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March 12, 1999
"...[Ford] reportedly intends to introduce the capstone of its utility models, the Excessive, by late 2001. It is said the Excessive could measure up to 40 feet in length and weigh a staggering five tons, with room for 20 people in four rows of seats, excluding sleeping quarters, dining area, children's playroom and maid's room." -- Susan Ellicott, of National Public Radio's "Wait, Wait . . . Don't Tell Me", in a 3/6/99 NY Times op-ed mocking Ford's new "Excursion" mega-SUV.
TAKE ACTION #1: CLOSE THE SPORT-UTE MPG LOOPHOLE!
TAKE ACTION #2: STOP AN ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL JUDICIAL CANDIDATE!
GLOBAL WARMING: BAD BILL, GOOD SENATORS
NATIONAL FORESTS: FEELING THE HEAT
TAKE ACTION!
TAKE ACTION: URGE YOUR SENATORS TO SIGN ON TO THE FEINSTEIN/BRYAN/GORTON LETTER ON SUVS!!!
Should sport utility vehicles and other light trucks be allowed to pollute more than cars? The Sierra Club doesn't think so, and neither do US Senator's Diane Feinstein, Richard Bryan, Slade Gorton.
These Senators have crafted a letter to President Clinton urging him to close the loophole in federal miles per gallon standards that allows light trucks to pollute more than cars. They realize that gas-guzzling SUVs, mini-vans, and pickups are worsening the threat of global warming, strengthening our addiction to fossil fuels, and increasing pressure to drill for oil in sensitive wilderness areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This letter shows that Senators with a range of political views all support the goals of curbing global warming and protecting our environment (this is one of the few environmental issues on which the Sierra Club and Sen. Gorton see eye to eye!)
Raising miles per gallon standards for cars and trucks is the biggest single step we can take to curb global warming. But since 1995, friends of the auto and oil industries in Congress have attached stealth "riders" to Department of Transportation's budget that have blocked the Administration from improving the standards.
The Feinstein/Bryan/Gorton letter urges the President to support higher fuel efficiency standards, and specifically to work with concerned Members of Congress to close the SUV loophole. As the letter points out, a 14 mile per gallon sport utility vehicle will emit 70 tons of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming pollutant, over it's lifetime. That's nearly twice what the average passenger car will emit. With more and more sport-utes on rolling out of showrooms, its imperative that we close the SUV loophole!
ACT: URGE YOUR SENATORS TO SIGN ON! Write, fax, or phone your Senators TODAY and urge them to sign on to the Feinstein/Bryan/Gorton letter on miles per gallon standards! Remind them that raising miles per gallon standards is the biggest single step we can take to curb global warming! Tell your Senators to contact Sen. Feinsein's office and sign on today!
TAKE ACTION #2: STOP AN ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL JUDICIAL CANDIDATE
President Clinton is being pressured by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah to nominate a thoroughly anti-environmental politician to fill a vacancy in the federal judiciary. Ted Stewart, Chief of Staff to Utah's Republican Governor Mike Leavitt, has taken credit as the author of a recent lawsuit which sought to prevent the Department of the Interior from conducting a sorely needed wilderness re-inventory in Utah. Stewart opposed President Clinton's designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Reacting to the announcement, Stewart said, "that was a day of infamy for some of us." Ted Stewart has favored ending federal control of lands in Western states and has suggested turning over federal land either to Utah or to private interests.
Federal judges are appointed for life. Important decisions relating to the protection of America's wilderness are made by federal judges in Utah, and the bad ones are very difficult to overturn.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: The decision about Ted Stewart's nomination will likely be made early next week. Please take a few minutes today to call the White House at (202) 456-1111. Ask the switchboard operator to tell President Clinton that you oppose the nomination of Ted Stewart to be a federal judge in Utah. CALL EARLY!! CALL OFTEN!!!
GLOBAL WARMING: BAD BILL, GOOD SENATORS
With Early Action Bill The Devil Is In The Details
Last week, a bad global warming bill emerged in the Senate. The bill, Credit for Voluntary Reductions Act of 1999 (S. 547), would give polluters tradable pollution credits for a host of dubious actions. Here are three examples:
S. 5
47 would give a polluter credits for planting trees instead of reducing the pollution spewing from a smoke stack. At a time when we need to reduce pollution causing global warming, this bill would credit utilities for planting a fast-growing monoculture tree farm. And, a utility could sell its carbon credits to someone else who could burn more fossil fuels. The science on "sequestering" carbon isn't settled, but we know that energy efficiency and renewable energy work to actually reduce the pollution causing global warming!
