Bush Hands Safety Regulation Over To Industries

by Molly Ivins

Those of you who know how government works are fully aware of the difference agency heads and other top officials can make in the workings of a bureaucracy. With a president who is notoriously uninterested in details, those in charge of the details often actually set the policy. As we have seen in Texas, even when George W. has what might be a good idea, like charter schools, sloppy execution can result in disaster.

"Captive agencies" are a constant problem in government. They are agencies supposedly in charge of regulating an industry or group, which then acquires undue influence over or even control of the agency. In Texas, the most spectacular example is the state's equivalent of an environmental protection agency, to which then-Gov. Bush appointed three commissioners who literally represent major groups of polluters. Texas is, of course, Number One in toxic pollution. The pattern continues in Washington.

• Bush has nominated B. John Williams, a corporate tax attorney, as chief counsel to the Internal Revenue Service. According to The Wall Street Journal, Williams won a case that could jeopardize the government's attempts to crack down on corporate tax havens. The decision allows two companies to post the same loss when one sells a money-losing unit to the other. Sure, that's fair, just the way you get to double your deductions, right? If the decision stands, it is expected to cost the IRS $10 billion in annual revenue.

  In another case, also reported in the Journal, B. John Williams (beware the man who parts his initials on the wrong side) tried to justify disputed tax credits taken by his client, Shell Oil Co. He did so by hiring a private investigator, who provided false information to destroy the credibility of the government's expert witnesses. One witness later sued for defamation, a case that was settled out of court, the settlement paid for by Shell.

• The curious case of John Graham, the "regulatory czar," who can block any new regulation from his position inside the Office of Management and Budget, has attracted some attention because of Graham's unusual public record. While serving on an EPA subcommittee on dioxin, Graham said reducing dioxin levels too far might "do more harm than good." He argued that dioxin might prevent cancer in some cases, an argument so outlandish it produced more amusement than outrage. He also claims the problem of pesticides on foods is "trivial," that the public has "paranoia" about toxic chemicals (it is to be hoped), that safe housing codes kill people and all manner of other dandy theories.

  Graham was director of the Center for Risk Analysis at Harvard, which tries to apply cost-benefit exams to health, safety and environmental protection. This curious idea, of assigning a dollar value to human life, illness and harm to eco-systems and then seeing if that outweighs the cost of regulation, is like some chilling mad-scientist fantasy. You say it will only cost three lives per million dollars spent and so it's not worth it? Fine, then let one of them be your wife and the others your son and daughter.

• J. Steven Griles, new deputy secretary at the Interior Department, was a top lobbyist for the oil, gas and coal industries. The new solicitor, William Myers III, was top guy at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and represented the grazing interests in lawsuits against the policies he will now be enforcing. The new Number Two at the EPA was a lobbyist for Monsanto. And as the new chairman of the Council on Environmental Equality, Bush wants the lawyer who represented General Electric in its fight with the EPA over toxic waste sites.

• A sentimental favorite of mine is Jon Huntsman Jr., the new deputy trade representative, who is hot to trot on a new round of trade liberalization under the World Trade Organization. Huntsman resigned from the privately owned Huntsman Corporation, a familiar name in Bush's hometown. Huntsman is famous in Midland-Odessa for its "upsets," burn-offs of benzene, butadiene and other carcinogens. Huntsman gets fines even under Texas' toothless standards, and has already paid millions to the plant's neighbors over "upsets." A Huntsman spokesman was memorably quoted in Vanity Fair magazine: "We fear that Huntsman is being held up as the poster child for Bush's shitty environmental record here in Texas." Junior was a Commerce Department official under Bush the Elder.

Note: In her column " Bush Hires One Of Dad's Worst Scoundrels," Molly Ivins wrote that Elliott Abrams was convicted of lying to Congress. He, in fact, pled guilty of the lesser charge of withholding information from Congress. She apologizes for the error.