Rollbacks and regulations
While NAM officials may not fancy much of what they read in the media these days, they should be tickled pink by a report titled "Manufacturing in America," released by the Commerce Department on Friday, which calls for rollbacks of environmental and other regulations. The report complains that enviro regs soak up roughly 2 percent of the gross domestic product created by the manufacturing sector, and that the cost of these and other rules is rising faster than the sector's income -- not surprising, perhaps, given that manufacturing income plateaued during the recession of the last two years.

A Small Business Administration study cited in the report found that the cost to manufacturers of complying with regulations was $147 billion in 1997, "or a cost per employee of $7,904." Environmental regs accounted for nearly half of that -- $69 billion in 1997, or a per-employee cost of $3,691 -- while workplace-safety rules, tax-compliance regulations, and the like accounted for the rest.

The report calls on the trusty White House Office of Management and Budget to promptly "evaluate ... proposed reforms and, when appropriate, implement those reforms on a priority basis." As Commerce Secretary Donald Evans explained when the report was released, "This is our strategy to remove the barriers that are holding back American manufacturers and costing jobs."

In a public statement, NAM president Jerry Jasinowski praised the report and complained that because U.S. manufacturers must comply with onerous regulations, they carry a cost burden "22 percent greater than our nine major trading partners." According to Larry Fineran, NAM's vice president of regulatory and competition policy, the report is consistent with the Bush administration's "shift away from command-and-control regulations in order to improve America's competitive advantage in the global marketplace."

"The Bush administration today has broken new ground," Jasinowski rhapsodized, "acknowledging that manufacturing is vital to the nation's economy, recognizing the unprecedented challenges to our global leadership, and recommending reforms to strengthen our manufacturing competitiveness ... This is the first time in modern history that an administration has made manufacturing in America a top national priority."

What he didn't mention, of course, is the trade-off: When the health of the manufacturing industry becomes the top priority, the health of the public at large may get the shaft.

Slush sucks
With the New Hampshire primaries looming large, local activists are in high gear trying to get environmental policy concerns a prominent spot on the presidential candidates' agendas. More than 500 such activists are operating within a group known as the Carbon Coalition, which is coordinating all manner of grass-roots activity -- from door-to-door canvassing to direct meetings with campaign officers -- to convince candidates that their commitment to curbing global warming will be a defining issue in this primary.

"We've made a lot of headway in the last month," said Adam Markham, executive director of Clean Air-Cool Planet and a charter signatory of the coalition. "Most of the candidates weren't mentioning global warming in their early stump speeches, but now they are putting a lot of emphasis on Kyoto, energy independence, and domestic carbon-reduction programs."

The "Live Free or Die" state is an appropriate setting for this sort of climate-change rabble-rousing. In 2001, New Hampshire became the first state in the nation to implement a mandatory cap on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants with its Clean Power Act. A year earlier, it implemented the nation's first greenhouse gas registry so companies and institutions could begin tracking their CO2 emissions, laying the groundwork for a cap-and-trade system. New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine also recently coordinated on a study predicting the environmental and economic problems that global warming could cause in their states; the study concluded that disruptions to their coveted fall foliage, ski resorts, and maple-tapping season were not only bound to happen, but already in the works.

"Ten years ago, we were predicting what might occur [as a result of global warming], and now we're just listing off what's already begun to happen -- impacts on the Northern Forest ecosystem, changes in the high alpine habitats of the White Mountains, changes in the maple-syrup industry because tapping season is happening earlier every year," said Markham. "There are also clear changes in ice and snow conditions that are no small concern for our skiing and snowboarding industry."

The Carbon Coalition has distributed thousands of posters around the state in preparation for the primaries, emblazoned with such slogans as "Save Our Syrup" and "Slush Sucks." The group is also working with the National Ski Areas Association to promote "Sustainable Slopes Day" and with NRDC on the ski campaign "Keep Winter Cool," which will be launched after the primary. Over the next week, a PBS documentary titled "Climate Change: In Our Backyard" will air in New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, chronicling the visible and predicted impacts of global warming in New England.

So far, Markham said, the candidate who has been most enthusiastic about addressing environmental and climate-change concerns is Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., victor in the Iowa caucuses. Kerry boasts a 96 percent lifetime voting record from the League of Conservation Voters, outscoring all of the other candidates. (Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman comes in second with 93 percent.) Kerry also has an aggressive energy plan, which proposes to get America's renewable-energy generation up to 20 percent of our total production portfolio by 2020. For the inside scoop on Kerry's environmental record, his plan for energy independence, and his beloved Harley Davidson Wide Glide, have a look at the Grist interview with Kerry. (Also take a gander at Grist's interviews with other candidates and determine who should, in the electoral sense, live free or die.)

Muck it up

Here at Muckraker, we always try to keep our eyes peeled and our ears to the ground (a real physiognomic challenge). The more sources we have, the better -- so if you are a fellow lantern-bearer in the dark caverns of the Bush administration's environmental policy, let us know. We welcome rumors, tips, whistleblowing, insider info, top-secret documents, or other useful tidbits on developments in environmental policy and the people behind them. Please send 'em along to muckraker@gristmagazine.com.

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