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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
July 19, 2000
"I never worry about action, only inaction." - Sir Winston Churchill
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) TAKE ACTION: Urge Your Representative to Sign a Letter on Behalf of Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera
2) Global Warming and Energy: Auto Industry Research Demonstrates Psyche of SUV Drivers
3) CARA on the move in the Senate, But Still In Need of Repair
4) VICTORY FOR NATIONAL MONUMENTS!
1) TAKE ACTION: Urge Your Representative to Sign on to Rep. Pelosi's Letter to Mexican Judge on Behalf of Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), a Congressional champion on human rights and the environment, is circulating a letter addressed to Judge Maclovio Murillo Chavez on behalf of Mexican environmental defenders Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera.
Montiel and Cabrera have been imprisoned since early May 1999 for their efforts to stop forest destruction in Mexico's Southern Sierra Madre. When Montiel and Cabrera were successful in halting the rampant logging in the area, they were detained by soldiers of Mexico's 40th Infantry Battalion and were subsequently tortured and forced to sign confessions of concocted charges of illegal possession of weapons and drug trafficking.
Judge Murillo is expected to rule on Montiel and Cabrera's case in the coming weeks. Rep. Pelosi's letter expresses concern about the arrest and the legal proceedings against Montiel and Cabrera and urges Judge Murillo to remain impartial in rendering his judgment in the case.
In April of this year, Montiel was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize for environmental activism. Also in April, Amnesty International declared Montiel and Cabrera Prisoners of Conscience, which triggers Amnesty's call for them to be immediately and unconditionally released.
Over the past 12 months, the Sierra Club's Human Rights and the Environment Campaign has mobilized tremendous grassroots support on behalf of Montiel and Cabrera. Thousands of activists around the country have mailed postcards and letters to Mexican officials and have organized rallies and attended meetings at Mexican Consulates from coast to coast. Despite our best efforts, we have received disturbing reports in recent weeks that the conditions for Montiel and Cabrera have become worse as they have been reportedly denied medical attention for severe injuries suffered during their torture more than a year ago.
Please take a moment to contact your Representative to urge him/her to sign on to Rep. Pelosi's letter. The deadline for signing on is Friday, July 21st, at 5:00 p.m. Please have your Representative contact Jonathan Stivers in Rep. Pelosi's office at (202) 225-4965.
For more information, please contact Sam Parry at (202) 547-1141, or sam.parry@sierraclub.org. You can also visit our Web site at www.sierraclub.org/human-rights.
2) Global Warming and Energy: Auto Industry Research Demonstrates Psyche of SUV Drivers
The New York Times has reported that there is a psychological difference between those who drive SUVs and those who drive minivans. According to a July 17, 2000 article, the auto industry has paid researchers handsomely to examine these customers' inner urges. In fact, automakers have been using this research to help determine the way their cars and trucks are designed and advertised. (So much for the argument that they are "merely following the market with the vehicles our customers demand.") Research has shown that, among other differences, minivan drivers are more "other-oriented" - more involved with family, friends and their community, where as SUV drivers are, in the automakers words, more "self-oriented."
SUVs are designed to appeal to our fears of violence and crime, according to Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, a medical anthropologist who has advised Ford, DaimlerChrysler and General Motors. He states that SUVs are designed to be masculine and assertive with vertical slats across the grilles to give the appearance of teeth and flared wheel wells meant to resemble bulging muscles. Honda's Thomas Eliott, vice president of North American operations states, "They are buying the image of the SUV first and then the functionality." According to DaimlerChrysler's director of market research, Peter Bostwick, safety during an accident isn't the real reason people are buying SUVs. "It's not safety as the issue, it's aggressiveness."
In contrast, those who drive minivans are more likely than SUV drivers to take part in conversations with their friends, attend family gatherings, read, do volunteer work and participate in church functions. Minivan drivers are also less likely to balk at being parents. Minivan drivers "want to be in control in terms of safety, being able to park and maneuver in traffic, being able to get elderly people in and out", according to Fred J. Schaafsma, a top GM development engineer.
