THE GREEN WARS

This Science Friday entry is more political than science and could also be considered as a late Earth Day entry. Now I’m not a very green person, at least not as green as I’d like to be. Just by glancing at the carbon quiz, I knew I was doing a very poor job of being a steward of the earth. Part of that is due to laziness, but I also have to put some blame on local resources. Del City does not make it easy for you to recycle. But I predict in the coming months Chris and I will become a greener family just out of shear frustration with the current administration. Last month a California judge ruled in favor of a suit put forward by two environmental groups against the Bush administration on illegal neglect of energy policy. The judge declared that the Department of Energy violated the 1992 Energy Policy Act by falling to meet its own goal of converting its fleet of vehicles into alternative fuel models. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 requires that 75% of all government vehicles purchased must be alternative fuel source vehicles (AFVs). It was supposed to boost AFV purchases therefore increasing the demand for AFVs and making them more accessible to the general public. Unfortunately the ruling does not mandate that the Bush administration comply with the original standards. Now it’s up to the Secretary of Energy to set new goals, like achieving 10% fuel conversion by 2014 instead of 30% fuel conversion by 2010.

But it doesn’t end there. Ten states filed suit against the Federal government on Thursday over the EPAs decision not to regulate carbon dioxide pollution as a contributor to global warming. The EPA says that the Clean Air Act does not require them to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks and that the law does not authorize the agency to regulate emissions to reduce global warming. The EPA also maintains that there is not enough scientific data supporting that carbon dioxide plays a big part in global warming (or even that global warming exists). So what does EPA stand for? I thought that was the Environmental Protection Agency. It says something on their website about “35 years of protecting human health and the environmentâ€?. The new suit was filed in response to the July decision and applies to tighter pollution controls on power plants. The states suing hope the courts will rule specifically whether the Clean Air Act can be used to fight global warming.

All this leaves many people asking what’s it going to take to get this administration to take some freakin responsibility for our environment. The answer is simple.

Get a new administration.