BLM Leases Public Land in Utah
In a last-minute giveaway to Big Oil allies, the Bush administration begins leasing public land to oil and gas companies near some of America's most precious natural treasuring in Utah. More than 1...
Bush Weakens Protection of America's Streams
The EPA relaxed conditions under which mining companies -- particularly those engaged in mountaintop removal -- may bury waste. Changes to the Stream Buffer Zone rule will bury hundreds of miles of...
EPA Administrator Declares No Regulation for Carbon Dioxide
Stephen Johnson, administrator of the EPA, issues a memorandum declaring that it would not regulate carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution from power plants or any other industrial facility. This decision ...
Supreme Court Limits Protection of Whales
The Supreme Court struck down two significant safeguards that would have protected whales against high-intensity sonar training in Southern California. Photo Credit: dbking
What's Next
In its final months, the Bush administration will undoubtedly carry-out additional last-minute measures and dirty tricks that degrade the environment, public lands and people’s health. Unfortunatel...
Bush Deregulates Waste
The Bush administration deregulates the disposal of 1.4 million tons of hazardous waste.
FDA Ignores BPA (Again!)
A panel of independent scientists appointed by FDA issues a scathing critique of the FDA’s August report on BPA, including its failure to consider dozens of laboratory studies that show BPA is harm...
EPA Refuses to Limit Perchlorate
The EPA refuses to limit levels of perchlorate -- which is used in rocket fuel -- in drinking water, despite its presence in drinking water in 26 states.
EPA Doesn't Ban Pesticide
The EPA denies a petition by NRDC to ban and revoke the tolerances for food residues of the pesticide carbaryl, a likely human carcinogen and dangerous toxin for bees and other important pollinators.
Bush Proposes Changes to ESA
The Bush administration proposes changes to the Endangered Species Act to allow federal agencies to review projects for wildlife impacts instead of being subject to scientific review by Forest and ...
MMS, Drugs and Sex
More than a dozen employees in the Minerals Management Service are exposed for repeatedly using illegal substances and having sexual relations with oil company employees, the people they were suppo...
Bush Lifts Ban on Offshore Drilling
President Bush lifts a 27-year-old ban on offshore oil drilling. Meanwhile, a Category 4 hurricane on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast spills 12,000 barrels of oil from offshore drilling rigs.
EPA Ignores BPA
Despite evidence that shows that bisphenol A (BPA), which is used in baby bottles and food packaging, can have dangerous health effects, the FDA issues a report asserting that it is safe.
No Regulation of CO2
The White House pressures the EPA into announcing it will not regulate CO2 for the remainder of Bush’s term, despite legal requirements to do so.
Bush rejects Limits on Global Warming
At the G8 summit, President Bush demands that all major economies cut emissions but rejects binding limits on U.S. global warming emissions.
PCB's Imported From Mexico
The EPA grants a request to import and burn 20,000 tons of PCBs from Mexico despite a 30-year ban on the chemical, which can lead to cancer, brain damage, reproductive problems, and more.
White House Ignores EPA
The New York Times reports that the White House ignored EPA findings that global warming pollution from vehicles endangers public health. The Times story says that White House officials refused to ...
More Oil Exploration
The Polar Bear Seas are opened to oil exploration lease sales. Shell Oil obtains permits to begin seismic exploration in the Beaufort Sea without consideration of migrating whales and other sea lif...
Rules Change for Chemical Safety
The EPA changes its system for evaluating chemical safety by allowing greater input and control by the White House and by agencies such as the Department of Defense and Department of Energy.
EPA Reduces Air Quality
The EPA proposes reducing regulations for air quality at 156 national parks, wilderness areas and wildlife refuges, allowing at least two dozen new coal-fired power plants to be built near 10 of th...
Wild Buffalo are Caught and Slaughtered
Under Department of Interior management, more than 1,600 of America’s last wild buffalo are captured and slaughtered, halving the number of remaining animals -- the result of federal and state wild...
EPA Increases Smog
The EPA establishes new restrictions on smog that are 7 to 20 percent higher than the limits recommended by science advisers and health advocates.
EPA Evades Safeguards
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rules that the EPA illegally evaded safeguards requiring deep and timely reductions in toxic air pollution, including mercury, from coal-fired power p...
CDC Cancels Report
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Julie Gerberding, cancels a report that would have revealed that more than 9 million people in the Great Lakes region were being expo...
Bush Ignores Supreme Court
The Bush administration announces that, despite an order from the Supreme Court, it will not determine whether CO2 emissions threaten public health and welfare.
Bush Helps Navy
The Bush administration makes an executive order that helps the Navy get around a federal court ruling limiting the use of high-intensity sonar off the California coast.
Wolves Fall Off ESL
Wolves are removed from the federal endangered species list, giving states a blank check to slaughter the animals.
Bush Ignores Polar Bears
When considering protections for the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration ignores the impact that oil and gas exploration off the coast of Alaska would have on polar...
U.S. Blocks Agreement in Bali
At the U.N. Climate Change meetings in Bali, Indonesia, President Bush refuses to accept mandatory caps on emissions and tries to block an international agreement to curb global warming. Photo ...
EPA Blocks Vehicle Standards
Overruling the unanimous recommendation of its own legal and technical staffs, the EPA blocks California and 17 other states from enforcing standards for vehicle emissions of CO2 and other pollutants
Bush Censors CDC
The Bush administration censors major sections of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s congressional testimony on the public health impacts of global warming, including the statement th...
Supreme Court Reverses CO2 Rule
The Supreme Court rules that CO2 meets the legal definition of a “pollutant” under the Clean Air Act, rejecting President Bush’s declaration of March 2001. Photo Credit: dbking
Grizzlies off ESL
President Bush takes grizzly bears off the endangered species list, opening the door for the loss of bear habitat and increasing the potential for conflicts between bears and humans. Photo Credi...
