U.S. Environmental Policy: Where is it Headed?

So far, the Bush administration has begun to redirect policies on international family planning, climate stabilization, renewable energy R&D, wilderness protection, endangered species protection, air and water quality standards, nuclear waste clean-up, environmental law enforcement, mining regulations, worker injury compensation, community right-to-know initiatives, drinking water standards, and food safety procedures. And that was just the first four months. WORLD WATCH presents a timeline of the administration's emerging environmental agenda.

On March 27, 2001, Christine Todd Whitman, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), announced that the United States, which is responsible for 25 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, has "no interest" in the Kyoto Protocol. Despite a deluge of scientific reports linking human actions to climate destabilization, Whitman said that the new administration did not plan to endorse the Protocol, which was negotiated (with U.S. participation) in 1997 as a part of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, and which is intended to curb national carbon emissions.

International reaction was swift and highly unfavorable. French President Jacques Chirac asked, "how can we affirm the right of a protected and preserved environment to future generations" at a time of "global warming and of a disturbing unacceptable challenge to the Kyoto Protocol?" The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling the U.S. about-face on Kyoto "irresponsible." Even the strongest traditional ally of the United States, the United Kingdom, criticized the decision to scrap Kyoto. British Environment Minister Michael Meacher said that global warming "is the most dangerous and fearful challenge to humanity over the next 100 years" and that Bush's decision was therefore "extremely serious.

In May, Vice President Dick Cheney unveiled the administration's new energy strategy, which calls for the construction of almost 2,000 additional coal-fired power plants over the next 20 years--or an average of more than one new power plant every week for that period. Cheney is a former CEO of the Halliburton Company, one of the world's largest energy firms, and now heads the administration's energy task force. President Bush is himself a former oil man. (For an overview of the Bush cabinet's corporate connections, see page 20.)

"Without a clear, coherent energy strategy," says Cheney, "all Americans could one day go through [the occasional rolling blackout] that Californians are experiencing now, or worse." In order to promote its supply-side thrust, the strategy would ease the regulations governing powerplant construction, as well as federal air pollution standards. The strategy would also promote the construction of additional nuclear powerplants. But its most controversial element has been its emphasis on expanded drilling: Cheney's recommendations include drilling for oil and natural gas in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and drilling for oil off the Florida panhandle in the Gulf of Mexico. Both of these areas are of great biological value.

Despite Cheney's call for a coherent energy strategy, the administration's budget for next year will cut federal spending on energy conservation and alternative energy programs. In April, Cheney himself told an audience of editors and reporters at the Associated Press's annual meeting that he believes "conservation might be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis--all by itself--for a sound coherent energy policy."

One week later, the country's top five national laboratories, including the Berkeley National Lab in California, released a report outlining an efficiency program that could reduce the country's electricity demand by 20 to 47 percent. The study found that government office buildings could cut their own power use by one-fifth by adopting conservation measures, at no cost to taxpayers.

Following Cheney's lead, President Bush is also promoting the new energy strategy as a necessary fix to a shortage of supply. Bush argues that "every American must realize we are in an energy crisis." But this crisis is difficult to locate: taking inflation into account, the cost of oil in the United States is 41 percent lower today than it was in 1980, in the wake of the oil shortages of the 1970s. And the problems in California (which the administration has repeatedly pointed to as the harbinger of national energy troubles) have more to do with botched deregulation than with fuel shortages. California's decision to open up its electricity markets to half-hearted competition forced utilities to vie for tight supplies of natural gas without being able to charge consumers for the growing expense. That has pushed Southern California Edison close to bankruptcy, and sent Pacific Gas and Electricity over the edge.

