lazy and barely willing to leave his ranch during most of his 2 terms, bush is now truly sprinting toward the finish of his legacy of global destruction.  before he leaves office, he seems bent on selling as much of the environment as possible to corporations.  among other things, he has been granting leases to mining companies along the shore of the colorado river, something that will affect the drinking water supply of 1 in 12 americans, and which will be impossible for obama to undue.  *if* obama even stands for the environment once he gets into office. which... i'll believe it when i see it.

on december 3, bush's interior department issued a "new rule"  to try and take away congress' power (granted in a 1976 law) to put an emergency stop to resource extraction. revoking the 1976 law will open up the door for ground-water polluting uranium mines and water-intensive oil shale mining industry in the colorado river watershed.  

apparently feeling free now to quench their thirst for environmental exploitation, last week the bush administration auctioned off 359,000 acres of federal land for natural gas projects on the banks of the colorado near moab, utah. 

359,000 acres. of federal land.

i sure hope that the obama's pick for the new secretary of the interior, ken salazar,  is not as conservative as he sounds.  at best, he sounds like he might be a good diplomat in the tricky web of conflicting interests that makes up environmental politics.  at worst, he's already in the pocket of mining and ranching companies.  lately, obama - with his rick warren debunkle - is disappointing me a little.  i know i shouldn't be surprised, but i guess i dared to hope because it was just so tempting.