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"Fast track and like trade agreements which subjugate the legislative authority of the Congress and the states to the dictates of global corporations drive a stake in the heart of our democracy." Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Contents:
ACTION ALERT: SEND A MESSAGE ON GLOBAL WARMING
INSIDE THE BELTWAY: Just One Week Left To the Stop
NAFTA Fast Track
Enviro Heroes Say "No Fast Track"
Lawmakers Give Up Effort to Kill Smog Standards
Washington Wakes up to Hog Farm Dangers
GLOBAL WARMING: "DON'T THESE GUYS HAVE ANY SHAME?"
**** ACTION ALERT: SEND A MESSAGE ON GLOBAL WARMING ****
The clock is ticking on efforts to curb global warming -- we need your help! Despite an international scientific consensus that global warming poses severe threats to future generations, President Clinton has proposed a weak plan that will not curb global warming. The fate of our kids and environment hangs in the balance!
ACT: Please write letter to the editor and submit it to your local paper. Please spread the word -- we need real action to protect our kids from global warming!
***** Thank You *****
Just One Week Left To Stop the NAFTA Fast Track
Our three-month campaign to STOP NAFTA IN ITS FAST TRACKS will end with a BIG BANG on Friday, November 7.
Well short of the 70 Democrats necessary to assure passage of the Clinton-Archer NAFTA Fast Track, and under pressure from Fortunate 500 CEOs who wrote an urgent plea for Fast Track earlier this week, Republican Leader Newt Gingrich has now scheduled a vote in the House for the end of next week. Gingrich hopes to force undecided Democrats to rally to the President's side. His move breathes new life into fast-track bill, just as a million dollar corporate ad campaign kicks into gear.
"This is the last desperate move of the "free trade" lobby. We jammed them in the House; they tried the Senate and were frustrated there as well," said Mike Dolan of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. "Unless they just want to call it quits right now, their only next move is to try to flush out the grouse-in-the-House and pick off a few [wavering Democrats]."
Please. Do everything legal to urge your Representative during this next week to say ABSOLUTELY NO to more of the NAFTA FAST TRACK. Letters to the editor, calls to talk radio shows, calls to your Reps are all urgently in order.
Enviro Heroes Say "No Fast Track"
Meanwhile, environmental heroes are stepping to the plate with their opposition to the NAFTA Fast Track. Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Zach Wamp (R-TN) (!) lead an unusual, bi-partisan pack of seven new members of Congress to announce their opposition to Fast Track, focusing on the erosion of American sovereignty under corporate-style "free trade" pacts. The seven targeted the World Trade Organization and the Multilateral Agreement on Investment for threatening a host of state and federal environmental and health laws.
Also citing threats to US environmental and health laws, Rep. Henry Waxman, a long-time supporter of free trade causes, announced his opposition to Fast Track in a letter October 30 to Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt. And five "New Democrats", considered key "swing" votes, including Reps. Ron Kind, Karen McCarthy, Bill Luther, Leonard Boswell, and Loretta Sanchez also announced their opposition last week, arguing that "human capital" must be treated as well as financial capital in the new world economy.
Sierra Club continued to make the news on Fast Track. As the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on our second round of radio ads, "Unions get green allies in trade fight: Environmentalists join battle against fast-track measure." The story cited the efforts of Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and Defenders of Wildlife as evidence that "Environmental lobbies, which split over the original NAFTA vote, are more united this time around." (Plain Dealer, 10/22)
Lawmakers Give Up Effort to Kill Smog Standards
The Tulsa World reports (10/23) that a proposal to overturn the Clinton administration's beefed- up standards on smog and soot is dead for now, three Oklahoma lawmakers conceded Wednesday. One of the three, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, a Republican who is the proposal's lead sponsor in the Senate, still hopes to attach its provisions as an amendment to another bill. Reps. Tom Coburn and Steve Largent, however, said that now that the clock is running out for this session, the proposal has fallen short of the number of Democratic supporters needed before GOP leaders would set a House vote. Both House members, who are Republicans, are staunch supporters of the effort to thwart the new standards.
