Huge Victory on Clean Air Standards!!!
(also some good info on logging roads)
Huge Victory on Clean Air Standards!!!
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The following is an email from Caryl Terrell of the Sierra Club received 6/26/97 10:11am:
__________________________
Friends:
This is the straight scoop on Clinton signing off on the stricter air
quality standards this Wed. 6/25/97. The newspapers have not
done a
good job reporting on this.
Please take seriously the suggestion below to write a short letter to
the editor about the importance of the stricter standards for worker
and children's health. Also wirte or telephone your Congressman
in
support of the President's OK of the new PM 2.5 (particulate matter)
and stricter smog standards. Industry will try to line up the
votes
in Congress to defeat this new regulation.
(By the way, this is a whole new Congressional procedure. Part
of the
Contract with America agenda which got adotped early in the past
Congressional session included stricter oversight of government agency
regulations by Congress. After spending $20million trying
to defeat
these tougher air standards, you can bet industry will pressure
Congress to overrule the US EPA.) Even if you have already written
your US Senators and Congressman, please do it again and soon.
best wishes,
Caryl Terrell, John Muir Chapter Sierra Club
608-256-0565 phone
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From: melinda.pierce@sfsierra.sierraclub.org
Date: Wed, 25
Jun 97 18:38:22 PST
SIERRA CLUB
DAILY WAR ON THE ENVIRONMENT, VOL II. #119
June 25, 1997
"I approved some very strong regulations today that will be somewhat
controversial, but I think kids ought to be healthy,"
--President Clinton in Nashville
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sierra Club Legislative Hotline - 202-675-2394 Sierra Club National
Headquarters - 415-977-5500 Sierra Club World Wide Web -
http://www.sierraclub.org
White House Comment Line - 202-456-1111
White House Fax Line - 202-456-2461
Clinton's e-mail - president@whitehouse.gov
Gore's e-mail - vice-president@whitehouse.gov
White House Address -
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20500
US Capitol Switchboard - 202-224-3121
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents: IN THE AIR: Victory For Our Families, For Our Future
IN THE
WOODS: Arm Yourselves For District Meetings on Forests
----------------------------------------------------------------------
********Take Action (1)!!********
After weeks of intense pressure and debate, President Clinton
endorsed
stricter air quality standards for ozone and particulate matter.
Take a
moment to do a public thank you by writing a letter to the editor
of your
local paper. Thank the members of the Clinton Adminstration
from the
President, to Vice President Al Gore, to EPA Administrator Carol
Browner
for standing tall to big industry pressure and big money by strengthening
clean air standards. We can all breathe easier!
******************************
IN THE AIR: Victory for the Environment, Health of Americans
Today the Sierra Club applauded the Clinton Administration for
protecting
the health of all Americans from air pollution.
"The Clinton Administration ran for re-election on a platform
of protecting
childrens' health and the environment," said Carl Pope, Executive
Director.
"By backing EPA Administrator Carol Browner, and releasing new
standards
that will safeguard the five million American children who suffer
from
asthma from air pollution and the millions of other people who
depend on
clean air, the Administration is making good on that promise.
Lives will
be saved, and a legacy of cleaner air will be left to our children
and
future generations."
Today's announcements will have tremendous benefits for public
health and
the economy, said Pope. "These standards mean fewer sick days
for workers,
lowered health care costs, and more kids in school instead of
the
hospital."
"For an asthmatic child, air pollution can mean the difference
between
being in the classroom and being in the emergency room," said
Kathryn
Hohmann, Sierra Club's Director of Environmental Quality. "The
Clinton
Administration's new standards mean that those children will
breathe
easier."
In November, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed updating
the
Clean Air Act's standards to reduce the amount of soot (particulates)
and
smog (ground level ozone) in our air. Data show that three in
ten Americans
still breathe air that does not meet health standards.
By releasing the standards to reduce soot and smog in our air,
the
Administration is obeying the Clean Air Act, which requires that
standards
be updated periodically. "The Clean Air Act stipulates that the
public
health must be protected, with an adequate margin of safety,
and that's
what the Administration is doing. And they're carrying
out their
responsibility despite the pressure of big business and big money.
