NEXT PAGE -->
|
Updated Daily!
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|
DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
May 2
"We haven't seen this many caves across the board since they canceled 'The Flintstones'," - Ken Cook, of Environmental Working Group, on the Farm Bill
(1)AGRICULTURE: Farm Bill Aids Polluters, Punishes Family Farmers and the Environment
(2)SMART GROWTH: Wider Roads Are a Wide Load for Wisconsin Taxpayers
(3)RECYCLING: Aloha Clean Environment - Hawaii Passes Bottle Bill
(4)TAKE ACTION: Protect Millions of Americans from Nuclear Waste
1. Farm Bill Aids Polluters, Punishes Family Farmers and the Environment
The gap between large agribusinesses and small family farms is already wide enough. Now the House is close to making it even wider, by approving a farm bill that hands out $73.5 billion in federal subsidies, much of it to massive agribusinesses with shameful environmental records.
The bill does little to help farmers safeguard wetlands, protect clean water, and set aside areas for wildlife habitat. It gives billions of taxpayer dollars to industrial livestock operations to deal with their animal manure. For hog factories, that means dumping liquefied manure into a hole in the ground, causing water pollution, killing fish, and contaminating drinking water. "Industrial livestock production is an environmental disaster," said Sierra Club's Ed Hopkins, "and the federal government shouldn't be funding it."
To see the Sierra Club's response to the Farm Bill, go to https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A2=ind0204&L=ce-scnews-releases&D=1&T=0&H=1&O=D&F &S=&P=3112
If this link does not work for you, click on the link for "Sierra Club Calls on Congress to Reject Farm Bill Conference Report" at: https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A1=ind0204&L=ce-scnews-releases
2. Wider Roads Are a Wide Load for Wisconsin Taxpayers
The Wisconsin Sierra Club is saying no way to expensive state highway projects. The seven projects, including widening and reconstruction, would pave the way for expanded sprawl and cost taxpayers $1 billion more than necessary to improve safety. Small farmers and local residents fear the expanded roads would encroach upon their land, leaving some major skid marks on their lawns.
The Sierra Club plans to drive home the message that sprawl is not the answer with a television ad campaign starting this week. The commercials will urge Gov. Scott McCallum to cut costs by curbing highway expansion. The Club is also suggesting cheaper and more environmentally friendly safety modifications for the projects. Now that's an alternative to get your engine running!
For more information on the fight for alternatives to sprawl in Wisconsin, go to https://www.jsonline.com/traffic/news/apr02/39663.asp
3. Aloha Clean Environment: Hawaii Passes Bottle Bill
Join the club! Hawaii eased its landfill crisis, created jobs in the recycling industry, and vastly reduced bottle and can litter in one fell swoop this week. It became the 11th state to pass a bottle bill, placing a nickel deposit on all glass, plastic, and aluminum beverage containers.
Bottle bills have virtually eliminated bottle and can litter wherever they've been tried. It's an especially smart move in Hawaii, where the economy depends on tourism, and therefore a clean environment. The bill, which was passed despite intense lobbying from the beverage industry, will also help protect the safety of the state's beaches, and its unique ocean ecosystem. "Hawaii is paradise," said Sierra Club's Jeff Mikulina. "We want to keep it that way."
To see the Sierra Club's response to this great news from Hawaii, go to https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A2=ind0205&L=ce-scnews-releases&D=1&T=0&H=1&O=D&F &S=&P=196
If this link does not work for you, click on the link for "Sierra Club Congratulates Hawaii Legislature For Passing Bottle Bill" at: https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A1=ind0205&L=ce-scnews-releases
4. Take Action to Protect Millions of Americans from Nuclear Waste
The Department of Energy wants to transport thousands of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste across the country, and dump it at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The shipments would pass through 44 states, exposing millions of Americans to the risk of a horrific nuclear disaster in the event of an accident or a terrorist attack. Act now to help stop this risky scheme.
