NEXT PAGE -->
|
| * * * COMPANIES & PRODUCTS * * * |
|---|
Updated Daily!
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|
November 3, 1999
"I want the EPA to stop trucks and buses from putting bad things into the air." Ten year old Meggy Bechis, Sierra Club activist with asthma, testifying at EPA hearing in Philadelphia on proposed standards for heavy duty trucks and super-SUVs. Philadelphia Inquirer, Mark Jaffe, A9, Nov. 3, 1999.
THIS JUST IN ON FOREST VOTE: "CLEARCUTS FOR KIDS" Bill Passes House
1. CLEAN AIR:
2. CAFO NEWS FROM MI: PUTTING THE SPOT LIGHT ON BAD POOP POLICY
3. TOXICS REPORT FROM LOUISIANA: TARGET REFINERY EXPOSED
"CLEARCUTS FOR KIDS" Bill Passes House -- Expect worse in the Senate
Today the House of Representatives passed HR 2389, the County Schools Revitalization Act of 1999, by a margin of 274-153. This bill, if signed into law, would change a bill enacted in 1908 by increasing funding for logging on National Forests. The 1908 original law, known as "25% Fund," gives counties with National Forests in their boundaries one-quarter of all receipts from National Forest logging sales. The counties then have to use the funds for roads and schools.
HR2389 would take 20% of the school funds and put them in an off-budget account to be used, not for education, but for more timber sales. Clearly, this is the wrong way to go. This House victory could increase the strength of worse legislation in the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).
Sierra Club opposed the passage of HR 2389 and thanks Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO), Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), Rep. Bruce Vento (D-MN) and Rep. George Miller (D-CA) who valiantly fought this wrongheaded piece of legislation.
For more information contact Sean Cosgrove at (202) 547-1141 or at sean.cosgrove@sierraclub.org
1. CLEAN AIR: CLEANING UP BIG TRUCKS AND SUVS
Following closely on the heels of proposed standards to clean up pollution from cars and SUVs and other light trucks and the gasoline they run on, EPA has proposed standards for heavy duty trucks and big SUVs like Ford's Valdez (the thing they like to call the Excursion).
On Nov. 2, EPA held its only public hearing on these newly proposed rules for the heavy trucks and SUVs and Sierra Club was well represented by Meggy Bechis and her mother Maria Bechis, Vice Chair of the Bucks County Group represented the Club. Meggy Bechis is 10 years old and suffers from asthma. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer: The most straightforward testimony came from Meggy Bechis, a 10-year-old from Yardley who suffers from asthma. "I want the EPA," she said, "to stop trucks and buses from putting bad things into the air." Meggy was also interviewed by a local radio station and was heard on the air.
Meanwhile the auto industry and the big truck makers were well represented pleading for more time. But, more time means more dirty air.
2. CAFO NEWS FROM MI: PUTTING THE SPOT LIGHT ON BAD POOP POLICY
On Nov. 2, Michigan got an earful on how poorly the state is doing when it comes to poop, hog poop that is. At a press conference in the State Capitol, Lansing, Louie Miller of Mississippi CAFO fame and and David Knight from NC, joined with Michigan residents suffering from CAFOs.
At the press conference they annouced that Sierra Club and two other Michigan groups have submitted a petition to Carol Browner at EPA asking that Michigan's Primacy over its CAFO program be WITHDRAWN and to bolster opposition to the outrageous bill mentioned above that seeks to withdraw the last vestige of control over CAFOs from our state.
The Press was out in droves, and glued to their seats to hear Louie Miller compare Michigan VERY unfavorably to MISSISSIPPI! Miller said, "When Michigan finds itself far behind Mississippi in protecting air, water quality and its citizens from this industry; I have to asked what kind of Governor, DEQ director and legislature do yawl have up here anyhow?. . . We thought you guys were smarter than this!"
David Knight and Ken Midkiff (MO) gave great presentations featuring gut wrenching photos from North Carolina and CAFO troubles. Midkiff stated that "If Michigan doesn't change course, it will be the target of the BigPig corporations - and the recipient of millions of tons of hog crap. If Michigan DEQ won't do the job, then the US Environmental Protection Agency is required by federal law to step in and protect the citizens of Michigan and its water resources."
