Bush Appointees Will Hurt the Environment

After reading “Bush Environment Jobs Are Skewed to Business” (June 24), I think I need a high school civics review. If I wasn’t sleeping back then, I thought I heard the teacher say something about “checks and balances.” This kind of proposed collusion with regard to President Bush’s industry nominees for key environmental policy jobs is the very thing that government protection and oversight is designed to regulate against. Does his Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton really need this much help undermining conservation? The question is not will President Bush affect the environment adversely but, rather, how much can he damage it in four years?

Todd Work

Santa Monica

With Bush’s new appointees, he has now institutionalized public policy for political and personal profit for industry supporters. Our government and future are up for sale. It looks like the environmental community has it correct regarding Bush. While the environmental community looks at the next four centuries of Americans, Bush looks at the next four fiscal quarters in the business cycle for his industry supporters.

While Bill Clinton sold the Lincoln Bedroom for campaign support, Bush is selling the nation’s heritage for industry support. That helps explain why we have a short-term “resource extraction policy,” to benefit campaign donors, instead of a long-term energy policy that looks out for the future sustainable economic and environmental health of our country. Bush has put the nation and future up for sale.

Paul Arms

Huntington Beach