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DEFENDING ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA
September 22, 2000
"Once again, too many of these (spending) bills are being watered down with riders aimed at weakening public health protections, blocking commonsense efforts to combat climate change, and surrendering public lands to private interests...I vetoed bills before because they contained them, and if I have to I'll do it again." -President Clinton at a White House Rose Garden event 9/21/00
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FEATURED ITEM: HELP PROTECT OUR NATIONAL PARKS FROM PERSONAL WATERCRAFT
ACTION ITEMS:
1. TAKE ACTION: Interior Appropriations Update 9-22-2000
2. TAKE ACTION: CONVICTED MEXICAN ENVIRONMENTALISTS HAVE REPORTEDLY BEEN THREATENED WITH PHYSICAL VIOLENCE
3. TAKE ACTION: U.S. NEGOTIATING TO WEAKEN GLOBAL WARMING TREATY
4. TAKE ACTION: OUR STREAMS AND WETLANDS NEED PROTECTION FROM SPRAWL
5. TAKE ACTION: INTERNATIONAL FAMILY PLANNING DEBATE CONTINUES INTO HOUSE/SENATE COMMITTEE
IN THE NEWS: NAACP AND SIERRA CLUB JOIN FORCES TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT
FEATURED ITEM: HELP PROTECT OUR NATIONAL PARKS FROM PERSONAL WATERCRAFT
In April 2000, the National Park Service announced a ban on personal watercraft (also known by the commercial names Jet Ski, Sea Doo, Waverunner, etc.) in some areas of our National Parks, including the Niobrara/Missouri National Scenic Riverways in Nebraska and South Dakota. Unfortunately, a vocal group of personal watercraft dealers is demanding that the National Park Service reverse the ban and allow these noisy, polluting machines everywhere. The National Park Service is currently asking the American people to weigh in on whether or not these machines should be allowed on sections of the Niobrara/Missouri National Scenic Riverways. If the personal watercraft lobby is successful in getting the rule reversed here, it could set the stage for reversing the ban in other National Park units.
ACTION: Please send an e-mail, letter, or fax to Park Superintendent Paul Hedren by September 30th, urging him to uphold the ban on personal watercraft in the Niobrara and Missouri National Scenic Riverways. Tell him that personal watercraft are noisy, polluting thrill craft that are inappropriate in a National Park where the preservation of water, wildlife, and natural sites and sounds is the primary mission.
Please address your letters to:
Missouri National Recreation Center PO Box 591 O'Neill, NE 68763 Fax: 402-336-3981 EMAIL: mnrr_pwc@nps.gov
1. Interior Appropriations Update 9-22-2000
Negotiations on the Interior Appropriations bill have been hot and heavy and Conferees hope to wrap up the bill and get it approved by next Tuesday. As it stands, this bill has gotten dramatically worse through the addition of NEW anti-environmental riders. Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) has successfully tacked on his anti-salmon rider, Sen. Pete Domenici's (R-NM) rider on fire "fuels removal" has been expanded to increase harmful logging, and Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) added a rider to stymie stronger environmental standards for the hard rock mining industry. These anti-environmental riders have been piled on at this late hour to a bill already chock full of riders that seek to undermine our nation's public land protections.
The Administration has already threatened to veto any spending bill that contains riders harmful to the environment. Yesterday, President Clinton said "Once again, too many of these bills are being watered down with riders aimed at weakening public health protections, blocking commonsense efforts to combat climate change, and surrendering public lands to private interests."
The Sierra Club opposes the Interior Approps bill based on the many anti-environmental riders attached to it. If the riders are not stripped from the bill, we will urge members of Congress to vote against the bill. Moreover, we will continue to urge President Clinton to stand tall against these attacks on our environment and to veto any appropriations bill that contains anti-environmental riders. Stay tuned for detailed information as we continue the fight against riders! For a full list and description of the various riders attached to Appropriations bills see www.defenders.org
2. Urgent Action: Convicted Mexican Environmentalists Have Reportedly Been Threatened with Physical Violence
Two Mexican environmentalists, Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, convicted August 28 for crimes they confessed to under duress of torture, have reportedly become targets of new physical threats. Lawyers for the earth defenders are gravely concerned for the safety of their clients after receiving reports that Carlos Coronel, director of their prison in Iguala, Guerrero, is contracting inmates to beat up Montiel and fellow environmental activist Teodoro Cabrera.
On September 8, Montiel and Cabrera learned that the prison director had remarked that he needed to hire someone to beat up the environmentalists. This threat is all the more serious given that the prison director has frequently denied Montiel and Cabrera's right to receive visitors. In addition, if further physical beatings are disguised as conflicts between inmates, it will be difficult for the lawyers to prove that prison officials had a role in the attacks.
