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Protecting Our Nation's Environment

Protecting Our Nation's Environment

Key Bush Environmental Accomplishments

The Bush Administration's Environmental Philosophy

  • The focus is on results - making our air, water, and land cleaner.We need to employ the best science and data to inform our decision-making. Our policies should encourage innovation and the development of new, cleaner technologies. We should continue to build on America's ethic of stewardship and personal responsibility through education and volunteer opportunities, and in our daily lives.
  • Opportunities for environmental improvements are not limited to Federal Government actions - States, tribes, local communities, and individuals must be included.

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument

  • On June 15, 2006, President Bush signed a proclamation that will create the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument. This national monument will enable nearly 140,000 square miles of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to receive our Nation's highest form of marine environmental protection. It honors our commitment to be good stewards of America's natural resources, shows what cooperative conservation can accomplish, and creates a new opportunity for ocean education and research for decades to come. The national monument will:
    • Preserve access for Native Hawaiian cultural activities;
      Provide for carefully regulated educational and scientific activities;
      Enhance visitation in a special area around Midway Island;
      Prohibit unauthorized access to the monument;
      Phase out commercial fishing over a five-year period; and
    • Ban other types of resource extraction and dumping of waste.

    This Marine National Monument is the largest single area dedicated to conservation in the history of our country and the largest protected Marine area in the world. It is more than 100 times larger than Yosemite National Park, larger than 46 of our 50 states, and more than seven times larger than all our National Marine Sanctuaries combined.

  • The new monument fulfills a legacy of conservation first begun by President Theodore Roosevelt. In 2004, the Administration released an Ocean Action Plan to promote an ethic of responsible use and stewardship of our oceans and coastal resources. By establishing this new national monument, we are implementing an important part of our plan.

Building on Our Great Environmental Progress

  • Over the last 30 years, our Nation has made great progress in providing for a better environment and improving public health. In that time, our economy grew 164 percent, population grew 39 percent, and our energy consumption increased 42 percent, yet air pollution from the six major pollutants decreased by 48 percent. In 2002, state data reported to EPA showed that approximately 251 million people (or 94 percent of the total population) were served by community water systems that met all health-based standards. This number is up from 79 percent in 1993.The President is committed to delivering even greater progress.

Cleaning and Redeveloping Hazardous Waste Sites

  • Brownfields Program
    Fulfilling a commitment he made when he ran for President, President Bush signed historic bipartisan brownfields legislation in 2002, accelerating the cleanup of brownfields to better protect public health, create jobs, and revitalize communities.

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