Congress could vote on this plan as early as next week. Contact your representative and urge him or her to oppose the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump plan. Instead, he or she should support and co-sponsor Rep. Dennis Kucinich's Nuclear Waste Transportation Amendments Act.
Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202 224 3121. Ask for your representative. Deliver the message above. Then click below to send an email directly to your representative. https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=122&st=curr
"Whether it's a matter of intention or effect, this is a huge gift to the electricity generating industry." Bradley Campbell, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, on the Bush administration's Clear Skies initiative
(1)CLEAN AIR: Bush Administration Rejected EPA Plan
(2)TRADE AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A Neighborhood Fight With International Implications
(3)WILD FORESTS: Environmentalists Put a Stop to Cyber-Auction
(4)TAKE ACTION: Protect our Wild Forests
1. Bush Administration Rejected EPA Clean Air Plan
The EPA is getting no love from the White House these days! We already knew that the agency had serious concerns about the Bush administration's dirty, dangerous energy plan released last year. Now we find out that EPA offered a stronger alternative to the Clear Skies initiative announced recently by President Bush - and lost out again.
Clear Skies is the administration's grudging attempt to deal with pollution from dirty power plants, which costs thousands of lives each year. Drawn up with the help of corporate polluters who contributed to the Bush campaign, it would weaken the Clean Air Act, and relies on an "emissions trading" scheme that would allow more pollution than the current law. The only thing that's "clear" about Clear Skies is how little it would do to reduce deadly pollution.
For more information on how the Bush administration ignored its own EPA, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/28/politics/28POLL.html?todaysheadlines
2. A Neighborhood Fight With International Implications
A local struggle over wastewater dumping could end up setting a major precedent for international trade law. How? The city of Detroit, pressured by neighborhood activists, acted to stop a Canadian company from dumping thousands of gallons of dirty wastewater into Detroit's sewer system. The waste had been causing headaches, nausea, and breathing trouble for residents of the city's low-income North Side. End of story, right?
Not quite: now the company is threatening to use an obscure NAFTA provision to sue the city. NAFTA's "Chapter 11" allows corporations to sue foreign governments any time the corporation's profits are jeopardized by government actions. Whatever the outcome in Detroit, the threat of a massive lawsuit under NAFTA could easily make other governments think twice before enacting vital environmental and public health safeguards. That's a local issue we should all care about.
For more information on NAFTA's threat to the environment, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/trade
3. Environmentalists Put a Stop to Wild Forest Cyber-Auction
Not so fast. Pennsylvania had planned to auction off natural gas rights for a vast swath of state forest and parkland over the internet. But it put its plans on hold last week, after environmentalists, legislators, and others condemned the state for trying to conduct the sale in secret. The delay will allow time for further review and public input, and should give forest advocates a chance to make their case.
The sale would have opened up one of the last remaining true wilderness areas in the east to destructive drilling. It contains the Pine Creek Gorge, also known as "Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon," and the vast Susquehanna River watershed. "These are public lands," said Sierra Club's Jeff Schmidt. "A public agency should...provide all relevant information and then listen to the public and incorporate their concerns into land-management decisions." Looks like the state is finally listening.
For more information on protecting Pennsylvania's wild forests, go to https://www.post-gazette.com/localnews/20020426drill0426p1.asp
4. Take Action to Protect Our Wild Forests Early last year, the Forest Service completed the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which would protect nearly 60 million acres of the last wild areas in our National Forests from most logging and roadbuilding. But now the Bush administration is instead considering opening up our last wild forests, including Alaska's Tongass Rainforest, to devastating logging and roadbuilding.
America's forests need your help: contact your representative and ask him or her to act as an original co-sponsor of the Roadless Area Conservation Act. This bipartisan initiative, led by Reps Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), would safeguard our wild forests from destructive road-building, logging, and development. The deadline for becoming an original co-sponsor is May 8th, so please call today! Representatives should contact either Rep. Inslee or Rep. Boehlert's office to sign on.
Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Ask for your representative. Deliver the message. Save our forests.