We had local folks with good documentation of the disaster building here. Other MI groups are with us on the petition, and one group that has done a good report about the failure of Michigan to regulate these damn things spoke to that issue.
The MI DEQ and Department of Ag have given classically idiotic responses to the press about our efforts. Anonymous "state officials said the proposal by environmental groups raises a federal guidance issue to the level of a regulation and could actually reduce the state's standard for emissions from large animal feeding operations." The DEQ spokesweasel says that "even with a permit, the department would not be able to take any action until there was a violation of a permit, just as now the department does not take action until there is an actual release." Apparently these guys don't understand the concept of issuing a permit!
3. TOXICS REPORT FROM LOUISIANA: TARGET REFINERY EXPOSED
The Lousiana folks working hard to increase enforcement actions by the state's Department of Environmental Quality and US EPA at the Shell-Norco refinery got a big boost with a bang up story in New Orleans Picayune. The article helps to document that increased attention on the mega-polluter is resulting on more scrutiny.
The timing on the article is especially great, since the Club will be releasing a report on Shell at a media event and EPA public comment event on Thursday.
The Picayne story reports that "The release of benzene and other cancer-causing chemicals by Shell Oil Co.'s sprawling operations in Norco has brought the company under renewed scrutiny from environmentalists and regulators." The report focuses on an Environmental Defense Fund study that ranks the Shell-Norco plant as "the lone Louisiana facility to qualify among the "worst" refineries in the nation. The study of 144 refineries nationwide found Shell Norco to be in the bottom 20 percent in pollution performance and to be one of only 12 refineries to score the lowest possible rating in four of five categories.
That report comes as Shell faces stepped-up oversight from federal regulators. In July and August, the Environmental Protection Agency conducted an extensive sweep of the complex's efforts to control emissions to the air and water and its handling of toxic waste. It was EPA's first "multimedia" inspection at the site since a comprehensive check in 1989, one year after an explosion killed seven people at the refinery."
Of course, Shell went through a million contortions to explain why their refinery is different from other refineries or better than it seems.
[BURNING ISSUE ENVIRONMENTALISTS AND THE EPA ARE CONDUCTING CRITICAL REVIEWS OF NORCO'S POLLUTION RECORD, BUT SHELL OFFICIALS DISPUTE THE FINDINGS, Times - Picayune, 10/31/99]
"The [Chesapeake] bay is strange, the way we live here. It gives us our food and gives us our living, but takes away our land." Jennings Evans, resident of Maryland's Smith Island and retired crab fisherman commenting on how global warming-induced sea level rise is slowly drowing his Island. CBS Evening News, 11/1/99
1. WILD PLACES AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT: WILDLY SUCCESSFUL MONTANA EVENT
2. SPRAWL REPORT: SPRAWLING STORY IN THE SAN ANTONIA EXPRESS
3. GLOBAL WARMING NEWS: SEA LEVEL RISE IS REAL THREAT
1. WILD PLACES AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT: WILDLY SUCCESSFUL MT EVENT
This report in from EPEC Organizer Christine Phillip - Hundreds of people joined the Sierra Club in Billings, Montana over the Halloween weekend to explore the role that wild places play in sustaining and enriching the human spirit. The conference brought together nationally renowned philosophers, award winning poets, avant-garde dancers, and religious leaders for two days of discussions, lectures and wokshops. Nearly 500 individuals from Montana and Wyoming participated.
Highlights include: the Deep Listening dance performance at the Pictograph Caves State Park, which involved dancers, the shakuhachi [Japanese bamboo flute], and various musical wooden animal masks; a special ceremony conducted by Crow Tribe Cultural Director Burton Pretty on Top; the premier of spectacular wildlife documentary "Wolves of Yellowstone"; and a wild animal cartooning workshop for the young and young-at-art.
The conference was a result of a colloborative effort lead by the Sierra Club's Yellowstone Basin Group, with the active participation of the Montana Association of Churches, Montana State University-Billings' art and philosophy professors, the Yellowstone Art Museum, and the Montana Wilderness Association.
