Your editor is working on an editorial concerning the new environmental agenda and clean-up items from the previous administration. 

Write a 3 paragraph memo with information about items that should be in his upcoming editorial.  

 Facts on File is helpful

The courts have already kept the country from the worst of the Bush Administration excesses -- For instance: 

• Aug. 19, 2008 --  U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturns an EPA rule restricting state and local governments from monitoring pollution generated by oil refineries, power plants and factories more stringently than the federal government

• Feb 8, 2008 -- A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit February 8 struck down an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule removing mercury from a list of pollutants that operators of coal-fired power plants were required to control. In a decision strongly critical of the EPA, the panel said the agency had ignored Congress's instructions, comparing its decision-making process to the arbitrary declarations of the Queen of Hearts character in the Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

• April 5, 2007 --  Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) DOES have the power to regulate greenhouse gases by motor vehicles, and that the agency would have to provide a rationale grounded in science not to do so. Several states and cities had sued the EPA for its refusal to regulate those emissions, and the ruling was viewed as a rebuke of the position of the Bush administration. The case was Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency.

Adam LaFon:

Mountaintop Removal -- George W. Bush has supported mountaintop removal, which has become a major environmental concern to Appalachian regions.

The potential solution would be to gain more awareness and work to pass more regulations on the people behind mountaintop removal, or make efforts to get rid of it completely.

http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/wildlandsatrisk/mountaintop.asp.

  A quote from there: "There is a better way. Coal mining can be done in a responsible way and that means an end to mountaintop removal. West Virginia’s communities can transition to a more diversified economy that includes more small businesses, cleaner energy sources and tourism. Finally, the Bush administration must reign in mining companies, many of them major contributors to the Bush campaign in 2000, and protect Appalachian communities from water pollution, blasting and flooding."

 -- GlobalWarningPerhaps one of the biggest blunders that has to be taken in is the United States and Bush’s recent positions on global warming. They have agreed that man is responsible for global warming, but still seem to be mixed on what efforts to try to make to stop that problem.  A solution for that would be to try to gain new renewable energy sources and “green” energy in an effort to cut down on the harmful emissions that lead to global warming.   Another big step for the next president, Barack Obama, would be for him to be more pro-active in the world arena in trying to halt global warming and work cooperatively with the other nations to collectively make a more eco-friendly earth.   These are just some of the things that will need to be changed.

Will Parker:

 The fat lady has finally sung, but leave it the Bush administration to leave us with one last disappointment while natural resources and his power are running out, and fast.   Bush is in favor of reducing the endangered species standards in order for the mining industries to be able to work more efficiently without conservationists having legal pull against excessive mining practices.    http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/38547

 Obama states that he wants to probe into the energy industry and to stop filling the emergency oil reserve.

Derek Ragland

Mistakes made by former President Bush, and what actions Obama must seek to actually “change” America.  First and foremost the war itself in Afghanistan and Iraq both have numerous faults made by Bush.  The American economy still to this day suffers due to the expenses of war itself.   Bush excuses power plants from upgrading pollution controls.  By allowing the Administration's to adjust issues within the Clean Water Act so that the dumping of mining debris into streams and rivers in Appalachia are allowed isn't fair at all.  He never lived up to his promise to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide, nor did he put forth much effort at all to support the Kyoto Protocol involving global warming issues.  Bush clearly placed other issues as top priorities as oppose to the "Go green" approach to our enviornment!

 http://www.climateark.org/shared/reader/welcome.aspx?linkid=19850&keybold=climate%20policy%20Europe%20disarray

 http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2004/05/b64326.html