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February 10, 1999
"There are no environmentalists in Arkansas." Congressman Vic Snyder (D-AR)
TAKE ACTION: REG REFORM
TELL THEM YOU WERE WATCHING: Thank or Punish
REG REFORM PART II: House Leadership just won't learn
YOU CAN HELP STOP CAR POLLUTION
PRESS RELEASE ON REG REFORM: Release in your own area
TAKE ACTION!
TAKE ACTION: PAYBACKS OR THANK YOU'S
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. You might have heard how reasonable the so-called new leaders of the House of Representatives are.
Don't believe it. They're the same radical anti-environmentalists, pushing the same worn-out program to attack clean water, clean air and public health programs in the dark of night, with no accountability for their actions.
Just like in the days of Newtie, Tom "the Hammer" DeLay had his way with environmental protection programs today, when he and his polluter pals in the U.S. House jammed through HR 350, a bill that would make it easier to to weaken environmental laws.
We know you contacted your offices because they were feeling the pain. Some had already ducked and covered by the time we contacted them, and others were wanting more information, including Vic Snyder (D-AR). Snyder made a special appointment with our D.C. representatives this morning in order to weigh his options on the bill and the amendments, which we supported. When the meeting was wrapping up, Snyder said he'd heard a lot from industry groups on the issue. When probed about whether he'd heard from the public who cared about the environment, he announced that there were " no environmentalists in Arkansas." When pressed on this issue, he qualified his statement, said "oh, some sportsmen."
We relayed that message to our Arkansas membership, who showed Snyder how wrong he was, and the Congressman voted in favor of both the Boehlert and the Waxman amendments. Our D.C. types saw Snyder as he walked out of the House after his vote, and told him he'd done the right thing when he supported both improving amendments. We should thank him!
Other representatives must not have understood how important the issue was. They didn't learn that HR 350, the Mandates Information Act, would delay important new public health and environmental protection programs, strangling agencies in new red tape. The bill would create a new point of order that could shut down debate on a bill if any member claims it would cost the private sector more than $100 million. And the bill would allow an "easy out" for anti-environmental members of Congress to sink key programs without having to vote against them directly -- and bear the wrath of the voters in their home towns.
H.R. 350 eventually passed by a vote of 274-149. The Waxman and Boehlert amendments failed by votes of 216-210 and 216-203, respectively.
You can hold your own representave accountable. Call and thank them, or tell them how upset you are.
You can get a full vote chart at the web site Thomas.loc.gov. And here are some highlights:
Good Republicans on Boehlert:
Bereuter Bilbray Boehlert Castle Cook Greenwood Horn Houghton Johnson (CT) Kelly LaHood Porter Quinn Ramstad Roukema Saxton Scarborough Shays Ehlers Forbes Franks (NJ) Frelinghuysen Ganske Gilchrest Gilman LaTourette Leach Morella Smith (MI) Smith (NJ) Upton Walsh Weldon (PA) Wolf
Good Republicans on Waxman:
Bilbray Boehlert Campbell Castle Horn Johnson (CT) Kelly Lazio Ramstad Roukema Saxton
Scarborough Shays Forbes Gilchrest Leach Morella Smith (NJ) Weldon (PA)
Waxman - Dem's who voted wrong:
Berry (AR01) Clement (TN05) Condit (CA18) Cramer (AL05) Danner (MO06) Goode (VA05) Gordon (TN06) Hall (TX04) John (LA07) Lucas (KY04) McIntyre (NC07) Mollohan (WV01) Murtha (PA12) Pickett (VA02) Sandlin (TX01) Sisisky (VA04) Stenholm (TX17) Tanner (TN08) Traficant (OH17) Turner (TX02)
Dem's who were absent:
Berkley (NV01) Carson (IN10) Jone (OH) Klink (PA04) Lofgren (CA16) Maloney (NY14) Rush (IL01) Spratt(SC05)
HELP STOP POLLUTION FROM CARS
Behind Enemy lines on TIER II pollution standards---How Big Industry interests plan to put THEIR bottom line ahead of OUR kids future!
