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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
December 17
"Why should taxpayers have to pay for the mess." -Ken Midkiff, director of the Sierra Club's Factory Farm Campaign in the L.A. Times, reacts to the new rules for factory farms released by the EPA
(1)FACTORY FARMS: EPA ISSUES STINKY RULES
(2)DIRTY AIR: MOTHER KNOWS BEST
(3)TAKE ACTION: Shape a National Monument
1. EPA Issues Stinky Rules
The EPA has set out its new rules for factory farms that are supposed to prevent factories from polluting local waterways. Under the new rules, more factory farms will be required to have special permits that allow them to dispose animal waste. Unfortunately, the manner in which farmers clean up the waste is entirely up to them. Farmers will also be allowed to write their own waste management plans, deciding how much waste they will be allowed to discard.
Around 2.7 billion pounds of waste comes from factory farms per year. Often times, this waste is stored in open "lagoons" that can leak into groundwater and pollute rivers, lakes, and streams. The rules set out by the EPA and the Bush Administration don't establish clear, effective requirements for keeping America's drinking water clean and safe from factory farms.
LA Times, "EPA Widens Rules for U.S. Farms" - https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-farm17dec17.story
2. Mother Knows Best
Many moms are dissatisfied with changes the Bush Administration made to the Clean Air Act and at least one mom is doing something about it. In Cherokee County, GA, a mother of two is standing up to one of the dirtiest coal plants in the country. An artist, Melissa Hootselle, is starting a letter-writing campaign, planning for a strike day against electric consumption by consumers and she is focusing her art on the plants negative affects to the community.
Georgia's air isn't getting any cleaner, especially after the Bush Administration has changed federal air quality laws so power plants can pollute more. Families should not be happy that older factories are not obligated to install modern pollution control technology when they make a change that increases pollution and health risk. Studies have linked the pollutants arising from the lack of newer technology to serious health effects, including increased rates of asthma, heart disease, and premature death.
Read more about Dirty Coal at: https://www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/factsheets/power.asp
3. Shape a National Monument
Help shape one of America's newest National Monuments. Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southern Oregon is the nation's first national monument designated in recognition of an area's abundance of wildlife. Strong public support for protection of the monument is crucial to prevent damage from logging, illegal off-road vehicle use, and grazing. Cascade-Siskiyou needs your help to ensure strong protections in this unique region. Public comments are due December 18.
Please submit your comment TODAY by visiting our: https://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/monuments/cascade.asp
"Interior Secretary Gale Norton travels the country telling audiences that she predicates her decisions on the four Cs: communication, consultation, and cooperation, all in the service of conservation. But this new initiative is nothing but conniving, callous, careless, and contemptuous." -Rep. George Miller (D-CA), 12/11/2002, on the Bush Wildfire Initiative
(1)GLOBAL WARMING: Bush Administration Shortchanges Consumers and National Security
(2)SPRAWL: Legacy Highway back on the wrong track?
(3)FACTORY FARMS: More Turkey Talk
(4)TAKE ACTION: Victory for Our Wild Forests
1. Bush Administration Shortchanges Consumers and National Security
The Administration released an embarrassingly small increases to fuel economy that raises the standard a mere 1.5 miles per gallon over three years starting in 2005. Ouch! The changes do nothing to save consumers money at the gas pump or decrease America's dependence on foreign oil. The Sierra Club wants the Administration to increase fuel economy so available gas saving technologies are included in cars, SUVs, and light trucks.
Last year the Bush Administration opposed plans to significantly increase fuel economy by adding three available technologies to the manufacturing of cars. Why? If it hadn't, we could have been driving around our new vehicle fleet, averaging around 40-miles per gallon.
Read the latest from Detroit: https://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm12216_20021212.htm
2. Legacy Highway back on the wrong track?
Despite a US Circuit Court of Appeals decision stopping the construction, the Legacy Highway is once again in the public eye. The state of Utah nominated it to expedited by the Federal Government even though the Court called for studies of alternative projects that don't run through Utah's wetlands.
