Driving Votes: Oliver's Blog - Archived Entry

I'm very excited about Driving Votes and the opportunity to publish this blog!

For now I'll simply post links to interesting articles or sites that I've encountered, with only a tiny bit of commentary. Hope you find it useful!!

I'll begin with some NYTimes pieces from this past Sunday edition (Apr 4). I want to get these pointers up now because their links only last a week or so, before the articles are migrated to their pay archives.

CHANGING ALL THE RULES By BRUCE BARCOTT
How the Bush administration quietly — and radically — transformed the nation's clean-air policy.
NYTimes Magazine April 4, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/04/magazine/04BUSH.html

[an excerpt...]

"Of the many environmental changes brought about by the Bush White House, none illustrate the administration's modus operandi better than the overhaul of new-source review. The president has had little success in the past three years at getting his environmental agenda through Congress. His energy bill remains unpassed. His Clear Skies package of clean-air laws is collecting dust on a committee shelf. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge remains closed to oil and gas exploration.

But while its legislative initiatives have languished on Capitol Hill, the administration has managed to effect a radical transformation of the nation's environmental laws, quietly and subtly, by means of regulatory changes and bureaucratic directives. Overturning new-source review -- the phrase itself embodies the kind of dull, eye-glazing bureaucrat-speak that distracts attention -- represents the most sweeping change, and among the least noticed."