In "marathon meetings" last week, US EPA Administrator Carol Browner and top automakers discussed the agency's proposed auto emissions and fuel standards.
Meanwhile...
In their own private meeting representatives of the auto, oil, chemical, utility and mining industries discussed using democratic politicians to "mask their efforts" to weaken the EPA's proposed new emissions standards (Greenwire, Detroit Daily News).
What the industry lobbyists meeting just blocks from the White House didn't know was that an environmental activist secretly listened in on the call, took notes, and faxed them throughout Washington's environmentalist community.
Frank O'Donnell, who works for the Clean Air Trust, listened in as big industry held a meeting to quietly come up with ways of putting pressure on mid-level EPA staffers to make the agency's new air rules more flexible. As one lobbyist noted: "We don't want (EPA Administrator Carol) Browner to own this thing." If she made this a personal crusade, the lobbyists believed, changing the rules would only get more difficult. Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer (D) and Michigan Sen. Carl Levin (D) were mentioned as possible allies.
Calling themselves the steering committee for the "Air Quality Standards Coalition," the assembled interests spent more than $100 million wielding influence in Washington in 1997 alone. This year, they'll likely spend more.
The coalition was formed in 1996 in response to EPA rules tightening standards for smog and soot that industry groups said would cost them $ 80 billion. The EPA reported the rules would save 15,000 lives a year.
WHAT YOU CAN DO...
KEEP THOSE POSTCARDS COMING!
Strong public support for tough standards is the best way to ensure that these powerful industries don't get their way at the expense of our kids health. Now is your chance to join the fight! Send a postcard to the Vice President and tell him you want strong Tier II auto pollution standards--for our families and for our future.
The postcards are yours for the asking! To request 1 for yourself or a thousand for you and 999 of your closest friends, just contact Michelle Artz at 202-547-1141 or e-mail michelle.artz@sierraclub.org.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, February 10, 1999
CONTACT: Kathryn Hohmann, 202-675-7916
Congress Votes to Weaken Environmental Protections
Vote Against Amendment Threatens Our Clean Air and Water
Washington, DC -- In one of the first critical votes of the 106th Congress, Congress voted today against amendments designed to protect America's major environmental laws. Congressmen Waxman (D-CA) and Boehlert (R-NY) both introduced amendments to H.R. 350 to stop this anti-environmental bill from strangling environmental agencies in red tape and letting anti-environmental votes be hidden behind procedural shenanigans. H.R. 350 eventually passed by a vote of 274-149. The Waxman and Boehlert amendments failed by votes of 216-210 and 216-203, respectively.
"Congress is leaving the backdoor open to stealth attacks on the environmental protections that all Americans hold dear," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. "Today's votes tell us that this Congress is against open debate and afraid of being held accountable for voting against the environment."
Waxman's amendment, known as the "Defense of the Environment Act" would demand full and open debate and an accountable vote on any legislation that would undercut environmental safeguards and public health protections. The amendment would also prevent the use of backdoor legislative gimmicks that hide anti-environmental votes from the public.
The Defense of the Environment Act was introduced as a response to waves of anti-environmental riders that were attached to last year's appropriations bills, including riders that would increase logging on national forests, cripple endangered species protections, and block regulation of radioactive pollution in drinking water.
"Rather than hiding their environmental votes behind legislative gimmicks, our elected officials should heed Americans' call for stronger environmental protections," added Pope. "Stealth attacks on our environment undermine our democracy and are an affront to the public's desire for clean air, clean water, and healthy forests. Our advice to Congress is simple: stop trying to hide your votes, and stop voting against the environment."
"Multiple use does not mean we should do everything on every acre simply because we can. We must protect the last best places and restore the rest."
US Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck - Feb. 3, 1999
TAKE ACTION: REG REFORM VOTE ON TAP FOR WEDNESDAY
UTAH CHAPTER TAKES A BITE OUT OF LEGACY HIGHWAY
SHELL OIL TAKES PROFITS OVER HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENT
NATIONAL FOREST ROADLESS AREAS NEED LOVE TOO!
