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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
February 17, 2004
"Embarrassing moment today for Vice President Dick Cheney - as he went through the White House metal detector this morning, security made him empty his pockets and out fell Justice Antonin Scalia!" -Jay Leno, Tonight Show monologue pokes fun of Vice President Cheney after he took a hunting trip with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to take up the Sierra Club's case against the Bush/Cheney Energy Task Force.
(1) GLOBAL WARMING: Gentlemen, Replace Your Engines
(2) FACTORY FARMS: Chicken Little
(3) TAKE ACTION: Oppose the Nomination of William Myers
1. GLOBAL WARMING: Gentlemen, Replace Your Engines
Ford and Toyota are taking the lead in the race to bring the public less polluting Sport Utility Vehicles. Both plan to sell the first hybrid SUVs in their 2005 models. Electric motors will take over when the car slows or is at a stop, allowing it to achieve 27 to 40 miles per gallon - a huge improvement from the 17.3 mpg of 2002 models. Ford executives claim over 21,000 people signed up to receive updates about the new vehicles.
Read more about this story in the Seattle Post Intelligencer: https://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/160807_suv16.html
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. FACTORY FARMS: Chicken Little
Residents in Marion, Kentucky are doing the chicken victory dance: Tyson Foods has decided not to appeal a recent district court decision that found the company's broiler complex violated a city nuisance ordinance. Marion residents said the odor from the 16 chicken houses prevented them from being able to enjoy their properties. Aloma Dew, a state organizer for the Sierra Club, thinks the victory "indicates what we have said all along, that these operations are polluting, they harm the environment and they harm the health of the people around them."
Take a "Tour de Stench" through Western Kentucky and learn more about factory farming: https://www.sierraclub.org/factoryfarms/tour_de_stench/
3. TAKE ACTION: Oppose the Nomination of William Myers
William Myers III has a well documented record of hostility towards laws protecting the environment, making him unfit to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court, a court that handles an exceptionally large number of environmental cases. "Myers spent the bulk of his career as an attorney and lobbyist for the mining, timber, and grazing industries and was the longtime Executive Director of the Cattleman's Beef Association," Sierra Club President Larry Fahn pointed out in a recent statement. This calls into serious question Myers' ability to rule on environmental issues fairly and without bias.
Urge your senators to block the nomination of Myers to a lifetime seat on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: https://www.senate.gov/contacting/index.cfm
"Elections belong to the people. It is their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters." - Abraham Lincoln
(1) ENERGY: The Return of Bigfoot
(2) TOXICS: Scapegoating Spadaro
(3) TAKE ACTION: Keep Mercury Out of Our Air and Water
1. ENERGY: The Return of Bigfoot
The 80's rock band Naked Eyes said it best when they sang "You Made Me Promises Promises". The Bush Administration has long-touted the Alpine oil field on Alaska's North Slope as the model for environmentally sensitive drilling, promising it would only be a "small footprint of development." Well, that "small footprint" looks a lot more like Bigfoot. The Administration's latest proposal would allow expanded development stretching over 890,000 acres of pristine lands and leave behind facilities posing risks to numerous species. Americans have to ask, given yet another broken promise, can we trust this Administration with America's natural heritage?
Click on 'Get Involved' here to urge the BLM to keep its promise to protect the unique resources of the Arctic: https://www.alpine-satellites-eis.com/alpeis.nsf/
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. TOXICS: Scapegoating Spadaro
The EPA referred to it as "the worst environmental catastrophe in the history of the Eastern United States" but that didn't stop the Bush Administration from making Jack Spadaro, who helped investigate the Martin County Coal spill, a scapegoat. The Administration said "hit the road, Jack" after he helped uncover data that coal company executives and federal regulators were aware of the potential for failure at the mine but didn't take actions to avoid it. Wouldn't you say that spewing 300 million gallons of black wastewater into local streams, killing hundreds of thousands of fish, flooding homes and polluting wells is worth a fair and complete investigation?
NPR's "Living Earth" is updating this story Sunday, 2/15. Find out the time and station to tune in to here: https://www.loe.org/where/where.htm
3. TAKE ACTION: Keep Mercury Out of Our Air and Water
On January 30, 2004, the Bush Administration published their ill-conceived mercury pollution plan. We have the technology to reduce mercury pollution by 90% or more, but the Bush Administration's proposal would permit three times more mercury pollution than strict enforcement of the Clean Air Act allows - for decades longer. The Administration's proposal also includes a "cap-and-trade" program that allows industry to buy and sell the right to pollute and may leave some communities at risk for more pollution than others. The 60-day comment period on this proposal will end March 30.
Click here to tell EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt to keep mercury out of our air and water: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=299&st=curr
"When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with all other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty." -John Muir, Sierra Club Founder
(1) POLITICS: Needle in a Porkstack
(2) WATER: What's Your Sign?
