NEXT PAGE -->
|
| * * * COMPANIES & PRODUCTS * * * |
|---|
Updated Daily!
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|
March 6, 2000
"The Sierra Club said it best, quote, `Praising George Bush on clean air is like thanking John Rocker for his contribution to civil rights.'" -- Radio ad being aired by Senator John McCain, in response to attacks from wealthy Bush donors
CONTENTS
1) TAKE ACTION: Rising Gas Prices: To End America's Oil Addiction, Drill Under Detroit, Not the Arctic
2) Forest Service to Hold Sequoia Hearing
3) Army Corps Moves toward Protecting Floodplains
4) Mitsubishi and Mexico Cry "Uncle" an San Ignacio Salt Facility
5) Sierra Club calls for Moratorium on Upper Mississippi Navigation Studies
1) TAKE ACTION: Write a Letter to the Editor to End America's Oil Addiction
The rising price of gas is big news, and Big Oil and its allies in Congress are using every press opportunity to stump for drilling the Arctic. But drilling in the Arctic is not the solution to the present crisis -- a sensible, long-term energy strategy is. Please seize the opportunity to correct the shortsighted vision of those who seek to open our national treasures and sensitive coasts to oil and gas development.
Write a letter to the editor of your local paper urging Congress to spare the Arctic Refuge and to pursue real solutions, such as raising CAFE standards for automobiles and light trucks. There is more oil to be found in Detroit than beneath the Arctic Refuge. See the points below to help you frame your own letter to the editor.
Rising oil prices have become a hot political issue. OPEC -- the cartel of oil exporting countries -- is deliberately manipulating the market to drive up petroleum prices. OPEC is using classic supply and demand economics to pad their profits. Unfortunately, America's Big Oil corporations and their allies have responded by renewing their call to drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- a response that makes no sense economically or environmentally.
95% of Alaska's North Slope is already available for oil and gas exploration and leasing. The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge represents the last 5% that remain off limits to drilling. No one knows if -- or how much -- oil is there. But responsible analyses say that if there is any oil to be found there, it's less than a six-month supply, and it will take 10 years to bring online. That's hardly going to lower domestic oil prices in either the short term or the long term.
Drilling the Arctic Refuge would be as foolhardy as damming the Grand Canyon for hydroelectric power or capping Old Faithful for geothermal energy. The Arctic Refuge is America's Serengeti -- home to polar bears, wolves, and migratory birds and the calving grounds for the 129,000-member Porcupine River Caribou Herd. Ultimately, no amount oil is worth the cost of drilling the Arctic Refuge.
Drilling the Arctic Refuge isn't the answer. Rather, the solution is to break our addiction to oil. America needs a long-term energy strategy for the 21st century -- one that relies on conservation and renewables and alternative energy sources. Of course, the biggest single step to saving oil AND curbing global warming is to raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards (CAFE) for light trucks and automobiles to 34 mpg and 45 mpg respectively.
President Clinton has the power to adopt the key long-term solution -- improving the efficiency of the cars, SUVs and other light trucks which guzzle 40% of the oil we use. Automobiles are keeping us dependent on foreign oil and spewing out 20% of U.S. global warming pollution. Despite these facts, fuel economy standards for SUVs, pickups and minivans have stagnated for 19 years and car standards for 14. And, for the past 5 years the Congressional leadership has prevented the government from even studying the possibility of updating our nation's fuel economy standards.
These days of high oil prices were sure to come. But we were not ready because years of inaction in Detroit and Washington have denied consumers the choices we deserve -- efficient vehicles that meet our needs. In fact, as SUV sales have risen, the average fuel economy of new vehicles sold has fallen to its lowest point since 1980.
Americans can and must have vehicles that are more efficient. Honda's new 65 mpg gasoline-electric hybrid Insight proves automakers can make affordable, efficient and clean vehicles. Unfortunately, Detroit won't budge. By standing up to Congress and the auto industry now to raise fuel economy standards, President Clinton can help put more fuel-efficient cars on the road and break our nation's oil addiction.
Raising CAFE standards is a long-term strategy that would cut our addiction to oil, and slash pollution, and allow us to protect our national treasures like the Arctic Refuge, for our families, for our future.
