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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
January 6, 2004
"This is an enormously important victory that halts the Bush administration efforts to eviscerate the Clean Air Act. Piece by piece, the Bush administration has been undercutting meaningful enforcement of the Clean Air Act. The D.C. court has said it can do so no longer." - Eliot Spitzer, New York Attorney General, in a recent New York Times article about a federal appeals court decision to temporarily block a Bush Administration rule that would relax existing regulations for hundreds of aging power plants to expand without installing modern pollution controls.
(1) FACTORY FARMS: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
(2) CLEAN WATER: A Bad Blend
(3) TAKE ACTION: Holiday Gift
1. FACTORY FARMS: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Steak knives are gathering dust across America after the recent discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. Consumer advocates are urging the government to adopt stricter safeguards and increase inspection procedures on factory farms. According to the Organic Consumers Association, France tests more cattle in a single week than the U.S. has tested in a decade despite it having only a fraction of the U.S. cattle population. Some consumers are opting for organic meat, which has a stricter certification process and more ongoing inspections of organic farms. This may make it less likely to be contaminated by mad cow disease (Oregonian, Jan. 6, 2004).
Check out the Eat Well Guide website to find out where to purchase organic meat in your neighborhood: https://www.eatwellguide.org/search.cfm
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. CLEAN WATER: A Bad Blend
The Bush Administration's new recipe for water includes a heaping helping of sewage, a dash of parasites and a dollop of viruses. In early November, the EPA released draft guidelines that would exempt public treatment facilities from removing pathogens from sewage during heavy rainstorms and snowmelts. The Administration's plan would allow the plants to bypass killing viruses anytime there is a high water flow. The Centers for Disease Control estimates an already alarming rate of 560,000 cases of moderate to severe waterborne diseases in the U.S. per year.
Read the Associated Press article here: https://www.enn.com/news/2003-11-04/s_10061.asp
3. TAKE ACTION: Holiday Gift
A DC Court of Appeals gave breathers a holiday gift this Christmas Eve. The Court blocked the Bush Administration's attempt to weaken a Clean Air Act provision that requires the oldest and dirtiest power plants and refineries to install modern preventative equipment when making changes that increase pollution. The Administration's rule change would allow factories to spend as much as 20% of the cost of their facility every year under the guise of "routine maintenance". The Court's ruling puts a hold on the Bush Administration's changes that could cause irreparable harm to the environment and our communities. We can all breath a little easier because of it.
Send a letter to your newspaper editor to say thanks to the Federal Appeals Court. Click here for a sample letter: https://www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/action/lte_2004january6.asp
**This will be the final Currents edition in 2003. We will resume the environmental buzz on January 6, 2004. Check out the link below for the "2003 Currents Year in Review" and see the best stats of the year!**
https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/2003_review.asp
"It has been shocking and demoralizing to be told, in effect, 'We know what is best for people's health and the park, but we're not doing that because the snowmobile industry wants something else.' The [Bush] Administration had placed the fundamental mission of the Park Service in doubt - today, that shadow has been lifted." -Rick Smith, a 30-year veteran of the National Park Service and Acting Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, after a federal court blocked a decision by the Administration to continue snowmobile use in Yellowstone
(1) PARKS: Hip Hip
(2) HOLIDAYS: More Green than Grinch
(3) TAKE ACTION: Protect Americans from Mercury Pollution
1. PARKS: Hip Hip
Hooray! Yellowstone National Park workers and visitors are breathing easy - literally! - now that Federal Judge Emmett Sullivan blocked a decision by the Bush Administration wanting to continue snowmobile use in the park. Despite its own research concluding that even the latest technology snowmobiles would cause air and noise pollution, the Administration still sided with the snowmobile industry over public health. Snowmobiles produce so much dangerous air pollution that Park Rangers were forced wear respirators to protect themselves from health risks.