Please send urgent appeals urging that:
Montiel and Cabrera be released immediately and unconditionally; and
Until they are released, that prison authorities guarantee the physical and psychological security of Montiel and Cabrera.
Send your appeals to:
President Ernesto Zedillo c/o Ambassador Jesus Reyes-Heroles Embassy of Mexico 1911 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20006
Please copy all letters to Sam Parry at sam.parry@sierraclub.org.
For more information, please visit our Web site at www.sierraclub.org/human-rights
3. U.S. NEGOTIATING TO WEAKEN GLOBAL WARMING TREATY
International negotiators are currently deciding how strong the Kyoto Global Warming Protocol will be. While countries such as Great Britain are cutting their emissions (which,as a country, are considerably less than our auto emissions), the U.S. is trying to avoid making any real reductions in our own emissions by promoting a system of pollution permit trading. The proposed system allows U.S. polluters to continue polluting by purchasing emissions credits from less polluting countries. The Administration is also seeking to allow the U.S. to get pollution reduction credits for merely keeping existing forests standing, a flawed approach since there is a threat of more forest fires. Trees burned in the fires that recently scorched the western U.S. have released all of their carbon dioxide.
The Sierra Club has taken a position against these risky trading schemes and opposes the use of "credits" as a right to pollute by pressing for real reductions in domestic emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases by making our cars, power plants and factories pollute less.
TAKE ACTION. Contact the White House (phone: 202-456-1111, or email: president@whitehouse.gov). Urge President Clinton to instruct U.S. negotiators to stop weakening the Kyoto Protocol. We should take World leadership by cutting our own global warming emissions.
4. Our Streams and Wetlands Need Protection from Sprawl
Developers are exacerbating sprawl by turning wetlands into strip malls, tract housing and golf courses -- all without any environmental review. Why? They are exploiting a 1998 court ruling that struck down the "Tulloch Rule" and opened a loophole in the Clean Water Act enabling developers and others to do various ditching, draining and excavating projects without public notice or a permit.
Destroying these wetlands and streams harms the quality of our nation's water, aggravates flooding, robs a wide array of birds, fish and wildlife of critical habitat and invites sprawling development in sensitive ecosystems.
You can help protect our streams and wetlands by supporting a rule the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers proposed to limit the destructiveness of this loophole and by urging these agencies to do more to stop sprawl from invading sensitive ecosystems.
Take Action: The comment period on this rule ends on Oct. 16, 2000, so urgent action is necessary. Please write a personal letter making similar points to the ones below. If you want to do more to help with this campaign or need further details, call the Sierra Club at (202) 547-1141 or visit our Web site at www.sierraclub.org/wetlands/tulloch.
-Help stem the destruction of streams and wetlands due to the "Tulloch" loophole (65 Fed. Reg 50108 ff).
-Since a court overturned the Tulloch rule in 1998, thousands of acres of wetland have been ditched and drained and hundreds of miles of streams degraded without any environmental review. Closing the Tulloch loophole will protect streams and wetlands that are home to thousands of birds, fish and other wildlife. Streams and marshes protect our communities by acting as natural sponges, soaking up and filtering water that would otherwise flood our neighborhoods.
Apply the full Clean Water Act protections for streams and wetlands by strengthening and clarifying the proposed rule as follows:
- Provide clarity in the rule that specific activities -- such as sidecasting, stockpiling, clearing, grading, leveling and backfilling -- always require environmental review to ensure that developers are not able to exploit any vagueness within the rule;
- Develop stronger language to protect our streams from toxics, heavy metals and other pollutants that are sent downstream by ditching and dredging.
The Army Corps must seize this opportunity to protect our nation's streams and wetlands from the widespread destruction this loophole has created. I urge you to finalize the rule with the above revisions as soon as possible. Please count this as my formal comment in support of the proposed rulemaking for limiting the Tulloch loophole.
Mail to: Mr. Mike Smith Office of the Chief of Engineers ATTN CECW-OR (3 F73) Further Revisions to Definition of Discharge or Dredge Material 441 G Street NW Washington, DC 20314-1000
Email to: CECWOR@HQ02.USACE.Army.Mil
5. International Family Planning Debate Continues Into House/Senate Committee
Join the Sierra Club's Population Program efforts: Ask your Senator to repeal the Global Gag Rule and keep the Senate's higher funding level.
International family planning funding continues to be contentiously debated within the House and Senate foreign operations appropriations. Last fiscal year, Congress and the White House imposed restrictions on U.S. family planning assistance overseas. The policy, the Global Gag Rule, disqualifies overseas family planning associations from receiving U.S. funds if they, with their own money, lobby to change laws on abortion or provide abortion services in their own countries where it is legal to do so.