2. SPRAWL REPORT: SPRAWLING STORY IN THE SAN ANTONIA EXPRESS
The Sierra Club Sprawl Report continues to make a splash in the press, this time with a lengthy story in the San Antonio Express. The story notes that Texas recieved very low rankings in all but one of the categories ranked.
The paper notes: Of the 50 states, Texas ranked 46th in open space protection, 37th in land-use planning and 31st in transportation planning. Only in the category of community revitalization did Texas do well, ranking 12th nationally.
Many Sierra Club Activists are quoted in the story. Here's a few selections: "I grew up in Austin when (there were much fewer) people living there, so I know the effects of urban sprawl," said Jerry Morrisey, the conservation chair of the Alamo Regional Group of the Sierra Club. "If you had these more condensed core developments, you could have (effective) public transportation. Of course, that's not going to happen overnight. It's not something we alone can affect."
Karin Ascot, Morrisey's counterpart for the Austin Sierra Club chapter, referred almost exclusively to problems in her city, but her comments can be related to San Antonio.
"Sprawl is an umbrella topic that affects almost everything else we do," she said. "The biggest issues with sprawl are transportation and land-use planning. They're two sides of the same coin _ you can't change one without changing the other."
"We are seeing the quality of life threatened," Ascot said. The main question any city faces is: 'How do you grow?' "The biggest problem is people's fear of change. Americans love mass transit if it's an airplane," she said.
The Sierra Club in Austin and other anti-sprawl advocates there say they don't want to live in a city of freeways. As for the positive in the Sierra Club's Sprawl Report, the high ranking of the state's community revitalization efforts, Lesly Van Dame of Houston [and Houston Conservation Chair] lauded San Antonio. "San Antonio is like a poster child for that," with the River Walk and the historical neighborhoods, she said. [San Antonio Express, By Anne Miller, Express-News Staff Writer]
3. GLOBAL WARMING NEWS: SEA LEVEL RISE IS REAL THREAT
According to global warming experts sea level rise threatens Maryland's Smith Island in the Cheasapeake Bay, as well as other low lying areas.
In a CBS Evening News story, Dr. Steve Leatherman states that "Smith Island's a look ahead, it's a precursor of what we expect to happen to other islands in the future, to other low lying islands." Leatherman links the sea level rise that is slowly engulfing Smith Island with global warming, saying that "The Earth is warming up as a response to greenhouse gases, which are being released by industrial activities, burning coal, oil and gas."
Warmer temperatures, as much as 6 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the next century, will melt glaciers and also result in warmer oceans that will expand. According to Jerry Mahlman of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, "We expect the possibility of as much sea level rise as three feet over the next century."
The story goes on to say: "If three feet doesn't sound like a big deal, maybe this will: for every one foot the ocean rises, 150 feet of beach gets swallowed up. A three-foot rise means 450 feet of Long Island's Jones Beach disappears.
The damage, according to some models, could be catastrophic: whole sections of South Florida, North Carolina's Outer Banks, New Jersey's barrier islands, and even New Orleans, will be under water."
These experts also explained that warmer temperatures mean more intense and damaging storms, costing billions, as well as longer and more intense heatwaves that will claim lives.
"Philadelphia would be more like New Orleans," says Mahlman. "Where New Orleans would become like I don't know what."
[More Global Warming In Store: Smith Island Is Drowning: A Disturbing Glimpse Into The 21st Century - Monday, November 01,1999 - 07:53 PM ET (CBS) Evening News with Dan Rather.]
"Why should the education of rural schoolchildren be funded off the back of a controversial timber program?" Mike Dombeck, Chief of the Forest Service. (see story #2)
Friday is the ALL ACTION edition of the SC-ACTION, including actions that you can take on Sierra Club campaigns. Please check out the action items below:
(1) Featured Item: Take Action to Protect Roadless Forests
(2) "Clearcuts for Kids" Bill to Be Voted on Soon! - Call Your Rep!
(3) Stop Superfund Rollback!