2) Forest Service to Hold Sequoia Hearing
"I want to ensure that these majestic cathedral groves, which John Muir called "Nature's masterpiece," are protected for future generations to study and enjoy" - President Bill Clinton
The giant sequoias are among the largest and oldest living things on earth. While about a third of the groves are protected within National Parks, the balance of what is left is found within National Forest or other federally owned land and remains endangered by logging, road construction, ORV damage, and development pressures. The Sequoia National Forest holds John Muir's beloved Giant Sequoia groves and is also valuable as habitat for black bear, bobcats, and peregrine falcons as well as the endangered Sierra Nevada red fox and wolverine. Sierra Club members have been fighting for protection of the giant sequoias since the days when John Muir walked the hills.
A few weeks ago President Clinton requested that USDA Secretary Dan Glickman (who oversees the Forest Service) study the possibility of setting aside as much as 400,000 acres of federal forests as a National Monument to protect our nation's last remaining groves of giant sequoia trees. The Forest Service has announced a special public hearing on March 18 in Fresno, CA.
The hearing will be at: Fresno Fairgrounds in the Fine Arts Building at 1121 South Chance Avenue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
** Sierra Club is planning a big turnout for the hearing. You can get involved by contacting Barb Boyle at (916) 557-1100. **
You can find out more from the Forest Service web at: https://www.r5.fs.fed.us/sequoia For any questions or comments, please feel free to contact Mary Chislock-Bethke at (559) 784-1500 ext. 1112 or Denise Alonzo ext. 1256. E-mail can be sent to mchislock/r5_sequoia@fs.fed.us or dalonzo/r5_sequoia@fs.fed.us.
Your help right now can protect these majestic forests forever! Ask your members of Congress, Senators and the Forest Service to act to protect 400,000 acres of the giant Sequoia ecosystem!
3) Army Corps' plan makes progress toward limiting rubber-stamp wetland destruction permits and more floodplain sprawl
The Sierra Club and flood victims today announced that a new government program to limit wetland development will help keep many people from harm's way and protect sensitive wildlife habitat. But they said that the Army Corps of Engineers has more work to do before the program completely meets the President's goals of guaranteeing full environmental review and public notice of development plans in floodplains.
The new nationwide wetlands permit program is an overhaul of existing rules that govern sprawl development, mining, road-building and other activities in wetlands. The program, called "rubber stamp permits" by environmentalists, has sanctioned the easy destruction of wetlands for many years. Each year in the U.S., more than 115,000 acres of wetlands are destroyed. The new program, if enforced with vigor, will help stem these losses.
"The permits are now limited to a half-acre, which is a significant step forward," said Robin Mann, chair of the Sierra Club's wetlands committee. "And the program contains other protections that will help slow the destructive channeling, relocating, and mining of our streams."
But the Corps' new program must continue to improve if it is to completely meet the President's goal of protecting floodplain wetlands. Clinton pledged in 1998 to conduct a full environmental review with full public participation. Clinton clearly understood that wetlands play an important role in reducing flooding by soaking up storm water.
"Rubber stamp wetland destruction permits made the flooding in my house worse in 1997 and this year," said Doris Wilson, Louisville flood victim and school teacher. "We need to thank President Clinton and Vice President Gore for limiting these permits, but they need to make sure that the Corps of Engineers moves to fully deliver on their promise to protect our families from floods and limit these easy permits in all floodplains."
To show evidence of the widespread destruction of wetlands under the nationwide program, the Sierra Club today released a report, "Primary Disaster." The report shows that floodplain wetland destruction is causing more flood deaths and damage across the country. The data show that the Army Corps of Engineers gave developers 97-99% of the wetland destruction permits requested between 1988-1996 in California, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota-- the sites of some of the worst flood deaths in U.S. history and upcoming primary states.
The report shows that developers get all of virtually all, or 97% - 100%, of those wetland destruction permits in Presidentially Declared Flood Disaster counties, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) data. Floods killed 957 and destroyed $45-90 billion in homes, businesses, and crops from 1989-98.
"Primary Disaster shows that developers and agribusiness continue to destroy wetlands and build in floodplains that puts people in harm's way and causes more flooding in Minnesota," said Dexter Perkins, a Red River flood victim. "Developers have already destroyed half of our wetlands and are filling more each day. This report shows that our current wetland protections are just speed bumps for the developers' bulldozers."