The administration's energy strategy appears to be representative of its approach to environmental issues in general. During its first four months in office, the Bush administration has discarded or delayed more than 20 environmental initiatives. It halted the implementation of new EPA limits on arsenic in drinking water. It modified a Clinton administration ban on road building in roughly 24 million hectares (60 million acres) of national forests--a change that could open up substantial tracts of relatively undisturbed wilderness to the mining and timber industries. Its 2002 budget reduces funding--by more than $8 billion--for environmental law enforcement, nuclear site clean-up, water quality assessments, energy efficiency, endangered species protection, research programs at the EPA, and a variety of other environmental and social safeguards. If these policies prevail in their current forms, the administration's environmental agenda could become one of its most lasting legacies--one that may command the att ention (if not the approval) of the world community for many decades to come. On the following pages is a day-by-day account of the administration's emerging environmental agenda.

January 20, 2001

* The Bush administration dismantles funding for international family planning by reinstating the "Mexico City Policy" known as the "global gag rule." Crafted by the Reagan administration as a way to prevent U.S. funds from supporting abortion abroad, the gag rule places restrictions on how overseas healthcare providers can spend U.S. aid money for international family planning services, including women's health and AIDS prevention programs, and restricts them from using those funds for abortion counseling or abortion referrals.

* The new administration closes the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach. The office was designed to allow women's groups to voice their concerns--about healthcare, education, and other issues--directly to the White House.

* The new Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, issues a memo freezing for 60 days the last minute regulations and orders signed by former President Bill Clinton before he left office. The Card Memo also prevents other regulations made during Clinton's last months in office from being published in the Federal Register. Without publication in the Register, the rules cannot go into effect. (See "Little-noticed law lurks over environmental protections," May/June 2001.) Other rules affected by the Card Memo include: a ban on road building in almost 24 million hectares (60 million acres) of national forest (See April 26 and May 4 of timeline); a restriction on driving snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park; a rule tightening regulations on soot emissions from diesel engines; and new food safety standards.

* Bush orders a review of the lands designated as national monuments and wilderness areas by Clinton shortly before leaving office. He recommends tailoring each designation to accommodate "local activities," which could include timber harvesting, oil extraction, and mining.

February 6

* Chief of Staff Card announces the closing of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.

February 7

* The White House claims that Card's announcement was a "misunderstanding," and reinstates the Office on AIDS Policy.

February 28

* EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman reinstates rules calling for large, diesel-powered vehicles to reduce their emissions by 95 percent and oil companies to reduce diesel fuel sulfur content by 97 percent over the next 10 years. The rules had been suspended by the Card Memo. (See January 20.)

March 13

* Bush reneges on his campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide, despite EPA Administrator Whitman's earlier comments that the administration was serious about fighting air pollution and global warming. Bush says the scientific knowledge concerning the causes of, and the solutions to, global climate change are incomplete" and that "the lack of commercially available technologies for removing and storing carbon dioxide" could harm consumers by increasing electricity prices.

* The EPA imposes yet another delay on the release of a report linking cancer and dioxins. The report has been in the works since the 1980s, but the chemical and meat industries oppose its release.

March 19

* The Fish and Wildlife Service reverses an order issued during the Clinton administration to halt logging along salmon-bearing streams in the West. (Such logging tends to choke streams with silt.)

March 20

* Claiming that the "science is unclear," the administration delays an EPA rule to tighten drinking water standards for arsenic. According to the National Science Foundation, even low levels of arsenic in water can lead to bladder, lung, skin, and prostate cancers. The EPA was proposing to tighten the standard from the current maximum allowable level of 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion. The revision would have brought U.S. standards into line with those of the World Health Organization and the European Union.

* The administration accepts a pesticide reduction agreement reached in the courts in January by the EPA and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The agreement requires the EPA to fulfill its mandate under the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act, which is intended to reduce pesticide residues in food and to lower the pesticide exposure of farm workers. Industry groups are currently lobbying against this decision.

March 23

* The Interior Department suspends implementation of rules to strengthen environmental standards for hard rock mining on public land. The new rules would have given the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) the power to: halt construction of environmentally damaging mines on public lands, require the mining industry to post bonds for future environmental cleanups, force companies to control toxic runoff from mining sites, and establish standards for water pollution from mine runoff.

