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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
May 17, 2001
"They are seeing that it is a hell of lot easier to go over to Russia and not have to deal with the Sierra Club." -Congressional source quoted in CongressDaily, referring to the oil industries' "retreat" from the Bush plan to drill in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge
CRITICS AGREE: Bush's Energy Plan Won't Work
President Bush stood in front of an innovative energy plant in St. Paul, Minn., Thursday morning to introduce his energy plan. He also used the word "environment" 14 times during his speech. But while his plan does include some good incentives for efficiency and renewables, it is tilted heavily in favor of fossil fuels and nuclear power.
Here's how Dan Becker, the Club's Global Warming Program Director, characterized the plan on NPR Thursday morning: "He's trying to pull a thin veil of energy efficiency over a cesspool of polluter giveaways, and we're going to call him on it."
Bush used an underground entrance to the St. Paul convention center, so he didn't see the hundreds of protestors downtown holding signs like "My, what big oil you have."
Club activists not only rallied in St. Paul, but also in Iowa, where Bush stopped later in the day, and Denver and other cities. The Club also ran newspaper and radio ads in several cities calling for a balanced approach that gives us "quicker, cleaner, cheaper and safer" solutions -- like energy-efficient technologies, renewable power like solar and wind, and responsible additions to supply.
To read more about the Club's response to the Bush plan -- and to see our ads and an animated cartoon that gets to the plan's essence, go to: https://www.sierraclub.org/energy/bush_plan/
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: Remember James Watt?
Bush may be promoting his energy plan as innovative and forward looking, but former Interior Secretary James Watt doesn't see it that way.
In an interview with The Denver Post, Watt said: "Everything Cheney's saying, everything the president's saying -- they're saying exactly what we were saying 20 years ago, precisely. Twenty years later, it sounds like they've just dusted off the old work."
To read the Denver Post story, go to: https://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%257E34413,00.html
Although Watt still liked the plan, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope didn't, nor the fact that Bush is dishonestly portraying it as a balanced plan for the environment. Here's what he told the San Jose Mercury News:
"There's a Texas saying that the president apparently is very fond of, which goes, 'You can put your boots in the oven, but it doesn't make them biscuits. When they start claiming this plan is about clean energy, about progressive technology, about energy efficiency, they're putting their boots in the oven. I'd rather bake biscuits."
For the full story, go to: https://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/front/docs/benergy17.htm
The Boston Globe criticized the plan as "shockingly impractical."
"The notion that it would be feasible politically or economically -- never mind environmentally -- to site 1,300 new power plants and 38,000 miles of new gas pipelines through the American landscape is wildly optimistic. It's the kind of thinking President Bush and Vice President Cheney deride as dreamy-eyed when it comes from environmentalists."
To see the full editorial, go to: https://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/137/editorials/Cheney_s_wishful_thinking+.shtml
POLL SHOWS PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR CONSERVATION: Only a Third Prefer More Drilling, Mining, Nukes
An Associated Press poll found that 56 percent of Americans said the best way for the federal government to handle the nation's energy needs was by encouraging greater conservation by industries, other businesses and individual Americans. Just 35 percent said it was preferable to encourage more oil and gas drilling, coal mining and construction of nuclear power plants.
"These guys in the Bush administration are doing this manly stuff, putting their horns on to make it sound like conservation is for sissies. But we know from experience that conservation equals generation. They are the same." - Bob Royer, a spokesman for the municipally run Seattle City Light utility
[1] TAKE ACTION: Share Your Opinion on Bush's Energy Plan
President Bush is officially unveiling his new energy policy this week while posing in front of environmentally friendly power and energy research plants that completely misrepresent his plan. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper pointing out that it's not where you pose but what you fund and prioritize that counts. President Bush is prioritizing an increase in the production of coal, oil, gas and nuclear power sources. His energy plan makes the wrong choices by focusing on unreliable, unsafe and expensive fossil fuels and nuclear energy with insufficient emphasis on efficiency. Instead, we need a balanced plan that provides quicker, cleaner, cheaper and safer energy solutions.
