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July 12, 1999
"The day is not far away when the House of Representatives has a consistent pro-environment majority."
--Sierra Club Field Director Bob Bingaman, quoted in "Reclaiming America: Nike, Clean Air and the New National Activism," by Randy Shaw
(See excerpt below. Story #2)
Contents:
1. TAKE ACTION: Stop Interior Appropriations Riders
2. Club's Grassroots Activism Lauded in New Book
3. Sprawl and the Limits of the Free Market
1. RIDERS WEIGH DOWN INTERIOR BILL Land Acquisition Programs Underfunded
Just back from a week recess, the House of Representatives is set to debate the Interior Appropriations bill Tuesday and Wednesday. As has so often been the case in the last few years, the bill is infested with anti-environmental riders that would never pass as stand-alone bills under full public scrutiny.
Anti-environmental forces are also using the excuse of budget caps to underfund many important environmental protection efforts and programs, such as land acquisition and the restoration of fish and wildlife habitat. Funding for President Clinton's Land Legacy Initiative was woefully short of the $1 billion requested.
One rider, for example, would prevent any funding of the Grand Kankakee Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Indiana and Illinois in fiscal year 2000.
The final environmental assessment for the refuge is expected to be released within weeks, which means the work to make it real -- open an office, assemble the local advisory committee, buy land -- can begin.
But not without funding. The local congressman, Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), won't support the refuge funding because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working on a flooding study of the Kankakee River, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Corps have to commit to working together. The agencies have signed an agreement saying they will do so, but that hasn't budged Buyer.
TAKE ACTION
Contact your representatives early and often Tuesday and Wednesday. The bill may come to a vote on Wednesday.
Tell your representative that you expect him or her to pass spending bills that fully fund land acquisition and protection efforts and DO NOT include backdoor attempts to gut environmental laws.
Call the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your representative's office.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact the Sierra Club at the numbers listed below.
2. SIERRA CLUB LAUDED IN NEW BOOK Author Cites Integration of Grassroots Organizing and National Support
When San Francisco author/activist Randy Shaw set out to write a book about grassroots activism in the United States, he didn't think the Sierra Club would provide a good model. At the time, he perceived the Club as too reliant on inside-the- Beltway deal-making. But upon further investigation, he learned that wasn't the case and he ended up using the Club as one of his examples of effective on-the-ground activism.
He says in the book: "The Sierra Club's official and public shift from lobbying politicans in Washington to mobilizing citizens in communities across America is one of the most significant if largely unreported political developments of recent times."
Shaw devotes almost 20 pages to the story of the Club's clean- air-standards fight in 1997. He is especially impressed by the integration of local grassroots mobilizing and national support and direction -- the activists dominating the hearings, the "Where's Al" tour, the double-postcard campaign (unifying local and national messages), the radio ads and so on.
Many Club people are cited: Kathryn Hohmann, Ken Midkiff, Marge Hanselman, Adam Werbach, Bob Bingaman, Robbie Cox, Jack Darin, Mark Bettinger....
The book is from University of California Press.
3. CAN WE BE PART OF THE PROBLEM AND PART OF THE SOLUTION? Sprawl Could Radicalize the Middle Class, Suggests NYT Writer
Sprawl continues to generate a lot of juice in the media. In a provocative piece in Sunday's New York Times Magazine called "Land of the Free Market," Michael Pollard suggests that "sprawl could radicalize the middle class."
He doesn't mention the Sierra Club or repeat any of our mantras, but argues that President Clinton and Vice President Gore, by injecting sprawl and "livability" into the national agenda as a quality of life issue -- akin to the V-chip and family leave -- have, "in a remarkable feat of political jujitsu," launched a conversation about the contradictions of consumer capitalism.
Pollard writes: "Conservatives like to argue that, with sprawl, the free market has given Americans exactly what their spending decisions say they want. And yet many of us -- or maybe I should say some part of most of us -- are dismayed by the landscape and traffic that our own dollars and desires have wrought. That's why it is possible both to deplore the arrival of a new Home Depot in my area and also to shop there."
"The essence of what we call America lies not so much in political institutions as in its rocks and skies and seas." Paul Strand
Friday is the ALL ACTION edition of the SC-ACTION, including actions that you can take on each of the Sierra Club's priority campaigns. The featured campaign this week is the Sierra Club's Wildlands Campaign, highlighting Wild Utah. But please be sure to check out the rest of the campaigns to find out what else you can do to defend the environment. Current action items follow on: Global Warming, Sprawl, Clean Water, Ending Commercial Logging, Responsible Trade and Population.
PROTECT UTAH WILDLANDS: HELP STOP THE ANTI-WILDERNESS RIDER!
