SOTU Addresses Typically Paved With Green Intentions
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n 1993, Bill Clinton assailed the failure of the federal Superfund toxic waste cleanup program. For more than a decade, attorneys and consultants drained off Superfund dollars, while few toxic sites got an actual cleanup. "I’d like to use that Superfund to clean up pollution for a change and not just pay lawyers," Clinton told Congress and the nation.
Twenty years later, Environmental Protection Agency still runs a gauntlet of insurers, politicians, angry neighbors and, of course, polluters who are less than anxious to help pay for cleanup. More than 1,300 polluted sites remain on the Superfund list, while less than 400 "cleaned" sites have been de-listed. The lawyers are still getting paid.
In his second inaugural, Clinton gave a nod to climate change using language that presaged Obama’s inaugural speech. Failure to act "would put our children and grandchildren at risk," he said. Since then, the United States opted out of the Kyoto Protocol, increased its fossil fuel consumption, and saw greenhouse gas legislation crash and burn in 2010.
Ronald Reagan’s first State of the Union address hit hard at the "incomprehensible" size of America’s nearly $1 trillion debt. While laying out an ambitious, pro-business plan to roll back regulation, he assured Congress that "we have no intention of dismantling the regulatory agencies, especially those necessary to protect environment and assure the public health and safety." By the time he left office eight years later, the EPA and Interior Department were weakened and demoralized, their initial leaders disgraced by scandal. Fred Krupp, head of the Environmental Defense Fund, told the New York Times that Reagan’s team "accepted the weakest possible rules to protect the environment." Did the budget-cutting and deregulation bring down that "incomprehensible" debt? It grew by 188 percent during Reagan’s two terms.
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http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/02/green-promises-state-of-the-union
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