Washington Wakes up to Hog Farm Dangers
"It finally seems to have soaked into the collective consciousness of The Beltway Folks in Washington, D.C., that there is a problem with too many chickens and pigs in the same spot," Ken Midkiff reports from WASHINGTON, D.C.
"As usual, it takes some type of near-catastrophe - preferably on the East Coast - for Congress to take notice. In this case, the near-catastrophe is right in D.C.'s back yard: the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, some of which flow right through the nation's capital."
"Two years ago, I accompanied several family farmers to the halls of Congress to alert our elected representatives to the growing problems with the hog factories in the Midwest. We patiently went door to door in the House and Senate office buildings, explaining the pollution and the upheaval in rural communities that were already occurring and issuing dire warnings about what was to come if the ``concentrated animal feeding operations,'' or CAFOs, were not subjected to operating restrictions and conditions."
"We might as well have been from another planet. We met with senators and representatives from the Midwestern states. We talked to their staffers. They hmmm'd and nodded appropriately and then went back to more important matters - passing laws to give multinational corporations more and more control of our nation, opening up the national forests to greed and plunder and promoting free trade that exploits the workers in developing nations."
"It didn't seem to matter that small farmers and independent producers were being run out of the hog- and chicken-growing businesses. It didn't seem to matter that the waterways and the drinking water supplies of the nation's heartland were being severely degraded. While most of the senators and representatives were vaguely aware that there were some problems, most who bothered to think about it said rural areas needed economic development."
"Frustrated and disappointed, the farmers and conservationists went back to their homes around the country. Unfortunately, our dire predictions came true: A few corporations quickly took control of most hog and poultry production throughout the United States. Paying low wages in terrible working conditions, a large proportion of the jobs went to migrant workers - who are so desperate for wages they are exploited unmercifully."
"And, as also predicted, our nation's streams, rivers and lakes were heavily polluted. From California to North Carolina, from Alabama to Utah and finally to within a stone's throw of the Washington Monument, a flood of polluted runoff flowed into the waterways of our country."
"When fish in the streams and rivers entering the Chesapeake Bay began developing ugly lesions and dying by the thousands, when people who came into contact with these waters began developing bizarre symptoms, the problem could no longer be ignored. This week, family farmers and conservationists have once again been making visits to the House and Senate office buildings - and this time there are no blank stares."
"Instead, there is a recognition that something must be done, that this situation has reached the stage of a crisis. Everywhere we went there was mention of the Pfiesteria problem. There was an instant recognition of the cause."
"But, there is still a reluctance by some representatives to do anything about the problem, citing concerns about regulating farmers. We again patiently explained that the CAFOs were not owned by farmers and, in fact, these operations could not even loosely be defined as farms. Again, the blank stares returned on the faces of some representatives and their staffers."
"But there are forward-looking elected officials who are attempting to do something about regulating corporate agri-business operations. Some recognize that, for rural communities, family farmers and our nation's streams, rivers, and lakes to survive, something must be done to regulate these facilities."
"There will be bills introduced in both houses of Congress in the next few weeks to attempt to bring some consistency and standardization into regulating the CAFOs. This will likely be a nonpartisan effort by officials from the states that have seen a heavy impact."
"But it might be too little, too late, because this is a reaction to a problem that has reached the crisis stage. It takes a long time for waterways to heal after being subjected to heavy pollution for several years. Even strong laws sometimes take many years to be fully implemented. By the time controls are fully in place, some of our rivers, lakes and streams will be open sewers. Some already are."
"I hope - probably futility - that lessons could be learned from this, the primary one being that every time the corporate world holds out the lure of jobs and economic development, it isn't necessarily so. In fact, it is usually the opposite."
GLOBAL WARMING: "DON'T THESE GUYS HAVE ANY SHAME?"
Ford CEO Alex Trotman is no friend of kids or the environment. For the last several months he's been in the lead of a big polluter effort to kill a proposed treaty to curb global warming and insure that future generations pay the price for today's pollution.
