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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
July 2
"In the long run, we'll all be served by cleaner air and reducing global warming" California State Assemblyman Dario Frommer on yesterday's global warming victory
(1)CLEAN AIR: Three Cheers for the Golden State on Auto Emissions
(2)SUPERFUND: Sites Won't be Cleaned Up Any Time Soon
(3)CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY: Tool Tale
(4)TAKE ACTION: Protect Americans from Dangerous Nuclear Waste
1. Three Cheers for the Golden State on Auto Emissions
California showed it's on the cutting edge again this week. Earlier this year, Congress caved to automakers on making cars go further on a gallon of gas. So the state took matters into its own hands, passing a bill that will cut global warming pollution from cars and SUVs. Governor Gray Davis is expected to sign the measure soon.
More cars are sold in California than in any other state, and the state has more serious air pollution problems than any other. But yesterday's victory could be good news for more than just Californians: cutting pollution from our cars and SUVs is the easiest and most effective thing we can do stop global warming. The federal government has often taken its cue from the Golden State. Let's hope it follows California's lead one more time.
For more information on California's environmental leadership, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/02/national/02POLL.html
2. Superfund Sites Won't be Cleaned Up Any Time Soon
Tired of cleaning up other people's mess? Get used to it. The Bush administration intends to make taxpayers foot the bill to clean up 33 toxic Superfund sites. The plan allows polluters off the hook - but it gets worse: because the government money may not be immediately available, the decision also means that many of these sites won't get cleaned up for years.
The Superfund program cleans up the most dangerous contaminated waste sites in the country, protecting public health and the environment. Among the 33 halted cleanup projects are chemical plants in Florida and a New Jersey plant that once made the herbicide Agent Orange. "The Bush administration is telling communities that have waited for years to get rid of toxic chemicals in their water and soil that they'll just have to wait some more," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club.
For more information on this disappointing news, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/01/national/01SUPE.html
3. Tool Tale
It sounds like the plot for a Hollywood blockbuster: an oil drilling company, in cahoots with the government, drops a radioactive tool down a well on a pristine island, then tries to hide its mistake from the public. If only this were Hollywood. BNP Petroleum did in fact lose a radioactive well-logging tool at an oil and gas well site on Texas' Padre Island. Then neither the company nor the National Park Service bothered to tell the public about the dangerous mistake.
The Sierra Club has filed a lawsuit challenging oil and gas drilling on Padre Island National Seashore. "[The Park Service should] take a hard look at the impacts of oil and gas development on the Seashore, and stand up to oil companies with sloppy environmental management practices," said Erin Rogers of the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter. Gee, do you think dropping radioactive material down a well would qualify?
For more information on this frightening story, go to https://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlc=745570
4. Take Action to Protect Americans from Dangerous Nuclear Waste
It's almost zero hour for the dangerous plan to transport thousands of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste from around the country, then dump it at Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Supporters have only a few more weeks to push the scheme through the Senate, before the clock runs out on the issue. The vote could come next week.
Keep the pressure on. Contact your senators right away. Tell them to stand up for public health and the environment by rejecting this dangerous proposal.
Click below to send an email directly to your senators. There's a draft provided. https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=164&st=curr
"It's an amazing day of contrasts. If ever there was a person who is not a friend of the environment, it's Dick Cheney." Bill Bradbury, candidate for U.S. Senate from Oregon, on receiving the Sierra Club's endorsement on the same day that the vice president came to the state to raise money for Bradbury's opponent
(1)POLITICS: Oregon Voters Face a Clear Choice
(2)CLEAN AIR: Garden State Activists Keep the Focus on Pollution
(3)HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Justice Denied in Russia
(4)TAKE ACTION: Protect Our Wild Forests
1. Oregon Voters Face a Clear Choice
Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon rolled out the red carpet for Dick Cheney at a lavish fundraiser Monday. But Smith was one-upped by his opponent in November's election, Bill Bradbury. The Sierra Club announced its endorsement of Bradbury the same day, pointing to his "extraordinary leadership" on environmental issues. Bradbury spent four years heading "For the Sake of the Salmon" a Portland-based nonprofit dedicated to salmon recovery.
As Oregon's junior Senator, he would increase funding for renewable energy, promote healthy forests through responsible timber harvest practices, and make polluters, not taxpayers, pay the cost of cleanups. He's betting that those plans are a lot more important to Oregon voters than fundraisers with Dick Cheney.