"The significance of these amazing places and the inappropriateness of energy development within them is affirmed by this decision." - Mary Wiper, Sierra Club organizer, on Anschutz Corporation's decision not to drill at Weatherman Draw
(1)EARTH WEEK: Sierra Club Spans the Nation
(2)LANDS: Dedication and Cooperation Save Sacred Lands
(3)THE COURTS: Supreme Court Rule May Curb Sprawl
(4)TAKE ACTION: Protect Yellowstone from Noisy and Polluting Snowmobiles
1. Sierra Club Spans the Nation for Earth Week
From California to Kentucky, from Indiana to Idaho, Sierra Club made its presence felt this week. Everywhere you looked, there we were, talking about forest protection in Tennessee, or highlighting alternatives to sprawl in Wisconsin, or promoting clean transportation in Louisiana, or supporting family farms in Alabama, or urging protection of Montana's wild lands, or fighting to keep Rhode Island's bay blue, or...well, you get the idea.
Earth Week can mean focusing on the universal issues that we all care about: safeguarding our planet for future generations, learning to live in harmony with the world around us. But it can also be a chance to take action on the countless local struggles that define the larger movement: cleaning up a beach in Southern California, or sharing the splendor of Idaho's Owyhee Canyonlands with others. We all Care for America just by focusing on our own backyards. "Think Globally, Act Locally" was never truer than during this Earth Week.
To see just some of the great coverage Sierra Club generated around the country this week, go to
https://www.king5.com/localnews/environment/NW_042302ENBowyhee_idaho.1a730374.html
https://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/local/3119644.htm
https://www.jsonline.com/news/Metro/apr02/36962.asp
2. Dedication and Cooperation Save Sacred Lands
Would you destroy priceless, thousand year old works of art with invasive oil drilling? Neither would one oil company, believe it or not! The Anschutz Exploration Corporation this week abandoned drilling plans in Montana's historic Weatherman Draw, and donated the land to the National Trust. The company's decision came after Sierra Club and local Native American tribes had waged a tireless campaign to protect the area. Now Anschutz is happy, the tribes are happy, and even the Interior Department is happy.
Weatherman Draw, also known as the Valley of the Chiefs, is a massive canyon near Billings, Montana, containing some of America's best-preserved polychrome wall paintings. At least ten tribes consider the land a major cultural and religious treasure. This major victory shows that cooperation between oil interests and environmentalists can produce a win-win situation.
For more information on this fantastic victory, go to https://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000029205apr24.story
3. Supreme Court Rule May Curb Sprawl
Less sprawl at no extra cost! The Supreme Court set a major precedent for environmental protection in a 6-to-3 decision on Tuesday. It ruled that public interest measures to protect Lake Tahoe's environment and stop sprawl can be enacted without having to compensate property owners. This should embolden governments to take vital steps to safeguard the environment and public health, without fear of costly lawsuits by private corporations.
The court made a clear distinction between physical taking of property, which deserves compensation, and regulation of land, which doesn't. The decision could have positive implications for a range of environmental disputes, both domestic and international. Stay tuned...
For more information on this landmark decision, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/23/national/23CND-PROP.html
4. Take Action to Protect Yellowstone from Noisy and Polluting Snowmobiles
Each winter, thousands of snowmobiles descend on Yellowstone National Park, America's first National Park, home to buffalo, elk, grizzly bear and wolves. Snowmobiles harass and stress buffalo and other wildlife, causing the animals to deplete critical energy supplies necessary to survive Yellowstone's harsh winters. Last winter, pollution in the park from snowmobile emissions was so severe that some park employees wore gas masks to ward off headaches, dizziness and nausea from the fumes.
To address this crisis, the National Park Service conducted a lengthy study and gathered 65,000 public comments. It decided to gradually phase snowmobiles out of the park over several winters. But now, the Bush administration is considering backing down to snowmobile manufacturers, and reversing the move. Tell the National Park Service to stick to its decision to protect wildlife and recreation at Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Your comments are needed by May 29, 2002.
To send an email directly to the National Park Service, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=159&st=curr
NEXT PAGE -->
|
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|