To see more information for your letter to the editor, go to: https://www.sierraclub.org/energy/editor.asp
For tips on how to write a letter to the editor, go to: https://whistler.sierraclub.org:8080/takeaction/toolkit/activist_tips.jsp
[2] BUSH'S APPROVAL: The Honeymoon is Over
Citing rising concerns about America's energy situation, President Bush is at his lowest approval rating yet. According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll only 53 percent of Americans approve of the job he is doing -- a significant drop from the 62 percent rating he received last month. The new poll also shows that Americans favor the use of wind and solar power (91%) over building new power plants (83%), new electrical lines (69%) and new gas lines (64%).
To read the entire poll, go to: https://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/05/10/cnn.poll/index.html
[3] WILDERNESS IN PERIL: Chainsaws Ready To Go in Idaho
On Friday, an Idaho Federal Judge blocked the wildly popular wild forest protection plan, saying that the plan would cause economic harm to local communities. An appeal is expected, but this decision gives a green light to timber, mining and other extractive industries to develop our untouched national forests while the courts review the plan. The wild forest policy was developed after three years of public debate and included the largest public input process ever with 600 public hearings around the nation. More than one million people sent in comments supporting the plan.
To read more about the decision in Idaho, go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/11/politics/11FORE.html?searchpv=site03
To read Sierra Club press releases, go to: https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A2=ind0105&L=ce-scnews-releases&D=1&T=0&H=1&O=D&P=1119
[4] HOW TO: Save Energy the Dick Cheney Way
With America going through an energy shortage, everyone is searching for information on how to conserve and keep the lights on. Freelance writer Tom McNichol shares some tongue-in-cheek conservation insights from our vice-president, Dick Cheney. These tips include:
Tip No. 9: Take control of your power needs. America needs to build 1,300 new power plants over the next 20 years, or one additional plant every week. But don't expect the politicians in Washington to get off their keisters and make it happen. Instead, consider drilling for oil or gas in your own backyard. Many oil companies (including my old shop, Halliburton Co.) offer a Home Drilling Starter Kit, which provides everything you'll need to explore for energy right in your own backyard. Don't let the scaremongers convince you that a natural gas well in your yard is unsafe for children -- statistically, it's far less dangerous than a swing set or a jungle gym.
To read the entire Top 10, go to: https://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/05/10/tips/index.html
[5] FIELD NOTES: Tour de Sprawl a Hit Again
The potential environmental devastation by the expansion on Highway 164 in Milwaukee was highlighted during a recent Tour de Sprawl. The tour showed reporters and activists how the proposed expansion would result in sprawl development, loss of wetlands, farmlands and other wildlife habitat. The coalition of environmental groups and property owners pointed out that the money used for highway expansion could be spent on other transportation options such as trains and buses that would help eliminate the effects of sprawl.
To read more about the Milwaukee Tour de Sprawl, go to: https://www.jsonline.com/news/wauk/may01/hiway08050701a.asp
"...It is ludicrous to suggest that our current energy woes are the result of too much emphasis on conservation. It would be closer to the truth to say that we are in trouble now because our politicians haven't dared even use the word." -- Paul Krugman, Princeton University economist and former MIT professor, from his editorial in the New York Times
[1] CONSERVATION: It Really Works
According to Forbes.com, a conservative financial publication, "There is no energy crisis and there is little reason to expect there will be. Conservation is a big part of the reason why." Despite what the Bush Administration wants us to think, energy conservation is working. More efficient refrigerators, lightbulbs, buildings and even factories are doing their share. The only industry that really is lagging behind is transportation. Average fuel efficiency has actually declined since the '70s, because so many people are buying gas-guzzling SUVs.
To find out more, go to https://www.forbes.com/2001/05/02/0502nocrisis.html To check out our energy site, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/energy/
[2] TAKE ACTION: Keep the Endangered Species Act Strong!
The Bush Administration budget includes an anti-environmental rider that would give Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton sole discretion in protecting imperiled species and their habitat under the Endangered Species Act. This would effectively take citizen action out of the process.
