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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
January 22, 2004
-President Bush discussing his Administration's environmental policies and future goals during the State of the Union Address this week.
(1) HEADS UP: Trail Mixer
(2) ENERGY: Best Friends Forever
(3) TAKE ACTION: Continue to Oppose This Energy Bill
1. HEADS UP: Trail Mixer
Wake up with Katie Couric, Matt Lauer and the Sierra Club tomorrow morning. Last October, Sierra Club Outings welcomed a crew from NBC's Today Show on our "Top of Texas" service trip in gorgeous Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The segment will air tomorrow, January 23 on NBC, from 7:00am-10:00am. The group of 17 volunteers got to know each other as they repaired trails damaged by heavy rains and flash floods over the summer. By the end of the week, the trails were as good as new, and the volunteers went home with new friends and a sense of accomplishment.
Read more about the Today Show shoot and how to sign up for a volunteer vacation: https://www.sierraclub.org/outings/national/volunteer_vacations_today_show.asp
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. ENERGY: Best Friends Forever
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Vice President Dick Cheney recently spent a cozy trip together duck hunting in south Louisiana. The two friends packed their bags just three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to take up the VP's appeal in lawsuits over his handling of the Bush/Cheney Energy Task Force. Cheney does not want to reveal whether he met with energy industry officials, including Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, when he was putting together the Administration's energy policy. While federal rules clearly state that a judge should not "permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge," Scalia claims his impartiality is not in question.
Read more about the conflict of interest in this St. Petersburg Times editorial: https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/index.html?ts=1074811032
3. TAKE ACTION: Continue to Oppose This Energy Bill
Congress is back this week, and so is the disastrous energy bill. In his State of the Union this week, President Bush urged the House and Senate to pass an energy bill that protects against future blackouts, promotes conservation, and makes America less dependent on sources of foreign energy. Too bad his energy bill doesn't do any of that - but it does put our communities and the environment at risk. Congress should pass legislation that cuts our country's dependence on oil, increases our use of clean, renewable energy sources, like wind and solar power, protects our public lands, and modernizes the electricity grid to prevent future blackouts.
Contact your Senators today and tell them to continue opposing the energy bill: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=285&st=curr
"We find legitimate ways to fight this destructive type of mining, we present our case to the courts, and in the meantime the Bush administration goes behind our backs and changes these laws. It shows contempt for the people who live in these communities and don't want their lives destroyed by the coal industry." -Judy Bonds, an organizer for Coal River Watch, in a recent Los Angeles Times article. Many citizens oppose mountaintop mining, which they argue is ravaging Appalachia's forests, streams and wildlife and is leveling its mountain peaks. This month, the Bush Administration is expected to weaken rules in the Surface Mining Act to make it legal for companies to heap leftover rock and soil into streams.
(1) FORESTS: Down and Out in Alaska
(2) POLITICS: Bush's Time Out
(3) TAKE ACTION: Nuclear Power Plants Need Strong Fire Safety Codes
1. FORESTS: Chainsaw Massacre
Rolling Stone magazine's latest issue takes aim at what it likes to call "The Alaska Chainsaw Massacre". On December 23, the Bush Administration - after closed-door bargaining with logging businesses - reopened the Tongass National Forest to clear-cutting, leaving timber executives grinning in their eggnog. The Tongass, 17 million acres of pristine Alaskan land, is the largest intact temperate rain forest left on the planet and is "one of the only places in the country that retains every species of plant and animal found in pre-Columbian times, a biological time capsule that includes grizzly bears, wolves, bald eagles and salmon." Is it any coincidence that, in the past four years, the timber industry has given more than $11 million to Bush and other Republican candidates?
