What are Conservatives Conserving?*

Katharine Mieszkowski has a good article in Salon about the White House and their environmental regulation war with California.

In October, the Bush administration took time out from battling al-Qaida and other evildoers to file an amicus brief in federal court in Fresno, siding with automakers and dealers in a suit against a California regulation requiring car manufacturers to sell "zero-emissions vehicles."

The administration has also been fighting for the extension of offshore oil drilling rights in California coastal waters near Santa Barbara. Never mind that such drilling is so unpopular with voters here that even state Republican politicians outdo themselves trying to prove how fervently they oppose it.

And earlier this year, even as California passed the nation's first anti-greenhouse gas law to fight global warming, the feds declared that the government must continue to study the issue before enacting any policies around it.

What are the conservatives actually consering? The White House wants to gobble up natural resources so badly they're acting like Democrats just to do it! Why is defense of state's rights okay when Trent Lott daydreams about Dixiecrats, but not when a liberal state wants to protect the health of their children? Is it really a "save the children" issue? I wonder what was life in California like before all those environmental regulations Bush wants to get rid of...

In Los Angeles in the '50s, "pollution was so bad, you'd blow your nose and it would be black," says Ed Camarena, an engineer who's served on the board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which now enforces air quality regulations in the area. The San Francisco Bay Area had cleaner air, but as recently as the '60s, elementary schools were known to close down because smog made it hard for children to breathe.

George W. Bush's legacy: black snot for everyone!

*shamelessly stolen from Carl Sagan