(3) TAKE ACTION: Protect Clean Air & Clean Water in the Transportation Bill
1. POLITICS: Needle in a Porkstack
Maybe if you bury a provision opening drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge inside a massive transportation bill, no one will notice. That's the line of thinking Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) had when he offered the idea to Rep. Don Young (R-AK). The indecent proposal conveniently comes at a time when Congress is coping with a projected $512 billion budget deficit. Pombo says drilling the refuge would yield billions for the treasury, but what he neglects to say is that revenue from the oil wouldn't be available for 10 years and the transportation bill starts spending now.
Read more about it in the San Francisco Chronicle: https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/05/POMBO.TMP
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. WATER: What's Your Sign?
Signs that caution "Do not eat fish from this river" or "Swimming may cause illness" are still tacked near waterways all over the U.S. But when the Clean Water Act passed in 1972, it stated two goals: that there would be zero discharge of pollutants into the nation's waterways by 1985, and that waterways would be "fishable and swimmable" by 1983. More than 1 billion pounds of toxic chemicals are removed from wastewater each year compared with the 7 billion pounds that industries annually discharge. With numbers like that, something's got to give.
Read the Sierra Club's clean water index for startling statistics about clean water: https://www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater/cleanwater_index.asp
3. TAKE ACTION: Protect Clean Air & Clean Water in the Transportation Bill
The Bush administration and the road building industry seek a Transportation bill that threatens to create dirtier air, damages public health, and significantly weakens over 30 years of environmental and transportation planning progress. We believe there is a better way. Previous transportation bills have been bipartisan bills that were embraced by Congress and the environmental community. There is no reason to change and weaken those sound policies now.
Please send a message to your federal representatives: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=280&st=curr
"The Bush Administration cannot declare victory here. Higher salmon returns in the Pacific Northwest are due to natural causes - not man-made ones. This year only two Snake River sockeye salmon made it back to their spawning grounds in Idaho's Redfish Lake. Two fish does not recovery make." -Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope on the irony that at the same time the Bush Administration is saying it will fund more salmon recovery programs, it is making policy decisions that are devastating salmon runs.
(1) JUDICIAL: Move Over Myers
(2) WILDLANDS: Without a Doubt Clout
(3) TAKE ACTION: Put Workers and the Environment First
1. JUDICIAL: Move Over Myers
The Bush Administration's judicial nomination machine has churned out one of its biggest duds yet. William G. Myers III is the latest nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Myers has argued that the Endangered Species Act regulations are unconstitutional and has called environmental regulation "outright, top down coercion." These kinds of statements cast strong doubt on his ability to render impartial judgments. He has little litigation experience and more than 1/3 of his American Bar Association review panel rated him "unqualified" for the position. Can we request a do-over?
Read the Sierra Club press release opposing the nomination here: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2004-02-03.asp
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. WILDLANDS: Without a Doubt Clout
The Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) proposed plan to open up the rich grasslands of Otero Mesa to oil and gas drilling is gathering opposition. Seven hundred citizens who assembled to protest drilling were greeted by a surprise guest...New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. The Governor recently signed an executive order formally announcing state policy to protect the Mesa. Five former state Game and Fish Department directors, heads of several sportsmen's groups, area ranchers, the private property rights group Paragon Foundation and five former members of the BLM's Resource Advisory Council are also dishing out support.
Read more about the Governor's vow to protect Otero Mesa: https://www.oteromesa.org/richardson_signs_executive_order.htm
3. TAKE ACTION: Put Workers and the Environment First
The EPA's new draft regulations fail to protect workers, communities and the environment from dangerous solvents on shop towels. Solvents pose serious health risks, most heavily for the laundry workers and drivers who often handle the towels in cloth bags or other open containers. When solvents escape into the environment, they can cause serious air and water pollution in surrounding communities. The EPA should replace this proposal with regulations that provide real protections for workers and communities.
Click here to tell the EPA to put workers and the environment first: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=298&st=curr
"When they leave, they can come back years from now and say, 'You know, I helped reconstruct that trail. That's part of me in there.' And I think that means a lot to people." - Guadalupe Mountains National Park Superintendent Ellis Richard in a recent Today Show feature on Sierra Club's Top of Texas service trip to help repair damaged trails. For more information on service outings and other Sierra Club trips, check out: https://www.sierraclub.org/outings/
(1) SPECIES: (En)Danger Ahead!
(2) FORESTS: Un-Sportsmanlike Behavior
(3) TAKE ACTION: Support Transportation Choices, Oppose TEA-3
1. SPECIES: (En)Danger Ahead!
Apparently, the Bush Administration's newest motto is "rules were made to be broken". The law requires EPA to consult with two other federal agencies before approving use of pesticides to ensure that threatened wildlife species will not be jeopardized, but EPA admits to having ignored that rule. The Bush Administration's solution? Throw out the rule altogether.
