GREENS AND THE REST OF THE STORY

In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, one of the charges leveled at the Bush administration is that it under funded the rebuilding of the levee system around the New Orleans area. Upon closer look one finds that this charge is not accurate. It was reported in the Washington Post by Michael Grunwald that "over the five years of President Bush's administration, Louisiana has received far more money for corps civil works projects than any other state, about $1.9 billion. According to Michael Barone in US News and World Report not all money was spent to keep New Orleans dry and some of the money was direct to other projects by the Louisiana congressional delegation. The problem with rebuilding leeves was not just a money issue alone. As usual guardians of the enviroment weighed in.

It was reported by John Berlau in the National Review (September 8 , 2005) that the Sierra Club along with other enviromental groups sued Army Corp of Engineers to stop a 1996 plan to fortify and rebuild Mississippi River leeves.

The Corp was planning to upgrade about 300 miles of leeve sytem in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. In an interview with the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate a Corp spokesman said that the project was needed to avoid an "failure that could have catastrophic consequences on Louisiana and Mississippi which the states would be decades overcoming, if they overcame them at all".

The enviromental groups stated in their lawsuit filed in US District Court in New Orleans that the Corp had not looked at the impact the project would have on the wetlands (politically correct word for "swamp") and the indigenous animals species. The Court ordered the Corp to delay the project.

While a direct relationship between the enviromental groups efforts to thwart Corp projects along the Mississippi and the flooding of New Orleans after Katrina are not directly known, it is not fair for liberals and their friends in the enviromental movement to blame the Bush adminstration for the leeve breech. National Review Story