The Governor's Legacy Highway would destroy valuable farmland and wetlands, contribute significantly to urban sprawl, and encourage the deterioration of air quality. The Sierra Club is promoting a "Transit First" approach in solving the pressures of growth. The resolution is to prevent construction of the Legacy Highway and to support the "Transit First" priority in new transportation building.
Send a letter to Utah Governor Leavitt here: https://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/tamain?alid=115
3. More Turkey Talk
In Minneapolis and Des Moines the Sierra Club went to local supermarkets, purchased some brand name ground turkey and chicken, and tested it for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The result? You guessed it; the meat could resist antibiotics. This means people eating it who suffer from severe food poisoning will not be able to take the standard medications to ward off the infection.
Farm animals raised for food are fed antibiotics as growth stimulants. The Sierra Club is calling on poultry farms to decrease their use of the drugs. Also, the Sierra Club suggests consumers purchase organic meat because it has less of a chance of being raised with these drugs.
Read the story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press: https://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/4703569.htm
4. Victory for Our Wild Forests
The Sierra Club today praised the decision of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to protect the last pristine areas of National Forests that are vulnerable to logging. The Court today lifted an injunction against the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. In January 2001, the Forest Service completed the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a historic plan to protect nearly 60 million acres of the last wild areas in our National Forests. The rule marked the end of a public process that included more than 600 public meetings and spanned three years. During the rulemaking, the administration received a record-breaking one million public comments in support of protecting wild forests. To date, the Forest Service has received more than 2 million comments from the American people, overwhelmingly in favor of the strongest protections for these wild forests.
Despite the overwhelming public support for protecting America's wild forests, the Bush Administration has been moving forward to log in the last wild areas of our National Forests--including Alaska's Tongass Rainforest. To find out more about how you can take action to help protect our National Forests, please visit https://www.sierraclub.org/logging
"We recognize the future of smart growth lies in actually supporting developers who are doing it right." -Melody Flowers, Sierra Club Sprawl issues Representative, comments on a possible affordable housing development in California
(1)NATIONAL FORESTS: It's all Gravy for the Bush Administration
(2)FACTORY FARMS: Juicy Milk
(3)SPRAWL: Smart Housing
(4)TAKE ACTION: Shape a National Monument
1. It's all Gravy for the Bush Administration
Surely, the timber industry had a lovely Thanksgiving, filling up on increased logging opportunities courtesy of the US Forest Service. As Americans were busy preparing for the holiday, stuffing their turkeys, the Bush Administration abolished rules and safeguards that protect wildlife, ensure that logging and mining plans considering the environmental impacts, and emphasize the role of science and the public.
Established over one hundred years ago and enjoyed by Americans from coast to coast, today we have 155 National Forests, stretching across 191 million acres. Unfortunately, commercial logging has already taken a harsh toll on the land, draining nutrients from the soil, washing topsoil into streams, destroying wildlife habitat, and intensifying the severity of forest fires. We need to protect what's left of our wild forest heritage stop timber companies from degrading our National Forests.
Read the Washington Post's take on the stuffing in "Smokey Bear, R.I.P.": https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28511-2002Dec8.html
2. Juicy Milk
In Osceola, Nebraska, the Sierra Club is asking the district court to hold up a local Double Dutch dairy expansion that would bring 800 more cows to town. Before Double Dutch becomes the largest dairy in the state, the Sierra Club wants time to review the special-use permit issued by the local Board of County Commissioners. The permit does not include a waste management plan for the addition of 800 cows.
By increasing the number of cows to 5,400 without updating the dairy's waste management system, it could endanger surrounding water sources and pollute the air. Animal waste contaminates drinking water via lakes, rivers, and groundwater and also spreads disease through the air. The Sierra Club wants the court to reconsider this when granting a special-permit.