Read the press release here: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2003-12-17.asp
GIVE THE GIFT OF CURRENTS. IT'S FREE! VISIT THIS LINK TO TELL A FRIEND: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. HOLIDAYS: More Green than Grinch
Want to have visions of sugar plums dancing in your head this holiday season instead of sleepless nights fretting over landfills? Americans throw away 5 million tons of garbage between Thanksgiving and New Year's! So scrap the wrapping paper this year and decorate gifts with Sunday funnies or outdated maps and raffia bows. If every family wrapped just three gifts this way, it would save enough ribbon to tie a bow around the earth and enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields!
Read this Sierra Magazine article for more holiday green tips: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200211/hidden.asp
3. TAKE ACTION: Protect Americans from Mercury Pollution
The recent Bush Administration proposal to address mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants is a far cry from what the EPA previously said was possible. It also contradicts the Food and Drug Administration's own recent warnings to women about the dangers of eating mercury-laden fish. In 2001, the EPA estimated that a 90% reduction in mercury from coal-fired power plants was possible from all power plants in the next five years. But the Administration's proposal means only a 70% reduction in fourteen years, and allows industry to buy and sell the right to pollute through a so-called "cap-and-trade" program.
Send the EPA an email urging the Administration to require that power plants use the available mercury-reducing technology and not to allow pollution trading among plants that would leave some communities at risk for more pollution than others.
https://www.epa.gov/epahome/question.html
"People always ask us, 'Are things better or worse today?' Well, some things are better and some things are worse. But there are a lot of problems in the world today that no one dreamed of when we were young. For instance, this business about the environment. Why, clean water was just something you took for granted." -Sarah Delany, who coauthored the book "Having Our Say" with her sister Bessie, reflecting on her 109 year life
(1) GLOBAL WARMING: Get Your Motor Runnin'
(2) LAWSUIT: Inquiring Minds Want to Know
(3) TAKE ACTION: Stop Polluting Mountaintop Removal
1. GLOBAL WARMING: Get Your Motor Runnin'
The Toyota Prius would like to thank all of the little people for being recognized as Motor Trend magazine's 2004 Car of the Year. Kevin Smith, editor-in-chief, realizes the decision may shake things up in the automotive industry. He calls the hybrid "a capable, comfortable, fun-to-drive car that just happens to get spectacular fuel economy." Passing trend? We think not. An ad on MapQuest.Com's homepage even stated that $5,133,456,944 in gas money would have been saved if every MapQuest user since October had driven a 2004 Toyota Prius.
Read more about the Prius in Motor Trend online: https://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/alternative/112_031120_coy/index.html
GIVE THE GIFT OF CURRENTS. IT'S FREE! VISIT THIS LINK TO TELL A FRIEND: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. LAWSUIT: Inquiring Minds Want to Know
To use a quote from the late Winston Churchill, exactly who made up Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force remains "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma". For the time being that is. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear the Bush Administration's argument that it is entitled to keep secrets about how national energy policy was developed in collaboration with polluting industries. Sierra Club and Judicial Watch are suing the Administration to shed light on how much influence the fossil fuel industry had over the Administration's destructive energy policy.
Read the Sierra Club press release here: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2003-12-15.asp
3. TAKE ACTION: Stop Polluting Mountaintop Removal
Many mining companies in Appalachia blow the tops of mountains to reach a thin seam of coal and then, to minimize waste disposal costs, dump millions of tons of waste rock in the valley below, permanently burying streams. The Bush Administration acknowledges how devastating this mining practice is yet proceeds allow this type of mining to continue without limits and even suggests steps to accelerate the destruction. Contact the Administration today and let them know that mountaintop removal mining and valley fills should not be allowed and that the laws and regulations that protect clean water must not be weakened.
Send a message to the Environmental Protection Agency: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=291&st=curr
"We have 3,500 families in three states (Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) who will have nothing else to do but put this cowboy on the unemployment line with us. We are ready." - A member of the Independent Steelworkers Union responds to speculation that President Bush would rescind the tariffs on steel, which Bush did do the following day. Steelworkers believe the tariffs have allowed the struggling industry time to reorganize.
(1) GLOBAL WARMING: Longing for the Gipper
(2) OUTDOORS: Topping the Wish List
(3) TAKE ACTION: "D" is for Deserves Better
1. GLOBAL WARMING: Longing for the Gipper
With the onslaught of snowy weather and tax season approaching, car salesmen and accountants are pushing consumers to buy large vehicles over 6,000 lbs. because the Bush Administration raised the tax deduction for these gas guzzlers to $100,000. That's up 300% from the deduction under the Reagan presidency!