(4) Letters to the Editor Needed for Land Legacy Legislation
(5) Speak Up Against Human Rights Violations
(6) Take Action on Population
(7) Clinton Signs Dirty Transportation Appropriations Bill!
(8) No Globalization W/Out Representation: Make Trade Clean, Green, And Fair
1) FEATURED ITEM: TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT ROADLESS FORESTS
As you know, the President took a historic step toward protecting America's wild forests which opens the door for permanent protection for all of the last remaining roadless areas in our National Forests. Roadless areas are the last wild forests - unspoiled by human hands but threatened by logging, mining, oil drilling and destructive motorized vehicles. The President's proposal could save 60 million acres of these unprotected wild forests!
There are three ways you can help strengthen the administration's proposal by demonstrating strong public support for protecting roadless forests. If you haven't done so already, please call the White House Comment line at 202-456-1111 and thank the President for the roadless protection proposal. Second, please send written comments to Forest Service at the address below. Finally, a great way to get your friends and neighbors to send comments to the Forest Service is to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper urging fellow citizens to send comments. The following are key points to address in your comments to the forest service and your letter to the editor.
Points to Address: I applaud the President's initiative and urge you to protect 60 million acres of remaining roadless wild lands in our National Forests. I support a roadless policy that: - applies to ALL National Forest roadless areas over 1000 acres -- including Alaska's Tongass and Chugach National Forests. - provides permanent protection for all roadless areas from new road construction, logging, mining, off-road vehicle use, oil and gas development and other harmful activities - does not defer the protection of roadless areas to the forest planning process. This is our best chance to protect wild America and our children's inheritance. It is an opportunity the Forest Service must seize. Please count this as my formal comment on the proposed rulemaking for protection of roadless areas.
Letters can be sent to:
USDA Forest Service-CAET Attn: Roadless Areas Notice of Intent P. O. Box 221090 Salt Lake City, UT 84122 or E-mail: roadless/wo_caet-slc@fs.fed.us
Thank You!
2) "CLEARCUTS FOR KIDS" BILL TO BE VOTED ON SOON! - CALL YOUR REP!
A 1908 law, known as the "25% Fund" or "Payments to States," requires the Forest Service to turn over 25% of logging revenues to counties for use in funding schools and roads. Sadly, huge logging companies are hiding behind the argument of "more money for education" to push for an increased logging program on federal public lands. There is a better way. The 1908 law needs to be changed to permanently de-link education and road payments from yearly logging levels. Logging companies should not be able to hold rural schoolchildren hostage as a way to increase an unsustainable logging program. Call your Congressional Representatives today through the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to OPPOSE any version of HR2389, the Deal/Boyd "CLEARCUTS FOR KIDS" County Payments bill that will increase logging on National Forests.
3) STOP SUPERFUND ROLLBACK!
Two anti-environmental Superfund bills have recently passed out of Committee and are now being reconciled in order to bring the legislation to the House floor, maybe as early as next week. Both HR 2580, which passed out of the Commerce Committee, and HR 1300 which passed out of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, would severely weaken environmental and public health protections surrounding our nation's most hazardous waste sites---Superfund sites.
These bills would open up loopholes in the Superfund law that would allow owners of polluted property to avoid paying for its cleanup. The legislation would severely weaken the "polluter pays" principle upon which Superfund was founded---leaving the American taxpayers to pick up the costs of cleanup. The bill also would relax cleanup standards that would leave sites still polluted even after they have been dubbed "clean." Call your Representative and tell him or her you want our nation's Superfund sites cleaned-up and therefore you oppose HR 1300 and HR 2580!
4) LETTERS TO THE EDITOR FOR LAND LEGACY LEGISLATION
Today Congress has before it a rare and remarkable opportunity to pass legislation that will provide comprehensive funding for a host of conservation programs, including full and permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Funded from royalties paid by oil companies when they drill off our fragile coasts, the LWCF helps us acquire valuable wildlands to enhance our National Parks, Forests and Refuges. Legislation before Congress would build on the same principle -- that funds acquired from use of our nonrenewable resources should be reinvested into the protection of our environment -- and would fund an array of other programs, including open space preservation, wildlife protection, and coastal restoration.