TAKE ACTION!
TAKE ACTION: ONCE AGAIN WITH FEELING! - - TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE "PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS"
Just when you thought it was safe to forget Newt's ill-fated "Regulatory Reform" -- it's coming to the floor again on Wednesday!
Please contact your representative, and tell them to oppose HR 350. It's our first chance to show the new(est) House leadership that they cannot fiddle with environmental laws!
* We oppose HR 350, the Mandates Information Act. The bill would delay important new public health and environmental protection programs, strangling agencies in new red tape.
*The bill creates a new point of order that could shut down debate on a bill if any member claims it would cost the private sector more than $100 million.
*The bill allows an "easy out" for anti-environmental members of Congress to sink key programs without having to vote against them directly -- and bear the wrath of the voters in their home towns. If HR 350 passed into law, any single member of Congress could raise a "point of order" against any program that would impose costs greater than $100 million on the private sector. And then, members of Congress would cast -votes on the "point of order" -- not the program itself, allowing them the opportunity to claim they didn't directly oppose the environmental program.
*The bill elevates costs to businesses over benefits to public health. This one-sided equation would require an analysis of the costs of protection programs like Clean Water, Clean Air and safe food -- but ignore their far-reaching benefits. The cost analysis, for example, of a bill like a better meat inspection measure would show a burden on the beef packing industry, but ignore the widespread benefits to public health.
*The issue here is not whether Congress should impose mandates; the issue is whether Congress must have a full, open, democratic debate about environmental protection measures. The sponsors of the so-called Mandates Information Act seem to believe the answer is "no." What are they afraid of?
*We have pro-environmental members of the House who are planning to help. Henry Waxman will offer his Defense of the Environment Amendment to this bill, which places a safeguard requiring open debate and an independent vote on the House floor when legislative efforts to weaken our laws come to the House floor. Sherry Boehlert also plans an amendment, which would strike the sneak route of the point of order.
Tell your Representative to vote "no" on HR 350, and to support the Boehlert and Waxman amendments.
UTAH CHAPTER SLAMS "LEGACY HIGHWAY" Sierra Club Crashes UDWR's Eagle Day - Again
Utah Chapter EPEC Organizer Marc Heileson reports that last Saturday, a bold group of Sierrans and coalition partners Friends of Great Salt Lake set up "Camp Stop Legacy Highway" at the main entrance to the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area. This is where the Utah State Division of Wildlife hosted its annual "Eagle Day" to invite the public out to the wetlands to view some of the 500 American Bald Eagles that visit the Great Salt Lake each winter. Sierra Club volunteer Carol Werner owns the last piece of property before the waterfowl management area and volunteers with the DWR to have the entrance gate next to her house so she can keep an eye on it. Camp Stop Legacy became her front yard and Eagle Day visitors had to first pass through to see the eagles. The group found it was an easy sell to stand beside the wetlands of the Great Salt Lake, with its enormous wildlife numbers present, pointing out to people that this is the proposed route for the governor's freeway.
This was the second year for the Utah chapter and, just as last year, they got a great reception from the public and an absolute homerun in the press. The Utah Chapter received favorable press in the state's three largest papers, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Deseret News and the Ogden Standard Examiner. The NBC and ABC affiliates also provided two great TV spots! The only difference this time was that most everyone had already heard of the Legacy Highway. Visitors were also amazed to see just how far into the wetlands the highway is proposed to go. Special thanks to Carol Werner for allowing the takeover of her home and for the volunteers who braved the wet and chilly morning at the lake.
Marc is also organizing for the comment period for the state's 401 water quality certification of the Legacy Highway. Somehow, the state had previously issued the certification to the Utah Department of Transportation without remembering that it required public comment to do so. (But, the Utah Chapter made them pull it back!)
