The Republican Party isn’t exactly known for its environmental
activism. Reagan refused to take action on one of the biggest
environmental issues of his era-acid rain-and systematically
weakened the clout of the EPA. George H.W. Bush ended his term
with a freeze on environmental regulations, and his son refused
US support for the Kyoto Protocol. Yet rarely have Republicans
been so overtly hostile to existing environmental protections as
the current legislators in the 112th Congress. Since the most
recent election, Republicans in the House of Representatives
have led a series of unprovoked assaults on the EPA. The attack
has been two-pronged, with one focus on the EPA’s budget and the
other on its powers of regulation. The Republican’s budget
proposal would slash the EPA’s budget by an unprecedented $30
billion—one third of the EPA’s budget, and the biggest cut to
any other federal agency. It would also do away with the
critical posts of the energy and climate advisor to the
President and the State Department