As usual, the Interior funding bill is loaded down with anti-environmental riders. But wait a minute! What's that hanging onto the Defense Authorization Act??? Why, Rep. Jim Hansen (R-Utah) has slipped in an anti-wilderness rider that would derail the Department of the Interior's new Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in Utah! Hansen's ticking time bomb would paralyze Interior's ability to protect Utah's wildlands until the Department of Defense delivers a study to Congress on the impact of wilderness on military readiness. Huh?
Sounds like a red herring to us. Consider the following facts:
* There is simply no conflict between wilderness and military uses in Utah. For example, in the nearly 20 years that Hill Air Force Base has flown nearly a half million sorties over and near existing WSAs, * there has not been a single instance* in which WSA status has limited military operations.
* The existing "202" study process already includes a mechanism for the Defense Dept. to raise concerns about the possible impact of creating new WSAs.
The Hansen Rider would stop the Interior Department from providing increased wilderness quality management protection to nearly 2.6 million acres of Utah wilderness! Hansen has publicly promised that he will remove this underhanded provision "at the appropriate time." Well, Mr. Hansen, the time has come!
The bill is set to go to the House/Senate conference committee any day, so time is short! If your representative or senator is on the conference committee, please contact them right away and urge them to vote against all anti-environmental riders, and especially to remove section 2814, Hansen's anti-environmental rider, from the Defense Authorization Act. If your members aren't on the conference committee, please ask them to contact conferees and ask them to dump the Hansen anti-wilderness rider!
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS SENATE:Jeff Sessions R-AL, Tim Hutchinson R-AR, John McCain R-AZ, Wayne Allard R-CO, Joseph Lieberman D-CT, Max Cleland D-GA, Pat Roberts R-KS, Mary Landrieu D-LA, Edward Kennedy D-MA, Olympia Snowe R-ME, Carl Levin D-MI, Robert Smith R-NH, Jeff Bingaman D-NM, James Inhofe R-OK, Rick Santorum R-PA, Jack Reed D-RI, Strom Thurmond R-SC, Charles Robb D-VA, John Warner R-VA, Robert Byrd D-WV.
HOUSE (alpha by state): Terry Everett R-AL02 Bob Stump R-AZ03 Duncan Hunter R-CA52 Howard "Buck" McKeon R-CA25 Loretta Sanchez D-CA46 Ellen Tauscher D-CA10 Joel Hefley R-CO05 John Larson D-CT01 Tillie Fowler R-FL04 Saxby Chambliss R-GA08 Robert A. Underwood D-GU Neil Abercrombie D-HI01 Lane Evans D-IL17 Steve Buyer R-IN05 John Hostettler R-IN08 Marty Meehan D-MA05 Roscoe Bartlett R-MD06 Ike Skelton D-MO04 James Talent R-MO02 Gene Taylor D-MS05 Robert E. Andrews D-NJ01 Jim Saxton R-NJ03 John McHugh R-NY24 J.C. Watts R-OK04 Curt Weldon R-PA07 Floyd Spence R-SC02 John Spratt Jr. D-SC05 Van Hilleary R-TN04 Solomon Ortiz D-TX27 Silvestre Reyes D-TX16 Wm. "Mac" Thornberry R-TX13 Jim Turner D-TX02 James Hansen R-UT01 Herbert Bateman R-VA01 Owen B. Picket D-VA02 Norman Sisisky D-VA04
1. TAKE ACTION ON GLOBAL WARMING Raising miles-per-gallon standards for cars and trucks would slash global warming and help protect our environment. It would also reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, reduce pressure to drill for oil in sensitive wilderness areas, and strengthen our economy. After years of ducking the issue through anti-environmental riders in the Transportation Appropriations bills, the US Senate will soon vote on a CLEAN CAR RESOLUTION. Senators Gorton, Feinstein, and Bryan will be offering a resolution urging that the anti-environmental CAFE freeze rider be dropped from the Transportation Appropriations bill. Calls are pouring in to Senate offices, but there is more to be done! Please write, phone, or fax your Senators and urge them to support the upcoming Gorton/Feinstein/Bryan CLEAN CAR RESOLUTION! Tell them that sport utility vehicles and other gas guzzlers should meet the same fuel efficiency standards as cars. Remind them that raising miles per gallon standards is the biggest single step we can take to curb global warming!
2. TAKE ACTION ON FAMILY PLANNING: As you may recall, funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was eliminated this year by Chris Smith (R-NJ) and other family planning opponents in Congress. The State Department reauthorization bill, which contains a provision to fund UNFPA next year, may come to the House floor soon. Family planning opponents are likely to try to eliminate its funding provisions for UNFPA. This program works to ensure that women have access to voluntary family planning, economic opportunities, and education-- all of which allows women to choose the size and spacing of their families. Providing access to safe and affordable family planning services and empowering women and girls helps to stabilize population growth and protect our environment.
