LAT: EPA Rule Loosened After Oil Chief's Letter to Rove

EPA Rule Loosened After Oil Chief's Letter to Rove
The White House says the executive's appeal had no role in changing a measure to protect groundwater. Critics call it a political payoff.
By Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writers
June 13, 2006

WASHINGTON — A rule designed by the Environmental Protection Agency to keep groundwater clean near oil drilling sites and other construction zones was loosened after White House officials rejected it amid complaints by energy companies that it was too restrictive and after a well-connected Texas oil executive appealed to White House senior advisor Karl Rove.

The new rule, which took effect Monday, came after years of intense industry pressure, including court battles and behind-the-scenes agency lobbying. But environmentalists vowed Monday that the fight was not over, distributing internal White House documents that they said portrayed the new rule as a political payoff to an industry long aligned with the Republican Party and President Bush.

In 2002, a Texas oilman and longtime Republican activist, Ernest Angelo, wrote a letter to Rove complaining that an early version of the rule was causing many in the oil industry to "openly express doubt as to the merit of electing Republicans when we wind up with this type of stupidity."

Rove responded by forwarding the letter to top White House environmental advisors and scrawling a handwritten note directing an aide to talk to those advisors and "get a response ASAP."...

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Environmentalists pointed to the Rove correspondence as evidence that the Bush White House, more than others, has mixed politics with policy decisions that are traditionally left to scientists and career regulators....Angelo had been mayor of Midland, Texas, when Bush ran an oil firm there. He is also a longtime hunting partner of Rove's. The two men first worked together when Angelo managed Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign in Texas....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rove13jun13,0,6998893.story?coll=la-home-headlines

They always have the chance of being released from prison, perhaps something else?

Statue of Liberty. I think they would be more than happy to give us Devil's Island for the Bush Crime Family.

Someplace where the prisoners are treated like dirt.

That they get special treatment from the Bush Oil Cabal.

So special. So un-American. So unfair. So corrupt. As usual.

loose on the world to reek more havoc ...

And I thought he stepped down as a presidential advisor.

What exactly is his role?

These fuckers have been pulling this 180 degree reversal shit ever since the (s)elections were stolen.

...will begin to get more attention.

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5482934>

Here's a link to the letter to Rove: <http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-0613rove_letter-pdf,0,7402516.acrobat?coll=la-home-headlines>

Chicago Tribune too: <http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-na-rove13jun13,1,6360663.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true>

Unfortunately, the scumbags at UPI NewsTrack/Washington Times <http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060613-100121-5407r> were quick to jump on this LA Times Report too, giving it their typical Extreme RW/Republican spin and unfortunately some centrist and LW blogs have already picked up this POS report from UPI, like "Monsters and Critics" <http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1172287.php/Rove%60s_role_in_EPA_rule-softening_queried>

Why does "Monsters and Critics" always seem to end up at the top of "Google News" searches? We should all write a quick angry comment to them and ask them not to run the UPI versions of stories.