Cheney fouling the very air that you breathe

The Washington Post continues its excellent series on the covert manipulations of Dick Cheney. In today's chapter, we learn that he is the real reason that former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman resigned — and not the standard line of "I want to spend more time with my family." (Is that ever the truth?)

In the battle of energy business interests vs. the interests of the environment, Cheney and his cronies rule. According to Whitman, Cheney called her at one point and asked "Why was the agency dragging its feet on easing pollution rules for aging power and oil refinery plants?"

The article continues:

Whitman protested, warning Cheney that the administration had to proceed cautiously. It was August 2001, just seven months into the first term. We need to "document this according to the books," she said she told him, "so we don't look like we are ramrodding something through. Because it's going to court."

But the vice president's main concern was getting it done fast, she said, and "doing it in a way that didn't hamper industry."

At issue was a provision of the Clean Air Act known as the New Source Review, which requires older plants that belch millions of tons of smog and soot each year to install modern pollution controls when they are refurbished in a way that increases emissions.

Industry officials complained to the White House that even when they had merely performed routine maintenance and repairs, the Clinton administration hit them with violations and multimillion-dollar lawsuits. Cheney's energy task force ordered the EPA to reconsider the rule.

A federal appeals court has since found that the rule change violated the Clean Air Act. In their ruling, the judges said that the administration had redefined the law in a way that could be valid "only in a Humpty-Dumpty world."