The Jefferson City News Tribune has the whole story here: https://newstribune.com/articles/2004/01/28/business/0128040038.txt
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. FORESTS: Un-Sportsmanlike Behavior
It's no surprise that environmentalists oppose the Bush Administration lifting protections for the Tongass National Forest, leaving 300,000 acres of wilderness vulnerable to logging. But it is particularly telling to hear that the Administration has outraged another group - the Northern Sportsmen Network of Alaska. The group claims the right thing to do is to protect the forest against "the damage of game habitat wreaked by clear-cutting and the encroachment of roads into some of the nation's largest remaining chunks of wilderness," and suggests that "Sportsmen for Bush" bumper stickers will be scarce in '04.
Read "Conservative Sportsmen Turn Against Bush" in the USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-01-27-jans_x.htm
3. TAKE ACTION: Support Transportation Choices, Oppose TEA-3
The Bush Administration and the roadbuilding industry seek a transportation bill - known as "TEA-3" - that leads to more dirty air, damages public health, and significantly weakens over 30 years of environmental and transportation planning progress. There is a better way. It is time to diversify America's transportation system and offer more convenient, clean, and efficient public transportation choices to commuters and travelers.
Please send a message to your federal representatives to oppose the TEA-3 bill: https://www.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=280&st=curr
"While other car companies introduced flashy new sheet metal, Honda introduced a technological innovation that could have a huge impact on roads near you." - Tom and Ray, hosts of the radio show "Car Talk" at the 2004 Detroit Auto Show. This fall, Honda will introduce a hybrid version of their huge-selling Accord.
(1) SPRAWL: The Little Train That Could
(2) WETLANDS: Eye Spy
(3) TAKE ACTION: No Drilling in Otero Mesa
1. SPRAWL: The Little Train That Could
Californians may soon be hitting the tracks. The state's High-Speed Rail Authority is promoting a bullet train stretching from San Diego to Sacramento with speeds clocking in at over 200 mph. According to the Authority's recent report, by 2020, as many as 68 million riders a year would use the high-speed train. If the train is not built, the state would need to build 2,970 additional miles of freeway lanes, nearly 60 new airport gates and five new runways, totalling $83 billion compared to the estimated $37 billion for the proposed train project cost.
Read more about the train that could in the LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-highspeed27jan27,1,1793730.story?coll=la-headlines-california
TELL FRIENDS ABOUT CURRENTS! VISIT THIS LINK: https://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/currents/
2. WETLANDS: Eye Spy
Massachusetts has an eye in the sky waiting to swoop in on developers illegally building on protected wetlands. The Department of Environmental Protection now has software that digitizes its aerial maps and links them to a computer database for wetlands protection. These kinds of photos are often more convincing to a jury than paper maps. And the proof is in the pudding. In December, the agency announced fines totaling $280,000 against an auto parts company and a concrete company. Massachusetts is the first state to use this kind of technology for wetlands enforcement. Officials were appalled to discover that more than 3,000 protected locations had been filled between 1991 and 2001, a net loss of more than 700 acres than they had previously known about.
Read an article from the Christian Science Monitor here: https://www.christiansciencemonitor.com/2004/0122/p11s02-sten.html
3. TAKE ACTION: No Drilling in Otero Mesa
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on oil and gas drilling in the desert grasslands of New Mexico's Otero Mesa. It is a drastic departure from the draft proposal commented on by the general public and more than doubles the available acreage open to drilling. Otero Mesa is home to a great diversity of plants and wildlife species. The oil and gas industry wants to open the area to full-scale drilling and development, including the construction of a pipeline, roads, power lines and toxic waste ponds. Send a letter to the BLM to protest the proposed development. We should take actions to focus energy policy on conservation, efficiency, and renewable sources, NOT destroy what little remains of our precious natural heritage in Otero Mesa.
Visit this website to send your comments to the BLM: https://www.blmfeedback.com/select.php
Sample Comment: I am writing to protest the proposed Oil & Gas development in the Greater Otero Mesa area as set forth by the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Sierra and Otero Counties.
The BLM's 5% surface disturbance plan in the FEIS only applies to 105,000 acres, leaving the remaining 1.1 million acres of the Otero Mesa area open to standard drilling practices, with few regulations. Furthermore, the 5% plan was not in the original EIS and the public was never allowed to comment on this new proposal.
The BLM should abandon the 5% plan and work towards a plan that puts large areas of Otero Mesa off limits to oil and gas development and creates new standards of protection and restoration in the areas where drilling would be permitted.
Thank you for your attention to this serious matter.
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