SHELL TAKES PROFITS OVER THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The oil giant Royal Dutch Shell announced this week plans to invest an additional $8.5 billion over the next five years in Nigeria to develop a number of large oil fields off the Nigerian coast. Shell already produces half of Nigeria's daily output of 2 million barrels of oil.
Shell's announcement comes at a time when Nigeria's government is in flux with national elections scheduled later this month and with mounting popular criticism of Shell's oil drilling policies. The international community has widely criticized Shell for disregarding environmental protections in extracting oil in the Niger Delta region in Southern Nigeria.
In 1995, the Sierra Club joined other environmental groups to call for a boycott of Shell for conspiring with the Nigerian government which hanged nine environmental activists, including internationally acclaimed poet and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa. We've joined environmental organizations worldwide to put public pressure on Shell to clean up its oil drilling practices.
So far, Shell has stubbornly refused to clean up its environmental mess, which has destroyed farmland, fisheries, and livelihoods. Shell's plans to spend billions in new investments before paying to clean up the environmental destruction it has wrought in the Niger Delta again signifies cut-throat corporate greed at its worst.
Call Shell President Jack Little at 1-800-248-4257. Tell him you are deeply troubled by his company's greed and destruction in Nigeria and demand that Shell spend money to clean up its mess and compensate the native Ogoni people for past damage. And, by all means, keep up the boycott of Shell products.
SMALL ROADLESS AREAS NEED LOVE TOO!
Our National Forest roadless areas are the last bastions of true unprotected wilderness. And in many parts of the eastern US, roadless areas are even more scarce. These unspoiled areas of our National Forests are crucial for providing high quality habitat for fish and wildlife, magnificent scenery and backcountry recreation. Roadless areas also produce some of our clearest, cleanest rivers and streams, which provide high quality habitat for sensitive fish species, and provide essential sources of clean drinking water.
The U.S. Forest Service will soon announce a plan for new management guidelines of roadless areas that will focus on a short-term moratorium on the construction of logging roads in roadless areas larger than 5000 acres. Unfortunately, the moratorium is both temporary and will leave out tens of millions of acres of America's scenic wilderness that fall under the 5000 acre threshold as well as other National Forests that tend to be politically contentious.
The Forest Service moratorium specifically exempts many critically important roadless areas in National Forests, such as the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. Other National Forests that have had their forest plans recently revised such as the Tongass and Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota and those forests covered by the President's Northwest Forest Plan were exempted from the moratorium. Expanding the loopholes, and leaving room for more damaging subsidized roads, the moratorium also excluded other roadless areas and areas smaller than 5,000 acres.
Now it is time for the Clinton Administration to act. President Clinton and Vice-President Gore have a historic opportunity to protect and preserve the dwindling native forest areas of the United States. Make your call to the Vice President at (202) 456-2326 and ask that he direct the Forest Service to permanently protect all National Forest roadless areas of 1000 or larger from all destructive activities.
"As stewards of the lands that God has given us, we need to make some changes, and we need to make them now." Reverend Owens of the Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation, calling for an end to commercial logging in National Forests.
CONTENTS:
TAKE ACTION: TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS
RELIGIOUS COALITION SAYS "END COMMERCIAL LOGGING"
DUPONT HALTS PLANS TO MINE GEORGIA'S OKEFENOKEE SWAMP
TAKE ACTION!
TAKE ACTION: TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS
The House of Representatives is at it again. They're conducting another sneak attack on environmental protections.
But you can help stop it if you make a call and say you've had enough.
The House is back in action, and rearing it's ugly head is a bad memory from the 105th Congress. So called "Regulatory Reform" is coming to the floor again on Wednesday.
Never heard of it? Practiced selective amnesia? Wise move - but it's serious, and it's moving. Read on to learn about why this is such a threat to our health and the environment.
Please contact your representative, and tell him/her to oppose HR 350. It's our first chance to show the new(est) House leadership that they cannot fiddle with environmental laws!
* We oppose HR 350, the Mandates Information Act. The bill would delay important new public health and environmental protection programs, strangling agencies in new red tape.
