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�Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead�
-Lucille Ball
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt, 1918
REGISTER TO VOTE
"The time is always right to do what is right"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The "seven social sins": Knowledge without character,
Science without humanity,
Wealth without work,
Commerce without morality,
Politics without principles,
Pleasure without conscience,
Worship without self-sacrifice."
--Gandhi
"We have not inherited the world from our forfathers -
We have borrowed it from our children."
--Kashmiri, proverb
From BushGreenwatch:
September 14, 2004
Bush Administration Directs Agencies to Ignore Clean Water Act
Using a back-door route to deregulation, the Bush administration has removed clean water protections for 20 million acres of American wetlands and tens of thousands of miles of streams, lakes and ponds, according to documents obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act. . . [1]
"For the first time in over 30 years of cleaning up our waters, we're going backwards," said Paul Schwartz, national policy coordinator for Clean Water Action. Schwartz noted that after the Clean Water Act took effect in 1972, the percentage of the nation's waters deemed clean enough for fishing and swimming nearly doubled. But recent state reports now show those numbers declining, he said.
"The water is getting dirtier, and the Bush administration is leading one of the most fundamental attacks on a law that has arguably done more to protect the environment and public health than any other environmental law," Schwartz told BushGreenwatch.
On January 15, 2003, the Bush administration published guidelines in the Federal Register directing field staff at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop issuing protections for millions of acres of wetlands, streams and other waters unless they first obtained permission from national headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The directive further stated that no permission was required to ignore Clean Water Act protections for these waters and that no records would be kept of decisions not to invoke the Clean Water Act. . .
In response, 219 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 33 senators have signed on to letters to President Bush asking him to rescind the policy directive and restore protections to American waters. A bill has also been introduced in both the House and Senate that would make clear that all waters of the U.S. should fall under the protections of the Clean Water Act. [3]
"The Bush administration's policy is based on the fantasy that if you let polluters dump sewage, oil and other toxic waste into small wetlands and streams, it won't ultimately wind up in our lakes, rivers and coastal waters," said Daniel Rosenberg, an NRDC senior attorney in the group's August 12 press release.
SOURCES:
[1] "Reckless Abandon: How the Bush Administration is Exposing America's Waters to Harm," CWN, Aug. 12, 2004.
*
September 10, 2004
Bush Administration Plans to Relax Toxic Controls -- Again
The Bush administration, which has unswervingly favored the chemical and power industries on environmental and health protections, plans to once again relax government regulation of toxic substances in favor of weaker standards being promoted by industry.
At issue are national standards regulating the amount of selenium that can be discharged into waterways by power companies, farmers and mining operations. The current standards for selenium were established after the toxic metal caused mass deformities of waterfowl in California's Central Valley during the 1980s.
Now the administration has drafted a plan, supported by industry scientists, that would weaken current standards in two ways, according to an August 31 story in the Sacramento Bee. [1]
According to the Bee, EPA plans to switch from a water-based to a fish-based standard, meaning the government would stop measuring how much selenium was getting into the water and start looking at how much had been absorbed by local fish. The draft calls for a concentration of 7.91 parts per million in fish, whereas current standards allow no more than 5 parts per million in water.
Scientists in other federal agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, oppose the plan to weaken the standards. They say the higher levels of selenium will cause birds to lose more than 50 percent of their offspring, the Bee reports. They also say the proposed standard is based on a flawed analysis of a study that vastly overstated survival rates for contaminated fish. . .
SOURCES:
[1] "Battle Over Toxic Metal: EPA Appears Set to Relax Standards for Selenium, Which Led to Deformities in Waterfowl in 1980s," Sacramento Bee, Aug. 31, 2004.
*
September 15, 2004
Bush Administration Cuts Clean Water Spending; Hurts Jobs, Health, Environment
This week the Senate is scheduled to take up a bill that calls for reducing spending on clean water programs by almost $500 million � a rollback that could lead to nearly 50,000 lost jobs as well as a rise in sewer overflows, polluted water, and disease outbreaks, according to a new report. [1]
"All Dried Up: Clean Water is Threatened by Budget Cuts," was released this morning by a broad coalition of state and local governments, construction, labor, environmental and public health groups.
The report provides a state-by-state breakdown of lost federal dollars, the number of jobs the lost money would have created, the number of projects at risk of being held up if the cuts go through, and the percentage of waters in each state that are already polluted. It can be found at www.nrdc.org.