March 22

* Bush cancels the American Bar Association's traditional role in screening judicial nominees. This function will now be performed by the Federalist Bar Association, a much more conservative body. The ABA, which is the main U.S. professional association for lawyers, has a membership of 400,000. The FBA has 25,000 members. (See May 9.)

March 26

* The EPA withdraws plans to provide communities with information about the risks of local chemical accidents. The plan would have provided public access to a database of chemical accident "worst case scenarios" filed under the Clean Air Act.

March 28

* Claiming that the Kyoto Protocol will harm the U.S. economy and that the science surrounding global warming is inconclusive, the administration rejects the 1997 international agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Christine Todd Whitman's declaration that the "administration has no interest in implementing the treaty provokes widespread international expressions of concern. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder calls on the United States to assume its responsibility, as the world's largest producer of greenhouse gases, to ratify the treaty. The European Union environment delegation declares that "the Kyoto Protocol is still alive--no individual country has the right to declare a multilateral agreement as dead."

April 3

* The administration announces plans to suspend and eventually repeal a rule intended to promote greater accountability for companies contracting with the federal government. The decision means that contracts can be awarded without reviewing the contractor's compliance with environmental and consumer protection laws.

April 4

* The administration delays a proposal to curtail runoff from large livestock operations. The proposal would require almost all large feedlots to apply for pollution permits; it would also impose restrictions on discharges from manure lagoons. The period for public comment on the proposal has been extended to July 30.

* With the support of a range of agribusiness companies and ag industry groups, the administration rejects a food safety measure requiring that all beef in school lunches be tested for Salmonella. Instead, the Agriculture Department recommends irradiation--a controversial food safety measure--as a method of microbial control.

April 6

* In response to widespread consumer reaction, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman rescinds her department's proposal to eliminate testing for Salmonella in school lunch programs. (See April 4.) Veneman also drops the idea of irradiating school lunch meat.

April 9

* Bush unveils his 2002 federal budget, cutting $2 billion dollars in funding from environmental, agricultural, and energy conservation programs. Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut is funded, in part, by the reductions in environmental programs. (See box, page 18.) The budget includes an "extinction rider" to the Endangered Species Act. The rider exempts the process of listing species under the act from any deadline, and gives Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior, discretionary authority to decide which species to list. Critics charge that these changes are likely to make lawsuits on behalf of endangered species meaningless.

April 10

* The administration asks a federal appeals court to uphold a plan to restrict mercury pollution from coal plants.

April 12

* The administration endorses a court order to ban personal watercraft in national parks and recreation areas by 2002. Bush approves higher efficiency standards for new clothes washers and water heaters. The standards were proposed under the Clinton administration.

April 13

* Bush announces a 20 percent increase in energy efficiency ratings for air conditioners. This standard is lower than the one developed by the Clinton administration, which sought a 30 percent increase in efficiency. Environmentalists charge that, at current rates of energy use, this retreat on efficiency could require the construction of up to 12 additional power plants over the next 30 years.

April 16

* Bush accepts a Clinton rule restricting development in swamps, bogs, and marshes without EPA approval. The League of Conservation Voters warns that without vigorous defense by the Bush administration, court challenges from industry are likely to seriously weaken this rule.

April 17

* Bush decides to uphold proposed Clinton administration regulations requiring 3,600 more businesses to report their releases of lead to the Toxic Release Inventory.

* Despite opposition from Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the president's younger brother, the administration moves forward with plans to auction off oil exploration rights to 2.4 million hectares (6 million acres) of sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Florida Coast.

April 18

* The administration backtracks on the arsenic issue, calling for a tightening of at least 60 percent in the maximum acceptable level in drinking water, and promising to conduct a study on arsenic's effects by early next year. (See March 20 and April 23.)

