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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
September 11, 2003
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."
- John F. Kennedy
(1) TOXICS: Ghost Story
(2) LOCAL POLITICS: Something Fishy in the Air
(3) WATER: Stat Chat
(4) TAKE ACTION: Don't Let the Bush Administration Damage the Pacific Flyaway
1. Ghost Story
Environmental groups are hoping to exorcise a deal that would move a Ghost Fleet of vessels from Virginia to England this November. Sierra Club and others are taking legal action in order to uphold a national law prohibiting the exporting of hazardous wastes. The fleet contains asbestos, lead and other toxics that could contaminate waters and kill marine life. The U.S. Maritime Administration declined comment on why American shipyards weren't given the opportunity to scrap the vessels.
The Hampton Roads News has the whole story here: https://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=59485&ran=177684
2. Something Fishy in the Air
Come and listen to my story 'bout a man named Jeb. Bush that is. A group of Florida business executives have put a proposal in front of Governor Jeb Bush that would reroute water from North Florida in order to supply growth in the South. Picketers dressed as fish stood outside a recent water management conference protesting this "Water Grab" initiative and the negative impacts it would have on Florida's natural water system.
Read more about the proposal in the St. Petersburg Times: https://www.sptimes.com/2003/09/06/State/Task_force_leader_def.shtml
3. Stat Chat
Ready for a late summer vacation? Before you stock the tackle box and put on your suit, keep in mind that 40 percent of rivers, lakes and coastal waters in the U.S. are unsafe for swimming or fishing.
Check out the Sierra Club's Clean Water Index here: https://www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater/cleanwater_index.asp
4. TAKE ACTION: Don't Let the Bush Administration Damage the Pacific Flyaway
ISSUE: Operation of the Yuma Desalting Plant in southern Arizona will destroy the largest remaining wetland in the Colorado River delta in Mexico. The Energy and Water Appropriations Bill, S 1424, is before the Senate and could come to a vote as soon as this week. The U.S. Senate may be the best chance to protect one of the last remaining refuges for migrating birds and many endangered, threatened, and declining species clinging to life in the Colorado River delta in Mexico. In the U.S. and Canada, the decrease in bird migration will affect the ecology of northern California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and British Columbia. Furthermore, the Yuma Desalting Plant is the most expensive alternative for obtaining a relatively small amount of water.
ACTION NEEDED: If your state is listed below, contact your Senator immediately by email or telephone. Request their opposition to restarting the Yuma Desalting Plant authorized in S. 1424, the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill. You can check the status of the bill at https://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app04.html.
Use this link to find out how to contact your Senator: https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Alaska - Arizona - Arkansas - California - Connecticut - Delaware - Florida - Georgia - Hawaii - Illinois - Indiana - Iowa - Louisiana - Maine - Maryland - Massachusetts - Michigan - Minnesota - Montana - Nebraska - Nevada - New Hampshire - New Jersey - New Mexico - New York - North Carolina - North Dakota - Oregon - Pennsylvania - Rhode Island - South Carolina - South Dakota - Vermont - Virginia - Washington - West Virginia - Wisconsin
"A Chamber of Commerce." - Nine-year-old Jessie Meier's earnest answer to the question, "What is the form of government of the United States?" on her citizenship quiz at school. Being the daughter of an active Sierra Club member, Jessie has observed plenty of public and civic meetings.
(1) CLEAN AIR: Bah Humbug!
(2) ENDANGERED SPECIES: Rove, Rove, Rove Your Boat
(3) GLOBAL WARMING: Fuel Factor Forges Forward
(4) TAKE ACTION: New Trade Rules Could Put Communities at Risk
1. Bah Humbug!
Polluters enjoyed an early Christmas this year as they got everything on their wish lists from the Bush administration. On the other hand, Americans will be getting what amounts to lumps of coal in the form of dirtier air and water. President Bush chose late summer to ease restrictions on air pollution, the sale of PCB-contaminated lands and CO2 emissions. Sounds like a warped perception of what's naughty and nice.
See the whole Knight Ridder newspaper article here: https://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/6702095.htm
2. Rove, Rove, Rove Your Boat
Life is but a dream for endangered suckerfish in the Klamath River Basin, and salmon further downstream. Senator John Kerry is calling on the Inspector General for the Department of Interior to investigate meddling from White House political strategist Karl Rove to divert water to farmers at the expense of fish and commercial fishermen during the 2001 drought. The decision resulted in one of the largest fish kills ever. Kerry claims the administration used the water allocation as a special favor to farmers who supported Bush in the 2000 election.
