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Senator Patrick Leahy
Environmental Rollbacks News Conference
Thurs., Jan. 16, 2003
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Last summer, when White House Chief of Staff Andy Card hinted about
how the White House intended to sell the American people on the idea
of invading Iraq, he said, “From a marketing point of view, you don’t
introduce new products in August.”
No matter what else you think about this Administration and its
policies, you have to give them credit for marketing savvy – whether
the commodity is good news or bad news.
We certainly have seen those skills at work in how they have rolled
out a flurry of environmental rollbacks over the last two months.
They strategically wait until they think the American public isn’t
watching.
It certainly is not just a coincidence that these rollbacks are
typically slipped out on a Friday afternoon or right before a holiday.
When it comes to the Administration’s policies on the environment,
every Friday seems to be Friday the 13th. But if you’re a
big polluter, every day is a holiday.
It happens so often that you almost can set your watch by it. Since
the election, five rollbacks have been announced on Fridays.
The air quality rollback announcement last November was the start of
these Friday the 13th horror shows.
The other part of their strategy seems to be giving corporate
polluters regulatory gifts before each holiday – once again, when the
American people aren’t watching, but the big polluters are.
One obvious problem with that strategy is that there aren’t enough
holidays. So many environmental standards to roll back, and so little
time. I suppose we shouldn’t be too surprised if the Administration
sooner or later suggests adding more holidays to the calendar so they
can squeeze in more rollbacks.
But market timing can only go so far, when the product you’re selling
is a lemon. The American people are beginning to catch on to these
holiday gifts to special interests, because they come at the expense
of cleaner air and water.
This all begs the
question -- what kind of doubly whammy can we expect tomorrow, the
Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day?
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