On July 13th, the House of Representatives voted to maintain the Global Gag Rule restrictions (H.R.4811) by a narrow margin of 206-221, passing the bill with funding levels of $385 million for international family planning assistance and $25 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). These represent no increase from the funding levels of last year.
The Senate passed their bill (S.2522) with increased funding levels and removed the Global Gag Rule restrictions from the legislation. The Senate requested $425 million for international family planning assistance through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and $25 million for UNFPA.
Now, the House and Senate versions will go to a conference committee. The joint committee of Representatives and Senators has to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the foreign appropriations bills, and send it on to the President. At that point the President can either sign the bill into law or veto it. President Clinton has threatened a veto if the Global Gag Rule restrictions and low funding levels remain.
TAKE ACTION: If you are from one of the following states, please contact your senator: Specter (R-PA), Gregg (R-NH), Campbell (R-CO), Leahy (D-VT), Inouye (D-HI), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Harkin (D-IA), Mikulski (D-MD), and Murray (D-WA). Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121.
Tell them: U.S. funding for voluntary family planning and other reproductive health programs not only save lives and improve human health, but also help slow population growth and protect the environment. Attempts to interfere with the delivery of these vital health services undermine the prospects for conserving natural resources, protecting wildlife habitat, and ultimately, for ensuring a healthy and prosperous future for our children. Please keep the Global Gag Rule out and support the Senate funding levels.
IN THE NEWS: NAACP and Sierra Club Join Forces to Protect the Environment
The NAACP, which has been nonpartisan throughout its 91-year history, thrust itself into political combat for the first time this week, launching a series of radio commercials this week attacking former Virginia governor George Allen and two other Republican candidates.
The new ads, broadcast in tandem with the Sierra Club, focus on environmental issues and are aimed at African Americans. They are sharply negative in tone even though they avoid explicitly recommending defeat of the candidates.
"When George Allen was governor, he sued the Environmental Protection Agency to stop the cleanup of air pollution and smog that can trigger asthma attacks," said one ad, running in Newport News, Va. Allen, who is running for the Senate in Virginia, "derailed federal efforts to punish Smithfield Foods, one of Virginia's largest polluters and one of the largest contributors to George Allen's 1996 campaign . . . Tell [Allen] to call Congress to support full funding for the EPA enforcement of clean air and clean water laws--for our families, for our future."
Another commercial in the $ 100,000 radio ad campaign targets GOP Sen. Spencer Abraham, who is running for reelection in Michigan, and features Michael Harbut, a specialist in environmental medicine, saying, "it's unconscionable that politicians like Senator Abraham are more concerned with protecting polluters than they are in protecting our families." A third ad criticizes Republican Rep. Anne M. Northup of Kentucky.
The ads ended with the line, "paid for by the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club and Americans for Equality, a project of the NAACP National Voter Fund."
-The Washington Post, 9/22/00 https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56313-2000Sep21.html (visit for full story)
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
TAKE ACTION: URGENT ACTION NEEDED ON FEDERAL WATER PROJECTS LEGISLATION
1. New Sierra Club report "Smart Choices or Sprawling Growth" released last week is making headlines across the country
2. Bird-dogging Governor Bush in Chicago
TAKE ACTION
URGENT ACTION NEEDED ON FEDERAL WATER PROJECTS LEGISLATION
The Senate will vote later today on the Water Resources Development Act of 2000, S. 2797, a bill that would approve massive federal funding for highly destructive Army Corps dredging and flood control projects, despite the wealth of recent evidence that the Corps' economic justifications for many of these projects are flawed, if not purposefully manipulated to support the pet projects favored by powerful members of Congress and special interests. Your help is needed RIGHT NOW!!! Please call your Senator and deliver the following 2-part message:
* SUPPORT the Everglades Restoration bill, whether it is included in WRDA or not.
* DO NOT PASS WRDA without including Senator Finegold's amendment for independent review of large-scale Corps projects. The independent review would make the Corps more accountable for providing reliable economic justifications for projects and would provide counterpressure to the powerful Congressional and special interests behind wasteful and damaging projects.
Call your Senator now!!! Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121.
1. Sierra Club's third annual sprawl report "Smart Choices of Sprawling Growth" was released last week at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC, and in a number of places around the country. The report highlights, in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, one example of smart growth and one example of poorly planned development. The report has so far generated much media around the country. Congratulations to all who worked on the report. Here are some quotes:
SHOW: CBS EVENING NEWS (6:30 PM ET) September 16th: Mr. ROBERT COX (President, Sierra Club): "Americans are sick and tired of sprawling development, congestion, sitting in traffic, long commute times. They're looking for better, smarter choices."