April 19

* Bush announces support for the POPs Treaty, the global agreement to phase out a dozen highly toxic Persistent Organic Pollutants, including some of the most harmful pesticides and industrial chemicals.

April 22

* The administration reinstates a Clinton ban on recreational use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. (See January 20.) But Interior Department lawyers are engaged in settlement talks with snowmobile manufacturers and users, who are challenging the rule in court. Environmentalists fear that a settlement could undercut the rule.

April 23

* Bush reiterates his support for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), despite earlier statements by EPA Administrator Whitman that the White House energy task force would not recommend drilling in Alaska. Bush spokesperson Ari Stevens tells reporters that anyone who thinks they're going to "convince George Bush that the [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] should not be drilled, tell them to go take another puff of whatever they're smoking."

* The administration imposes further delays on payment of compensation to nuclear industry workers. Signed into law last year, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act offers onetime, $150,000 payments to nuclear workers made ill from their jobs. The Labor Department is proposing new conditions for eligibility, which might exclude employees who have diseases not primarily linked to radiation exposure or to contact with hazardous chemicals.

* The EPA limits public commentary to 14 days--until May 7--on a proposal to delay for 9 months implementation of a rule to reduce the maximum acceptable arsenic level in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion. (See March 20 and April 18.)

* In order to get the Congressional support needed for the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement--a controversial plan to unite the economies of the Western Hemisphere into a single free trade zone--Bush decides to reinstate the Clinton-mandated environmental review process to assess major trade agreements. (The rule was suspended by the Card Memo; see January 20.)

April 24

* The head of the Federal Emergency Management Administration, Joe Allbaugh criticizes Davenport, Iowa because of the city's reluctance to build a floodwall or levees along the Mississippi River--despite the now well established fact that such river containment projects tend to exacerbate flooding elsewhere. Allbaugh threatens to withhold federal disaster relief in the future.

April 25

* The administration announces it will dismantle a plan to reintroduce threatened grizzly bears into Montana and Idaho. The plan, which took seven years to formulate and incorporated the views of industry, environmentalists, and local citizens, would allow for the release of 25 grizzly bears into some 1.5 million hectares (6,000 square miles) of wilderness area.

* Bush endorses the Brownfields Bill, which will provide $250 million a year to help states clean up abandoned industrial and commercial sites.

April 26

* The White House gives the Justice Department the go-ahead to find ways to dismantle former President Clinton's pledge to protect 24 million hectares (60 million acres) of national forest land. (See January 20 and May 4.) The administration calls for more study, claiming the plan was rushed and did not receive adequate public input--despite the 1.6 million public comments that were collected over the course of a year.

* Bush says he believes drilling in ANWR can be done in "an environmentally friendly fashion," and that it is a common sense approach to increasing available energy in the United States.

* Citing a lack of confidence in Justice Department lawyers assigned to the $100 billion federal lawsuit against: the tobacco industry, Attorney General John Ashcroft indicates that a change in personnel might be needed in the near future. Before becoming Attorney General, Ashcroft opposed the lawsuit, which alleges that the tobacco industry covered up the health effects of their products.

April 30

* Vice President Dick Cheney uses the Associated Press convention in Toronto to elaborate on the administration's energy strategy. Cheney says the administration will aim to increase oil and gas exploration. He also argues--despite Chernobyl and Three Mile Island--that going nuclear will decrease pollution: "If you want to do something about carbon dioxide emissions, then you ought to build nuclear power plants."

* The Bush team announces plans to alter the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which includes provisions that limit the testing and deployment of antimissile systems. For almost three decades, the ABM Treaty has been the basis for arms control between Moscow and the United States. It is not clear how changes in the treaty would affect nuclear strategy in Russia or in other nuclear powers.

May 4

* Bush tentatively accepts a ban on road building in federal forests put in place by the Clinton administration earlier this year, but promises to make the ban amenable to local revision. (See January 20 and April 26.) Under the new approach, local officials--along with timber, oil, and natural gas companies--will have greater say in how individual national forests are managed.

