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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
June 19, 2003F
"You can dress up a pig and put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig. In this case, it's to allow exploratory drilling on our precious coast." -Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), after the Senate passed an Energy Bill amendment that will allow offshore oil exploration. Read the article here: https://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/6844151p-7794211c.html
(1)CLEAN AIR: Beginning of Summer Marks Start of Smog Season
(2)FORD CAMPAIGN: Sierra Club puts Pedal to the Metal
(3)FOREST FIRES: Doing Our Part for Smokey
(4)TAKE ACTION: Don't Let Wild Salmon Disappear!
1. Beginning of Summer Marks Start of Smog Season
Saturday is the first day of summer, and families have more to worry about than just their tans - unhealthy air. Last year, cities across America set records for the number of unhealthy air days--when red and orange air quality alerts were issued--and there are more on the way. Already, Atlanta, Los Angles and Houston have reported unsafe air days this year. To warn communities about air quality, many cities issue alerts when the air is unhealthy to breathe and urge parents to keep their kids inside. Some cities offer free rides on public transportation on unsafe air days. But instead of working to clean up the air, the Bush Administration is giving polluters a pass on cleaning up their messes in the so-called "Clear Skies" initiative.
To find out about air quality in specific cities, please visit: https://zoomer.sierraclub.org/# And for more on the not-so Clear Skies Plan, please visit: https://www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/clear_skies.asp
2. Sierra Club puts Pedal to the Metal
Two weeks ago, the Sierra Club wished Ford a happy 100th birthday by announcing the nomination of former Sierra Club President Dr. Robert Cox for Ford's board of directors and by releasing a new ad questioning Ford's commitment to innovation. Now, a Sierra Club op-ed piece is popping up throughout the country asking Ford to input technology in its cars so they go further on a gallon of gas.
Read the op-ed in Newsday: https://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpbec173335228jun17,0,5050790.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines
3. Doing Our Part for Smokey
Like Colorado, Montana is now taking steps to curb the danger of rampant forest fires during hot, dry summer months. Earlier this week, the Sierra Club took a walking tour with foresters, firefighters, and journalists to look at 74 thinned acres in and around the Rattlesnake Recreation Area. The area was cleared of small-diameter trees and underbrush near homes, a solution that does far more to protect communities at risk than logging big trees deep in the wilderness--a plan the Bush administration advocates.
Read more from Montana: https://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/06/18/news/local/news04.txt
4. TAKE ACTION: Don't Let Wild Salmon Disappear!
Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) has introduced the Salmon Planning Act to initiate a fact-finding mission for the salmon and for Northwest communities. YOUR HELP IS NEEDED TO PASS THIS IMPORTANT LEGISLATION!
The Salmon Planning Act (SPA) focuses on the four lower Snake River dams in eastern Washington. It would fund studies to determine the most cost-effective ways to remove the dams, if key agencies say that's necessary to save wild salmon. Salmon Planning Act studies would determine what investments will assure communities would be kept whole and energy supplies and transportation of goods effectively addressed. It would also require a scientific review of current salmon recovery efforts. THESE ARE CRUCIAL STEPS IN SAVING WILD SALMON.
PLEASE WRITE OR EMAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY AND ASK THEM TO CO-SPONSOR THE SALMON PLANNING ACT (HR 2573).
If you do not know who your representative is you can find out by visiting: https://congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/
When you write or email your Representative you can make these points:
1) I care about wild salmon for its cultural, biological and economic contributions to the American Northwest. It's important that we protect the remaining wild salmon runs in the Columbia and Snake River basins;
2) The Bush Administration has failed to implement the Federal Salmon Recovery Plan and their budgets leave recovery efforts high and dry;
3) It makes sense to study the options for saving wild salmon, including partial removal of dams on the lower Snake River. This is an urgent matter. There isn't much time to save one of America's great resources, our wild salmon. WE need to be prepared to help communities in the Northwest and wild salmon in a timely, responsible manner. Please co-sponsor the Salmon Planning Act, HR 2573.
Please write or email your Representative today.