Dan Farough, Staff in MI, "Our press conference recieved good coverage. So far TV 10 (NBC) TV 6 (CBS) TV 47 (Fox), Associated Press, Lansing State Journal, Community News and MIRS Newsletter (an internal state government journal)."
Mark Heileson of the UT Field Office, "We received coverage from all three major newspapers, the local television affiliates of ABC, CBS, AND NBC, and four radio news stations."
Good job to all.
2. FROM EVEC ORGANIZER, DAVID SCHNEIDER Sierra Club staff and volunteers took advantage of Governor Bush's visit to Chicago to expose his toxic record on the environment. EVEC organizer David Schneider, Bill Redding, EVEC organizer Jen Hensley, Illinois Chapter Staff Doug Chien, Chicago Group political chair Hans Deitweiler, and about six additional volunteers gathered outside Harpo Studios, where Bush arrived for a taping of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." They assembled in front of a large crowd of folks across from the entrance to the studio and began chanting "clean up Texas!" Most of the local TV news stations were there and the cameras panned across Dave, who was wearing Tommy the Toxic Waste Drum. The others were displaying signs, and a large Sierra Club banner. Dave comments, "All in all it was a good morning, and I'm looking forward to hearing about similar events around the country in days and weeks to come."
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
I. Take Action: Our Streams and Wetlands Need Protection from Sprawl
II. Fredrick Co., MD Passes Comprehensive Hog Ordinance
TAKE ACTION
I. Our Streams and Wetlands Need Protection from Sprawl
Developers are exacerbating sprawl by turning wetlands into strip malls, tract housing and golf courses -- all without any environmental review. Why? They are exploiting a 1998 court ruling that struck down the "Tulloch Rule" and opened a loophole in the Clean Water Act enabling developers and others to do various ditching, draining and excavating projects without public notice or a permit.
Destroying these wetlands and streams harms the quality of our nation's water, aggravates flooding, robs a wide array of birds, fish and wildlife of critical habitat and invites sprawling development in sensitive ecosystems.
You can help protect our streams and wetlands by supporting a rule the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers proposed to limit the destructiveness of this loophole and by urging these agencies to do more to stop sprawl from invading sensitive ecosystems.
Take Action: The comment period on this rule ends on Oct. 16, 2000, so urgent action is necessary. Please send a personal letter making similar points to the ones listed below.
If you want to do more to help with this campaign or need further details, call the Sierra Club at (202) 547-1141 or visit our Web site at www.sierraclub.org/wetlands/tulloch.
-support for the proposed rule to help stem the destruction of streams and wetlands due to the "Tulloch" loophole (65 Fed. Reg 50108 ff).
-Since a court overturned the Tulloch rule in 1998, thousands of acres of wetland have been ditched and drained and hundreds of miles of streams degraded without any environmental review. Closing the Tulloch loophole will protect streams and wetlands that are home to thousands of birds, fish and other wildlife. Streams and marshes protect our communities by acting as natural sponges, soaking up and filtering water that would otherwise flood our neighborhoods.
We strongly urge to apply the full Clean Water Act protections for streams and wetlands by strengthening and clarifying the proposed rule as follows:
- Provide clarity in the rule that specific activities -- such as sidecasting, stockpiling, clearing, grading, leveling and backfilling -- always require environmental review to ensure that developers are not able to exploit any vagueness within the rule;
- Develop stronger language to protect our streams from toxics, heavy metals and other pollutants that are sent downstream by ditching and dredging.
Mail to: Mr. Mike Smith Office of the Chief of Engineers ATTN CECW-OR (3 F73) Further Revisions to Definition of Discharge or Dredge Material 441 G Street NW Washington, DC 20314-1000
Email to: CECWOR@HQ02.USACE.Army.Mil
II. Fredrick Co., MD Passes Comprehensive Hog Ordinance
Giant corporate-owned animal factories, also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) threaten America's drinking water, lakes, rivers and rural communities. Frederick Co., MD within the past 3 years, has become home to two such farms, with more than 1,500 hogs.
After two years of complaints from residents about the stench emanating from two 500,000-gallon manure pits, the Frederick Board of County Commissioners last week passed Maryland's first hog farm ordinance. Much credit for this goes the the Maryland Chapter.
According to Chris Bedford of the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Frederick County ordinance is "the most comprehensive hog farm ordinance in the country." The new ordinance calls for annual inspections of the farms by county officials and prohibits farms with more than 1,000 hogs from being built within a half-mile of residential areas or within one mile of designated scenic waterways. The ordinance is a victory for the environment and for the residents of Frederick County.
To find out more about factory farms and how you can take action in your state, please visit the Sierra Club website www.sierraclub.org/CAFOs.
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