Despite the great majority of Americans who call themselves environmentalists, the exploitation and rape of our public lands and the pollution of our waterways and air still continue under an industry-backed administration.

In concert with allies in the timber, oil, mining, and development industries, President Bush is in the process of removing, or has already weakened, several vital laws that have safeguarded public health and the environment for three decades.

He is allowing timber companies to untenably log millions of acres of pristine forest land, oil companies to drill in wilderness areas, smog-producing companies to emit harmful pollutants, and big chemical and mining corporations irresponsibility for the pollution problems that they create. America's clean air, waterways, forests, and wilderness areas are all under attack by the current administration.

Under his "Clear Skies Initiative," President Bush cuts back only marginally on minor pollutants, while at the same time allowing polluting factories, including 19,000 of the nation's oldest and dirtiest. These factories emit harmful gases, such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide--key ingredients in the problems of acid rain and global warming.

The administration continues to pay lip service to the increasingly devastating problem of deforestation of millions of acres of wild forest land in the Pacific Northwest and Western United States, land that supports hundreds of species of wildlife and plants.

Under the Healthy Forests Initiative, proposed by Bush after last year's devastating fire season, "thinning" of forest brush would occur in areas several hundred miles away from human habitation, not reducing the risk of forest fire.

Bush, along with his Republican allies, are still pushing to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, even after the measure to drill was beaten twice by a bipartisan Senate, once last year in the energy bill and this year in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill.

Millions of Americans have signed petitions and sent letters to President Bush and Congress asking to not drill, yet they continue to push the issue.

The president does not listen to the American people, and caters only to the interests of his corporate friends.

Jeff Phillips

Spotsylvania