Not surprisingly, auto market research company Auto Pacific has found that, SUV drivers show less courtesy on the road than minivan drivers. Those who drive SUVs were more likely to agree with the statement, "I'm a great driver," and claimed to drive faster than the average motorists.
3) CARA on the move in the Senate, But Still In Need of Repair
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee began consideration today of a major conservation funding bill, the "Conservation and Reinvestment Act," or "CARA." The committee spent the day making opening statements and explaining the details of the bill, and will begin debate on the bill and amendments tomorrow. The "vehicle" for mark-up is a compromise version of CARA, agreed to last week by Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and Ranking Member Jeff Bingaman (D-NM).
Since CARA's introduction, we have maintained serious concerns that it creates incentives for new offshore oil and gas leasing in sensitive coastal areas, could provide hundreds of millions of dollars for damaging infrastructure projects, and could actually weaken the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. In some regards, the compromise bill represents an improvement over the original CARA bill, but it also takes a few steps back in comparison to the bill approved by the House of Representatives in May.
We made progress in the House last May in largely removing the incentives for new offshore leasing; but unfortunately Senate leaders on this bill chose not to follow that lead. While the incentives are reduced under the new substitute bill, some states and local committees still stand to gain a lot if the amount of oil and gas leasing and production off their coasts is increased, particularly in Alaska. In addition, under the new compromise bill, close to $100 million could be spent each year on infrastructure projects that could actually be harmful to our fragile coastlines.
On the other hand, the Murkowski/Bingaman compromise adds a new "trigger" mechanism to help guarantee that federal LWCF money is spent. The new bill requires that the entire $450 million for federal LWCF projects (those are the land acquisition projects that are crucial for the protection and improvement of our National Parks, Forests, Refuges and other protected areas) is approved for spending by Congress each year before ANY of the almost $3 billion provided under the bill is made available.
Tomorrow, the committee will surely encounter amendments to undo the federal LWCF program by Senators with misguided "private property rights" concerns. But bill leaders feel confident they will have the votes to move the bill forward. The Sierra Club continues to work to remove troubling provisions from the bill to ensure any final bill contains the best of the House and Senate bills and represents a true environmental victory - and not just a public works bill disguised as "conservation."
4) VICTORY FOR NATIONAL MONUMENTS!
Yesterday the Senate voted down an attack on National Monuments when it rejected Senator Don Nickels' (R-OK) amendment by a vote of 49 to 50. The amendment to the Department of Interior Appropriations bill would have undermined the President's authority to protect spectacular American landscapes by prohibiting the designation of any new National Monuments unless authorized by Congress.
A similar measure was defeated in the House defeated last month. President Clinton has already used his authority under the Antiquities Act to protect threatened places in the Sequoia National Forests and red-rock canyons of southern Utah. Please check votewatch (see web address below) to see how your Senators voted.
"My sense is there are few issues that are less partisan or less geographic, because the National Forests belong to all Americans." - Representative Jim Leach, a Republican from Iowa and a lead sponsor of legislation to end the commercial logging program on federal public lands. (See item #4)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FEATURED ACTION ITEM: INTERIOR FUNDING BILL COMING UP EARLY NEXT WEEK!
1) URGENT ACTION: TIME RUNNING OUT TO PROTECT WILD FORESTS: SEND A FAX TODAY!
2) URGENT ACTION: WEIGH IN ON SPRAWL IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
3) URGENT ACTION: MEXICO'S ATTORNEY GENERAL USES BACKHANDED COURT TACTIC TO SEEK THE CONVICTION OF MEXICAN EARTH DEFENDERS
4) TAKE ACTION: PROTECT OUR WILD HERITAGE - STOP LOGGING OUR NATIONAL FORESTS
5) TAKE ACTION: SENATE VICTORY ON CAFE
6) TAKE ACTION: PROTECT OUR WATER FROM ANIMAL FACTORIES
FEATURED ACTION:
ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL RIDERS POLLUTE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT FUNDING BILL
TAKE ACTION: Please call your senators and urge them to oppose anti-environmental riders to the Interior Appropriations bill.