S. 547 would give utilities credits for increasing generation of nuclear power extending a lifeline to a dying nuclear power industry. These credits would subsidize increased use of atomic power and extend the lifetime of aging facilities.
S. 547 awards credits to companies who claim that they reduced pollution in the past under a voluntary, unregulated and unverified Department of Energy program. What's more, all of these credits can be traded to another polluter who can then pollute more.
Sounds like a recipe only utilities could love. No wonder, they wrote it! Sierra Club and other groups asserted that major loopholes in S. 547 effectively put a government 'Seal of Approval' on the environmental equivalent of junk bonds: dubious projects backed by vague promises, offering returns that are - at best - unknowable.
The big problem with S. 547 is that our champions, Senators Chafee (R-RI) and Lieberman (D-CT), introduced the bill along with Senator Mack (R-FL). We know our champions want to do the right thing, but this bill is the wrong thing. We oppose S. 547 because, as it is, this bill will do more harm than good.
NATIONAL FORESTS: FEELING THE HEAT
Utah Republican Says Forest Service Needs To Protect Roadless Areas
The Forest Service knew they would be getting a little heat from the public by failing to permanently protect all National Forest roadless areas, but they probably did not count on hearing from Utah Congressman Merrill Cook.
Rep. Cook, a Republican, recently sent a letter to Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck telling him the partial halting of forest road construction "falls short of the mark." In a strongly worded statement Rep. Cook told Chief Dombeck that the agency's proposal "does not protect many roadless areas" and that the Jacob's Swale timber sale, planned in a roadless area, "must be stopped."
Congressman Cook stated plainly in the letter that "all roadless areas should be protected." This courageous statement comes in stark contrast to his fellow Utah Congressman, Representative Jim Hansen and Representative Chris Cannon, also Republicans. Rep. Hansen and Rep. Cannon feel the policy is extreme and is too far reaching. Not so says Congressman Cook who also favors ending money-losing timber sales, another step in the right direction.
It's good to know that not all of the Utah Congressional delegation is opposed to sound scientific management. We should let Congressman Cook know that we appreciate his brave commitment to ending environmentally destructive subsidies and his efforts to protect our special places.
"Everybody wins when you are morally right." --Jesse Jackson's message to Shell President on a recent visit to Ogoniland in Nigeria
TAKE ACTION:
Full Funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund
Jesse Jackson Stands with the Ogoni People
Court Makes Preliminary Ruling Against Sierra Club in Yosemite Lawsuit
TAKE ACTION!
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND URGE HIM OR HER TO SIGN ON TO THE BUDGET COMMITTEE LAND AND WATER CONSERVATION FUND LETTER! DEADLINE -- MONDAY, MARCH 15.
The House Resources Committee began hearings this week on several bills to revitalize the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Don Young (R-Alaska) have introduced separate bills to take the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) off-budget. (This means that it would be less likely to be vulnerable to politics of budget-balancing )
The Sierra Club supports Rep. Miller's bill, dubbed "Resources 2000," but continues to have serious concerns about Rep. Young's bill. House members and witnesses at the hearings pledged to continue working together toward a compromise.
The LWCF is supposed to receive revenues from off-shore oil and gas drilling -- $900 million out of a total $4 billion annually to preserve "irreplaceable lands of natural beauty and unique recreational value." But only a fraction of the $900 million promised under the law has ever made it into the Fund's yearly budget. Resources 2000 would guarantee that funds promised for the LWCF would be dedicated to the protection of our open space and wildlands. The Miller bill would provide funding for other conservation programs as well, including urban parks and recreation initiatives and marine wildlife restoration programs. It would also recognize the need to protect the natural wonders our very backyards. Half of the yearly $900 million allocation would go directly to states and local communities through a matching grants program.
The critical first step in this remarkable effort is for the Budget Committee to provide adequate funding levels for the LWCF in its budget resolution. If the Budget Committees identifies LWCF as a priority and provides enough new money to fund the program, it will be much easier to secure full funding from the Appropriations Committees. In addition, strong support in the budget process will add pressure to pass legislation that fully funds LWCF.
