LEAD STORY: EPA TO SHUT DOWN SHAM BUSH PROGRAM ON VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE -Philadelphia Inquirer
Proof that investigative journalism can still work. The Inky uncovered just what a sham (and environmental threat) the so-called ‘Performance Track’ program was:
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration intends to close an EPA program heavily promoted by the Bush administration that rewards voluntary pollution controls by hundreds of corporations with reduced environmental inspections and less stringent regulation, according to EPA sources and internal e-mails.
EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson is expected to sign, as early as this week, a memo terminating the Performance Track program, senior EPA officials said yesterday.
Performance Track offers regulatory perks to corporations that pledge to save energy and reduce pollution. Entry into Performance Track, EPA’s premier voluntary “green club,” is supposed to be reserved for companies with sterling environmental records, but has been denounced by environmentalists as a public-relations charade.
EPA’s decision comes three months after an Inquirer investigation found that Performance Track lauded companies with suspect environmental records, spent millions on recruiting and publicity, and failed to confirm members’ environmental pledges independently. The program became so desperate for new members, The Inquirer found, that it turned to gift shops and post offices to pad its numbers.
A senior EPA official said in an interview yesterday that The Inquirer’s findings had played a role in Jackson’s decision.
The Inquirer’s investigation of Performance Track was made public in December in a four-part series on the Bush administration’s subversion of the EPA, the federal agency charged with safeguarding human health and the environment.
The Inquirer found that the Bush administration’s antiregulatory bent had driven down funding, regulation, and employee morale as senior political appointees censored the agency’s scientific findings in ways that consistently benefited corporations.
A tip of the Somnambulo Sombrero to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Read the entire article, and then go back and read the entire investigative series. It will, at first, make you sick. But then you’ll remember that elections really matter, and so does an effective free press.
AIG to Pay Out More Millions in Bonuses -Washington Post
Anywhere from $165 mill to $450 mill. Nationalize the bastards, tell ’em that if they can’t live without the bonuses, they’ll have to live w/o their jobs, and be done with it.
Drill, Baby, Drill No More -NYTimes
No, not the Obama policy, the free market at work to ensure higher prices at the pump.
Col. Sanders and KFC to End Cubs’ Futility? -Chi. Sun-Times
Can statue of the bearded one (no, the OTHER bearded one) end the curse of the billy-goat?
Conservative Radio Talk Drying Up in California -LATimes
As goes California, so goes Delaware?
Legislation Will Help Schools Teach Financial Literacy -McClatchy
Could this be the beginning of the end of the credit card industry as we know it?