The House has already passed a spending bill that includes the $500 million in clean water cuts called for in President Bush�s budget. The cuts come out of the Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund, which gives money to communities to rehabilitate aging sewer plants and reduce raw sewage overflows and storm water runoff. . .
"That Congress would even consider slashing federal funding for communities to help ensure clean water for all Americans is mind-boggling," said Nancy Stoner, clean water director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which is leading the coalition. "This White House repeatedly has pushed for massive cuts in clean water spending, but this is the first time Congress appears willing to go along," she said in a press release.
Cutting federal funding for sewer systems can have serious health implications. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that between 23,000 and 75,000 sewage overflows occur across the country each year, releasing 3 billion to 10 billion gallons of untreated wastewater.
Raw sewage can carry e.coli, salmonella, dysentery, hepatitis and other diseases. Every year, millions of Americans get sick from swimming in or drinking water contaminated by these bacteria, viruses and parasites.
There are also financial implications. Clean water programs provide jobs for engineers, contractors, manufacturers, administrators and construction workers. Communities need clean water to attract tourists and maintain recreational uses of their rivers, lakes and beaches.
The report also finds that many communities already have a backlog of projects, such as aging pipes that need replacing, and the need to improve control of wet weather sewage overflows. It cites EPA figures estimating at least $388 billion is needed in communities across the country for new and repaired equipment to meet current clean water infrastructure needs. [2]
SOURCES:
[1] NRDC press release, Sep. 14, 2004.
[2] "All Dried Up: Clean Water is Threatened by Budget Cuts," NRDC report.
*
September 17, 2004
House GOP Blocks Effort to Obtain Cheney Energy Task Force Data
Environmental and government watchdog groups reacted angrily Thursday to a House committee vote rejecting a resolution that would have directed the Bush administration to release documents and information surrounding Vice President Dick Cheney's secret Energy Task Force meetings. . .
The Republican-controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee voted Wednesday against a "resolution of inquiry" that called upon the White House to release the names and affiliations of anyone who met with Vice President Cheney's National Energy Policy Development Group, which developed President Bush's energy plan. The task force plan provided the basis for the administration's energy bill, which is currently stalled in the Senate.
Environmental and government watchdog groups have been fighting to obtain information about individuals and corporations that may have influenced the administration's energy policy since the draft plan was released in May 2001. The groups believe the oil, gas, nuclear and coal industries exerted undue influence over the development of the White House plan. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Cheney does not have to release any information until a lower court reviews the case.
But Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, along with Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), introduced a resolution calling upon the administration to release the information. The resolution failed by a 30-22 party-line vote after committee Chairman Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) blocked Democrats from holding debate on the issue. . .
Americans shouldn't have to fight for what should be public information to begin with.
"It shouldn't take an act of Congress to force the White House to share information with the public about the public's business," Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Senior Attorney Sharon Buccino told BushGreenwatch. "The White House's dirty secrets about Vice President Cheney's Energy Task Force are not sensitive security information, but rather information critical to the national debate on energy policy. Citizens have a right to know about how decisions were made on policies that affect our quality of life and America's energy security."
*
September 20, 2004
Bush Rule Changes Boost Mountaintop Removal Mining
In the bad old days, rural people with limited ways to make a living were told they had a choice: jobs or a healthy environment. But even that heartbreaking choice has disappeared for West Virginia�s coal country residents.
Key changes in coal mining regulations by the Bush administration have fueled a boom in a devastating method known as mountaintop removal, which is not only blasting mountaintops to smithereens and wreaking environmental havoc, but is also shattering countless lives and even communities.
Despite the devastating impact on citizens in the affected areas, the Bush administration has taken a series of measures to make it even easier for corporations to continue the blasting. In March 2002, the administration re-classified mining waste and debris, and defined it as "fill"--thereby freeing the companies from restraints under the Clean Water Act.
Last spring new guidelines were promulgated to allow coal companies to dig trenches as substitutes for streams that were buried under waste. Administration officials also intervened to block a federal scientific panel from recommending limits on the size of mountaintop removal projects.
Another administration "clarification" of the Clean Water Act would exempt coal companies from a 20-year old rule barring mining from within 100 feet of a stream. Still in the works: a proposal to reduce the obligation of the federal government to monitor state mining agencies. Certain oversight duties would become "discretionary," rather than required by law.
"Mountaintop removal removes jobs and entire communities" said Julia Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch, whose family has lived in the area for nine generations. Bonds, a grandmother who has led a grassroots effort to stop mountaintop removal, told BushGreenwatch that those who "talk about jobs... are not telling the entire truth." She noted that an underground mine used to employ 100 to 150 people, while mountaintop operations, which use massive equipment and high explosives, get by with 25.
