More boldness needed.(Science And Environment)

Bruce Yandle and lane Shaw, eds., Report Card 2004: Bush Administration's Environmental Policy, Property and Environment Research Center, October 21, 2004 (perc.org)

At the midpoint and end of every four-year Presidential term, the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Montana judges how well an administration has lived up to the principles of free-market environmentalism, which recognizes "the role of private property rights in encouraging environmental stewardship, and the cooperation that markets engender in promoting environmental quality."

This year, PERC gave the President a C+. The administration's grade for the full four years, editor Bruce Yandle noted, is better than the C--the administration received at mid-term, "but not the kind of grade that deserves a certificate from the dean."

Fifteen individual grades were awarded, ranging from an F on air quality regulation to a B+ on chemical plant security. Paradoxically, that best grade emerged because the administration allowed priorities to be set by homeland security experts rather ...