The environment - worse, or better?

[ranxer]

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsst...6482/story.htm

In a 45-page report on the continent's electricity market, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a Montreal-based agency created under the North American Free Trade Agreement, said power companies cut expenditures on energy efficiency measures to $1.4 billion in 1999 from $2.4 billion in 1995.
That added to air pollution in the United States, Canada and Mexico, which hurts both the environment and human health, the agency said.

Power companies made the cuts largely because of the restructuring of the electricity industry, which includes the privatization of public utilities, the commission said.

"Much of the electricity demand growth during this period could have been significantly moderated by energy efficiency measures, thus avoiding the associated air pollution and other environmental impacts, had these programs not been left to languish under restructuring," the report said.

The study came just two days after the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush said it would relax costly air pollution rules when utilities are repaired or expanded. The move triggered a storm of protest from environmental groups, who warned that would increase air pollution and worsen respiratory ailments such as asthma.

the above is a little old but bush has a long record of easing pollution restrictions to solve short term budget problems.. just more examples that corporations have more rights than the people who suffer under thier practices.