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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
February 13, 2003
"It seems like we have conflicting goals here. Aren't we trying to protect the global environment? Doesn't that really mean we're going to have to make absolute changes? I think we're going to have to suck it up and do what needs to be done." -Steven Willis of Whirlpool Corp., in response to the Bush Administration's voluntary global warming program, which will actually allow increased carbon dioxide pollution. The home appliance company backs more far-reaching reductions than the administration has called for.
(1)ARCTIC: An Answer for the Arctic Refuge
(2)FACTORY FARMS: Pig Plant losing their Bacon
(3)NATIONAL FORESTS: Bitter over the Bitterroot National Forest
(4)TAKE ACTION: Stop the Administration from Polluting America's Waters
1. An Answer for the Arctic Refuge
As Congress toys with the notion of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by using the Omnibus Appropriations bill, Representatives Ed Markey (D-MA) and Nancy Johnson (R-CT) are working to protect the refuge. They are cosponsoring a bill in Congress to permanently protect the Arctic Refuge by designating it as wilderness. The bill would place the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge off limits to oil development.
Republican leadership has tacked on drilling provisions to the must-pass Omnibus Appropriations bill for 2003, under consideration today, as well as the emerging Budget Resolution for 2004. This is inconceivable, especially since, a recent bipartisan survey performed by the Mellman Group (D) and Bellwether Research (R) found that American voters, by a 52% to 35% margin, oppose changing the law to allow the oil industry to drill on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge.
Visit the Sierra Club's Arctic Refuge webpage: https://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/arctic/northern_slope.asp
2. Pig Plant losing their Bacon
Diamond Meat Company, a hog-slaughtering plant in Alabama, shut their barn doors for good as part of a lawsuit settlement. Neighbors brought the suit to court and testified in front of a jury calling the plant a "cesspool" and described "screams" coming from the stenchy factory farm. Scared of the jury, the meat packers settled and will indefinitely protect the land from other animal factories.
Neighbors of the plant were asking for compensation for their decreased land value next to the plant. In the past, neighbors of factory farms have had their land decrease in value by thirty percent. Luckily, these Alabamians will be compensated for the damages.
Read what the local newspaper is saying about the case at: https://www.annistonstar.com/opinion/2003/as-editorials-0208-editorial-3b07r0018.htm
3. Bitter over the Bitterroot National Forest
A year later, after Montana's Bitterroot National Forest Burned Area settlement plan was signed, the US Forest Service has executed 70 percent of the negotiated logging while only 12 percent of the forest restoration and 3 percent of the watershed and road restoration work has been completed. The Burned Area Recovery Project captured national media attention last year because representatives from the timber industry and conservation groups came to agreement.
Logging without important restoration has jeopardized water quality and critical habitat for the bull trout. This example sheds light onto what types of restoration the Bush Administration really has in mind under the so-called "Healthy Forests" Initiative and the changes to the National Forest Management Act.
Get local in Montana here: https://www.everyweek.com/News/News.asp?no=3035
4. TAKE ACTION - Stop the Administration from Polluting America's Waters
On January 15, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the most aggressive administrative effort to weaken the Clean Water Act since Congress enacted the safeguard in 1972. The EPA guidance makes it easier to drain and fill wetlands across the country. According to EPA estimates, added together, these disconnected waterways make up at least 20 percent of the country's remaining wetland areas (20 million acres).
Contact your US Representatives and Senators and tell them to support efforts to remove the anti-environmental legislation at: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=215&st=curr
"What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?" -Henry David Thoreau, 1860
(1)SUPERFUND: Cleaning Up Superfund
(2)ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Banned Billboards
(3)WASTE: Imported Trash
(4)TAKE ACTION: Stop Anti-Environmental Riders
1. Cleaning Up Superfund
The Sierra Club is praising Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) for introducing a bill that would hold polluters responsible for their mess. Unlike anything the Bush Administration has proposed, this bipartisan bill cosigned by 22 other Senators, would take the burden off of taxpayers and put it on corporate polluters.
In the last two years, Superfund, the Federal Government's toxic clean up program, has dried up. While the toxic sites have not disappeared, both the cleanup fund and ongoing cleanup projects have. In the years leading up to 2000, on average, 86 sites were being managed a year. In the last two years, the number has dropped to around 40 sites a year.
