George W Bush

Washington, DC - 05/28/2009 - Jane Danowitz, director of the Pew Environment Group's U.S. public lands program, today issued the following statement on the Obama administration’s expected announcement of a “time out” on new activity in undeveloped national forests protected by the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, including Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

Currently, the policy’s legal status is uncertain due to legal challenges and efforts by the Bush administration to replace it with a discretionary state petition process.

“This action by the Obama administration recognizes the science on which the landmark roadless rule is based, the public who supported it in record numbers and future generations who will benefit from its protections.    » read more »

May 28,2009 -- Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) praised the United States Department of Agriculture and United States Forest Service for taking steps to protect roadless areas in our national forests by reversing years of Bush Administration policies.

In March 2009, Cantwell sent a letter with 24 other senators to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging the Obama Administration to act quickly to ensure that national forest roadless acres weren’t harmed because of uncertainty surrounding the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which was issued in January 2001.    » read more »

UCS cautions that other federal agencies could still corrupt process

May 21, 2009 -- The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced significant changes to the way the government assesses toxic chemicals, greatly increasing transparency, accountability and efficiency to better protect the public. However, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) warns that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) may still wield the authority to interfere in the agency's scientific analysis.    » read more »

May 22, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) applauded the Environmental Protection Agency's announcement yesterday that it would revamp the process by which it determines the toxicity of chemicals.

EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assesses the impact on human health of exposure to chemical substances, to help keep people informed about risks to public health in the air, water, and soil.

"We depend on EPA to give the American people the information they need to avoid health risks from dangerous chemicals," said Whitehouse, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight.    » read more »

May 15, 2009 -- Military commissions have a long tradition in the United States. They are appropriate for trying enemies who violate the laws of war, provided that they are properly structured and administered. In the past, I have supported the use of military commissions as one avenue to try detainees, in addition to prosecution in Article III courts. In 2006, I voted in favor of the use of military commissions.    » read more »

May 15, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, DC - Philadelphia area Congressional members met with Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, to discuss the decision made by the Bush administration to terminate the Philadelphia Universal Feeding pilot program.

During the meeting, U.S. Senators Bob Casey and Arlen Specter and U.S. Representatives Chaka Fattah, Allyson Schwartz, Robert Brady and Joe Sestak urged Secretary Vilsack to reverse the decision to terminate the program which ensures 120,000 school children in the Philadelphia-area have access to nutritious meals.    » read more »

May 13, 2009 -- THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. Good to see you. I want to take a few moments at the top to talk about something that, with all the big issues going on, hasn't received much attention, but I think is worth talking about briefly.

As some of you know, we have a humanitarian crisis that's taking place in Sri Lanka, and I've been increasingly saddened by the desperate news in recent days. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians are trapped between the warring government forces and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka with no means of escape, little access to food, water, shelter and medicine. This has led to widespread suffering and the loss of hundreds if not thousands of lives.    » read more »

May 11, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today asked the Department of Justice to seek clarification from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on the scope of its April 17, 2009 decision that Bush Administration officials did not conduct sufficient scientific and environmental analysis before scheduling oil and gas lease sales on the Outer Continental Shelf off Alaska.    » read more »

CHICAGO (May 8, 2009) – The Department of Interior announced today that a controversial rule undercutting Endangered Species Act protections for the polar bear would remain in place. The special regulations issued by the Bush administration and generally called a “special rule” or a “4(d) rule” effectively waived many of the protections the polar bear would have received through its listing under the Endangered Species Act.

When Interior listed the bears as threatened last year it agreed with scientists about the impacts of Arctic warming on polar bears, yet the “special rule” excludes greenhouse gas emissions thereby limiting protection of the bears under the Endangered Species Act.    » read more »

May 8, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. - Today, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the Obama administration will not withdraw a special rule limiting protection for polar bears. The polar bear 4(d) rule was issued in the waning days of the Bush administration and would limit the protections afforded to the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

Earlier this year, Congress passed an omnibus appropriations bill that gave the administration the opportunity to withdraw two controversial endangered species act regulations. The deadline for action was listed as May 10.

Statement of Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope    » read more »

Government Seeks Forfeiture of Commercial Real Estate, Residences and Expensive Automobiles

May 6, 2009 -- A 23-count indictment unsealed today alleges that a civilian contractor paid more than $2.8 million in bribes to a U.S. Army contracting official stationed at Camp Arifjan, an Army base in Kuwait, and the official’s wife, and that the three individuals committed honest services fraud and money laundering offenses in connection with the same conduct.    » read more »

April 28, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced that the two departments are revoking an eleventh-hour Bush administration rule that undermined Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections. Their decision requires federal agencies to once again consult with federal wildlife experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – the two agencies that administer the ESA – before taking any action that may affect threatened or endangered species.    » read more »

Reversal Signals Renewed Focus on Science at the Heart of Federal Actions

CHICAGO (April 28, 2008) – The Obama administration announced today that they would be dumping eleventh-hour Bush Administration changes to the Endangered Species Act that would have dramatically weakened the landmark wildlife protection law.

The decision will once again require federal agencies to consult with experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before taking action that could impact threatened or endangered species. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other groups had sued to roll back the Bush Administration changes that have now been repealed.    » read more »

Statement by Francesca Grifo

April 28, 2009 -- Today, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar rescinded eleventh-hour Bush administration changes to Endangered Species Act regulations that allowed federal agencies to decide for themselves if their own projects—such as roads and dams—would threaten imperiled species. Federal agencies again will be required to consult with expert biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service before undertaking or permitting new projects.

The rule change was just one of several controversial Bush administration actions that undermined the scientific foundation of the Endangered Species Act, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).    » read more »

Restores Protections Against Dumping in Streams

April 27, 2009 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced his determination that the mountaintop coal mining “stream buffer zone rule” issued by the Bush Administration is legally defective. Salazar directed the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to file a pleading with the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. requesting that the rule be vacated due to this deficiency and remanded to the Department of the Interior for further action.    » read more »