"The idea that every waterway in Ohio and Kentucky has a public health warning against eating fish is a very telling signal that we are not doing nearly enough to protect public health and the environment. We can do much, much better. The technology exists today to significantly reduce the amount of mercury toxins coming out of smokestacks. What is lacking is the Bush administration's commitment to enforce existing law." - Ohio Sierra Club activist Glen Brand in Cincinnati Enquirer, 6/16/03 https://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/06/14/loc_mercury14.html
(1)LICENSING: We Take Our Little Turn on the Catwalk
(2)FOREST FIRES: How to Present Catastrophic Forest Fires
(3)POLITICS: The Case Against David Struhs
(4)TAKE ACTION: Reinstate Funding for UNFPA
1. We Take Our Little Turn on the Catwalk
The Sierra Club's Licensing program is getting out its first line of clothing to retailers very soon. Sierra Club products establish a quality brand that strives for environmental and social responsibility, while giving the individual consumer an opportunity to make a positive difference through their everyday actions and purchasing decisions. The clothes will raise money for the Sierra Club's environmental programs, put more "green" products on the market and increase the Sierra Club's exposure to future members.
Read the article in Sunday's New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/15/business/yourmoney/15CLUB.html
2. How to Present Catastrophic Forest Fires
The Sierra Club recently "chipped" in with a fire prevention pick-up crew in Ptarmigan, Colorado, removing fire hazards such as trees, firewood stacks, and propane tanks too close to houses. The Colorado Chapter partnered with a Summit County Wildland Fire Mitigation Officer to prepare houses for the heat. The event was part of the Club's effort to educate homeowners about fire safety this summer.
Read the story here: https://www.summitdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?SearchID=73137876497859&Avis=SD&Dato=20030610&Kategori=NEWS&Lopenr=306100104&Ref=AR&template=art2
3. The Case Against David Struhs
Last week the Florida Sierra Club teamed up with 17 other organizations to tell Gov. Jeb Bush to fire his Secretary of Environmental Protection, David Struhs. Although Jeb's response to the request was "No. Hell no," the Sierra Club is still keeping the pressure on. The event received coverage in at least six Florida papers and blanketed the airwaves. Struhs has a horrible environmental record including his latest work selling out to sugar lobbyist on the Everglades recovery project.
Read more from the Miami Herald: https://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/6077545.htm
4. TAKE ACTION: Reinstate Funding for UNFPA
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) works in almost 150 countries to ensure that women have access to voluntary family planning, economic opportunities and education - building the foundation for a more environmentally sustainable future. President Bush's decision to withhold UNFPA funding endangers the lives and health of women around the world. Our commitment to women's rights and the environment must go beyond words and beyond our own borders. Tell your Representative to support the Crowley provision to reinstate funding for UNFPA in H.R. 1950, the State Department Authorization Bill.
TAKE ACTION HERE: https://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/tamain?alid=267&st=curr
"The one function that TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were." - David Brinkley
(1)NATIONAL FORESTS: Bush Administration Initiates Process to Erase Roadless Rule
(2)ENERGY: Bad Energy
(3)CLEAN WATER: Murkiness
(4)TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Make the Roadless Rule Law
1. Bush Administration Initiates Process to Erase Roadless Rule
Earlier this week, the Bush Administration stated that it would uphold the popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule while actually allowing states pressured by the timber industry to seek exemptions. The move was just another example of the Administration saying one thing and doing another. States will be able to "seek relief for exceptional circumstances," but given the Bush Administration's track record, the move creates a huge loophole to promote commercial logging in roadless areas. The Administration also announced it will file a lawsuit settlement with the State of Alaska tomorrow to exempt the Tongass National Forest. The Sierra Club and others have criticized the Administration for using sweetheart settlements like this one to circumvent environmental rules.
Get the 411: https://www.sierraclub.org/logging/
2. Bad Energy
Today, the Sierra Club sharply criticized the Senate for opening the door to damage from drilling along America's coastlines. The Senate today failed to pass an amendment offered by Bob Graham (D-FL) that would have removed a harmful section of the Energy Bill calling for a needless inventory of oil and gas reserves in the Outer Continental Shelf. The move takes the U.S. closer to lifting a moratorium on dangerous offshore drilling up and down much of the east and west coasts. This inventory will do nothing to decrease America's dependence on oil but will place coastal communities and marine life in harms way.
Here's the latest from the AP: https://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030612_1653.html
3. Murkiness
According to an internal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study, roughly a quarter of all industrial plants and water treatment plants in the U.S are in serious violation of pollution laws. Only a small number of those guilty are actually facing enforcement from the EPA, and more than half of these plants are at least 100 percent over the limit for toxins in their waterways.