For more information on the choice facing Oregon's voters, go to https://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=44098
2. Garden State Activists Keep the Focus on Pollution
President Bush came to a New Jersey port this week hoping for a simple photo op. But he couldn't escape Sierra Club. Chapter activists joined other groups from across the state to make some noise about the administration's weakening of the Clean Air Act. Even confined to a pen, the resourceful crew found a way to get out their clean air message: they displayed a 40-foot tall inflatable power plant, and rhyming signs reading "Keep our Clean Air Act in Tact!"
Last week the EPA announced new loopholes in the Clean Air Act which would let polluters off the hook. Instead of making them clean up their act, the new rules would allow power plants to continue spewing more asthma-causing soot and smog from their smokestacks. "Bush is calling his program 'Clear Skies,'" said Jeff Tittel, executive director of New Jersey's Sierra Club chapter. "We call it 'clear lies'."
For more information on attempts to weaken the Clean Air Act, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/action/clear_skies.asp
3. Justice Denied in Russia
The struggle to ensure human rights for environmentalists took a step backward this week when a Russian court denied an appeal to eco-hero Grigory Pasko. Pasko was arrested in 1997 for blowing the whistle on the Russian Navy's illegal dumping of radioactive waste into the Sea of Japan. Although the Russian constitution declassifies environmental information, Pasko was charged with espionage and "intending" to reveal state secrets. He was sentenced to four years in a Russian labor camp.
Sierra Club has joined other environmental and human rights organizations worldwide in denouncing the conviction and calling on President Vladimir Putin to release Pasko immediately. He joins a long list of environmentalists around the world who have been subjected to harassment, persecution, intimidation, violence, and even murder for their courageous efforts to defend the earth.
To sign up for the Sierra Club's Human Rights and the Environment listserv, go to https://lists.sierraclub.org/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?SUBED1=cons-spst-human-rights-and-env&A=1
4. Take Action to Protect Our Wild Forests
Momentum is building to protect our wild forests. A bill has been introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), which would make these areas off-limits to logging and road-building, leaving them for all Americans to enjoy. The measure would ensure that the popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule goes into effect.
We need your help. Contact your representative and urge them to support the Roadless Area Conservation Act. Americans have already made their feelings clear: they want our last remaining wild forests protected. Click below to send an email directly to your representative. There's a draft provided: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=162&st=curr
"The only way this problem will ever be fixed is if we build a consensus. That can't happen by creating villains." Sharon Galbreath, Southwest Forest Alliance, on dealing with wildfires in Arizona and Colorado
(1)WILD FORESTS: Firing Back
(2)POLITICS: How Green is Your Member of Congress?
(3)WILD LANDS: Lewis and Clark Hike Mixes Environmentalism with History, Culture (4)TAKE ACTION: Help Protect Americans from Dangerous Nuclear Waste
1. Firing Back
Most of us who've seen the startling images of massive forest fires in Arizona and Colorado this week would agree that protecting the families and communities affected should be the first order of business. But Governor Jane Hull and Senator John Kyl of Arizona have instead been using the crisis to take potshots at environmentalists. Hull and Kyl blamed opponents of commercial logging for the blazes, claiming that logging restrictions have hampered the ability of the Forest Service to prevent fires.
In fact, a report by the General Accounting Office released last August showed that of 1671 fuel reduction projects, not one lawsuit was filed. Our fire problems out west actually stem from three factors: years of fire suppression that removed the natural role fires play in healthy forests; an extreme multi-year drought; and decades of commercial logging that destroyed large, fire-resistant trees. That explanation might not sit well with the timber industry and its political backers, but we need to start separating fact from fiction on forest fires.
To see Sierra Club's report, Forest Fires: Beyond the Heat and Hype, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/logging/report01/
2. How Green is Your Member of Congress?
Americans will celebrate the red, white and blue this Fourth of July, but they won't forget another patriotic color - green. From now till November, at twelve sites around the country, Sierra Club members will be educating voters on whether their public official is protecting America the Beautiful or allowing special interests to plunder our special places.
Sierra Club will hit the airwaves and the pavement to get the message out. But volunteers in Minnesota have found a novel way to highlight their candidates' environmental positions: a canoe trip through Minneapolis and St. Cloud. "By November, voters will know where their candidates stand on keeping our air, water and land safe," says Sheila Williams of the Minnesota Sierra Club.