Read more about Superfund and how it can be cleaned up at: https://www.sierraclub.org/toxics/superfund/
2. Banned Billboards
The story is out, advertising giant Clear Channel is working on a coal mine. The multi-billion dollar company has rejected environmentalists' advertisements against the Salt Lake River Project (SRP) that will strip-mine more than 18,000 acres of land in western New Mexico. Environmentalists, including the Sierra Club, are concerned the mine will detrimentally affect the Zuni Salt Lake, a historic and religious site for local Native Americans.
SRP is a major client of Clear Channel and has a number of billboards with Clear Channel celebrating their 100th anniversary. SRP also leases land to the advertising Goliath for about 30 of its billboards. See the connection?
Read the story in the Phoenix New Times: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2003-02-06/news.html/1/index.html
3. Imported Trash
A coalition of 21 environmental, religious and civic groups launched the "Don't Trash Michigan" campaign to stop Canada from importing their garbage to Michigan. Under NAFTA, Michigan can't reject the trash, but it can put a surcharge on all of it. The coalition that includes the Sierra Club, hopes to impose fees for burial of all trash and is looking into expanding Michigan's bottle bill.
In 2001, Michigan imported a fifth of all its trash and currently, it is the only Great Lake State without a trash burial charge. With any luck, "Don't Trash Michigan" will make this dirty operation more competitive.
Read a story from our friend's up north: https://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035777648380&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851
4. TAKE ACTION - Stop Anti-Environmental Riders
Congress is voting on the FY2003 Omnibus Appropriations Bill and it includes bad environmental riders. This bill will cause serious damage to our natural treasures and undermine the trust that citizens have in Congress and the land management agencies.
Contact your US Representatives and Senators and tell them to support efforts to remove the anti-environmental legislation at: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=214&st=curr
"I'm sure you would." -U.S Interior Secretary Gale Norton's reply to an environmental activist urging Norton to protect wildlife refuges, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
(1)GRAZING: Lasso Public Lands
(2)WILDLANDS: Run-In with the Sierra Club
(3)DIESEL: The Bus Stops Here
(4)TAKE ACTION: Support Yellowstone Snowmobile Phase Out
1. Lasso Public Lands
The Sierra Club is herding around a plan with ranchers for a buyout program that would compensate ranchers who relinquish their federal grazing leases. The plan, created by the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign, would benefit ranchers, taxpayers, and our public lands. It would allow struggling ranchers to get out of public lands grazing without serious economic consequences and help heal the degraded public lands.
The Sierra Club and more than 120 conservation groups have endorsed the proposal, the next step is for Congress to put their best hoof forward and pass such a program.
Read more at: https://www.publiclandsranching.org/
2. Run-In with the Sierra Club
Sierra Club activists recently caught up with U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge in Northern Washington last week. Norton was surprised to see activists waiting for her before a press briefing she gave while visiting the monument. Activists encouraged Norton to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and America's wild places.
The Bush Administration's Budget proposal counts on money from leasing our wildlands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to oil and gas companies. This is yet another reason why our wild places continue to be at risk.
Read about Norton's run-in with the Sierra Club: https://www.tribnet.com/news/local/story/2571906p-2621349c.html
3. The Bus Stops Here
The state of Minnesota and its Sierra Club Chapter have launched the outreach campaign to stop unnecessary idling of diesel powered buses. Last year, as a result of a Sierra Student Coalition campaign, the Minnesota legislature passed a law to minimize idling to decrease its detrimental health effects. To help implement the new law, the Club will be distributing campaign tools, such as safety signs, to schools and parents.
Diesel fumes are toxic and increase the chances of asthma. The Sierra Student Coalition member stood up to Minnesota, and Minnesota listened. The new idling law will increase inspections of buses, redesign parking of buses at schools, and over the long term, invest in cleaner bus technology and fuel.
Read more about the School Bus Campaign at: https://northstar.sierraclub.org/schoolbus/
4. TAKE ACTION - SUPPORT YELLOWSTONE SNOWMOBILE PHASE OUT One hundred and thirty-one years ago, Congress created Yellowstone National Park as a way to preserve wild America. Yellowstone is home to spectacular sights like Old Faithful and bountiful wildlife, including bison, bears, and wolves. Recently, the winter conditions have been steadily deteriorating from the onslaught of snowmobile noise and pollution. Suffering health effects, park service employees were issued ear protection and gas masks. After years of scientific study, the National Park Service took action in November of 2000 with a plan to restore the original character of the park by phasing out snowmobiles.