Read the story here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21144-2003Jun5.html?nav=hptop_tb
4. TAKE ACTION: Keep Black Rock-High Rock Wild
In 2000, after the Sierra Club worked for decades to obtain increased protection for Northern Nevada, Congress created The Black Rock Desert and High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area (NCA). Now we need your help to make sure that they stay protected. The Bureau of Land Management has reached an important phase in planning for the NCA's management. In March 2003, the BLM released a draft management plan for the NCA and 10 associated wilderness areas. None of the alternatives in present form fully honors the intent of the original legislation by which the Congress set the area aside. A new alternative needs to be developed to fully comply with the intent and legislation that created the NCA. A wild place filled with history and the spirit of adventure must not be turned into something resembling a manicured tourist attraction.
The management plan's final shape will depend, in part, on what the BLM hears from us in written comments in the coming weeks.
SEND IN COMMENTS TODAY Please take a few minutes to ask the BLM to retain the elements of its draft management plan that help protect the NCA's ecology, wildlife, and solitude, but also to make crucial changes to ensure the area remains a tribute to the past.
You can mail, email, or fax your comments to the BLM at these addresses: Mail: Dave Cooper, NCA Manager ATTN: NCA Plan BLM Winnemucca Field Office 5100 E. Winnemucca Blvd. Winnemucca, NV 89445
Fax: 775-623-1503 Email: brhrcomments@bah.com
You can find on the complete drafts of all the BLM's proposed alternatives at: https://www.blackrockhighrock.org/ And for more background information visit: https://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/black_rock.asp
"If everybody in the Sierra Club had their way about it we'd still be usin' outhouses." -Gulfport, Mississippi Council Member Billy Hewes (read more in Current #2, again)
(1)OUTDOOR EDUCATION: California Push to Get Kids Outdoors
(2)FIELD: Story in Gulfport Still Unfolding
(3)AIR: One Smog Day Down, Many to Go
(4)TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Make the Roadless Rule Law
1. California Push to Get Kids Outdoors
Earlier this week, a coalition of prominent law enforcement and religious leaders, educators, and public officials joined the Sierra Club to announce a campaign to extend outdoor education opportunities to every California child. The campaign is chaired by Orange County Sheriff, Mike Carona and includes a long list of supporters including Shaquille O'Neal.
Learn more online at: https://www.sierraclub.org/insidetheoutdoors/index.asp
2. Story in Gulfport Still Unfolding
Gulfport, Mississippi- the same town whose mayor recently called Sierra Club activists "dumb bastards" and ripped up Sierra Club yard signs- wrongfully cleared a quarter mile along the banks of Turkey Creek, where local officials want to site a controversial development. The city stripped a 30 to 50 swath of creek bank of every tree, scrub and blade of grass, violating local and federal storm water and clean water rules and putting Turkey Creek residents at even greater risk from flooding. The clearcut is a mile long and seems to have allowed sewage to leak into the water way. The Mississippi Sierra Club is threatening to sue unless corrective measures are quickly taken to care for the eroding creek banks.
Read more from Mississippi: https://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/local/6016317.htm
3. One Smog Day Down, Many to Go
Macon, Georgia, experienced what will no doubt be a disturbing trend around the country this summer when smog reached dangerous levels this past week. Smog is caused by chemical pollution from the buring of fossil fuels like coal or gasoline. Children and the elderly are the most vulnerable to the effects of smog. Unfortunately for Macon, there is no alert system to warn citizens of when there is unhealthy air.
Read more in the Macon Telegraph: https://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/6007810.htm
4. TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to Make the Roadless Rule Law
After the largest public comment process in the history of the federal government, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was enacted in 2000 by President Clinton and protects nearly 60 million acres of our Nation's last remaining wild forests. Despite this overwhelming public support for protecting our last wild forests, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule was placed on hold by the Bush administration. Recent court rulings have made the Rule the law of the land, but the administration remains intent upon weakening the Rule.
Potentially, as early as tomorrow, the Bush administration will likely announce major policy changes to the Rule, possibly by exempting the National Forests in Alaska from the Rule. Our wild forests deserve protection! The Roadless Area Conservation Act, which seeks to use legislation as a means for making the Rule federal law, was introduced in both houses of Congress TODAY. Please call your Members of Congress and urge them to protect America's last remaining wild forests by supporting the Inslee/Boehlert Roadless Area Conservation Act and opposing any attempts made by the Bush administration to weaken the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
Call the US Capital switchboard at: (202) 224-3121.
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