Please contact your Representatives through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to oppose any amendment to the State Department reauthorization bill (H.R. 1211) that would eliminate or restrict the US contribution to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) or funding for family planning assistance. For more information contact Jennifer Kurz at 202.547.1141 or at jennifer.kurz@sierraclub.org.
3. TAKE ACTION ON SPRAWL. The Clinton Administration's Better America Bonds program would help communities preserve open space and clean up abandoned industrial sites. This sprawl-busting program would allow communities to get tax-free, 15-year bonds for actions like land acquisition and clean up. Recently, key Democrats in the House, including Matsui (D-CA) and Gephardt (D-M0) introduced legislation to fund the Better America Bonds! They're looking for other Representatives to join them, and this is the time to call yours. Ask him or her to cosponsor this important legislation. For more information contact the Environmental Quality Program (202) 547-1141.
4. TAKE ACTION ON CLEAN WATER: Within the next week EPA may issue draft guidance for issuing Clean Water Act permits to factory farms. This the first detailed action the Clinton Administration is taking under the new plan to protect health and the environment from these facilities. This draft guidance should require permits to include strong, enforceable, measurable, and nationally-consistent conditions to protect our rivers, lakes and streams. Measures to ensure that animal factories more carefully store their waste, apply the manure onto the land properly, locate animal factories away from places that are ecologically sensitive, and measure and report their water quality are all essential features needed in every Clean Water Act permit. Instead, EPA appears to be prepared to allow states to have variable standards (undermining the concept of a national baseline of protection), based on loose and unenforceable "considerations," and include little public comment and accountability. Call the White House comment line and leave a message in support of strong permitting guidance, using the information above. For more information, contact Ed Hopkins at ed.hopkins@sierraclub.org or (202) 547-1141.
5. TAKE ACTION TO END COMMERCIAL LOGGING. Commercial logging on National Forests and other federal public lands damages fish and wildlife habitat, degrades drinking water, destroys recreation opportunities and charges the cost to taxpayers. Now pro-logging forces threaten to dismantle forest protection laws with a rider on the Senate Interior Appropriations bill. Call your senators at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to protect our forests and remove all anti-environmental riders from spending bills! For more information contact Sean Cosgrove at sean.cosgrove@sierraclub.org
6. TAKE ACTION ON RESPONSIBLE TRADE. The House of Representatives now plans to vote on July 14 on legislation that would devastate Africa's environment. H.R. 434, the African Growth and Opportunity Act -- we call it the "NAFTA for Africa" -- would pry open Africa to increased foreign "investment" from transnational oil, mining and logging companies by threatening to raise tariffs on Africa's exports. But without strong environmental laws, the increased "investment" would destroy more of the natural resources -- the farmland, pure water and forests -- that the vast majority of Africans depend on for survival. Its little wonder the Nelson Mandela has called this legislation "unacceptable." Call, write or e-mail your representatives today and urge them to oppose the African Growth and Opportunity Act, "NAFTA for Africa", H.R. 434. For more information, see our Web site at www.sierraclub.org/trade.
"All our altars are up for grabs." Shonto Begay, Native American protester of mining operations in Flagstaff, AZ
CONTENTS: Arizona Activists Hold Vigil Against Mine South Dakota Outreach to Save Wetlands
Oklahoma Sierrans to Governor: Say no to Pig Poop Club Visible on 4th of July in Oklahoma and Ohio
An Unsolicited Opinion from a Non-Sierran in Florida
FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF ARIZONA
The beautiful San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona rise from the surrounding ponderosa pine forest, standing stark and alone. But they are far from alone. Sierra Clubbers recently joined with other citizens in the third sunrise-to-sunrise prayer vigil for the mountains. The protest was part of a public education campaign to protect the area from the expansion of a pumice mine on the eastern side of the mountains. Participants in the vigil included "concerned Native Americans, environmental activists, citizens and some interested mine employees," according to the Navajo-Hopi Observer. Considered sacred ground by many Native American groups, the mountains also attract recreationists from miles around and provide habitat for a variety of wildlife, including the threatened Mexican Spotted Owl. Native American Begay Shonto said of the mine, "In my mind, this is an example of just one more intrusion into the spiritual life of the Indian people...all our altars are up for grabs."
Andy Bessler, Club activist and a member of the Flagstaff Activist Network, was the first to greet the sun with a fire and prayers. A full twenty-four hours later, the fire was put out and the last prayers were said. But we're certain that's not the last word we'll hear from these friends of the San Francisco peaks...