"Show me the prosperity. I can�t find it anywhere...These huge machines don�t live in our communities; they don�t pay taxes; they don�t buy in local stores."
Mountaintop removal isn�t only starving people, it is driving them from their homes because of the constant blasting, the suffocating clouds of coal dust, the pollution in streams, contaminated well water, and life-threatening floods caused when headwater valleys are filled with rock debris, and torn-away trees no longer absorb rain. [1]
Mountaintop mining has buried or damaged more than 1,200 miles of streams and destroyed 380,000 acres of forest, according to a federal environmental impact statement.
"My community no longer exists," Bonds said. Ten years ago a subsidiary of Massey Energy began removing the mountaintop above the town of Packsville, which was home to roughly 100 families.
As the mountaintop disappeared, the town was overrun by poisonous rattlesnakes, copperheads and hungry bears, which raided garbage and broke into houses. Bonds and her family were the last to leave Packsville. [2]
Some who have witnessed the toll fear that people are not only losing their past, but also their future. Teresa Caruthers, a nurse who spent a year at the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in West Virginia, said the beauty of the region�s forests and mountains could provide the basis for a sustainable economic future. But the local people won�t even have that left.
"They literally blow up mountains," said Caruthers, who watched the process. "They turn a beautiful mountain into a barren piece of ground where nothing will ever grow again because they�ve removed the topsoil."
SOURCES:
[1] Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
[2] Coal River Mountain Watch.
*
September 22, 2004
Administration Goes Light on Environmental Lawbreakers
With benign-sounding proposals like the "Healthy Forests Initiative" and "Clear Skies Initiative," the Bush administration has been accused by environmentalists of rolling back environmental protections. Now, new research has determined that under Bush, enforcement of environmental laws has dropped off sharply as well.
The research was conducted by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data gathering and research center at Syracuse University. [1] Using Justice Department information gathered under the Freedom of Information Act, TRAC looked at 20,000 criminal defendants charged with violating environmental laws, covering the years 1993 to 2004.
From the first Clinton term to the second Clinton term, environmental prosecutions jumped 28 percent. But from the second Clinton term to the current Bush years, prosecutions dropped 23 percent.
Likewise, the number of convictions declined under Bush, and the number of defendants who actually went to prison dropped significantly. During the Bush years the number of defendants who served time dropped 28 percent from the previous administration.
SOURCES:
[1] TRAC Report.
*
September 8, 2004
Bush Flip-Flop on Roadless Forest Rule Triggers Storm of Protest
Soon after the Bush administration took office, it promised to uphold the Clinton administration's Roadless Area Conservation Rule, enacted in 2001 to protect some 58.5 million acres of America's last unspoiled National Forests from logging, mining and drilling.
But this summer President Bush flip-flopped. The administration's U.S. Forest Service announced it is repealing the rule, which was designed to protect vital sources of clean water and wildlife habitat. Since the year 2000, the timber industry alone has given $25 million to the Bush administration and its Congressional allies. . .
Conservationists feel especially betrayed not only by the Bush flip-flop, but also because the rule was enacted by the Clinton administration only after three full years of open public dialogue and extensive scientific analysis. Over 600 public hearings were held nationwide. A record 1.5 million comments were submitted, with over 95% supporting the Roadless Rule. Yet the Bush administration is now portraying the rule as a last-minute process.
According to a recent study by the Campaign to Protect America's Lands (CPAL), the Bush repeal not only endangers the nation's few remaining unspoiled forests, but also threatens 23 nearby national parks and monuments in 16 states. [1] Among them are Yosemite, Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain and Olympic National Parks. The 23 sites are visited by some 40 million Americans every year. . .
TAKE ACTION
Send your comments before the public comment period ends � the deadline for comments has been extended to Nov. 15.
SOURCES:
[1] CPAL report, Jul. 28, 2004.
***
Defend Our Wild Forests - Sign the Petition
*
September 23, 2004
Critics Say Proposed Senate Chemical Bill Leaves U.S. Vulnerable to Attack
Sometime in the next few weeks, the U.S. Senate is expected to take up, for the first time, the issue of how to protect Americans from terrorist attacks on domestic chemical plants. But environmental groups and unions worry that the main piece of legislation under consideration will provide no real security for chemical plants and is motivated by pre-election politics.