Urge your representative to vote against this rider! To send a fax, go to https://whistler.sierraclub.org:8080/takeaction/endangeredspecies/index.jsp
[3] PG&E PULLS THE PLUG: And Sierra Club Makes Up the Difference
The Sierra Club's Youth in Wilderness program announced it will grant $25,000 to the San Francisco Conservation Corps (SFCC) to make up for funds suspended by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), one of California's bankrupt utility companies. The Sierra Club's Youth In Wilderness program provides opportunities for disadvantaged youth to experience the wilderness and nature first-hand and wanted to support SFCC's programs that employ youth for environmental programs and provide job training. See our press release at https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A2=ind0105&L=ce-scnews-releases&D=1&T=0&H=1&O=D&P=796
Learn more about our Youth in Wilderness program at https://www.sierraclub.org/youthinwilderness/ ------
[4] EXTRA, EXTRA: Sierra Club in the News
*The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Allen Mattison, national spokesman for the Sierra Club, agreed... "That oil companies are holding down supplies and keeping prices high to boost profits." [April 28,2001]
*The Las Vegas Sun quoted Jessica Hodge, Southern Nevada organizer for the Sierra Club, with regard to traffic. "It points to the fact that if we want to relieve our congestion and make transportation in Las Vegas better, we're going to have to look beyond road building...The old road-building mentality isn't working." [May 7, 2001]
*Sierra Club's Jack Darin is quoted in the Chicago Tribune about the Fox River sewage treatment plant: "To keep the river as a source of drinking water and as a recreational resource, we have to do more to take pollution out of wastewater before we dump it in [the river]." [May 4, 2001]
[5] DO IT FOR MOM! Support Family Planning Around the World for Mother's Day!
With Mother's Day this Sunday, help honor mothers around the world by supporting family planning and reproductive health for all women. Thankfully, mothers in America have access to prenatal care, birthing facilities in hospitals, pediatricians for their children and a broad range of reproductive health services. Women in many other parts of the world however, have very restricted access to reproductive health services which means that becoming a mother may well be a life-threatening event.
Find out about our Global Population and the Environment Program at https://www.sierraclub.org/population/ Do something about it at https://whistler.sierraclub.org:8080/takeaction/population/index.jsp
"Local control is a Bush administration code word for handing America's last pristine areas over to industry." -- Wayne Hoskisson, Sierra Club Utah Chapter public lands chair, on giving more control to states on protecting roadless areas. Reported in the Salt Lake Tribune, May 5, 2001.
[1] ROADLESS REPORT: Your Letters At Work!
Because of letters pouring in from supporters of the wild forest roadless policy, the Bush Administration couldn't scrap the plan completely. Friday, Bush announced that protections for 58.5 million acres of roadless forests would not be repealed, but that he would like to put more local control into the process. READ: they're not going to mount a big defense against clear-cuts, strip-mining or drilling for oil.
See our press release at https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A2=ind0105&L=ce-scnews-releases&D=1&T=0&H=1&O=D&P=513
Check out what else Bush has been up to at https://www.sierraclub.org/politics/bush/w_watch.asp
[2] DOLLARS AND SENSE: What Cheney Doesn't Want You To Know
Five federally-funded national laboratories said in a detailed report that a government-led efficiency program emphasizing research and incentives to adopt new technologies could reduce growth in electricity demand by 20 to 47 percent. That means that if the government funded efficiency, instead of oil and gas drilling, we wouldn't even need to build up to half of the 1300 new power plants Vice President Cheney says are necessary. And we wouldn't be spewing more pollution into the air. A no-brainer, right? Unless you made $36 million last year in the fossil-fuel business, as Cheney did as chairman of Halliburton, an oil and gas production company.
Get the whole scoop at https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/06/national/06CONS.html
[3] ACT NOW: Help Get Polluters' Money Out of Politics
In April, the Senate passed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill -- the first step toward cleaner elections and a cleaner environment -- by reducing the amount of polluters' money in politics. The Shays-Meehan bill, the House version of campaign finance reform, is awaiting consideration, but some powerful representatives have threatened to stall and defeat the bill. Please help! Urge your representative to stop the piles of polluters' cash from flowing into campaign coffers by bringing the Shays-Meehan bill before the full House of Representatives for debate and a vote. Elected officials need to answer to the American people, not industry!
Please call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to speak to your representative!
For more on campaign finance reform, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/politics/clean_elections/
[4] STUCK: Traffic Only Getting Worse
A nationwide study released by the Texas Transportation Institute reveals that the average American is spending 36 hours per year stuck in traffic, and that more roads are not the solution. A better approach includes pedestrian and bicycle options, light rail, public transit, and impact studies before new suburban developments are approved. A related report by the Surface Transportation Policy Project created a "Congestion Burden Index" based on traffic levels and alternative transportation options in 68 urban areas.