Read "The Alaska Chainsaw Massacre" in Rolling Stone here: https://rollingstone.com/features/nationalaffairs/featuregen.asp?pid=2761
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. POLITICS: Bush's Time Out
New Yorkers look to TimeOut magazine for where to eat, where to shop and what to watch. TimeOut's television listing for this evening's State of the Union address reads: "2004 State of the Union Address, 9-11pm, just about everywhere. Overly choreographed 'reality' TV hits its nadir. We suggest skipping this one and tuning in next season, when there might be a better cast." For those who decide to watch anyway, TomPaine.com suggests printing the scorecard linked to below which lists a few key indicators of the health of our nation. Keep track to see which key issues are addressed.
For the Scorecard, click here: https://anon.mindshare.speedera.net/anon.mindshare/tompain/Scorecard.pdf
3. TAKE ACTION: Nuclear Power Plants Need Strong Fire Safety Codes
Last month, the Bush Administration released a proposal that weakened fire safety regulations for nuclear power plants and put communities, workers, and the environment at increased risk of nuclear accidents. These regulations were written as the result of a near catastrophic fire in 1975 and many plants still have not come into compliance. Instead of weakening fire codes, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should enforce the law and require that all plants comply with the strictest standards for fire safety.
Click here to send a letter to the NRC: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=296&st=curr
"...the Bush White House represents a new departure in the history of the Presidency. He is so eager to accommodate his supporters and contributors that there seems to be very little that he is not willing to do for them at the expense of the public interest. To mention only one example, we've seen him work tirelessly to allow his friends to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Indeed, it seems at times as if the Bush-Cheney Administration is wholly owned by the coal, oil, utility and mining companies." -Al Gore at the Beacon Theater in New York today during his speech on the environment where he indicted the Bush Administration's inaction on global warming and other environmental issues.
(1) AIR: Bad Air Apparent
(2) VICTORY: Courting the Environment
(3) TAKE ACTION: Spending Bill Could Be Dire for West Coast
1. AIR: Bad Air Apparent
"I think I'll step inside for a breath of fresh air." Something about that sentence just doesn't sound right...but that's exactly what citizens of Cache County, Utah, are saying these days. County health officials are urging all residents to stay indoors as much as possible due to severely increased levels of air pollution caused by a cold, thick fog full of fine-particle pollution. Pollution levels in the Cache Valley are the highest they've been since 2002. A recent study in Environmental Health Perspectives reveals that this type of fine-particle pollution reduces heart function and probably increases inflammation in the cardiovascular system. Nationwide, an estimated 74 million people are exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution.
Read the Salt Lake Tribune article to find out what you can do to reduce air pollution: https://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jan/01142004/utah/128920.asp
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. VICTORY: Courting the Environment
It's a trifecta! Three federal court rulings in recent weeks resulted in major victories for the environment. First, the courts overturned a Bush Administration decision to weaken energy-efficiency standards for new air conditioners. Second, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court decision and rejected the Administration's efforts to allow snowmobile use in Yellowstone National Park. Third, a federal court blocked a Bush Administration rule that would have relaxed existing pollution requirements for thousands of aging power plants.
Read about more "Victories to Savor" in the Sierra Club Planet: https://www.sierraclub.org/planet/200401/victories.asp
3. TAKE ACTION: Spending Bill Could Be Dire for West Coast
The so-called 'Omnibus spending bill' comes up for final consideration in the Senate next week. It contains a rider that could force construction of a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant along the west coast of the US. These controversial projects deserve open and public debate, not political cover in a massive spending bill. Please contact your Senators and urge them to oppose these types of massive and controversial projects from inclusion in the Omnibus Appropriations bill.
Find out contact information for your Senator here: https://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
"I once heard a Texas politician being begged to consider doing something 'for the children of Texas.' He inquired back, 'Do the little bastards have a PAC?' Well, no they don't. But they have mommies. Their mommies can read numbers. Their mommies know the difference between 50 tons a year and 5 tons a year. Mommies know what a campaign contribution is. Mommies can tell the difference between a cynical sack of excrement and safe babies. Mommies can get very angry." -Molly Ivins, journalist and author, on the Bush Administration relaxing regulations for coal-fired power plants to allow spewing of 50 tons of mercury a year into the environment. The Administration chose not to implement laws already on the books which could reduce emissions to 5 tons annually by 2007.