Read more about large vehicles and the environment: https://www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming/suvreport/suvthreat.asp
2. OUTDOORS: Topping the Wish List
These New Year's wishes aren't your typical lose-ten-pounds type. Given the season, The New York Times decided to ask a few conservationists what New Year's wish they would make to improve the outdoor experience for sportsmen and sportswomen. Wishes included eliminating the destruction of nine acres per day of the Florida Everglades, no more oil and gas exploration on the Rocky Mountain Front and, to quote Rick Dove, a retired Marine, "fill all the lagoons and get rid of pollution from the hog factories, end of story".
Read the whole article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/07/sports/othersports/07OUTD.html
3. TAKE ACTION: "D" is for Deserves Better
Visible throughout Southeastern Oregon, Steens Mountain is the crown jewel of the Oregon High Desert. The Bureau of Land Management is poised to establish a management plan, Alternative D, that would allow extensive commercial grazing and other harmful activities despite the area's incredible public value as a wild landscape. The Steens-Alvord Coalition has proposed a Citizens' Alternative plan that would instead preserve the area's ecological integrity, protect fish and wildlife, prohibit inappropriate livestock grazing practices, and provide a sound transportation plan.
Send the BLM an email asking them to adopt the elements of the Steens-Alvord Coalition's Citizens' Alternative: https://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/tamain?alid=290&st=curr
"One time, I was running to the car to take something to my in-laws in town, and I had to stop halfway to the car and throw up on the sidewalk because it was so bad. Other times, it just brings bile up and then you get that nasty taste in your mouth."
Edith Galloway, Illinois resident, commenting on National Public Radio earlier this week about how her life is affected by pollution from a nearby giant hog factory.
(1) SPECIES: Kill Two Birds With One Pen
(2) WEB: One Stop Zooming
(3) TAKE ACTION: Drink Water? Take Action
1. SPECIES: Kill Two Birds With One Pen
President Bush chose to celebrate the 30th year of the Endangered Species Act by, with one stroke of his pen, signing legislation that will not only expedite timber-thinning projects but will do it by removing a safeguard for endangered species. Since the President took office in 2001, only 25 species have been added to the list, compared to an average of 55 species PER YEAR under President Clinton and 64 per year under President Bush, Sr.
Read more about the Bush Administration's assault on endangered species: https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/12/04/MNGIP3FR6Q1.DTL
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. WEB: One Stop Zooming
If only holiday shopping were this easy. The Sierra Club website brings you the ultimate information tool...Zoomer. Just enter your zip code for information at your fingertips. Find out the day's pollen count, the closest farmer's market, people in your neighborhood who carpool or check out the average work drive time in your city.
Click here to try Zoomer: https://zoomer.sierraclub.org/
3. TAKE ACTION: Drink Water? Take Action
The Bush Administration is withdrawing federal protection from many wetlands, streams and ponds, leaving them vulnerable to pollution or destruction. The Clean Water Authority Restoration Act of 2003 (S. 473 or H.R. 962) is an important step for safeguarding these waters from pollution from industry and developers. Please support the Clean Water Act so that we can continue the progress we've made under the Clean Water Act.
Click here to send a message to your Senator/Representative asking them to support clean water: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=287&st=curr
Sierra Club Legislative Hotline - (202) 675-2394
Sierra Club National Headquarters - (415) 977-5500
Sierra Club World Wide Web - https://www.sierraclub.org
Sierra Club Vote Watch Website - https://www.sierraclub.org/votewatch/
White House Comment Line - (202) 456-1111
White House Fax Line - (202) 456-2461
President George W. Bush's e-mail - president@whitehouse.gov
Vice President Dick Cheney's e-mail - vice-president@whitehouse.gov
White House Address - 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20500
US Capitol Switchboard - (202) 224-3121
To contact your senators - https://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
To contact your representative - https://www.house.gov/writerep
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