff memo, The changes demanded by the White House were so extensive that the climate section "no longer accurately represents scientific consensus on climate change," It characterized the revised draft as an embarrassment to the agency.
Could it have been the Bush administration's reversal of Clinton's effort to protect the national forests? The protections had covered 58.5 million acres of federal forest, nearly one-third of all national forest land.
The Bush administration said that it will exempt the nation's largest national forest from rules banning road construction, logging and other development. Rule making to implement the change would begin by early fall. One eventual net result could be intensive logging on 300,000 acres in the 17 million-acre forest in southeast Alaska. Administration officials also said that in addition to waiving the rules for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, they will propose allowing governors to ask for exemptions from the conservation rule in other states.
Could it have been Bush's arrogance involving needed safeguards for genetically altered food?
Was it the significant potential of another billion dollar fiasco regarding another genetically developed animal food crop, which could be accidentally enter the human food chain, Could we have another StarLink corn disaster?
Back in 2000, a genetically modified corn called StarLink was developed to resist insects. It had built in insecticide. It was approved as animal feed, however some of it, actually a lot of it was mixed in with corn, meant for human consumption. StarLink was not designed for human consumption and scientists had concerns that StarLink corn could trigger potentially dangerous allergic responses in humans.
A massive recall went into effect. One company, Western Family Foods, had StarLink in their products. They marketed 6,400 products under a variety of labels. The products were distributed to more than 3,500 stores in 23 states and overseas.
Kraft also mistakenly sold some of the contaminated corn to grocery stores under the Taco Bell name. StarLink was also found in Taco shells produced by Mission Foods Inc. and they accidentally distributed it under various house brand names, including Safeway.
The EPA had not conducted long term studies of the potential health and environmental problems that may be associated with this revolutionary new product. By the way, Aventis CropScience of Triangle Research Park, N.C., admitted it could not account for 9 million bushels of StarLink, about 12 percent of the crop. This all happened in 2000, but there are still ripples from that event today.
Recently, more corn was genetically engineered so it won't contain molds. It is known as Bt corn, Initial tests have indicated, however, that it contains the mold fusarium, which can sicken animals and humans. There is also risk of another more significant side effect, sterilizaton. Agriculture Department researchers suspected some Iowa cattle and hogs became sterile after eating the potentially moldy corn. Jerry Rosman, a farmer who operates Rolling R Farms in Harlan, Iowa fed his pigs the modified corn. The sows appeared to be pregnant but produced no litters. He destroyed the herd, Midwestern farmers and some veterinarians have come forward, saying they saw reproductivity drop in hog and cattle herds because of the grain.
This new genetically modified corn has all the potential of being introduced into the food chain that StarLink had. That would be an even more costly replay of the StarLink scare . Recovery efforts from that disaster cost the food and farming industry billions of dollars.
There are other EPA disasters that could have caused those resignations as well; emission standards, clean water acts, the list goes on and on. Maybe it was all of them.
Who will lead the EPA now?
A major part of the Bush administration's selection process, seems to be the candidate's support for "message discipline". The success of cabinet members, seems, to hinge on how well they broadcast policies received whole from the White House. They are not to pass on or create or involve themselves in developing any of their own guidance. When Paul O'Neill was fired from his post as Treasury Secretary last year, it didn't take a political scientist to predict the qualities that his successor would have: consistency, loyalty and message discipline. They do not need to really serve the country, they have to serve the President.
I didn't know Bush was an expert on EPA matters, I thought his expertise only lay in foreign affairs.
He obviously has the power and the ability to deceive the country on the Iraq war, he can use those same skills and lots of campaign money, to deceive the country on how well he is handling the environment too.
Sources Cited:
Emily Gersema
MMII The Associated Press.
AP Online
Unapproved Corn Variety Found Again
Phillip Brasher
United Press International
October 25, 2000,
Third brand of taco shells contains StarLink
Marcella S. Kreiter Chicago
Bernard Sanders
Member of Congress
Miguel Llanos
MSNBC
ERIC ROSTON USA TODAY
Tom Kenworthy USA TODAY
H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer
# posted by Thomas @ 12:41 AM 