The Bush administration is now working on a plan to reverse the Park Service's phase out of snowmobiles and allow their use to continue and even increase.
The Yellowstone Protection Act would inact the Park's Service's original phase out of snowmobile use and promote public winter access to Yellowstone by multi-passenger snowcoaches. The Act would uphold the strong protections Congress intended for our first national park.
TAKE ACTION!
Please call your representative to urge co-sponsorship of the Yellowstone Protection Act. If he or she already has agreed to sign on as a cosponsor, please express your thanks for protecting the parks. We will soon ask you to contact your senators. To find your representative, visit https://www.house.gov.
"They believe it's a national wildlife refuge, not a gas station." -David Moulton, chief of staff for Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), on a Wilderness Society poll of Americans' views about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
(1)RENEWABLES: Investing in the Future
(2)WILDLANDS: Four Hundred-fifty Year old Monument
(3)OUTDOORS: Riding on Empty
(4)TAKE ACTION: Stop Bush's "Mystery" Nominee
1. Investing in the Future
Because the Bush Admininstration has not done anything to increase the use of renewable energy, states are taking it upon themselves. New Jersey Governor James McGreevey is the next state leader to push for cleaner energy. He formed a Renewable Energy Task Force to make energy in New Jersey more affordable, reliable and efficient.
Investing in renewable energy is investing in the future. Renewable energy will reduce air and global warming pollution from existing fossil fuel power plants, avoid the need for additional polluting power plants, save consumers money on their energy bills, create skilled jobs, and increase energy security by diversifying energy sources.
Read what the Task Force will do: https://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/governor/njnewsline/view_article.pl?id=1028
2. Four Hundred-fifty Year old Monument
Once again, Arizonans are showing that national monuments are worth defending. Over 3,000 comments were received by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) regarding a plan that threatens to open the Agua Fria National Monument to road-building, mining, and other destructive development. The top ten most common responses received by the BLM asked for greater conservation for these wild lands.
The Agua Fria monument in Arizona is 71,000 semi-desert acres and is home to over 450 prehistoric sites and many plants and animals. The prehistoric sites offer insight to the native people who lived in the desert over 500 years ago. Arizona, also known as the Bola Tie state, should continue to support its wildlands.
Read more about Arizona's National Monuments: https://arizona.sierraclub.org/monuments/aguafria/aguafria-arch.html
3. Riding on Empty
John Rath, President of the Dallas Chapter Sierra Club recently had his bike stolen. Big deal, right? No, it is a big deal because Mr. Rath used to ride 22 miles daily to work and home everyday in the spirit of global warming and cleaner air. Rath plans to ride once again when he has two wheels to do so, for now he as to drive his car to work (that gets 33 miles per gallon).
The average American driver spends 443 hours per year - the equivalent of 55 eight-hour workdays - behind the wheel. This is one reason why the Sierra Club encourages people to get outdoors, whether it's on the weekend or on your way to work.
Learn how to get outdoors with the Sierra Club: https://www.sierraclub.org/outings/
4. TAKE ACTION - Stop Bush's "Mystery" Nominee
What do the NAACP, Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, Sierra Club, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, AFL-CIO and the American Association of University Women all have in common?
They all want Senators to block "mystery man" Miguel Estrada from getting a lifetime appointment to our country's second-highest court. He's called the "mystery man" because when Senators asked him his views on legal issues, he clammed up. He has refused to answer questions about his views on landmark Supreme Court cases and won't reveal his opinions on basic environmental, civil rights and workers' rights laws. To make matters worse, the Bush Justice Department refuses to make public any legal memos that he wrote while he worked there - a relatively routine practice.
The Senate has a responsibility to ensure that our courts are balanced and our judges are qualified. Americans deserve judges who will protect our hard-earned civil rights, protect workers' rights and crack down on polluters. (delete end)
Tell your Senator to vote to filibuster the Estrada nomination!
Click below to send a fax directly to your Senators. There's a draft provided! https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=203&st=curr
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