The report also shows that "rubber stamp" wetland permits allow developers to build in 78,000 acres of wetlands, enough to store 78 billion gallons of floodwater, between 1988-96. Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and states agencies paid $500 million to move almost 17,000 homes and businesses out of the floodplains after floods from 1988-98.
Concern from environmentalists and officials at FEMA, triggered by mounting costs in lives and property from floodplain mismanagement, helped achieve the reforms announced today by the Corps.
"It is crazy that we are allowing more people to build in floodplains, at the same time we are paying billions in flood costs and moving people out of floodplains," said Brett Hulsey, report author and Director of the Sierra Club Protect Our Families From Floods Project. "The President must continue to make progress to keep his promise to `require full environmental review, with full public participation, of all projects in critical wetland areas, particularly floodplains.'"
Wetlands, prairies, and other natural habitat soak up floodwater like sponges, filter our drinking water, and provide homes for fish and wildlife. Army Corps data shows that 40% of the wetland destruction from 1988-96 was with Nationwide Permit 26 that currently allows developers to destroy up to three acres of isolated wetlands. One Illinois study showed that floods increase by 7% for every 1% of wetlands destroyed. "Disaster by Design," a recent National Science Foundation report shows that floodplain sprawl and Army Corps project increase flood damages.
"We will be watching the Corps to make sure they enforce these plans. Our activists will be working at the regional level to make sure that this program is carried out in a way that protects our natural heritage and keeps people out of harm's way," said Hulsey. "We urge citizens to support the overhauling of the permit program and we'll bring the power of the grassroots to fight any efforts to scale back this program."
4) Mitsubishi and Mexico Cry "Uncle" an San Ignacio Salt Facility
Every activist who sent a post card or letter to Mitsubishi Corporation or the Mexican government, or told a Mitsubishi automobile dealership they'd shop elsewhere for a car, can take credit and satisfaction for a stunning victory. In a sudden and truly unexpected turnaround, the President of Mexico and Mitsubishi announced on Thursday they would scrap plans to build the world's largest salt extraction facility in the Vizcaino World Heritage Biosphere Reserve on the Baja peninsula, location of San Ignacio Lagoon, the last pristine mating and calving ground for the Pacific gray whale.
The partners continue to insist that the environmental study they commissioned posed no danger to the whales using the lagoon, or the quality of the lagoon and the surrounding unique desert landscape and wildlife. However, in justifying the sudden backdown, President Zedillo used the rationale laid out by a UNESCO commission following a visit to the site last August: a new project of the scope outlined would transform the unique desert landscape and damage its integrity.
The lion's share of the credit for the massive campaign against the salt facility goes to the Mexican environmentalists whose opposition put them at considerable risk. Sierra Club's International Committee opposed the project in 1998, generating letters to the salt facility's sponsors, and many Sierra Club activists, especially in Southern California, participated in the campaign. As Jacob Scherr of NRDC told the Washington Post, "This is a victory not just for the lagoon but for the planet, and it's a triumph of an empowered citizenry over one of the world's most powerful companies."
4) Sierra Club calls for Moratorium on Upper Mississippi Navigation Studies
A coalition of environmental and taxpayer groups today called upon the Clinton Administration and Congress to halt a scandal-ridden study being drafted by the Army Corps of Engineers; and to cut all funding for the project. The coalition is made of: Sierra Club, National Audubon Society, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Izaak Walton League of America, National Wildlife Federation, Environmental Defense, Mississippi River Basin Alliance and Mississippi River Revival.
The groups said that until a full and independent investigation is conducted, allowing the Corps to continue the ongoing planning to expand the upper Mississippi River locks and dams would be a huge waste of tax dollars.
"The Corps has lost all credibility in its efforts on the navigation study. Allowing them to continue to work on it is simply pouring good money after bad," said Carl Zichella, Sierra Club, Midwest regional staff director. "They treat tax dollars like monopoly money to grow their bureaucracy with."
On February 1, a long-term Corps employee, Don Sweeney, formally alleged that senior Corps officials deliberately distorted a feasibility study on extending seven locks on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to assure the Congress would appropriate up to $2 billion to build the project. The federal Office of Special Counsel referred Sweeney's complaint to Secretary of Defense William Cohen on February 28, saying, "there is a substantial likelihood that officials in the Corps have engaged in violations of law, rule or regulation and a gross waste of funds."