They've
chosen kids' health over polluters' profits, a winning equation
for all
Americans."
********************************************************************
Background info......
So, all of our hard work has paid off and we scored a victory!
What does
this all mean?
The new PM2.5 standard: we have a clear victory here. The
Administration
supported almost what the EPA proposed -- an annual 15 micrograms
per cubic
meter and the 24 hour standard of 65 micrograms per cubic meter
for the 24
hour standard (the original proposal was 50 micrograms).
This is what very
close to what we were hoping for. This standard will prevent
15,000 deaths
from occurring each year. (Details on how this standard
more specifically
affects the Western states will come soon from Maggie Fox).
The new ozone standard is now an 8 hour standard at .08 parts
per million
with 4 excedences every year. We slightly gave ground here,
giving up one
more excedence than the EPA originally proposed. This standard
should
reduce the number of asthma attacks and hospitalizations, an
estimated
250,000 cases a year.
Nonetheless, this is a major victory for the public health of
all Americans
across the country. Everyone will be able to breathe a
little easier.
GENERAL MESSAGE TALKING POINTS:
* This is a big step forward for public health and the environment.
These
clean air goals will put us on the right road toward healthier
air in the
21st Century.
* These standards will improve the lives millions of Americans
who are
most at risk from air pollution - children, the elderly, and
people with
heart and lung disease. This decision will save 15,000
lives per year and
250,000 serious respiratory problems.
* The President, Vice-President and EPA Administrator Carol
Browner
deserve great credit for standing up for public health and the
environment
and not bowing to political pressure from some of the biggest
polluters.
* The Clinton Administration has listened to the thousands
of health
professionals, scientists and concerned citizens that spoke in
favor of
more protective air quality standards.
*************WHAT'S NEXT****************
There are plethora of possibilities on what will happen next.
A Hill fight
is inevitable -- the enemy is outraged and their lookin' for
blood. Big
industry will be back for a second and final crack at the standards.
A couple ways how they could do it:
1) An appropriations rider. Sound familiar?
This is the method/vehicle
the last Congress attempted to use to gut numerous enviro laws,
ie. salvage
rider. They may attach a rider to a spending bill that calls
for Congress
not to fund the EPA's efforts to carry out these standards.
This is
probably most likely.
2) The Small Business Regulatory Equality and Fairness Act (SBREFA).
This
act is a product of last Congress which requires that any regulation
which
may impact small business by $100 million gets "reviewed" by
Congress
within 45 legislative days of the regulation promulgation. Since
the
standards may fall into this category, Congress will likely scrutinize
the
standards through the SBREFA process. The only trick is
that this process
has never been done before and the ground rules are unclear,
so we're not
sure what to expect.
3) A straight up vote up or down on the standards. Several
members of
Congress have already offered bills along these lines (Rep. Ney,
Boucher,
maybe even Dingell). This would be a fight like we are
normally used to
fighting (a la Cal Desert bill). The fight between the
health of kids and
elderly or polluters profits and smokestacks -- we welcome this
type of
vote.
But we gotta be strong and do more shoring up of the grassroots!
WHAT TO DO NOW:
Get letters into your local papers thanking Clinton, Gore, Browner
and even
your Senators or Representative if they signed the Lieberman
or Kucinich
letters.---- If your Representative or Senators were quiet, call
them out
to support the decision of the President and stand up for clean
air with a
letter to the editor, a letter and a phone call to their office.
********Take Action (2)********
The Most Important Forest Protection Vote This Congress Is Coming
Soon!
Congress will be going home at the end of this week for their
July 4th
recess. That means your member of Congress will be expecting
to hear from
you (if they aren't, they should be). This an opportunity
for you to meet
face-to-face with your Congressperson and tell him/her to help
eliminate
the taxpayer subsidy for logging roads in our National Forests.
