EPA proposes easing refinery pollution rules

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

The Bush administration proposed easing environmental rules today to allow oil refineries and other industries to change how they calculate whether they need pollution control equipment.

The oil refinery industry says the eased regulation would open the way for production of more oil and other products. But environmental groups say the proposed rules are gimmicks and loopholes allowing industry to emit more pollution, evade pollution controls and save money.

"This is a big gift to the refinery industry," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, an environmental watchdog group. "They are saying let's close our eyes and pretend pollution is not happening."

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This is actually from last week; I almost missed it, but I'm glad I didn't because this soooo obviously more of the same old dangerous cow shit coming out of Bush's ass. The three industries affected, oil, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals, are already doing quite well. The oil industry in particular, which continues to post record profits quarter after quarter, clearly needs no help--the real problem with gas prices isn't environmental rules; rather, it's that the industry has purposely reduced refining capacity over the years in order to create artificial shortages which raise prices. Meanwhile, over the last five years or so, Bush, with budget cuts and non-enforcement edicts, has degraded the EPA's ability to monitor emissions, which must now rely on industry self-reporting, which means that pollution is actually much worse than is reported. We need more stringency when dealing with pollution, not less. Like the environmentalist guy above says, this is nothing but another giveaway to GOP friends, but in this case, however, it's not simply the old reverse Robin Hood opertation that rips off average Americans like you and me: this time it's fucking dangerous, toxifying the air we breathe, causing cancers and weird asthmas, and accelerating even more our mad dash toward global warming induced apocalypse.

I know I'm not the only one out there who's sick of this shit.

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