Debate on the bill to fund the Interior Department and other related programs will resume on Monday, July 17, with votes occurring on Tuesday. We expect a number of important votes on amendments that would undermine protections for endangered species, new National Monuments, and our National Parks.
Please urge your senators to oppose anti-environmental riders. Specifically urge you senators to vote against:
A rider to be offered by Senator NICKLES ON NATIONAL MONUMENTS. We believe his amendment may be similar to the rider that was stricken on the House floor. It would block any funding for the study, planning or implementation of new National Monuments designated by the President after 1999.
SENATOR DOMENICI EXTINCTION RIDER to ban the implementation of emergency conservation measures to prevent extinction of an endangered species, the silvery minnow. The amendment would block actions by the Bureau of Reclamation designed to maintain water in a certain stretch of the Rio Grande.
SENATOR THOMAS SNOWMOBILE RIDER- We think this rider would block funds for the implementation of the new regulations aimed at reducing snowmobile activity in our National Parks. However, the latest rumor is Senator Thomas will offer his amendment, have a colloquy on the floor, and then withdraw it.
Two other pro-environment amendments--a Senator Boxer amendment dealing with pesticides and a Senator Feingold amendment regarding a wilderness study area--are expected to be debated on Tuesday. We also support an amendment by Senators Bryan and Fitzgerald to shift money from the Forest Service timber budget and place it into fire reduction.
Please urge your Senators to oppose anti-environmental riders and support amendments to improve environmental protection. Thanks for your work.
1) TAKE ACTION: ONLY 72 HOURS LEFT TO COMMENT. SEND A FAX WITH YOUR COMMENTS TODAY
Please take the time to write a hand written, personal letter to the Forest Service calling for the protection of all of our last wild forest roadless areas from all damaging activities. If you have already written a letter - encourage your family, friends, children, neighbors and colleagues to write a letter too! The comment period ends this Monday, July 17th!
Here are some points to address in your letter: Over half of our National Forests have already been hammered by road building, logging and other damaging activities - we should protect the still-wild areas that remain. Put these roadless areas of our National Forests off-limits to roadbuilding, logging and other destructive activities. Please protect our nation's last temperate rainforest -- the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, from logging and road building. Letters should also address why wild forests are important to you.
Since time is running out, sending a fax is your best bet. E-mails are still good, however the Forest Service has been overwhelmed with e-mails lately so your message might get returned. If it does please keep trying. The fax number and e-mail address are below.
By e-mail to: roadlessdeis@fs.fed.us By fax to: 877-703-2494
For more information, visit our website https://www.sierraclub.org/wilderness/WildForest/Index.asp
2) URGENT ACTION: WEIGH IN ON SPRAWL IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
What does sprawl mean to you? What about smart growth?
As part of our Challenge to Sprawl Campaign, we are asking you to nominate projects and developments that exemplify sprawl or smart growth to you for inclusion in an upcoming sprawl report. Sprawl and smart growth are relatively new additions to the environmental community's vocabulary.
Please visit the sprawl section of the Sierra Club website at www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/ and click 'Nominate a development'. Please fill answer as many questions in the survey as you can. It should take you no more than 20 minutes to fill out. Please read all directions and provide as much detail as possible. If you don't have all the information requested below please submit what you do have and we'll contact you if we need more. ***We have extended the deadline for submissions to FRIDAY, 7/14*** Please send us your nominations as soon as possible.
If you have any questions, or want to find out more about our Challenge to Sprawl Campaign, please call Deron Lovaas at 202-547-1141 or by e-mail at deron.lovaas@sierraclub.org; or George Sorvalis at 202-547-1141 or by e-mail at george.sorvalis@sierraclub.org
3) URGENT ACTION: MEXICAN ANTI-LOGGING ACTIVISTS NEED YOUR SUPPORT: WRITE TO YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPERS AND URGE THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT TO RESPECT THE RIGHTS OF ENVIRONMENTALISTS
On June 20, the Mexican Attorney General's office filed its final conclusions, urging the Judge to convict Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera on charges concocted by local landowners and soldiers. To date, the only evidence that the prosecution has been able to produce are "signed confessions", which the two environmentalists signed after two days of continued torture by the military.