TO THE WETLANDS OF SOUTH DAKOTA
Club folks in South Dakota are working with hunters and anglers to get the word out about the latest threats to their state's wetlands. Representatives from the Sierra Club, Izaak Walton League, SD Wildlife Federation, BASS Anglers Sportsmen's Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service joined together at a press conference July 1 to condemn a new resource policy change that will result in more wetlands being drained.
The federal Natural Resource Conservation Service in SD has decided to change the way it defines wetlands that can be protected by the "swampbuster" provisions of the federal farm law. More than 70% of state wetlands are one acre or smaller, and these important waterfowl resting areas and flood control "sponges" could be drained under the new policy. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported that the groups say "more than ducks will be lost if those wet spots are drained and converted into cropland." Wetlands are crucial to ducks and other wildlife, but they also "help control flooding, prevent soil erosion and improve water quality," according the U.S. F&WS.
TO THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE IN OKLAHOMA
Governor Frank Keating of Oklahoma received 1,500 postcards on July 2 in what the Norman Transcript called "a campaign led by the Sierra Club to try to halt a huge corporate hog farm" planned for the Oklahoma Panhandle. "It took us only a month to get this many people on board," says Pat Allen, OK Chapter Chair. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."
Seaboard Farms wants to build a 27,000 sow farm, and the state Agriculture Department granted the company a license in March. The Water Resources Board initially approved a permit, but has now ordered additional study of the poop-producing plan because of citizen opposition. The expected 15 gallons of pig poop per day per pig adds up to 375,000 gallons of waste per day - all stored in lagoons and perched atop a gully about a mile about the Beaver River. No wonder Karl Rysted of the Club is quoted by the Associated Press as saying "We need the governor to step in and do something to stop this monstrosity before it's too late, for our families, for our future."
TO THE ST. LOUIS FAIRGROUNDS
What could be more fun than gathering with family and friends and sharing a picnic and cold drinks on the Fourth of July? Well, Club activists in MO decided they would rather spend the day at the St. Louis Fair, talking to fellow citizens about stream dynamics, water quality monitoring, and aquatic habitat destruction. Claralyn Price-Bollinger, Scott Dye, Terri Folsom and Ken Midkiff spent three days at a Club booth, passing out info about clean water and the impacts of sprawl on local streams. About 1,000 people per day visited their booth, and walked away wearing "For our Families, For our Future" stickers and reading brochures and newsletters.
According to Midkiff, citizens gather at the fair "to eat expensive bad food, listen to rock groups whose original members are all dead, and drink copious quantities of the product of the leading industry in St. Louis (Busch and Bud)." But apparently a lot of people thought the Club booth looked like fun, too, because our folks signed up 44 new volunteers for their St. Louis "stream teams" (bringing them to a grand total of 70 new folks on their team!) Way to go, guys!
TO A NOT-TOO-FUN FOURTH IN CINCINNATI
The Cincinnati Post ran a Fourth of July story that didn't provide much cause for celebration. Citing smog alerts and stifling heat, the paper quoted numerous local authorities on the fourth's festivities. "You can go outside, but you don't want to do anything when you go out there," said a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "It doesn't mean you can't sit around drinking drinks," said Harry St. Clair, the monitoring and analysis supervisor for Hamilton County. "The idea is that you don't want to be breathing heavily," he said. "It's a recommendation that if they're going to be outside that it not be for long periods of time...Yeah, it is pretty sad," said Sarah Woller with the Regional Ozone Coalition.
Sierra Clubber Glen Brand summed it up for the newspaper's readers: "The July Fourth weekend is all about celebrating our freedom, but what kind of freedom do we have in Cincinnati? We don't have the basic freedom to go outside and breathe the air without becoming ill."
TO THE FLORIDA LETTERS TO THE EDITOR COLUMN
In the Florida edition of the Wall St. Journal, June 23 edition, a hot debate rages over the planned Suncoast Tollway. Readers write on both sides of the issue, but one that catches our eye comes from a Mr. Donald M. Rippey of Crystal River: "Mr. Crane says the debate with the Sierra Club, which opposes the road, is set by the club's opposition to other toll roads in the state, not just the Suncoast. He also states that the Sierra Club has a very narrow perspective of economic and growth-management issues. Mr. Crane has totally missed the point. What sets the debate is what we humans, by our numbers and our behavior, are doing to our planet, our nation and the state of Florida. "By opposing the building of more tollways, the Sierra Club - of which I am not a member - opposes the short-term, profit-motivated (greed motivated?), narrow-minded wishes of the highway builders, land speculators, developers, oil companies, tire manufacturers and others who are more than ready to make big bucks from the proliferation of road building."
Hey Mr. Rippey, want a membership application?
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