"We have said that we're against deforestation, against burning the forests, against pollution. We are not against people; we're only hoping that we all watch out for the environment. Otherwise we're destroying ourselves, our families, and our children and their future." --Rodolfo Montiel. November 1999 (See Take Action #2, below)
CONTENTS
1) TAKE ACTION #1: Ford Excursion, "Worst Car of the Millennium"
2) TAKE ACTION #2: Human Rights and the Environment threatened in Mexico
TAKE ACTION #1 The Ford Excursion made it on a list of 14 finalists for "Worst Car of the Millennium" on NPR's CarTalk radio show. Your vote, and the vote of all the folks you can convince to visit Car Talk's web site, could help the Ford Excursion capture this well deserved award (and help erode national sales of this noxious beast).
Please take a moment, tune your browser to https://cartalk.cars.com/About/Worst-Cars/ballot.html and cast an official vote for the worst car of the millennium: the Ford Excursion.
TAKE ACTION #2 Human Rights and the Environment Urgent Action Alert
"We have said that we're against deforestation, against burning the forests, against pollution. We are not against people; we're only hoping that we all watch out for the environment. Otherwise we're destroying ourselves, our families, and our children and their future." --Rodolfo Montiel. November 1999
Since May 2, 1999, Mexican anti-logging activists and farmers Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera have been in a prison in Iguala, the capital of the state of Guerrero, Mexico, for their efforts to protect one of the last frontier forests in North America. After their arrests by the military, Montiel and Cabrera were beaten, threatened at gunpoint, and gruesomely tortured by members of the 40th Infantry Battalion of the Mexican Army. The two activists were forced to confess to trumped-up charges of drug trafficking and illegal possession of weapons.
The case is now in the last stages of the hearing process, after which the trial and sentencing phase will begin. We must increase the international pressure on the Mexican government as well as on local officials. This is a crucial time to write to Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, Guerrero State Governor, Rene Juarez Cisneros, and Attorney General Jorge Madrazo Cuellar. A sample letter can be found on our Web site at: https://www.sierraclub.org/human-rights/Mexico/letter.asp
(Remember: a 1 ounce letter to Mexico costs about $0.46)
President Ernesto Zedillo c/o Ambassador Jesús Reyes-Heroles Embassy of Mexico 1911 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20006 Fax: 202-833-4320
Lic.Jorge Madrazo Cuellar, Procurador General de la República Paseo de la Reforma 65, Esq. Violeta, Col. Guerrero México, D.F., 06300. Fax: 53-46-09-04.
Dr. José Luis Soberanes, Presidente de la Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos Periférico Sur 3469, 5º Piso Col San Jerónimo Lídice. México, D.F. 10200. Fax: 56 81 71 99.
Mtra.Julia Carabias Lillo, Secretaria del Medio Ambiente Recursos Naturales y Pesca Periférico Sur 4209, Sexto Piso, Colonia Jardines de la Montaña, México, D. F. 14210. Fax: 56.28.06.43.
More Background:
Two months after their arrests, Montiel and Cabrera obtained legal representation from a non-profit group of human rights lawyers based in Mexico City. Soon after taking over the case, the Director of the legal team of Centro Prodh, Ms Digna Ochoa, was kidnapped and threatened by several masked men. Other members of the Centro Prodh have received several death threats over the past six months, possibly in connection to this case.
Both Rodolfo and Teodoro continue to suffer health problems, which according to doctors, are a consequence of the beatings and torture to which they were submitted.
Meanwhile, reports from local environmentalists in the state indicate that logging continues to destroy the old growth forests in the region, where more than 50 percent of the logging is illegal. According to several sources that have visited the region, most of the hardwoods leave the Sierra Madre and are transported to Washington State by truck.
On an uplifting note, Montiel recently told a close friend and fellow environmentalist Alejandro Villamar that he would "continue to work and lead the 'Grupo de Campesinos Ecologistas'" to fight the rampant destruction of the forests.
For more information or to sign-up to the Human Rights and the Environment Campaign, please contact Sam Parry, (202) 675-7907, sam.parry@sierraclub.org
Web site: www.sierraclub.org/human-rights
NEXT PAGE -->
|
| * * * COMPANIES & PRODUCTS * * * |
|---|
| * * * IN-HOUSE RESOURCES * * * |
|---|