Montiel and Cabrera have spent the last 14 months in prison since their arrest May 2, 1999. After their detention, they were beaten and tortured until they confessed to concocted charges of drug-trafficking and illegal possession of weapons. In reality, their only "crime" was organizing their community to protest excessive and possibly illegal logging of old growth forests in the Southern Sierra Madre.
Learn more about this case: Read John Ross' article on the July/August 2000 issue of Sierra!
TAKE ACTION: Since the Mexican Attorney General has responded to our well-reasoned arguments for the immediate and unconditional release of Montiel and Cabrera with detestable court trickery, we are asking concerned activists write or call your local papers urging them to cover this story. Environmental activism is not a crime and environmentalists are not criminals.
For a copy of talking points and a letter to the editor, please call or e-mail Sam Parry at (202) 547-1141 or sam.parry@sierraclub.org. You can refer to our Web site at www.sierraclub.org/human-rights
4) TAKE ACTION: PROTECT OUR WILD HERITAGE - STOP LOGGING OUR NATIONAL FORESTS
Protecting forests make environmental and economic sense. The Forest Service predicts that in the year 2000, recreation, hunting and fishing in National Forests will contribute 38 times more income to the nation's economy than logging, and will create 31 times more jobs. More than 3,000 species of fish and wildlife and 10,000 plant species -- including 230 endangered plant and animal species -- rely on National Forests for habitat.
The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act would eliminate the commercial logging program on federal public lands, promote restoration, and help communities that receive logging revenue develop a more diverse and stable economy.
** Call your Member of Congress through the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to cosponsor HR 1396, the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act. **
5) TAKE ACTION: SENATE VICTORY ON CAFE
A victory in the Senate has resulted in a proposal to kick-start a study of CAFE standards. Congress has directed the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) do a joint study on miles per gallon standards and make a recommendation to Congress by July 1, 2001. DOT can recommend a CAFE increase in FY '01, and barring further barriers, DOT can promulgate new standards in FY '02.
This is a huge victory for the environment and consumers, and is a direct result of your relentless phone calls and letters to your senators. The study would not have happened without the outstanding efforts of all of you telling the Senate to get moving on cleaner cars. The auto industry knew that we were going to get more votes than last year-- and now we've got the ball rolling on better CAFE standards. WE WON, THEY LOST!
TAKE ACTION: Call and write the White House and urge them to take advantage of the opportunity that Congress has given them to improve miles per gallon standards. State that you're counting on them to make sure that this study leads to tougher miles per gallon standards and you hope they will take the lead on the biggest single step we can take to curb global warming, raising CAFE standards. Raising CAFE standards will reduce our dependence upon foreign oil, slash pollution and will save us money at the gas pump.
6) TAKE ACTION: PROTECT OUR WATER FROM ANIMAL FACTORIES
The EPA is in the process of developing a "Guidance Document" for a permitting system for large concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). These massive animal factories have fouled America's water and air from coast to coast, and have run family farmers off the land. Several court cases have clearly found that these facilities, including land application of wastes, are to be regulated under the federal Clean Water Act.
But the US EPA seems not to understand the import of the court decisions or the impact of the CAFOs on water quality. There are three major positions that the Sierra Club (and allied groups) have been asserting:
1) Every CAFO with more than 1000 "animal units" (2500 hogs, 30,000 chickens, and 750 dairy cows) must OBTAIN a federal wastewater discharge permit.
2) The permits must contain binding, enforceable and water-quality protective conditions.
3) CAFOs must land apply wastes at agronomic rates, as determined by a soil test and the optimal rate of growth (or production) of the specific crop. (EPA is proposing to allow rates of application based on "soil assimilation" which essentially means wastes can be applied right up to the point where runoff occurs).
Please call EPA Administrator Carol Browner at 202-564-4700 (FAX - 202-501-1450) and urge her to issue a Guidance Document incorporating the above points.
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