*The bill creates a new point of order that could shut down debate on a bill if any member claims it would cost the private sector more than $100 million.
*The bill allows an "easy out" for anti-environmental members of Congress to sink key programs without having to vote against them directly -- and bear the wrath of the voters in their home towns. If HR 350 passed into law, any single member of Congress could raise a "point of order" against any program that would impose costs greater than $100 million on the private sector. And then, members of Congress would cast -votes on the "point of order" -- not the program itself, allowing them the opportunity to claim they didn't directly oppose the environmental program.
*The bill elevates costs to businesses over benefits to public health. This one-sided equation would require an analysis of the costs of protection programs like Clean Water, Clean Air and safe food -- but ignore their far-reaching benefits. The cost analysis, for example, of a bill like a better meat inspection measure would show a burden on the beef packing industry, but ignore the widespread benefits to public health.
*The issue here is not whether Congress should impose mandates; the issue is whether Congress must have a full, open, democratic debate about environmental protection measures. The sponsors of the so-called Mandates Information Act seem to believe the answer is "no." What are they afraid of?
*We have pro-environmental members of the House who are planning to help. Henry Waxman will offer his Defense of the Environment Amendment to this bill, which places a safeguard requiring open debate and an independent vote on the House floor when legislative efforts to weaken our laws come to the House floor. Sherry Boehlert also plans an amendment, which would strike the sneak route of the point of order.
Tell your Representative to vote "no" on HR 350, and to support the Boehlert and Waxman amendments.
RELIGIOUS COALITION SAYS "END COMMERCIAL LOGGING"
The Sierra Club's campaign to end the commercial logging program on the National Forests is blessed with allies from diverse segments of American society. In addition to the conservation and recreation communities, economists, small business owners and religious leaders have all voiced their opinion for protecting our National Forests from logging and restoring damaged watersheds. Last week a contingent of religious leaders visited Members of Congress to urge their support for forest protection and the passage of the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act.
The coalition's visit produced this item in the Feb. 5 edition of "Greenwire," an electronic news publication: "In a bid to halt the rampant destruction of America's remaining forests, religious leaders this week came to Washington, DC, to call for an end to commercial logging in national forests. The Santa Rosa, CA-based Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation's first lobbying effort culminated on 2/3 in a meeting with White House Council of Environmental Quality staff (Greenwire, 5/18/98). Earlier in the week, the RCFC urged Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, US Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck and members of Congress to redirect timber subsidies to communities for ecological restoration projects and worker retraining. The group also demanded a stop to all logging in old-growth forests. The 50 Christian and Jewish leaders say they see a clear spiritual obligation to preserve the nation's forests and forest ecosystems. RCFC chair Reverend Owen Owens: "As stewards of the lands that God has given us, we need to make some changes, and we need to make them now."
Thanks to all Sierra Club activists for helping with this great event. For information on how you can get involved please call Sean Cosgrove at 202/547-1141.
DUPONT HALTS PLANS TO MINE NEAR OKEFENOKEE REFUGE
On Friday, DuPont signed an agreement to halt plans to mine titanium on the edge of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia. Congratulations to the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club who organized tirelessly to protect the Okefenokee Swamp from environmentally devastating strip mining!!!
The Okefenokee Swamp is the world's largest freshwater wetland and provides essential habitat for many endangered and threatened species, including the wood stork, the red cockaded woodpecker, the indigo snake and the parrot pitcher plant. It is also one of the last strongholds of the Florida black bear. Mining near the refuge would have had a devastating effect on the air, water quality and wildlife habitat.
This agreement will add about 10,000 acres of land to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and prohibit mining on another 29,000 acres. The agreement is contingent on raising enough money to buy the land and compensate DuPont for financial losses. DuPont plans to seek federal, state and private funding for the purchase of the land and the creation of an education center on the site.
Congratulations to all Sierra Club activists who wrote letters, talked to their neighbors and organized to protect the Okefenokee from strip mining!!!
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