To ensure this happens, the Sierra Club sent out an action alert last Friday seeking your help in getting signatures on a Senate "Dear Colleague" letter to the Budget Committee. This week we need your help for a similar letter in the House. Reps Bass (R-N.H.), Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), and McGovern (D-Mass.) are circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter to the House Budget Committee, urging its members to provide increased funding in the Budget Resolution to accommodate full funding for the LWCF.
Please call your representative and urge him or her to sign on to this letter. The deadline for the letter is the end of the day on Monday, March 15. At least 32 senators signed on to the Senate letter. With your help, we can get the same level of support in the House. Thanks!
Rev. Jesse Jackson Visits Ogoniland, Calls on Shell to Clean up Pollution
Since 1994 the Sierra Club has been actively supporting the struggle of the Ogoni, a minority group in the Nigerian delta. Sierra Club members have been encouraged to boycott Shell because of the company's complicity in the death of environmental leader Ken Saro-Wiwa, and because of Shell's widespread pollution in Ogoni territory.
That region, once closed to foreigners, is now opening up as Nigeria slowly returns to democratic rule. While reporting on the region is still discouraged -- a Dutch television crew was detained recently by the military -- some diplomats are now being allowed to enter.
The excerpt below is from Joseph Obari, a representative of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People.]
(March 11) Nigeria is on the rise again, and citizens must keep alive the hope of a better future. That was the crystal message from United States Special Envoy Rev. Jesse Jackson during a tour of the Niger Delta which ended yesterday
Beginning his tour with a visit in Bori to families of the nine Ogoni minority rights activists executed in 1995 by the former Sani Abacha Administration, Jackson also met representatives of interest groups, government agencies and non-governmental organizations. He visited Bonny and Eket yesterday, accompanied by the United States Ambassador, Mr. William Twaddel, and other embassy officials.
Drawing from his interaction with the Ogoni people earlier on Tuesday evening, Jackson said the Ogoni spirit was irrepressible because it had attained a high level of consciousness that would liberate the Delta region and eventually, the entirety of Nigeria.
Jackson said there is something redemptive about the blood of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni activists who have died in the course of the minority rights crusade. "The Ogoni people will get free," he said. "The Delta will get free. If the Delta is free, the whole of Nigeria is free because, in some sense, you are the soul of Nigeria."
He said that upon his return to the United States he would contact the head of Shell International to propose ways of resolving the company's dispute with the Ogoni outside the courtroom.
"The president of Shell ought to visit Ogoniland," said Jackson. "He ought to settle the matter with fair compensations and work with the people to develop the land. Everybody wins when you are morally right. We must use our persuasion, our bills to get the proper connections, which means government and people co-operating," Jackson said.
To Jackson, it is in the interest of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to regain its credibility by paying respect to the families of the Ogoni 9 (executed by the military in 1995), withdraw the court suits and work out a plan for reparations, get its equipment, clean up pollution and work on investment with the community in development.
Jackson said he was moved with pity at the deplorable situation in Ogoniland, and promised to discuss the matter with senior officials of the oil company on his return to America.
For more information on the Sierra Club's campaign to support the Ogoni, visit our website at www.sierraclub.org/human-rights/nigeria.html, or e-mail stephen.mills@sierraclub.org.
Federal Court Denies Yosemite Road Project Restraining Order
A federal court judge has ruled to allow the Park Service to continue the $33 million project to widen and repair El Portal Road which leads into Yosemite National Park.
The Sierra Club and Mariposans for Environmentally Responsible Growth had asked for a temporary restraining order as part of a lawsuit filed last month at the U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
The lawsuit charges that the project is destroying parts of the Merced River, which is protected by the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. However, U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii in Fresno denied the groups' request on Monday to halt construction.
"This was a setback, but it's not over. We will continue to try and protect the Merced River corridor through this lawsuit," says Alex Levinson, Staff Director of the Sierra Club's Law Program.
"Very well. If that is the way the winds are blowing, let no one say I don't also blow." - "The Simpson's" Mayor Quimby, explaining why he caved on an issue
TAKE ACTION: Support HOPE for Africa!
I: HOUSTON CITY COUNCIL VOTES FOR CONSERVATION!!
II: SENATE MAKES IT EASIER TO PASS BAD ENVIRONMENTAL BILLS
TAKE ACTION!
Support HOPE for Africa!