* The Energy Department releases more than 20 years' worth of scientific and engineering data about the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility in Nevada, pushing forward the public comment process needed before the controversial site can be opened. The underground facility, situated on a major faultline, would store 40,000 tons of spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors. No decision will be made until a federal scientific committee releases a report later this year, on the suitability of Yucca Mountain as a repository for nuclear waste.

May 7

* Bush announces to business leaders gathered at a Council of the Americas meeting, that free trade is a moral imperative." Bush uses the meeting to press for "fast track" authority--congressional authorization to negotiate a trade deal that would have to be voted on by Congress as submitted, without the possibility of amendment. Environmentalists argue that fast track negotiations are likely to result in agreements that lack environmental and labor safeguards. (See April 23.)

May 8

* As part of its energy strategy, the administration announces that it may use the government's power of "eminent domain" to install power lines and transmission towers on private lands. Concern about the proposal is coming not only from environmentalists and public health advocates, but also from states' rights supporters who oppose giving more power to the federal government.

* Cheney delays until later this year a decision on whether to include higher vehicle fuel efficiency as part of his energy plan. According to a recent study by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, a modest increase in engine efficiency (from 24 to 35 miles per gallon), would save more than 1 million barrels of oil per day. By comparison, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that drilling in ANWR would only produce about 580,000 barrels a day.

* Cheney also says that, despite the 40 percent budget cut in renewable energy funding (see April 9), he supports research into biomass fuels, which are derived from human, animal, and agricultural waste.

May 9

* Bush nominates 11 candidates--including a tobacco company lawyer--to serve on the federal appeals courts. (Two of these candidates are hold-overs from the Clinton era.) Bush can expect to name an unusually large number of judges to the courts over the next four years because conservatives in the U.S. Senate blocked many Clinton nominees. Environmentalists, women's groups, and civil rights advocates argue that there is cause for concern about the longterm effects of Bush's judicial appointments.

May 10

* The Bush administration declares a two-year freeze on new proposals for expanding the national park system. The Interior Department says that because of a $4.9 billion backlog in park maintenance work, the Park Service can't afford to expand the area under its jurisdiction.

* The BLM is reported to be violating a court order to protect threatened desert tortoises in California. According to U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, the BLM failed to remove cattle from the tortoise's designated habitat by March 1, defying a court settlement reached last year. Alsup believes that the BLM's failure to comply "has something to do with the change of administrations" and adds, "that's not the way government should be working."

May 14

* The administration seeks union support for its energy strategy, promising that the plan will create thousands of jobs for union employees in the oil and gas industries, and in pipeline and powerplant construction.

May 17

* Bush officially unveils the administration's new energy strategy, which calls for more coal-fired power plants; a greater emphasis on nuclear energy; tax incentives to encourage energy production from fossil and nuclear fuels; more drilling for oil and natural gas on federal land, including ANWR and use of eminent domain authority to extend power lines over private land.

Danielle Nierenberg is a staff researcher at the Worldwatch Institute.

KEY SOURCES: "Bush and the Environment: A Citizen's Guide to the First 100 Days," League of Conservation Voters website, www.lcv.org/presidential/100-days/index.html; "Your Guide to Money in the American Elections," Center for Responsive Politics website, www.opensecrets.org/.

RELATED ARTICLE: The U.S. 2002 Federal Budget: Big Cuts for Environmental Programs

The budget's big losers:

* The Wetlands Reserve Program, cut by $162 million.

* Energy efficiency research programs, cut by 25 percent.

* Research on geothermal, hydrogen, and wind energy, all cut by 48 percent.

* Solar energy research, cut by half to $42.9 million.

* Functioning renewable energy programs, cut by 40 percent.

* Energy Department biological and environmental science programs, cut by 8 percent.

* U.S. Geological Survey water resources division, cut by 25 percent.