"Senate Republicans are working to sneak an industry-friendly, do-nothing bill through the Senate to give President Bush a greenwash feather in his cap before the election," said Rick Hind, legislative director for the toxics campaign at Greenpeace.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are more than 100 chemical facilities in the U.S. that would each put at least one million people at risk were they to come under attack. The agency estimates that more than 750 facilities in the U.S. place at least 100,000 people at risk from chemical releases. Numerous studies reveal substantial security gaps at many of these facilities. [1]
Three years ago, Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) introduced legislation to create federal standards to reduce security risks at chemical facilities; promote cost-effective, safe technologies at high-priority chemical plants; and require government oversight to ensure compliance with the new regulations. The Corzine bill also works within the framework set out by President Bush's Homeland Security plan, calling for the Department of Homeland Security to work with the EPA in developing a strategy to reduce the vulnerability of chemical and hazardous materials stores. [2]
After heated bipartisan negotiations and major revisions, the Corzine bill won unanimous support in the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee in July 2002.
However, shortly after he voted for the bill in committee, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) joined the American Chemistry Council, American Petroleum Institute and others in opposition to it. The following year, Inhofe (chair of the EPW Committee) introduced his own chemical security bill, which was substituted for the Corzine bill in a close party-line vote.
"Senator Inhofe's legislation is currently unenforceable. The Senate needs to ensure the American public that chemical security legislation will create change at chemical facilities. Enforcing the use of safer chemicals is the commonsense way to get this done," Megan Purvis, environmental health advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) told BushGreenwatch.
Inhofe's bill contains no plans for developing safer technologies. It contains loopholes that allow the chemical industry's voluntary security programs to win government endorsement and substitute for new regulations; fails to require government verification of compliance with security regulations; and leaves out the EPA as a partner in writing and enforcing those regulations.
Inhofe's bill could reach the Senate floor anytime before the October 8th recess. Senators offering a chemical security bill, based on the Corzine proposal are expected to challenge Inhofe's proposal.
TAKE ACTION
Go to U.S. PIRG's website to write your senator.
SOURCES:
[1] Senator Corzine's website.
[2] Ibid.
~~~
=============
Action Alerts
=============
Tell the Bush administration not to sacrifice Utah's wildlands to oil and gas drilling.
Central Utah is home to 2.5 million acres of magnificent publicly owned lands. Among the colorful canyons and awesome rock formations are the renowned San Rafael Swell, with its soaring and jagged eastern edge, and Nine Mile Canyon, with its world-famous archeological resources, located within the remote and wildlife-rich Book Cliffs. One and a half million acres of these lands, including such well-known scenic areas as Desolation Canyon, Eagle Canyon, and Sids Mountain, have been proposed for wilderness preservation in America's Redrock Wilderness Act, now pending in Congress.
But unmanaged and irresponsible off-road vehicle use has long threatened these spectacular wildlands. And now the Bush administration wants to open virtually all of them to oil and gas development -- and the accompanying roads, power lines, compressor stations and other industrial activities -- that would put an end to their wildness.
The Bureau of Land Management has just released a draft land use plan that would open 98 percent of the area's wilderness-quality lands to oil and gas drilling. Under the plan, only 584,128 acres of the area would be closed to oil and gas leasing -- and almost all of these acres are already protected from leasing by Congress. In addition, the draft plan would close even fewer acres to ORVs, ensuring expansion of the spider web of routes and trails that have already caused extensive damage.
The BLM is accepting public comments on the draft plan through October 15th.
== What to do ==
Send a message, before the October 15th comment deadline, urging the BLM not to sacrifice these extraordinary wildlands and to develop instead a balanced plan that would protect the beautiful and irreplaceable resources of the area.
== Contact information ==
You can send a letter directly from NRDC's Earth Action Center at http://www.nrdc.org/action/. Or use the contact information below and compose your own letter.
Price Field Office RMP Comments
Attn: Floyd Johnson
125 S. 600 W.
Price UT 84501
Email: [email protected]
==========
About NRDC
==========
The Natural Resources Defense Council is a nonprofit environmental organization with more than 550,000 members nationwide and a staff of scientists, attorneys and environmental experts. Our mission is to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.
For more information about NRDC or how to become a member of NRDC, please contact us at:
Natural Resources Defense Council
40 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
212-727-4511 (voice) / 212-727-1773 (fax)
Email: [email protected]
http://www.nrdc.org
Also visit:
BioGems -- Saving Endangered Wild Places
A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.savebiogems.org
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