Please take a few minutes to contact your representative, to urge her or him to: REJECT the "African Growth and Opportunity Act" (HR 434), and to: COSPONSOR the (HOPE for Africa) Act, HR 772, offered by Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill). Call the capitol switchboard at 202-224-312 or send a letter or e-mail to the addresses at the bottom of today's SC-ACTION.
The Corporate Council for Africa, a coalition of some of America's biggest polluters, wants a new license to plunder Africa's natural resources. To do this, they are promoting the "African Growth and Opportunity Act" (HR 434). Unfortunately, the only growth and opportunity this bill would promote are in corporate profits - at the expense of the African people and the African environment. This bill would withdraw tariff-free access to the U.S. market for African exports unless countries agree to allow destructive exploitation by transnational oil, mining, and logging companies. Without strong environmental protections in place, Africa's natural resources- farmland, pure water, and forests on which the vast majority of Africans depend - would simply be destroyed.
The "Human Rights, Opportunity, Partnership, and Empowerment" or "HOPE for Africa Act," HR 772, introduced by Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. would combine generous trade benefits with guarantees that development would benefit the African people and protect the environment. It would provide comprehensive relief from Africa's crushing foreign debt burden, reducing the enormous pressure to exploit and export the region's rapidly shrinking natural resources. And it would require foreign corporations operating in Africa to adhere to internationally recognized labor rights and environmental standards.
For more information, contact Dan Seligman, Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program, (202) 547-1141, or click on to the Program's website at www.sierraclub.org/trade.
HOUSTON CITY COUNCIL VOTES FOR CONSERVATION!!!
Sometimes RIGHT (the right cause, that is) is might! And on the issue of the Westside Airport, in the heart of rural western Katy Prairie and an amazing habitat for wildlife, the conservation community and the resulting coalition were and always have been on the right side. In the end, a majority of the Houston City Council agreed and voted Wednesday, March 10 to authorize the selection of the Westside Airport site as the preferred mitigation site for the Bush Intercontinental Airport expansion. This is a major symbolic environmental decision made by our City officials. Conservation has ruled over speculation! But be forewarned. We need to be vigilant and participate in the FAA EIS process to be completed later this year. Until the Westside Airport site is actually chosen as the wetland mitigation site, the Sierra Club and the coalition cannot rest.
To say this has been contentious for the last year, and for the last fifteen years, would be an understatement. Congratulations to us all! To all of you who wrote postcards, letters, emails, phoned, lobbied, attended and spoke at hearings starting in the late 1980's, to our coalition members, and to our lawyer, Jim Blackburn and firm, who have never given up. Special kudos to SC pioneers in this effort- Bill Stransky, Mary Ellen Whitworth, Mary Van Kerrbrook, Mary Ann Young, and many more who have never wavered in what was right. The Westside Airport site has NEVER, EVER been an appropriate site for any type of airport.
SENATE MAKES IT EASIER TO PASS BAD ENVIRONMENTAL BILLS
We've received word that a new rule change in the Senate will make it harder for a Senator to stop bad bills from moving forward. At the urging of Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), senate leaders have announced a change to the "hold" policy. Up untill now, a Senator could put a "legislative hold" on a bill to keep it from coming to the floor for a vote until their concerns with the bill were addressed. Although "holds" didn't usually last for too long, they gave us the opportunity to inform the media and citizens of impending bad bills. (Recall that the dreaded Quincy Logging Bill which doubled logging in some California forests was held up by environmental champions for a year, using this rule.) If enough "holds" are put on a bill, it can become controversial enough to stop it completely. Holds could be put on anonymously so that if the offending bill's sponsor was a powerful player, the person putting the hold on the bill wouldn't be "punished."
The new "hold" policy requires that any Senator desiring to put a hold on legislation must notify the sponsor of the legislation and the Committee of jurisdiction of their concerns. Further, written notification must be given to the respective party Leader of the hold. Holds placed on items by personal or committee staff will not be honored unless accompanied by written notification from an objecting Senator by the end of the following business day. So if bill sponsors just wait until a senator with concerns is out of town and unable to respond, the bill can move ahead. Senators will be less likely to put holds on bills if it can't be done anonymously. Let's just say that the powerful Appropriations Chair Ted Stevens (R-AK) holds the purse strings to all the spending projects in your state...but he's also got a bill to double the cut in the Tongass National Forest. You make the call...
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