"Why New Orleans is in Deep Water" by Molly Ivins
Published on Thursday, September 1, 2005 by the Chicago Tribune

Excerpts:

[
It is a fact that the Clinton administration set some tough policies
on wetlands, and it is a fact that the Bush administration repealed
those policies--ordering federal agencies to stop protecting as many
as 20 million acres of wetlands.

Last year, four environmental groups cooperated on a joint report
showing the Bush administration's policies had allowed developers to
drain thousands of acres of wetlands.

Does this mean we should blame President Bush for the fact that New
Orleans is underwater? No, but it means we can blame Bush when a
Category 3 or Category 2 hurricane puts New Orleans under. At this
point, it is a matter of making a bad situation worse, of failing to
observe the First Rule of Holes (when you're in one, stop digging).

Had a storm the size of Katrina just had the grace to hold off for a
while, it's quite likely no one would even remember what the Bush
administration did two months ago. The national press corps has the
attention span of a gnat, and trying to get anyone in Washington to
remember longer than a year ago is like asking them what happened in
Iznik, Turkey, in A.D. 325.

Just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax
and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of
Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans
CityBusiness at the time, that meant "major hurricane and flood
projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study
to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane
has been shelved for now."
]
[
Our friends at the Center for American Progress note the Office of
Technology Assessment used to produce forward-thinking plans such as
"Floods: A National Policy Concern" and "A Framework for Flood Hazards
Management." Unfortunately, the office was targeted by Newt Gingrich
and the Republican right, and gutted years ago.

In fact, there is now a governmentwide movement away from basing
policy on science, expertise and professionalism, and in favor of
choices based on ideology. If you're wondering what the ideological
position on flood management might be, look at the pictures of New
Orleans--it seems to consist of gutting the programs that do anything.
]

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0901-26.htm

[
Molly Ivins is a syndicated columnist based in Washington.

© 2005 Chicago Tribune
]

HTH
--
Cliff