In a speech at the National Press Club in Washington DC Trotman repeated the assertion that efforts to curb pollution would devastate the US economy. "The U.S. should not sign any agreement that is not global because it will not work. We should not succumb to proposals that run a serious risk of jeopardizing our economic growth or U.S. jobs." (Dow Jones Newswires, 10/27/98)
Trotman played fast and loose with the facts during his talk. At one point he claimed that developing nations account for some 50% of worldwide global warming emissions. The truth is that all developing nations combined account for less than a quarter of total emissions, and the United States, with gas guzzling sport utility vehicles and inefficient power plants, contributes 25% of the world's total by itself.
After attempting to pin the blame for global warming onto developing nations, Trotman went on to describe his company's efforts to increase car and truck sales in India, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. "We are aimed at providing access to four wheels to a very large percentage of the population..."(Dow Jones Newswires, 10/27/98)
Please send a Letter To the Editor to your favorite, local paper today!
"I don't know what's wrong with my television set. I was getting C-Span and the Home Shopping Network on the same station. I actually bought a congressman." -- Bruce Baum, comedian
Contents:
Correction -- Dial THIS Number for Free White House Call
Take Action - McKinney Bill Shines Friday
Human Rights -- Club Protests China's Violations
Dirty Secrets -- Polluters, Environmental Supporters Speak at Senate Hearing
In the House -- House Votes to Ship Nuclear Waster to Nevada In the
Press -- New York Times Does Us Proud
IMPORTANT CORRECTION! Call the Right Working Assets Number
You may still have time to scare away the Global Warming Goblins by calling President Clinton -- for FREE -- and urging him to take a stronger stand to stop global warming. But the toll-free number that ran in SC-Actions earlier this week was incorrect. The correct number to call is: 1-888-38-STAND-UP. The number is good at least through Oct. 30, and possibly until 5 p.m. EST on Oct. 31. Working Assets is sponsoring a free-call bonanza straight to the White House, so tell the president to stand up to Exxon and other corporate polluters and sign a global warming treaty that would substantially reduce greenhouse gases by 2005.
TAKE ACTION!
FRIENDS IN THE FOREST: Now Here's a Bill We Can Stand Behind
Friday is a big day for our national forests. Reps. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) and Jim Leach (R-Iowa) will introduce their historic bill to end commercial logging on our national forests at a press conference on the Capitol grounds. So far, there are eight other original cosponsors on the bill. Please call your representative and ask him or her to call Rep. McKinney's office and become a cosponsor of the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act.
The bill couldn't come at a better time, as the environmental community gears up to urge President Clinton to veto yet another appropriations bill loaded with anti-forest riders. The Interior Appropriations bill puts a moratorium on new forest management plans that could protect forests and prevent fires and floods, increases the taxpayer subsidy to the timber industry for bulldozing new roads in the national forests, and effectively abolishes a ban on the export of American logs overseas. With politicians like these, it's clear that the only way to protect our forests is to take the U.S. Forest Service out of the logging business entirely.
So please -- call your representative at the US capitol switchboard and let him or her know it's time to stop the chain-saw massacre of our national forests. Ask your Representative to cosponsor the new McKinney/Leach bill to end commercial logging and redirect timber industry subsidies toward forest restoration, worker retraining, development of wood alternatives and deficit reduction. After you've made that call, if you've still got a dime why not give Reps. McKinney and Rep. Leach a call to thank them for their leadership? Or drop them a line at U.S. House of Representatives, Washington DC 20510. And if your member has already cosponsored, please call or write and thank them. The cosponsors are: Bob Filner (D-Calif.), Pete Stark (D-Calif.), Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), John Lewis (D-Ga.), George Brown (D-Calif.), Julian Dixon (D-Calif.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).
And if you've still got ink in your pen, write a letter to the editor.
AS ALWAYS, THANK YOU
HUMAN RIGHTS: Sierra Club Joins Demand for Human Rights in China
Sierra Club volunteers and staff members were among the human rights activists who protested across the street from the White House on Wednesday while President Clinton met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
In a marriage of human rights and the environment, Steve Mills, director of the Club's Human Rights and the Environment Campaign, was asked to contribute to a speech delivered that day by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, executive director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation, one of the main human rights organizers of the protest. "What's important about this event is that once again the issues of the environment and human rights have been linked -- and they are becoming increasingly more connected," said Mills.
