Grand Canyon of Duplicity

How would you like to be a career civil servant in the Bush Administration? You've got to feel for those people. This week, Dirk Kempthorne, our Interior Secretary, announced plans to unleash millions of cubic feet of water behind the Glen Canyon Dam and to flush the Grand Canyon this September. Unfortunately, National Park officials said that their $80 million dollar 10 year study shows that this will cause grievious harm to the park and its resources. The Superintendent of the park, Steve Martin, was given one day to formulate comments on the request. He said that the science behind the release was unsubstantiated and would likely cause major loss to habitat almost to the point of no return.

The real story about the planned release appears to be to serve hydroelectric power producers who could use a little juice during the peak summer months. The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility condemned the flush and said that it would magnify the benefits of power production at the expense of environmental benefits. Oh horrors, not from this administration.

This whole tussle comes on the heels of the EPA career employees uniting in opposition to the Director Steven Johnson's refusal to allow California to set its own pollution standards. God forbid that people take responsibility for their own pollution in a global quagmire. We need lots of states to take similar steps if we ever want to do something constructive.

This administration is an environmental nightmare. If it's not snowmobiling in yellowstone, or being the lone holdout in Kyoto, its bringing guns into national parks. Lord help us.