Earthjustice and Public Campaign recently released a joint report that links recent Bush rollbacks of environmental protections to industry campaign contributions.

Specifically:

• The administration revoked protections against hard rock mining -- allowing increased dumping in streams, rivers and wetlands -- as mining interests forked over a total of $3.1 million to the Bush-Cheney campaign and the Republican National Committee during the 2000-2002 election cycles;

• The administration moved to allow increased logging in national forests after the timber industry made $3.4 million in donations;

• The chemical industry and other manufacturers contributed $18.6 million as the administration asked taxpayers, not polluting industry, to pick up the burden for the cleanup of hazardous waste;

• The oil and gas industry contributed $17 million as the administration proposed to open sensitive areas in and near national monuments and parks to increased drilling; and

• Coal burning utilities donated $2 million as the administration moved to relax standards and enforcement efforts to clean up aging coal-fired power plants.

For more information on environmental rollbacks by the Bush administration, see the Natural Resources Defense Council’s report, "Rewriting the Rules: The Bush Administration’s Assault on the Environment."