Read more about the Sierra Club Clean Water Program at: https://www.sierraclub.org/factoryfarms/
3. Club Backs Smart, Affordable Housing
In a move that strikes many as counter-intuitive, the Sierra Club is going to court to support a development project in Placer County, California-- the fastest growing county in the state. The Silver Bend Project in Auburn, which lies east of Sacramento, is an infill development that would provide affordable housing and utilize existing transportation infrastructure.
The Sierra Club actively supports smart development as a way of protecting communities and the land from unchecked sprawl. In particular, the Club has increasingly recognized that making more affordable housing available can reduce the pressure for new development.
Read more about the project in the USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-12-09-sierra-usat_x.htm
4. Shape a National Monument
Help shape one of America's newest National Monuments. Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southern Oregon is the nation's first national monument designated in recognition of an area's abundance of wildlife. Strong public support for protection of the monument is crucial to prevent damage from logging, illegal off-road vehicle use, and grazing. Cascade-Siskiyou needs your help to ensure strong protections in this unique region. Public comments are due December 18.
Please submit your comment TODAY by visiting our: https://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/monuments/
Happy Thanksgiving, Sierra Club Media Team
"It's definitely bad news for anybody who breathes in Georgia." -Colleen Kiernan, spokeswoman for the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club, reacts to the Bush Administration's changes to the Clean Air Act.
(1)ARCTIC: BP's Approved Move
(2)AIR: More Dirty Air in Georgia
(3)TOXICS: Activists Want an Edge on Life (4)WILDLANDS: Sad Sky in Washington State
1. BP's Approved Move
The largest oil producer in Alaska, BP, has withdrawn its membership from Arctic Power, a lobbying group whose sole purpose is to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development.
In April, the Sierra Club with dozens of other conservation organizations asked BP to pull out of Arctic Power. As the largest company on Alaska's Arctic (North Slope), BP's decision is sure to send shockwaves through Alaska. The decision to break away from Arctic Power may be seen as the company's recognition that developing the Arctic Refuge is not economically viable.
Read the story in the NY Times at: https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/26/business/26OIL.html
2. More Dirty Air in Georgia
Georgia's air isn't getting any cleaner, especially after the Bush Administration has changed federal air quality laws so power plants can pollute more. Like the actions taken by northeastern states, residents of the peanut state are asking the Attorney General to block the recent changes to the Clean Air Act's New Source Review Program. Families should not be happy that older factories are not obligated to install modern pollution control technology when they make a change that increases pollution.
Unfortunately, families are now at greater risk. Studies have linked the pollutants arising from the lack of newer technology to serious health effects, including increased rates of asthma, heart disease, and premature death.
A local Georgia paper has the scoop: https://209.41.184.21/partners/680/public/news398395.html
3. Activists Want an Edge on Life
In Anniston, AL, the Sierra Club and a dozen other groups including citizen and civil rights groups, are being all they can be by filing a federal suit against the US Army. The suit filed in federal court aims to prevent a proposed incinerator from coming to town to dispose chemical weapons and pollute the air. The lawsuit accuses the Army of breaking two environmental laws, not complying with established emergency preparedness programs and endangering members of minority groups.
Systems like the proposed incinerator have led to problems in other states. The activists are asking the Army to pursue a cleaner neutralization method that uses other liquids to deactivate the weapons. This would prevent toxic exposure to locals from the incinerator.
From Alabama: https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWS/StoryAlabamaCHEMICAL20W.htm
4. Sad Sky in Washington State
Hope to pass the first wilderness bill in rainy Washington State was wiped dry when the House of Representatives recessed without bringing the Senate approved bill to the floor. The Wild Sky Wilderness Area in the bill covers 106,000 acres in the Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and Washington lawmakers are planning to reintroduce the bill next year.
The Wild Sky bill was hashed out and agreed upon by the Sierra Club, the Forest Service, and snowmobilers and won bipartisan support in the Senate. Wilderness designation is the strongest and highest level of protection and if this area was set aside it would help its residents: bald eagles, marbled murrelets, spotted owls, cougars, lynx, salmon, steelhead trout and people who love to explore and enjoy the outdoors.
Lowdown: https://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/96700_wildsky22.shtml
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