The Bush Administration on the Environment: Teddy Roosevelt Must Be Spinning in His Grave.

One only look at the President's views on stem cell research to see that the Bushies are bascially taking their orders from the extreme right. Well, now we can see that when it comes to climate change, it seems that they are basically following the wishes of the oil industry.

Today's New York Times reports that aide to the President has repeatedly edited documents concerning global warming so that it plays down the link between emission and climate change.

The aide, Phillip Cooney, who once worked as a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, heads the Office on Environmental Quality. This is the office that helps "devise and promote" the administration's environmental policy. There's no crime in working for the oil industry. However, it should give you pause when it lead the fight against global warmning. Here's what the story says:

The American Petroleum Institute, where Mr. Cooney worked before going to the White House, has long taken a sharply different view. Starting with the negotiations leading to the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty in 1997, it has promoted the idea that lingering uncertainties in climate science justify delaying restrictions on emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe gases.

It's one thing to be pro-business. The Republican Party believes that captialism can lead to a strong society and I agree with that. However, there is a big difference in giving business the freedom to grow and expand the market, which are good thing, and basically flaking for an industry. A leader has to balance the need for a strong economy with a clean environment. Teddy Roosevelt understood that. Roosevelt understood that preserving the environment was "a great moral issue." He knew it was important a century ago to perseve the wild spaces so that future Americans (you and I) could enjoy the our great land. He supported a free market, but not pure greed.

Creating workable solutions to prevent global warming is away we can help future generations enjoy this earth. However, this administration doesn't seem to care about that. It is more concerned that its donors get special treatment, than it is about the health of the planet. This administration talks a lot about a "culture of life" but I wonder how moral it is to bring up a child in a world affected by global warming.

It's not very moral in my book and not very Republican either.