Thankful to Be Caught

Thankful to Be Caught (2000)

Paying a high price at the pump, are you? Well, your Prezdent, a former oilman, and a recovering abuser gravely concerned about America's addiction to oil, has at least one solution. Roll back environmental rules on gasoline.

With BushCo, you can't even make shit up better than the daily head-shakers. From the Associated Press as seen on Yahoo News:

President Bush on Tuesday ordered a temporary suspension of environmental rules for gasoline, making it easier for refiners to meet demand and possibly dampen prices at the pump. He also halted for the summer the purchase of crude oil for the government's emergency reserve.

[...]

Easing the environment rules will allow refiners greater flexibility in providing oil supplies since they will not have to use certain additives such as ethanol to meet clean air standards. The suspension of oil purchases for the federal emergency oil reserve is likely to have only modest impact since relative little extra oil will be involved.

[...]

It's unclear what impact, if any, Bush's investigation would have on prices that are near or at $3 a gallon or more. Asked if Bush had any reason to suspect market manipulation, White House press secretary Scott McClellan responded, "Well, gas prices are high right now, and that's why you want to make sure there's not."

Now, would our former petro tycoons leaders want to actually roll back environmental regulations to ease the financial burden on the lower and middle classes -- or to better fleece consumers and further erode the planet just so corporations can suck up faster, bigger profits?

Well is the Pope Jesus Catholic a Republican?

Let's have a brief recap -- courtesy of The Nation -- "Bush's Environmental Record":

3/13/01
Abandons pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

3/28/01
Rejects Kyoto Protocol.

4/9/01
Pushes to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

5/10/01
Refuses to name industry participants in Cheney's energy task force.

7/6/01
Reduces funding for greenhouse-gas reductions in developing countries.

9/21/01
Uses terrorist attacks as excuse to weaken protection of wetlands.

10/25/01
Guts tough mining protections on federal lands.

10/31/01
Issues weaker arsenic-in-drinking-water standard.

1/14/02
Allows expanded oil-drilling in Big Cypress National Preserve.

2/14/02
Rolls back power-plant pollution standards.

2/15/02
Backs Yucca Mountain plan for nuclear waste dump.

2/18/02
Eric Schaeffer, a top EPA official, resigns in protest of Bush policies.

3/29/02
Citing national security, Pentagon seeks environmental laws exemption.

4/1/02
Misses deadline to boost automobile efficiency.

4/11/02
Allows mining in Everglades.

5/23/02
Rolls back air-conditioner energy-efficiency standards.

7/1/02
Kills corporate tax on polluters that funds cleanup of toxic waste sites.

7/19/02
Opposes Senate-backed renewable energy requirement.

8/22/02
Calls for increased logging in the name of fire prevention.

8/26-9/4/02
Only major leader not at UN Summit on Sustainable Development.

10/8/02
Stacks panel on lead poisoning with industry officials.

11/12/02
Announces plan to allow snowmobiles in two national parks.

11/22/02
Repeals rules requiring older factories to cut pollution emissions.

12/4/02
Defers action on global warming.

01/10/03
Plans to weaken Clean Water Act wetlands protections...

Uh, I suppose I could go on and continue to rub your face in the polluted backwash, but I think even the 30% true believers can be bludgeoned with pattern recognition.

Call me cynical, but BushCo's easing regulations on gasoline is probably not a stop-gap measure to lower pump prices.

Instead, it's just business as usual. It's what he does -- every single day. Sell out our world to private interests.

Soon, today's image won't be fanciful. At the rate BushCo's business cronies are cashing in, fish will soon be grateful for the yank of the hook.