Tell your
representative to vote "yes" for the amendment sponsored by Congressmen
John Porter and Joe Kennedy to eliminate this fiscally irresponsible
and
environmentally destructive subsidy. The House of Representatives
will be
voting on this issue very soon after the July 4th recess, and
your
Representative needs to hear from you now! Contact the District
Office of
your Rep. To arrange an appointment. *****************************
IN THE WOODS: Arm Yourselves For District Meetings on Forests
One of the most important forest issues in Congress right now
is the
federal subsidy for building new roads in our National Forests.
Members of
the Interior Appropriations subcommittee are getting ready to
vote on an
amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill (for FY98) sponsored
by
forest protection champions Rep. John Porter (R-IL) and Rep.
Joe Kennedy
(D-MA). Their amendment calls for an end to these government
subsidies.
Last year, Reps. Porter and Kennedy, with David Minge (D-MN),
Dan Miller
(R-FL), Edward Royce (R-CA), Scott Klug (R-WI), and John Hostettler
(R-IN)
as the primary sponsors, offered a similar amendment to the Interior
Appropriations bill. The House agreed to the amendment
211-210, but the
win was short-lived. The next day the House Republican
leadership brought
the amendment back up for a revote, twisted arms, and walked
away with a
211-211 tie, meaning the amendment failed.
This year Porter and Kennedy sent a letter, co-signed by 112
representatives, to Chair of the Interior Appropriations subcommittee
Ralph
Regula (R-OH) urging "an end to all taxpayer-funded forest logging
road
construction."
In their letter, Porter and Kennedy explain succinctly, "Under
the U.S.
Forest Service timber program, forest roads are constructed to
assist
logging companies in cutting and removing timber. The Forest
Service will
either construct these roads themselves or permit the timber
companies to
build the roads and then provide a 'purchaser credit' of additional
timber
to reimburse the cost."
Road building in our National Forests is one of the most fiscally
and
environmentally irresponsible components of the Forest Service's
timber
sale program.
There are currently 377,000 miles of road in our National Forests--eight
times the length of the Interstate Highway system! If the fact
that we
already have more logging roads than we need in our National
Forests isn't
enough, here are some points that summarize the two main arguments
against
government funding for new timber roads in our National Forests.
Fiscal Reasons:
*Timber companies bid on trees in National Forests, but taxpayers
frequently pay for the cost of building the roads necessary to
log them.
* Between $40 million and $50 million in taxpayer money is spent
every year
on logging roads.
*The federal government's General Accounting Office says that
road
construction costs, from 1992-1994, were $245 million.
The GAO found that
the Forest Service timber sale program lost $995 million between
1992-1994.
A significant contributor to this loss is the high cost of building
roads
in remote, steep, and inhospitable terrain.
*Eliminating taxpayer-funded support for the Forest Service timber
road
program would not halt logging in National Forests, but it would
end the
government subsidization of this activity. Companies logging
in National
Forests would have to use the existing roads or pay for their
own
construction of additional roads.
*Construction of new roads should not be subsidized when the Forest
Service
does not have the resources to maintain the roads we currently
have in our
National Forests. In March of 1997 the Forest Service reported
a $440
million backlog on road maintenance needs for 232,000 of its
existing
roads.
Environmental Reasons:
*Logging roads, especially those built in steep terrain, precipitate
soil
erosion and stream sedimentation which ruin water quality and
fish habitat.
Logging roads have also been linked to more frequent and severe
mudslides
and flooding.
*Porter and Kennedy point out that "this subsidy contributes to
habitat
fragmentation and stream erosion."
*Road-building threatens wildlife because it causes erosion of
soils,
fragments intact forest ecosystems, exacerbates blowdown, encourages
invasions of forest pests and diseases, and reduces habitat for
many
animals needing refuge from humans. Scientists see unroaded
area as
critically important for maintaining wildlife diversity, restoring
declining fish stocks, and protecting clean water.
*According to the Forest Service, 922 communities get their drinking
water
from National Forest streams that are frequently adversely affected
by
building logging roads. In Idaho, over 960 streams are
rated as "water
quality limited" by the EPA because of contamination; over half
of these
streams are degraded by logging and road-building.
*Road-building and logging on steep or unstable slopes increases
the risk
and severity of landslides and flooding, erosion, and stream
siltation.