Get the entire LA Times article here: https://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-klamath6sep06,1,717427.story
3. Fuel Factor Forges Forward
Too many costly trips to gas pumps have new vehicle owners rethinking what revs their engines. In a recent Escaped Shopper Survey, consumers listed gas mileage as their number five consideration when car shopping, up from number thirteen in 2002.
Read more on The Car Connection website: https://thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=6356
4. TAKE ACTION: New Trade Rules Could Put Communities at Risk
On Sept. 10-14, trade negotiators from around the world will meet in Cancun, Mexico to negotiate a major expansion of the pro-business rules of the World Trade Organization. The Bush administration will use the talks to advocate for new rules that would make it much harder for governments to enforce environmental and safety standards for "services industries", including such risky businesses as logging, mining, energy extraction, land development and, potentially, water supply. The standards that protect our air, water and land could be weakened under Bush administration proposals for the Cancun talks.
Instead, the Sierra Club believes the WTO talks should focus on reducing huge subsidies for global agribusiness. More opportunities would open up for family farmers the world over, and governments would have more resources to channel into rural development and conservation.
Write a letter-to-the-editor informing your friends and neighbors about Bush administration plans to expand trade rules that put our communities at risk.
For talking points and more information, click on: https://www.sierraclub.org/trade/wto/cancun.asp
"When we asked them to pose for pictures to accompany the article, they both said yes; what's more, their representative wanted them to be photographed in outdoor, natural settings. They both look like Sierra Club veterans: Norton in trekking gear and a Patagonia-cum-Smokey the Bear Outfit, and Griles on horseback, resembling some latter-day Theodore Roosevelt." - Graydon Carter, Editor of Vanity Fair comments on the photo-spread with Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and her deputy Steven Griles for the article "Sale of the Wild". The article presents a detailed investigation of conflict on interest and industry favoritism in the Bush Administration's Department of Interior.
(1) POLITICS: Mystery Solved
(2) CLEAN AIR: Jekyll & Hyde
(3) OPINION: Bush's Failing Grade in Florida
(4) TAKE ACTION: Derail the Bush Energy Plan
1. Mystery Solved
The bitter battle over the judicial nomination of Miguel Estrada for the U.S. Court of Appeals has finally ceased. This mystery man who refused to release his views on such issues as the environment, Roe v. Wade and civil rights announced he will remove himself from the nomination process. Despite having no judicial experience, President Bush felt Estrada would be ideal for the U.S. Court of Appeals, the second most important court in America. Sierra Club joined many other organizations including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, NAACP and Planned Parenthood to oppose the nomination.
Check out what the New York Times had to say here: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/politics/04CND-NOMI.html?ex=1063339200&en=52950f8971ff0b1c&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
2. Jekyll & Hyde
Maybe the Bush administration has a personality disorder. Last week, the White House weakened pollution rules for America's oldest power plants. Then, just a few days later, EPA scientists raised health concerns about soot from power plants and recommended firmer limits on emissions. EPA scientists concluded that current soot levels cause health problems including heart disease, lung cancer and asthma. Why the change of face? Maybe a little fresh air would help them clear their minds.
Read the whole USA Today article here: https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-02-soot-usat_x.htm
3. Bush's Failing Grade in Florida
In an editorial this week, the Tampa Tribune assessed Bush's environmental record and didn't like what they saw. The president weakened both the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts by permitting power plants to use outdated pollution controls and removing wetland safeguards. He opened up our national parks to snowmobile pollution and promoted an energy policy which will provide tax benefits to energy companies while reducing public protections. The Tribune was particularly irked that policies were often implemented at times when the public may not have been looking - weekends, the day before Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. It's nice to know we can always count on a little sunshine from the Sunshine state.
To read the entire editorial click here: https://www.tampatribune.com/News/MGADVWWN4KD.html
4. TAKE ACTION: Derail the Bush Energy Plan
As Congress returns from the August recess, both the House and Senate are beginning negotiations over the flawed Bush energy plan. Republican leaders in both the House and Senate have announced that they intend to put an energy bill on President Bush's desk by the end of the month. Using the recent blackout as political cover, Bush and Congressional Republicans are claiming that their destructive energy bill is necessary to prevent future blackouts. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Bush energy plan takes us backwards and threatens our environment while ignoring solutions at hand today to decrease our dependence on polluting, unsafe, and outdated energy systems. The energy bill does not save a drop of oil and does nothing to significantly increase our use of clean, renewable energy. It almost overlooks completely the importance of increasing efficiency in our buildings, homes, and appliances. In addition, it wouldn't adequately prevent against further power outages.