FEMA Covers Up
FEMA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry covers up the health threat posed by formaldehyde in trailers provided to Gulf Coast residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Bush Issues Drilling Permits
The Bush administration issues 7,124 drilling permits for oil and gas development on public lands, breaking its own record for the number of permits in one year. Photo Credit: Southern Utah Wildern...
EPA Weakens Reporting
The EPA weakens reporting requirements for chemical releases from industrial facilities, exempting more than 3,500 facilities from detailed public reporting.
Norton Resigns
Secretary of the Interior Norton resigns. Within a year she takes a job as a general counsel for Shell Oil’s U.S. exploration and production operations.
EPA Weakens Health Standards
The EPA proposes weakening the method for calculating health standards for drinking water in small communities. The new rule would allow small water systems to exceed federal drinking water standar...
NASA Goes Public
Top NASA climate expert James Hansen goes public with charges that the administration tried to prevent him from publicly discussing the risks of global warming.
Katrina Unleashes Toxins
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, EPA data reveal the presence of toxic levels of lead and arsenic in family lawns and soil. As of 2008, the administration had not cleaned up the toxic soil. ...
BLM Weakens Policy on Drilling
The Bureau of Land Management formalizes a policy that makes it voluntary for corporations to clean up oil and gas-drilling sites on public land.
Sonar Threatens Whales
For the first time in history, the secretary of defense allows the U.S. Navy to conduct high-intensity sonar training without safeguards to protect whales and other marine life.
Real "Fake" News
The New York Times finds more than 200 instances in which television stations aired videos by the EPA as actual news.
U.S. Opposes Action on Mercury
The U.S. delegation to the Governing Council of the United Nations Environmental Program opposes legally binding global action to combat mercury pollution, favoring only voluntary measures. The Uni...
EPA Allows More Sewage
The EPA moves to finalize a policy that would release inadequately treated sewage into waterways as long as it is diluted with treated sewage, a process the agency calls “blending.”
NASA Criticizes Bush
James Hansen, NASA’s top climate expert, criticizes the Bush administration for altering news releases, revising government reports and rejecting scientific results to keep the public in the dark a...
Formaldehyde Less Toxic
The EPA’s Air Office declares formaldehyde to be one ten-thousandth as toxic as the previous assessments.
Roadless Rule Exempted
The Bush administration exempts Alaska’s Tongass rainforest from the landmark “Roadless Rule” that protects national forests from development. Though billed as temporary, the exemption has yet to b...
Clean Air Act Weakened
The EPA weakens a key program under the Clean Air Act, allowing thousands of aging power plants and industrial facilities to emit more air pollution. In December, a federal court blocks this move.
Ban Lifted on PCBs
The EPA lifts a 25-year ban on the sale of land contaminated with PCBs, a chemical linked to neurological problems and cancer in humans, thereby opening more than 1,000 toxic sites to “economic red...
Healthy Forest Initiative
The Bush administration proposes the Healthy Forest Initiative, which includes exemptions to logging from federal review. Later in 2003, Congress incorporates this into the Healthy Forest Restorati...
Norton Cuts Deal in Utah
Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton cuts a deal with the state of Utah to allow oil and gas drilling in millions of acres of wilderness. Photo Credit: Jonathan Zander
Bush Allows More Logging
Bush administration claims logging is good for wildlife and endangered species; expedites forest “thinning” projects.
Bush Allows Oil Drilling
The Bush administration allows oil drilling in Padre National Park, home to 11 endangered species and host to 800,000 tourists annually.
EPA Halts Toxic Waste Cleanup
The EPA halts cleanup funding for seven high-priority toxic waste sites, leaving the cost to local communities.
EPA Omits Global Warming
For the first time in six years, the EPA omits global warming from its annual air pollution report.
Bush Speaks on Global Warming
In a public speech, President Bush denigrates a report by his own administration on global warming, saying it was “put out by the bureaucracy.”
Nukes Around Yucca Mountain
Court documents reveal that the EPA rigged the boundaries of the Yucca Mountain nuclear storage site so it would meet Safe Drinking Water Act standards. Photo Credit: USGS
Clear Skies Plan
The Bush administration proposes its Clear Skies plan for power plants. The plan would increase coal use by 79 million tons by 2020 and weaken the Clean Air Act.
EPA Reverses on Rat Poison
The EPA reverses safety measures imposed in 1998 to prevent 15,000 children from being exposed to rat poison each year. (In 2005, NRDC wins a case in federal court to overturn this decision.)
EPA Downplays 9/11 Pollution
After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, the White House pressures the EPA to downplay concern about air quality around ground zero, even though 2,000 tons of asbestos and 424,000 tons...
Cheney's Energy Plan
Vice President Cheney issues his National Energy Plan calling for the expediting of drilling on public lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the western Arctic.
Arsenic Suspended in Water
President Bush suspends new health standards for arsenic in drinking water, leaving standards at 1942 levels.
Kyoto Protocol is Dead
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice announces to European ambassadors that the Kyoto Protocol is “dead,” just days after EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman assures Europeans that the B...
Roadless Rule Rolled Back
Bush makes his first attempt to roll back the “Roadless Rule” passed by President Clinton. This rollback would open up 58 million acres of national forest to logging, roadbuilding, and coal, oil an...
CO2 Emissions Not Covered
The president reneges on a campaign promise to reduce CO2 emissions from power plants, claiming it would hurt the economy, while simultaneously declaring that CO2 would not be covered by the Clean ...
Gale Norton Appointed
President Bush appoints Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior. Norton was formerly a senior attorney for the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a group funded by several leading mining, logging, ...