Signs carried by Club members at the protest read "Environment Rights are Human Rights" and "Stop Three Gorges Dam," a plan by China to dam the Yangtze River. The dam would flood six counties and displace 1.2 million people; submerge prime cropland; and adversely affect the water supply for Shanghai, home to 8 million people. The largest hydroelectric project ever attempted in the world, it threatens endangered animal species unique to the region, such as the Siberian white crane and the Yangtze River dolphin. Chinese opponents of the massive dam, including journalists, scientists and engineers have been silenced through government threats and imprisonment. The Sierra Club advocates that China increase investments in energy efficiency, augmented by smaller dams and other more environmentally sustainable and economically sound projects.
POLLUTION SECRECY: Senate Hearing on Federal Legislation
The day before Halloween was a fitting time for Sen. John Chafee's (R-R.I.) Environment and Public Works Committee to hold a hearing on the very-scary S. 866, the federal pollution-secrecy bill. Sponsored by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.), it would allow corporate, municipal and federal polluters to keep confidential any documentation from self-evaluations -- or audits -- that reveal violations of pollution standards. Documentation would be kept from the public -- and from judges and juries in criminal, civil and administrative proceedings. It also grants immunity from fines or other forms of punishment. It's a bad bill, and similar versions of it have already been passed by 24 states.
Paul Wallach, corporate defense attorney, spoke for the National Association of Manufacturers and said the polluters were looking for certainty and consistency. Wallach was candid in questioning as he said that the corporate polluters were concerned by citizen suits and toxic tort actions. For those of you who haven't been exposed to the industry lies on this subject, it's not a clean environment they're after. The real motive for this legislation is to eliminate enforcement -- especially enforcement by citizens -- and eliminate those troublesome toxic tort actions when someone is poisoned.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) spoke with pride of his work on Right To Know issues and wondered if we were going from "right to know" to the new "right to keep secrets." Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) agreed that self-audits were a good idea, but pondered what would happen to the concept of a level playing field with the new pollution secrecy laws in effect. He also asked why environmental law required a new privilege when there is no secrecy in labor law, discrimination law, tax law, etc.
Mark Woodall, chair of the Sierra Club's Audit Privilege Task Force, spoke for the Club, U.S. Public Information Research Group and more than 100 groups that signed a letter to all senators expressing bitter opposition to S. 866. Woodall called a federal audit privilege "a radical measure that would create a vast dumping ground for corporate polluter's dirty secrets."
HOUSE VOTE: A Trick to Americans, A Treat to the Nuke Industry
The House passed H.R. 1270, the bill to ship nuclear waste through 43 states, with a vote of 307 to 120 at 5:30 Thursday (10/30). H.R. 1270 changes current federal law to allow for an "interim" storage site for nuclear waste. The bill means that nuclear waste that is currently safely stored at the reactor site where it was generated will be shipped to a cement parking lot in the Nevada desert. The most dangerous substance humankind has created will be shipped in casks by rail and road through cities, towns and neighborhoods.
H.R. 1270 moves waste to Nevada even though Yucca Mountain, Nev. is not suitable as a permanent waste repository. In other words, the waste may one day move again! The "good" news is that the bill requires emergency preparedness training for communities along the waste travel routes.
The really good news is that President Clinton has promised to veto the bill. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 65 to 34. The nuclear industry was one vote short of being able to override the president's veto. Look for an update in future SC-Actions on the veto and timing on a vote in the Senate.
IN THE PRESS: Not the Cover of Rolling Stone, But Still...
An Oct. 27 New York Times article directing readers to web sites managed by environmental groups included a box comprising each group's URL. And which piece of graphic art do you think the editors chose to highlight in that box? The Sierra Club's logo. The web site for the Sierra Club -- which the Times calls "the nation's largest grassroots environmental group" -- has recently been redesigned by our webmaster, John Kealy. If you haven't browsed lately, check out our new look at https://www.sierraclub.org
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