Find out how 68 urban areas ranked at https://www.transact.org/Reports/tti2001/default.htm#1 Go to TTI's report at https://mobility.tamu.edu/
[5] VICTORIES ABOUND: Sierra Club At Work
* The Sierra Club legal team is challenging giant dairy factories in California's San Joaquin Valley and recently won a victory over Borba Farms. The company had proposed building a factory for 27,000 cows, but the CA trial judge on the case ruled that Borba Farms did not properly evaluate the environmental impact the factory farm would cause.
* Volunteers in Orange County, CA are also at work, mobilizing opposition to a toll-way that would ruin crucial green space.
* From the banks of the Columbia River, to espresso carts in Seattle, Washington state Sierra Club volunteers are spreading the word about protecting our environment, and collected over 10,000 postcards in just five days!
* Sierra Club's Louie Miller debated the Mississippi Director of Department of Environmental Quality on a live Mississippi television show, "Statewide Live."
To find out what's happening in your community, go to "My Backyard" on the Sierra Club web site at https://www.sierraclub.org/
[6] Correction to 5/3/01: Ford's second corporate citizenship report recognized the seriousness of global warming and only restated their commitment to reducing carbon emissions from their SUVs. Last July, Ford pledged to cut the global warming pollution from its SUVs by 25 percent by 2005. They have not made any commitments to reduce pollution from their passenger cars.
"The environmental implications of Bush's defense plan are clear if we start to envision the increased production of uranium, plutonium and other environmentally hazardous materials." - Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, (D-Ohio) on the Bush Administration's defense plan.
[1] REDROCK RELIEF? New Bill to Designate Utah Wilderness
Many thanks to Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), who reintroduced America's Redrock Wilderness Act. The legislation would designate over nine million acres of stunning wildlands in Utah as official wilderness, forever protecting them from off-road vehicle (ORV) use and energy and mineral development. Urge your senators and representative to support this legislation!
For more on America's Redrock Wilderness Act and to contact your representative and senators, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/utah/ and https://www.sierraclub.org/utah/wildheart.asp
[2] CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION: 100 Years of Sierra Club Outings!
John Muir, the Sierra Club's founder, started Sierra Club Outings in 1901. He was convinced that the best way to persuade people to fight to save valuable wild areas was to let them experience for themselves the beauty that needs defending. Now, Sierra Club Outings has trips all over the world, as well as in your community.
Check out Sierra Club Outings at https://www.sierraclub.org/outings/
[3] ALL ABOARD! Ford Jumps on a "Cleaner" Bandwagon
In the second Corporate Citizenship Report to its shareholders, Ford Motor Company recognized the seriousness of global warming and the company's contribution to global warming gas emissions. Ford announced today that they will decrease pollution from their SUVs by 25 percent by 2005, stepping up its pledge of last July to make its automobiles 25 percent more efficient. This is great news, because if Ford were a country, it would be the tenth-largest global warming polluter in the world.
See our press release at https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A2=ind0105&L=ce-scnews-releases&D=1&T=0&H=1&O=D&P=378
Read about Bill Ford's new take on mobility in the Utne Reader at https://www.utne.com/bTechnology.tmpl?command=search&db=dArticle.db&eqheadlinedata=Bill%20Ford%20Has%20a%20Better%20Idea
[4] LIFE LINE: Support Human Rights of Environmental Activists!
With the help of activists around the world, Russian environmentalist Alexander Nikitin was finally acquitted last September of charges of high treason for blowing the whistle on Russia's dumping of nuclear waste in the Bering Sea. Now the Sierra Club's International Human Rights Program, which seeks to insure respect for individuals' right to speak out for the environment, needs your help. Two environmentalists, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, whose efforts to stop old-growth logging in Mexico put them in jail, now have a chance for release -- but we need you!
Please help by going to https://whistler.sierraclub.org:8080/takeaction/humanrights/index.jsp
[5] FIELD NOTES: Moving and Shaking in Georgia
Former Soviet nuclear submarine engineer and 1997 Goldman Environmental Prize-winner, Alexander Nikitin (see #4!), and six other Russian environmental activists are visiting the U.S. on behalf of the Movement for Nuclear Safety Network. The group will travel to Augusta, GA where the Sierra Club's Savannah River Group will host them on a trip to the Savannah River Site (SRS) nuclear complex. The nuclear clean-up budget for SRS was recently slashed and diverted to plutonium production instead. The Sierra Club is opposed to this project and supports the clean-up.
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