In fits and starts, George W. Bush has made it clear that he aims to protect industrial interests, in spite of serious tolls on the environment. Bush has not provided an acceptable environmental policy and his recent actions indicate a disdain for environmental protection.

Bush"s recently released 2003 budget eliminates corporate taxes that fund the Environmental Protection Agency"s Superfund. Superfund provides for a trust that cleans-up polluted sites when companies refuse to or when the culprit cannot be identified. If the Superfund is used, individual corporations can be held liable for up to four times the cost of clean-up. This "polluter pays" approach effectively forced companies to pay 70 percent of the clean-up costs of the agency"s 1,551 priority sites. This budget also calls for a reduction of environmental regulation staff by 2003.

The recent budget builds on a series of steps the Bush administration took, relaxing the rules for a program that requires factories to modernize pollution controls when they upgrade their facilities. In response to this, Eric V. Schaeffer, director of the EPA"s Office of Regulatory Enforcement, resigned on Feb. 27. Such action will, according to Schaeffer, save industries billions in necessary upgrades while undermining the agency"s ability to litigate non-compliant companies.

These changes to the program originate from Vice President Cheney"s energy task force. The task force, according to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), consulted only one environmental group and 64 energy companies and industry trade groups. The companies that consulted with Cheney on the Clean Air Act contributed $6.4 million to Bush and the Republican Party. Waxman further argued that the pattern was similar to one reported in a New York Times article, revealing that 18 of the largest 25 energy industry campaign contributors accessed and advised Cheney"s national energy task force last year.

Cheney"s task force is also responsible for recommending drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. The administration has gone so far as to argue that drilling will impact only 2,000 acres of the 1.9 million acres on which oil reserves are located. But according to the U.S. Geological Survey, this appraisal is seriously flawed. Bush"s estimate does not recognize that oil reserves are located throughout the refuge and many drilling rigs will have to be dispersed throughout ANWR to extract oil. Bush"s calculation also does not include the roads that will connect the drilling rigs and does not fully account for the expansive geographical area covered by oil pipelines that will be necessary to transport the extracted crude from the wildlife refuge.

The consistent pattern of neglect that has become the hallmark of the administration"s environmental policy should be a source of intense concern. Particuarly discouraging is their willingness to have enviromental policy shaped by the corporate interests which blazed his path to the White House. The subversive influence of corporations and by extension, the Bush administration spells devastation for a positive environmental policy.