* The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration science office (which studies climate change), cut by 10 percent.

* The Army Corps of Engineers Challenge 21 program, which helps communities develop environmentally friendly methods of flood control, receives no new funding.

* The Plutonium Registry, a program to help Russia track its nuclear materials, cut by 12 percent, or $100 million.

* The National Park Service's Natural Resource Challenge--a new initiative to provide environmental information critical to park management--receives only $20 million to cover the more than 32 million hectares (80 million acres) of park land.

* The Interior Department, which oversees 175 million hectares (436 million acres) of federal land -- 19 percent of the country--cut by 4 percent, or $400 million.

* The Tropical Forest Conservation Act, for which Bush pledged last year $100 million in new dollars, to fund debt for-nature swaps in developing nations, receives only $13 million, in old dollars, from the budget of the Agency for International Development.

* The Fish and Wildlife Service's endangered species program, cut by 25 percent.

* EPA's enforcement programs, cut by 9 percent.

* EPA research programs, cut by 20 percent, or $212 million.

* The National Science Foundation, cut by $175 million. This cut forces the dismantling of EarthScope (a project to study North America's lithosphere and crust), and the National Ecological Observatory Network (a plan for long-term biodiversity monitoring).

* The Smithsonian Institution, despite a small increase in its budget, is forced to close a center for video production and three libraries in order to keep its Conservation and Research Center, which studies endangered species and breeds them in captivity.

* The Justice Department tobacco litigation unit, which needs $60 million a year to continue its law suit against cigarette makers, receives only $1.8 million.

The winners:

* The BLM, which receives $15 million to oversee drilling permits and oil and gas leases.

* The Land and Water Conservation Fund, a controversial program funded by royalties from offshore gas and oil extraction, receives $900 million. The money will be controlled by the states, rather than the federal government.

* Nuclear weapons programs, which receive $1.5 billion.

* Research on cleaner coal technology, which receives $2 billion over the next ten years.

The Administration's Corporate Connections

"It's useful to have somebody who knows something about the energy business involved in the effort" to formulate a U.S. energy plan, says Vice-President Dick Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton, one of the world's largest energy companies. It turns out that Cheney wasn't just referring to himself; he has helped stock the Bush administration with executives and lobbyists, especially from the energy sector. For example, the Clearinghouse of Environmental Advocacy and Research reviewed the backgrounds of the 63-member advisory team that vets the nominees for political posts within the Energy Department, and found that 50 come from the energy industry (27 are from the oil and gas industries, 17 from the nuclear power and uranium mining industries, 16 from the electricity industry, and 7 from the coal industry. Only one is from the renewable-energy sector).

When President Bush picked his other top advisors and cabinet members, he "left no industry out in the cold," according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group that tracks corporate influence in U.S. politics. Most of the administration's top posts have been filled by people with strong industry ties, as can be seen from the list below.

Appointee                          Corporate Ties

Andrew Card, Chief of Staff        Former president of the now-defunct
                                   American Automobile Manufacturer's
                                   Association. Was the chief
                                   lobbyist for General Motors.

Condoleezza Rice,                  In August 2000 Chevron named an oil
National Security Advisor          tanker after Rice, who previously
                                   sat on the company's board. The
                                   tanker's name was changed in April
                                   after consultation with the Bush
                                   administration. Rice is also a
                                   former director for both the
                                   finance firm, Charles Schwab, and
                                   the insurance company, TransAmeric
                                   Corporation.

Mitch Daniels, Director,           Former vice president of the
Office of Management and           pharmaceutical firm, Eli Lilly.
Budget (OMB)

John Graham, Director of OMB's     Director of the Harvard Center for
Office of Information and          Risk Analysis, a think tank funded
Regulatory Affairs                 by Dow Chemical, the Chemical
(nominated)                        Manufacturer's Association, the
                                   Chlorine Chemical Council, and
                                   other industry groups. The center
                                   argues that the costs of most
                                   health, safety, and environmental
                                   regulations outweigh the benefits.

