It is unlikely you saw this headline, but you could have. This past week, however, the Bush Administration announced that it would consider imposing additional regulations on the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer based upon a National Research Council study that found the scientific basis for the EPA’s 1993 regulations lacking. While sludge has been used as fertilizer for years, under the Clinton Administration the EPA vigorously promoted the practice, as the New York Times reports. The EPA rejected, at least for the time being, enjoining the use of sludge as fertilizer, but additional regulations governing the practice are likely as a result of the announcement — regulations tighter than those adopted by the Clinton Administration.
The claim here is not that the Bush Administration is, as a whole, a more aggressive at promoting environmental protection than the Clinton Administration, let alone a more aggressive regulator. Rather the point is that this episode, like many others, illustrates that the common caricature of the Bush Administration as “anti-environmental” is overly simplistic and ultimately unfounded. Nonetheless, I assume some will still claim Bush is the “worst environmental president” since McKinley.
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