Bush administration hypocrisy demonstrated by the following two stories. D. Remer of Political News & Analysis, analyzes the double standard of rolling back air pollutinon standards which will kill many Americans, while supporting Auto industry's desire to make gas guzzlers on the basis of saving lives.
Ads Target Bush Rollback of Air Pollution Rules -- WASHINGTON, DC, June 26, 2003 (ENS) - A hard hitting new television advertisement uses cutting edge graphics to spotlight how dirty power plants are causing worldwide health problems.
Pitting Fuel Economy Against Safety -- By DANNY HAKIM
DETROIT, June 27 — For years, automakers have cited studies contending that thousands of people die annually because fuel economy regulations force the companies to make cars that are not heavy enough. [more...]
These two headlines and the stories behind them reveal once again the double standards hidden behind the Bush administration's newspeak of saying one thing to the public while doing the opposite in action. The Bush administration's rollback of pollution standards is defended on the basis that jobs are more important than 100's or more deaths each year resulting from the energy industry's smoke stack emmissions. On the other hand, the administration defends heavier cars which guzzle more gas and reduced mpg production standards on the basis that heavier vehicles are safer and will save lives.
In both cases, it is the corporation's interests which are being defended and protected at the expense of both public health and fuel costs. The article on fuel standards is complicated with many divergent views, however, the bottom line is that the technology exists to make moderately heavier cars more fuel efficient and at the same time, because they are only moderately heavier, they save lives when the lighter weight vehicle impacts another. The auto industry however, is lobbying heavily to roll back the fuel efficiency standards. While it is not stated directly, the reason for this is obvious. Implementation of new technology will be more costly for the auto manufacturers who will need to compete against foreign car makers, thus preventing American auto makers from passing the increased cost on to the consumers. Their net profits will fall somewhat. President Bush's appointees to review and draft the new standards come from the auto industry and appear from the article to be protecting the auto industry's interests amidst a host of information about the negative consequences of heavier vehicles on our roads and the pollution that results from increased gas guzzling.
The same profit motive is at play in the administration's roll back of pollution standards by the energy producing companies. The hypocrisy is blatant in that the administration uses 'saving lives' as a justification for rolling back auto fuel efficiency standards, or at least, not increasing them, while using jobs as a defense for killing Americans with smoke stack emissions cut backs.
These are highly technical issues and the public is unlikely to find them palatable reading. Therefore, the administration apparently feels comfortable with this hypocrisy counting on the complicated nature of the subject to camouflage his position of putting corporate profits from contributors ahead of the publics health and safety.
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