James Connaughton, Chairman        Provided legal counsel to General
of the White House Council on      Electric and Atlantic Richfield in
Environmental Quality              their suits against the EPA
                                   concerning Superfund site
                                   cleanups.

Gale Norton, Secretary of the      Former lobbyist for NL Industies,
Interior                           a chemical company that was sued
                                   for exposing children to lead in
                                   its paints. Norton worked as the
                                   national chair-peson for the
                                   industry-backed Coalition of
                                   Environmental Advocates. According
                                   to the environmental group
                                   Friends of the Earch, this is a

                                   "greenscam" group, which receives
                                   funding from Coors Brewing
                                   Company, the American Forest Paper
                                   Associaiton, and the Chemical
                                   Manufacturer's Association.

J. Steven Griles, Deputy           Worked as a lobbyist for United
Interior Secretary (nominated)     Company, a coal, oil, and gas
                                   development firm. Former vice
                                   President of National
                                   Environmental Strategies, a DC-
                                   based lobbying firm that
                                   represents oil, coal, and utility
                                   interests, including Occidental
                                   Petroleum, the National Mining
                                   Association, and Edison Electric.

William Geary Myers, III,          Lobbyist for the National
Interior Department Soliciter      Cattlemen's Beef Association and
(announced)                        the Public Lands Council.

Linda Fischer, Deputy              Former vice president of govern-
Administrator, Environmental       ment affairs at Monsanto,
Protection Agency                  an agricultural chemical
                                   company attempting to reinvent
                                   itself as a biotechnology company.

Ann Veneman, Secretary of          Worked as a lobbyist forDole Foods
Agriculture                        Company, the world's largest
                                   producer of fruit and vegetables.
                                   Former board member of Calgene, an
                                   agriculturalbiotech firm acquired
                                   by Monsanto.

Francis Blake, Deputy Energy       Senior vice president of the
Secretary (nominated)              industrial giant General Electric
                                   Corporation, whose pollution has
                                   Superfund sites (47 in all) than
                                   any other corporation in United
                                   States.

Robert Card, Under-Secretary of    President and CEO of Kaiser Hill,
Energy (nominated)                 a nuclear waste cleanup contractor
                                   that has been fined almost $1
                                   million for nuclear safety
                                   violations at the abandoned
                                   Rocky Flats nuclear weapons
                                   factory in Colorado.

Donald Evans, Secretary of         Former executive officer at Ton
Commerce                           Brown, Inc., a Denver-based oil
                                   Company.

Norman Mineta, Secretary of        Former vice president of Lockheed
Transportation                     Martin, a defense contractor.

Tommy Thompson, Secretary of       Heald stock in the Philip Morris
Health and Human Services          tobacco company, which helped
                                   finance his successful campaigns
                                   for governor in Wisconsin.

Elaine Chao, Secretary of Labor    Sat on the boards of Dole Foods
                                   and Clorox.

Paul O'Neil, Secretary of the      Former chairman of Alcoa, the
Treasury                           world's largest aluminum
                                   manufacturer. Former President
                                   of International Paper. Served
                                   on the boards of Eastman Kodak
                                   and Lucent Technologies.

Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of      Former CEO of the pharmaceutical
Defense                            company G.D. Searle (now
                                   Pharmacia). Sat on the boards of
                                   Kellogg, Gilead Sciences (a
                                   biotechnology company), and the
                                   Tribune Company, which owns the
                                   Chicago Tribune and the Los
                                   Angeles Times.

Thomas Sansonetti, Assistant       After serving in both the Reagon
Attorney General for Environment   Bush Senior administrations,
and Natural Resources (announced)  Sansonetti returned to private
                                   law practice, where he represented
                                   mining companies and the coal
                                   industry; he has also testified on
                                   behalf on mining interests,
                                   arguing for more mining on federal
                                   lands.