To see the list of sites where Sierra Club will be working, go to https://www.sierraclub.org/voter_education/
3. Lewis and Clark Outing Mixes Environmentalism with History, Culture
Sometimes a hike isn't just a hike. Twenty-five intrepid Montanans were led recently to Pompey's Pillar, near Billings, to learn about its religious and cultural significance for Crow Indians and American history. The tour led participants to old Indian markings around the sandstone formation, and showed them how a proposed grain elevator would threaten the majestic view of the Bighorn Mountains from the top of the pillar.
The event was part of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial campaign, which revisits parts of the route taken by the famed explorers. Pompey's Pillar is one of about thirty-three selected sites along the trail that need restoration or more protection. "Lewis and Clark stopped and enjoyed and gasped at these areas," said Mary Wiper of the Montana Sierra Club. "We want people to get out and enjoy them too. But we also want them to learn what they can do to protect these areas."
For more information on this trip, go to https://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2002/06/23/bui
4. Help Protect Americans from Dangerous Nuclear Waste
The dangerous plan to transport thousands of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste from around the country, then dump it at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, is headed for a vote in the Senate. Opposition is mounting to the ill-advised scheme, as lawmakers, the media, and the public learn more about the risks it poses to public health.
Keep the pressure on. Contact your senators right away. Tell them to stand up for public health and the environment by rejecting this dangerous proposal.
Click below to send an email directly to your senators. There's a draft provided. https://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=164
"If liberty and equality are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost." Aristotle
(1)CLEAN WATER: Fishy Logic From the EPA
(2)INTERNATIONAL: Sierra Club Goes Beyond the Border
(3)LANDS: Keep America's Public Lands Open and Free
(4)TAKE ACTION: Make our Cars and SUVs Go Further on a Gallon of Gas
1. Fishy Logic From the EPA
You might have thought that dumping dangerous toxic sludge into a river for thirteen years wouldn't be so great for the fish. The Army Corps of Engineers has been allowed to dump 200,000 tons of toxic sludge into the Potomac River every year since 1989. But rest easy: an internal Environmental Protection Agency document tells us that, in fact, the pollution helps the fish, by forcing them to flee the polluted area and escape fishermen.
Rep. George Radanovich, (R-CA) summed up the EPA's perverse thinking: "To suggest that toxic sludge is good for fish because it prevents them from being caught by man is like suggesting that we club baby seals to death to prevent them from being eaten by sharks. It's ludicrous." Just what we were thinking.
Even the conservative Washington Times can't fathom this EPA stance. For more, go to https://washingtontimes.com/national/20020619-13558.htm
2. Sierra Club Goes Beyond the Border
Sierra Club is working with Mexican environmentalists along the Texas-Mexico border to fight air and water pollution. Mexico Project, a year and a half-old environmental initiative, brings together communities which are fighting many of the same environmental problems on both sides of the border. Right now, it's working to give citizens access to information on the pollution being spewed into their neighborhoods by Tas de Mendez, a toxic incinerator.
Sierra Club border representative Alejandro Queral is relishing the chance to demand accountability of polluting corporations. "That is really the core of the program," he says, "increasing corporate responsibility. Corporations are getting more rights, and having fewer and fewer responsibilities to society as a whole." And that's a problem, whichever side of the border you live on.
For more information on this ground-breaking program, go to https://www.laredosnews.com/local_05.htm
3. Keep America's Public Lands Open and Free
In recent years, land managers have been charging new user fees to people visiting our public lands -- even for low impact activities like hiking in a National Forest. The Bush administration and some members of Congress want to extend these controversial fees to reach more of our public lands. That'll turn families away from exploring and enjoying their own lands.
You can help. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has asked for public comments by June 26th. It's a great chance to let the committee know what you think. Please send a written letter, urging the Committee to oppose any legislation that would let land managers charge new fees for people visiting our public lands. All Americans should have free and open access to our public lands for hiking, picnicking and exploring.
SEND YOUR LETTER TO: Chairman Bingaman Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee United States Senate Washington, DC 20510
4. Take Action to Make our Cars and SUVs Go Further on a Gallon of Gas
Do you know how much oil America consumes each day? 8 million barrels! And the single biggest thing we could do to reduce that figure would be to make cars and SUVs that get more miles to the gallon. That would allow us to break our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, save consumers money at the gas pump, and cut pollution. Sounds like a win-win-win!
But we need your help to make it happen. Look for three tearout postcards included in your latest Sierra Magazine. They're addressed to Ford Chairman William Clay Ford Jr, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. They urge each of these decision-makers to do his part to give Americans cars and SUVs that are safe, affordable, comfortable, popular, and fuel efficient. Sign, stamp and mail all three postcards. Together, we can get our vehicles on the road to 40 miles per gallon.
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