Legislators continue to negotiate on various proposals and a bill could be considered in committee any day. You can help move the process along by writing a letter to the editor of your local paper -- your Representative and Senators will see the letter! Emphasize the great opportunity before us, and urge your elected officials to help pass conservation legislation that does NOT include incentives for stepped-up offshore drilling, does not fund projects that could actually harm the environment, and does not create new restrictions on the use of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
5) SPEAK UP AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
On May 2, the Mexican military arrested Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia, two environmentalists who organized their communities to curb logging in the old-growth forests of the Sierra de Petatlan in southwestern Mexico. Wealthy land owners, angered by disruption to their profitable logging ventures, targeted Montiel and Cabrera and urged corrupt Army officials to arrest them. Since May, Montiel and Cabrera have reportedly been beaten, tortured, and forced to confess to charges concocted by the military--including drug trafficking and belonging to a guerrilla group. Please write to the Mexican Ambassador and demand that Montiel and Cabrera be released from jail immediately. Tell him that torturing environmentalists is an outrageous violation of basic human rights. Ambassador Jesus Reyes Heroles, Embassy of Mexico, 1911 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20006, FAX (202) 728-1698. For more information, visit our Web site, www.sierraclub.org/human-rights
6) TAKE ACTION ON POPULATION
Chris Smith (R-NJ) is again working to hold our UN dues hostage to his Mexico City Global Gag Rule. For the past two years, this linkage has blocked payment of our UN dues. If he is successful again this year, the United States stands to lose its vote at the United Nations. Please call Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) (202.224.6253) and House Majority Leader J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) (202.225.2976) and tell them to de-link the Global Gag Rule and UN dues because:
· You support international family planning assistance without restrictions
· The Global Gag Rule restricts free speech. This would be unacceptable here at home. It should not become part of U.S. foreign policy overseas.
· We now have six billion neighbors around the world. We must act to protect health of these women and children around the world in order to protect the global environment.
· We cannot afford to lose our influence, negotiating role, and vote at the UN.
Contact Jennifer Kurz at 202.547-1141 or at jennifer.kurz@sierraclub.org for more information.
7) CLINTON SIGNS DIRTY TRANSPORTATION APPROPRIATIONS BILL!--Tell your friends and neighbors by writing a letter to the editor.
Despite the hard work of the environmental community and activists across the country, President Clinton put pork-barrel politics ahead of our children's health by signing a Transportation Appropriations bill containing the infamous rider freezing Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. A CAFE increase is the biggest single step we can take toward curbing global warming. Educate your neighbors and elected officials about how bad this dirty bill is. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper containing the following points: (1) The President failed to show leadership on this critical issue. (2)The average fuel economy for new vehicles in the 1999 model year was only 23.8 miles per gallon, the lowest level since 1980. (3)Without the Administration's ability to even study new standards for these vehicles, Americans will become even more dependent on foreign oil, waste more money at the gas pump, and pollute our air and atmosphere.
For more information visit https://www.toowarm.org or contact michelle.artz@sierraclub.org
8) NO GLOBALIZATION W/OUT REPRESENTATION: MAKE TRADE CLEAN, GREEN, AND FAIR
We are four weeks away from the largest trade summit ever hosted on U.S. soil, the Seattle WTO Summit Nov. 30 - Dec. 4. The current rules of the global trading system trade away our environment by threatening our hard-earned environmental standards. The Sierra Club's Responsible Trade program is organizing public education and protest activities in Seattle and around the country urging President Clinton to fix the WTO and global trading rules to protect our environment.
There are lots of ways to get involved. Write to your representative. Write a letter to your local paper. Or send for our action kit and learn how to hold a "Boston WTeaO Party: No Globalization without Representation!" To get involved, send an e-mail to sam.parry@sierrraclub.org or to dan.seligman@sierraclub.org for an "action kit."
NEXT PAGE -->
|
| * * * COMPANIES & PRODUCTS * * * |
|---|
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|