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Mon 18 Dec, 2006 09:28 am
The EPA has been closing it's libraries down. The contents within have been either destroyed or stored in warehouses where there is no access. The Union of Concerned Scientists has a good deccription (loaded with links) of what is happening
HERE.
Quote:The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maintains a nationwide network of 27 libraries that provide critical scientific information on human health and environmental protection, not only to EPA scientists, but also to other researchers and the general public......................
.............In February 2006 under the guise of cutting costs, the Bush Administration proposed cutting $2 million out of the $2.5 million library services budget for fiscal year 2007. Such a drastic cut would ensure the closing of most of the library network, but would hardly register as a cost savings against the $8 billion EPA budget.
Despite the fact that Congress has not yet passed the 2007 budget or approved these funding cuts, the EPA has already moved with astonishing speed to close down several of its libraries to both the public and EPA staff..............
........A 2004 internal EPA report found that the library network saved over 214,000 hours a year in staff time, amounting to cost-savings of $7.5 million?-considerably more than the savings gained from cutting the program. ..........
...........Four unions representing 10,000 EPA scientists sent a letter asking Congress to stop the destruction of the library network. A letter from Representatives Henry Waxman (D-CA), Bart Gordon (D-TN) and John Dingell (D-MI) has prompted an investigation of the library system by the General Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. And members of both the House and Senate have called upon Administrator Johnson to cease and desist with the closures until the investigation is complete and Congress has authorized action; the House letter called for a response from the administrator by Monday, December 4, 2006. No response has yet been made public........
............
And yet, they tell us we live in a free country.
I predict the Bush administration is going to sponsor a huge bon fire before they all check out. This is just the beginning.
Jesus.
Now why am I not surprised?
Furthering the legacy of the Reagan administration, and one-upping him to boot.
Not suprised.
Disgusted, but not suprised.
Librarians of the world, UNITE! How bloody apalling...
The librarians I've known as friends are pretty strong people. Would they could unite. I'm sure at least some of them have. Me, I'm pretty interested in this outcome.
The Nazis didn't pussyfoot around. They knew what was bad and simply burned it.
'
http://tinyurl.com/vg8rz
I think the article states that the librarians did do something...... <sigh> I can't think with this cold.
all it is is the New World Order Setting up.
More about outrageously politicized mismanagement at the EPA:
Quote:EPA IN CRISIS
Tapped
February 27, 2008
I mentioned a few weeks ago that Barbara Boxer, Henry Waxman, and other congressional Democrats are challenging EPA administrator Stephen Johnson's decision to
deny California and 16 other states a waiver to allow them to set their own standards for carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles, and had subpoenaed internal EPA documents on the matter. Yesterday the Environment and Public Works Committee released some of
those documents, which show an EPA "in crisis," as Boxer put it in a press conference yesterday. As all accounts
already indicated, the memos reveal that Johnson rejected the advice of EPA staffers and caved to the Bush administration's ideological stance against meaningful action on climate change. An excerpt from the advice given to him by staff members from the EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality:
From what I have read and the people I have talked to, it is obvious to me that there is no legal or technical justification for denying this. The law is very specific about what you are allowed to consider, and even if you adopt the alternative interpretations that have been suggested by the automakers, you still wind up in the same place.
The internal memos also revealed that staffers warned him of the risks of denying the waiver: "If you are asked to deny this waiver, I fear the credibility of the agency that we both love will be irreparably damaged." If he did deny the waiver, his staff advised him that he may have to resign from his post. This is just the latest instance of Johnson ignoring his staff and science in general to appease the Bush administration; asked in a hearing last month whether he thought climate change was a major crisis,
Johnson retorted, "I don't know what you mean by major crisis."
His staffers were right on the California waiver; let's hope they're right about that resignation part. California is suing for the right to set tougher standards, and a Johnson-less EPA might make for an easier path for them and other states who want to take aggressive action on climate change.
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