Dick Cheney battles Laura Bush over protecting Pacific Ocean

With less than three months left in the Bush administration, the battle over protecting two vast areas of the Pacific Ocean from fishing and mineral exploitation is raging as if the president's legacy depended on it.

Which, actually, it does.

On one side is first lady Laura Bush, who according to the Washington Post has asked for two briefings on the issue from the White House staff, and has asked her aides to confer with scientists on how to preserve diverse ecosystems.

On the other side is Vice President Dick Cheney, who along with some officials in the Northern Mariana Islands argues that banning fishing and mineral exploration will hurt the region's economy.

"It's hard, but it should be," said James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. "These are big, consequential, national decisions that have international ramifications."

In August, President Bush told several federal agencies to begin working on a plan so that he could create two "marine conservation management areas" in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth between Japan and Guam. That move -- if it happens -- would greatly expand Bush's environmental legacy, adding vast territory to the 140,000 miles he designated for protection in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 2006.

It would also protect blue sharks like the one above from shark finning, the practice of removing the dorsal fin from sharks for such Asian delicacies as shark fin soup. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, hundreds of thousands of finned sharks are incidentally caught by fishermen chasing swordfish and tuna in the waters off Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: National Marine Fisheries Service / Associated Press

Comments

[guest]

So if Cheney is the Dark Lord, and Bush is Darth Vader, does that make Laura...Luke?

[John]

Cheney should be in jail.......better yet, a Turkish Prison.

[Michelle]

after all these years, laura bush finally gets involved. and with cheney no less...

im actually gonna have to agree with laura here. we all know cheney wants to look for oil there too, when we should be developing renewable energy sources. Leave the oceans alone dick!

[Gaias Child]

nobody loves Dick Cheney except maybe a few rich white people who invest in weapons systems and oil.

[jeff]

Dick, Dick, Dick your days are numbered and you always side with corporations that have ruined nations and the US reputation across the globe. Good bye and cya to the main man who got us in an illegal war. Now is the time for us in the US to be responsible citizens across the globe to clean up and reconcile the mess this man and his cronies have gotten us into.

[Miguel]

Not another Dick in the White House, ever!

[Failin' w/ Palin]

I think it's reprehensible that it took this long for someone w/ the intestinal fortitude in the White House to stand up to that weasel.

[Sharon]

George listenn to your wife.

[The final Bush!]

Where has she been all this time? In fact, where has she, and her daughters!!!, been all this time? Her husband, (or the daughters dad) will go down in history as the most reckless, clueless, unintelligent life form to ever have sat in the oval office. I'm very curious how the family is going to spin this to the grandchildren.

Now, we can only hope that our great nation of voters does not allow "ANY" propaganda to get in the way of progress over the next "EIGHT" years. (I’m just recalling the Carter days) No more republicans tied to oil or driven by nonsense science. (Early on in this election I was almost thinking McCain the Maverick was back - but he cinched the deal on who he really was when he selected Sarah Palin the Oil Madden as his running mate. She understands energy. Ya, my foot. All she understands is how to navigate environmental protection to give Big Oil what they need - in turn for a little reward that is - The Alaska Permanent Fund!)

Hey - that's all for now. I’m going to celebrate some more. Even my relatives in London are writing me telling how much fun the last 12 hours has been for them. Today is good for me, for you, for our kids, for every community in the US, for the US economic machine, and for the rest of the world. We are about to once again show the world what America is capable of - and were about to do it all without the need to destroy the planet in the process. Shortly America will be seen a very different light.

Bravo I say - Bravo!

[Byron]

This is just a cynical attempt by Bush to make his environmental legacy look not completely evil to history. What this article dowsn't say is that Bush JUST, in the last few days, changed or removed a lot of environmental regulations to be all favorable to Big Business. From clean water to clean air to the endangered species act he has wrecked environmental protections which were hard won over 30 - 40 years. And he did them now so as to make it very difficult for the Obama adminisration to be able to change them back when he gets into office.

The Bush administration has the most wretched, mean-spirited, anti-environmental legacy in United States history. That's what history will show.

Good riddance to these despots!

[Smithy]

this is very Nice

[The Previous Bush!]

In addition - let's not forget his dad. The nuts hardly fall far from the trees.

His dad did his fair share in gutting all of President Carter's work making way for the resurgence of the great American gas guzzlers (now know as the SUV market)

Hearing of Bush Sr's plan to put a wind mill on his Maine beach front property, after deliberately removing the the White House Solar collectors in the 80's, sends a clear indication that here is a man looking to do whatever it takes to get into heaven.

They should all be ashamed of themselves. From George Bush Sr to George Bush Jr, and from Laura Bush to Barabra Bush. I'll also toss in Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan - what in god's green earth were these people thinking?

And just to be complete: Bill Clinton and Al Gore are not totally clean on this issue because remember, although NAFTA was drafted by the Reagan/Bush team it was signed by the Clinton/Gore team - what a better time to change the world than to do it when America was the largest consumer and was opening up the doors to free trade.

[Mark Kawakami]

Well, it's a bit late, but this is great. Shark fishing is absolutely devastating shark populations, and protecting them is very much a topic of major ecological importance. I'm proud of Laura Bush for joining this fight, I just wish Dick Cheney wasn't acting like... well... like Dick Cheney.

[MarciaC]

Too bad Laura didn't go up against Dark Dick long ago.

But it's good that she's finally doing it! I hope she wins!