Bush’s Energy Policy Scrutinized at Teach-In
BY ALEX PARKER

Although Greenpeace activist Harvey Wasserman was not present at the Ohio Public Interest Research Group’s teach-in on Saturday, that didn’t stop him from contributing heavily to the discussion, often dominating the Hallock Auditorium in the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies.
The panel, “Energy and the Environment,” discussed George W. Bush’s administration’s energy policy, and how many feel its reliance upon non-renewable resources and nuclear power spells disaster for the environment. “If you don’t have stock in an oil, coal or nuclear company, the energy policy makes no sense,” Wasserman said. “[It] makes no sense economically, or ecologically.”
Rounding out the panel were Professor David Orr, visiting Professor Devra Davis, Christine Patronik Holder, a media consultant for the Safe Energy Communications Council, and Amy Simpson, Director of the Ohio Public Interest Research Group.

The discussion ranged in topics from the current power shortage in California to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill currently in Congress. The focus of the forum, however, was how the current use of coal and oil will damage the earth’s climate in the future.
“This is a plausible description of hell,” Orr said, while gesturing to a slide of the projections of the earth’s climate if current levels of pollution continue. Orr directed criticism directly at the Bush administration.
“This is an outrageous time. We have outrageous policies because we have outrageous politics,” he said, noting that several of the members of the Bush advisory board on energy come from power companies which donated heavily to the Bush’s presidential campaign, or to the Republican National Committee.

Also discussed was the current trend toward nuclear power, which has become a major element of the Bush energy policy. “Nuclear power was the most costly fiasco in human history,” Wasserman said. He also noted that wind power would be an economically effective alternative. “Between the Mississippi and the Rockies constitutes the Saudi Arabia of wind,” he said. 
Davis supplied a poignant human story to the statistics, recalling growing up in Donora, Pa., site of the worst pollution crisis in U.S. history. In 1948 17 people died in 12 hours due to “The Donora Death Fog,” which was created by emissions from local steel plants. Davis mentioned a plaque erected to commemorate those who died.
“My grandmother is not on that plaque,” she said. “She didn’t die on that day. She died seven years later, after 25 heart attacks.” Davis also noted several other relatives who had health problems, most likely due to the incident. “We have the information,” Davis said. “We just don’t have the moral will to take that information into public policy.”
In her speech, Simpson centered on Ohio pollution, noting that Ohio is often considered to be one of the most polluted states in the country. 
“If there is an article about pollution, I guarantee Ohio will be mentioned,” she said. She also talked about a “lethal loophole” in laws which allows industries to bypass environmental regulations in aging plants. 
Speaking last, Holder provided a change of pace by concentrating on how the environmental movement could attempt to change public opinion, emphasizing writing letters to newspapers and taking an active role in arguments with the power companies.
“An unrebuked press release is like aged cheese; after a while somebody will decide it’s good,” she said. “If we let them sit there and don’t respond, then we are as much a part of the problem as they are.”