MARCH 6, 2006
Off
the top of your head name the head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. For the first time since Russell Train became our first Director of the EPA in the 1960's the Director has disappeared from view. When the former New Jersey Governor, and Bush appointed Director Christine Todd Whitman resigned I anticipated someone new who would maintain the high standards of vigilance of the environment we have come to expect from the EPA. Who is minding the store?
Environmental Protection Agency - great name, great mandate, great service to our country, and yet, I can not name the director of the EPA myself. Who is it? And Where did he go?
At the state level, Terry Tamminen, Governor S's first appointed servant of the people who is mandated to serve the natural systems that define this great state set the bar high for his successor. The California E P A had a director who cares and who is willing to work hard to assure all of us that the environment is in good hands. No more wanton disregard for wetlands takings, logging roads into prime wilderness area, dismantling of the clean air and water statutes, and developer first attitudes exhibited by appointed leaders at the federal level.
If the coyote is watching the hen house the chickens are in big trouble. If the head of the President's Council on Environmental Quality is a former lobbyist for the timber, mining, and gas industries, and the EPA director is off the radar screen of the environmental community, then we have foxes and wolves guarding the precious resources entrusted to us in perpetuity - that's the fact, Jack.
I really thought Protection was the job of the EPA - protect the environment - protect - pro-active efforts to preserve - nothing else is required.
--Peter