The good news is that the Environmental Protection Agency will certainly do better under President Obama's reign than under President Bush - because the EPA has absolutely done nothing for the last eight years. This is not an exaggeration, according to an exhaustive investigative four-part report by The Philadelphia Inquirer entitled Smoke and Mirrors: The Subversion of the EPA. 

But is the EPA any different from any other world environmental department?

The EPA: Don't Ask Us Where Shit Is

The EPA was formed in 1970 under then President Richard M. Nixon in order to placate the longhairs. Remember, Nixon was the guy behind Watergate and blowing away half of Vietnam. Nixon's administration was marked by the "us verses them" attitude - and anything not connected to the White House was "them."

Just in the last eight years, the EPA has done nothing in four steps in order to advance President Bush's interests - which are definitely not the interests of anyone else other than President Bush. The square of EPA inactivity rest on these four corners:

1)      Do anything the White House tells you to do, even if it flies in the face of science.

2)      Fight in court state regulations to make big business clean up it's act on the side of big business.

3)      Give huge financial perks and less EPA inspections to companies who promise - but do not deliver - on cleaning up their companies with the formation of the Performance Club.

4)      Claim they have the legal right to delay making any legal decisions for a year - and then do the same thing again next year.

The EPA is currently run by Stephen L. Johnson, a devout Christian who holds Bible studies in his office. He considered it his duty to re-edit briefings to the White House whenever they didn't like it. I guess in all that Bible study, he missed that crazy little part about "Thou shalt not bear false witness."

Why The EPA Needs To Matter

America is the world's biggest polluter. A December 5, 2007 memo to the White House claiming that American traffic alone causes more greenhouse gasses than most other entire countries had to be crossed out in order to make the White House happy. Meanwhile, the world careens towards an environmental Armageddon just because President Bush's friends in big business may have had their feelings hurt by the EPA's recommendations.

When the world biggest polluter won't get into line, why should any other country bother?  Even environmental groups like the Sierra Club have completely given up on getting EPA help and directly confront American companies about their polluting practices, such as it has done with cruise lines. 

What About Other Environmental Offices?

But is the EPA rogue, or just acting like the usual government lackey?  Unfortunately, the EPA is no different from many other ministries of the environment in countries like Japan. Their Ministry of the Environment has been powerless to stop whaling, selling of products made from endangered species, over construction (especially of airports) or pollution.  It has a pretty website and gives out pretty brochures, but that's about all it does.

Did you know that the world supposedly has an environmental department in the United Nations?  Yup - it's called UNEP and does just about as much good as the regular UN, which was best described by comedian Robin Williams as "a traffic cop on Valium."

Unlike the EPA, which once upon a time could enforce environmental laws, government groups like the European Environmental Agency just sit make recommendations that they hope someone will notice. They have no means to enforce any nation or company to comply with their findings.

Indian Peace Medals

Each American President gave a specially commissioned medal to Native Americans who sold out their tribes and heritage - excuse me, acted as allies for progress among the Indian tribes. These medals were very pretty and were proudly worn by the recipients - but they were still shoved on reservations of land incapable of supporting food crops, not allowed religious freedom, employment or hope. But they did get a nice medal.

Government agencies for the environment and combating climate change are no more than medals to Native Americans.  They look pretty and that's about it. Unless they are given power to do anything to control emissions and protect the public health (let alone the health of the planet), then what's the point of having them? They serve only to kowtow to big business.

Future Options

There are a couple of options that may help to combat climate change and not just appear as if they are doing so without actually doing so:

• Give the agencies some teeth, some good lawyers and, when necessary, armed assistance, to immediately halt climate-killing factories, polluters, poaching or illegal logging and arrest the rule breakers. They need to show how serious the crimes are by prosecuting and jailing offenders. Jailing current EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson and taking away all of his bonuses, perks and making him repay all of his salary would be a good start.
• If governments are not willing to take any responsibility, then they should shut down the ineffectual agencies and give the money and law enforcement power instead to charities so they can continue to do actual work. Imagine what Greenpeace could do if they had the EPA's budget.
• Do what's done in New Zealand, which has set up an environmental court which frees up other court systems and gives some legal teeth to imposing environmental laws.

The time for playing nice and making recommendations is over. If we will not hold our government agencies accountable for protecting the environment and enforcing environmental rules, then we may have no choice but to do it ourselves.

Related Reading:
Steve Chu, Energy Secretary
The Cement Industry: An Underreported source of Mercury Pollution