(1) ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: Westward Ho!
(2) POLITICS: The Envelope Please
(3) TAKE ACTION: Keep Mining Out of the Zone
1. ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY: Westward Ho!
When 100 economists and two Nobel laureates talk, people listen. But will the Bush Administration? The economists sent the Administration and eleven governors a letter stating that protecting and enhancing the quality of the natural environment in western states would strengthen the ability of them to generate more jobs and higher incomes. In it, they observe, "The environment's contribution to economic prosperity, however, faces serious threats, including air and water pollution, urban sprawl, the extension of roads and other development..." They ask the Administration to fully review their actions which damage the economy by degrading the environment.
Read the letter the economists sent to President Bush and western states governors here: https://www.econw.com/pdf/120303letter.pdf
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. POLITICS: The Envelope Please
Some of you may remember from our October 2003 Currents, we mentioned a MoveOn.org political TV ad contest that gave the public an opportunity to submit 30-second ads depicting the truth about the Bush Administration. The tallies are in and the winner is..."Child's Pay" which focuses on the Administration's trillion-dollar debt legacy to America's children. The creator, Charlie Fisher, is an ad executive who was a registered Republican until 1992. Fisher filmed young kids working in difficult services - dishwasher, trash man, office cleaner - and then ends the ad with the line, "Guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1 trillion deficit?" It will run nationwide January 17-21, coinciding with the State of the Union Address on January 20.
View the winning ad here: https://www.bushin30seconds.org
3. TAKE ACTION: Keep Mining Out of the Zone
For the past 20 years, the "stream buffer zone" rule has protected our nation's waters by preventing destructive mining practices within 100 feet of streams. The Bush Administration recently proposed changes to this rule, changes which would make it easy for mining companies to dump their wastes near or directly on top of streams. Contact the Administration today and urge it not to endanger communities by weakening or eliminating the buffer zone rule.
Contact the Department of the Interior of by visiting: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=295&st=curr
"The Bush administration is weakening the Clean Air Act. It is weakening the Clean Water Act and it is not cleaning up Superfund sites. We have the right to know why. These are life and death issues." -Senator James Jeffords, an Independent from Vermont, in a December 19, 2003 special environmental photo report in the Chicago Tribune
(1) SPECIES: Cry, Wolf
(2) TRADE: Lessons Not Learned
(3) TAKE ACTION: The EPA Can Do Better
1. SPECIES: Cry, Wolf
The Bush Administration lifted protections for the gray wolf, a shy and intelligent creature, by reclassifying them in most of the lower 48 states as threatened rather than endangered. Environmental groups praise the success the reintroduction of wolves back to areas like Yellowstone National Park's Lamar Valley but don't believe that the success is enough to justify removing them from the endangered list. Many groups are filing lawsuits against U.S. Department to stop delisting, saying that recovery has occurred in just three of nine states in the Western region (Chicago Tribune, December 17, 2003).
Read the recent ESPN Outdoors column by Sierra Club regional director and sportsman Steve Thomas to learn more: https://espn.go.com/outdoors/conservation/columns/guest_columnist/1687901.html
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. TRADE: Lessons Not Learned
The ten candles on the North American Free Trade Agreement's (NAFTA) cake may be burning bright, but the lessons learned by the Bush Administration were dim in comparison. NAFTA's anniversary marks a decade that witnessed a transfer of power from democratic governments to multinational corporations and left communities at risk of unsafe drinking water and dirty air. Regrettably, the Administration hasn't learned these lessons and it plans to seek congressional approval of an expansion of NAFTA to Central America later this year.
Read an op-ed on NAFTA by Sierra Club's Dan Seligman in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: https://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/7631221.htm
3. TAKE ACTION: The EPA Can Do Better
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
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