in the waning days of his not-so-bright administration, president bush recently attempted to change (and make permanent) e.p.a. regulations concerning the burning of coal. previously, e.p.a. regulations set limits on the "tonnage" of sulphur dioxide that any given power plant could generate in a set amount of time, say, a year. according to bush's planned last minute changes, power plants would only have to keep below a certain RATE of sulphur dioxide production, irregardless of how much TOTAL sulphur dioxide they produced. to give an example: that's like saying it doesn't matter how much total gas you consume in your car, as long as you're driving below a 50 mph speed limit. power plants can now operate FULLTIME, without regard for total SO2 output, as long as they maintain their output below an hourly/monthly cap; ultimately, they are allowed (under this change) to produce OVER TWO TIMES THEIR CURRENT SO2 OUTPUT.
there's little doubt that this "hail mary pass" won't get enough support to pass.
so what is bush thinking? does he think this half-hearted effort will show obligatory "pay back" to all his big oil/coal supporters/cronies?
No comments:
Post a Comment