With the energy bill conference beginning this week, help us derail the destructive Bush energy plan by sending in a letter to the editor to your local paper.
Follow this link to see a sample letter: https://www.sierraclub.org/energy/lte
"Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction." - German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1) TOXICS: Have We Got a Deal for You
(2) AIR: From Hot Air to Bad Air
(3) PEOPLE AND POLITICS: In Lieu of Flowers, Please Remove Bush
(4) TAKE ACTION: Help the Senate Decide on Responsible Forest Fire Legislation
1. Have We Got a Deal for You
Having trouble selling that PCB-contaminated piece of property? Let the Bush administration give you a hand. Since 1978, the EPA has prohibited the sale of land sites contaminated with PCBs (a probable human carcinogen), consequently prompting landowners to clean up the sites. The 25-year-old ban was put in place to prohibit new developments from spreading the toxin and to monitor contaminated soils. Now, in a bit of creative interpretation of the law, the Bush administration wants to end the ban and allow the sale of tainted sites as long as the buyer intends to clean it up. But experts are concerned that EPA won't have the resources or the incentive to keep up with polluted lands, especially smaller sites, once they have been transferred.
Get the full USA Today story here: https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-01-epa-usat_x.htm
2. From Hot Air to Bad Air
Only a few short weeks ago, President Bush came to L.A. promoting his environmental record. Now the Bush administration is fighting L.A.'s efforts to curb smog. Specifically, the administration is pushing to upend regulations in Southern California which control pollution from buses, trash trucks, shuttles and taxis. The South Coast Air Quality Management District's clean fleet rules require private operators to purchase clean-fuel models when replacing old vehicles.
Read more about this in the LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-air31aug31,1,1230098.story
3. In Lieu of Flowers, Please Remove Bush
Friends and family of 71-year-old Wisconsin Sally Baron came across an unusual request in her obituary after the mother of six passed away from heart surgery complications. "Memorials in her honor can be made to any organization working for the removal of President Bush." Baron had her own nickname for the President and often expressed her distrust for this "big corporate guy". The Associated Press and MSNBC ran the story on Baron and reported that several people had responded to the local newspaper vowing to make donations.
For more about Sally Baron, go to: https://www.madison.com/captimes/news/stories/55234.php
4. TAKE ACTION: Urge Senators to Protect Communities; Oppose Bush Logging Plan
The Bush Administration's disingenuously-named "Healthy Forests Initiative" passed through the House of Representatives as HR 1904 and the Senate will likely take up the bill in the next two weeks. The Bush logging plan does nothing to honestly protect lives and communities from forest fires and is more of a vehicle to increase commercial logging. The Bush plan seeks to cut out the public from public forest management and would give unprecedented latitude to agency managers to promote harmful logging projects across the federal public forests.
The Bush logging plan misses on all of the major components that a responsible, science-based, community protection plan should have. The US Forest Service Fire Research lab has found that the best method to protect homes from a forest fire is by creating defensible space 100 feet around a home and 500 meters around communities. Certainly, the administration can do better than this! For information on real home safety and responsible fire management see www.sierraclub.org/forests and www.firewise.org
Please urge your Senators to OPPOSE the Bush "Healthy Forests Initiative" and HR 1904.
** You can reach Senators through the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and at www.senate.gov**
Also, attached is a sample letter that you can use to write to your Senators or local newspaper:
Dear Senator,
I urge you to oppose the ill-conceived Bush administration's "Healthy Forests Initiative." This plan seeks to waive environmental review, undermine meaningful public participation and interfere with our courts in order to favor big timber companies over community protection. The Bush logging plan also attempts to change the standard of judicial review to prevent courts from stopping harmful projects on lands managed by the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
The administration wants to use last year's dramatic fire season to ask you to advance timber industry proposals. Instead, the Senate should require the Forest Service and BLM to help at-risk communities thin small diameter trees and brush in the 500-meter Community Protection Zone. Private landowners should get assistance in reducing hazardous fuels on their property within this crucial defensible zone. This approach is a proven method to protect lives and homes and is the best use of taxpayer resources.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
[First Name] [Last Name] [Address] [City], [State] [Zip]
For more information on National Forests and responsible community protection see www.sierraclub.org/forests
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