> For Immediate Release:
> September 21, 2005
> 
> Contact:
> David Willett, 202-675-6698
> 
>                 Updated Look at Upcoming Legislative
> Action
> 
> 
> In August, the Sierra Club provided an overview of
> the major Congressional
> actions we were anticipating in the early fall.  The
> damage wreaked by
> hurricane season has obviously changed the
> legislative schedule.
> Unfortunately, some in Congress are now seeking to
> exploit the disaster to
> push through short-sighted boons for industry
> instead of learning the
> lessons of Katrina to create safer, cleaner
> communities and a new energy
> future.   Below is a brief look at the action of
> particular concern in
> Congress in the coming weeks:
> 
> 1. Energy Policy
> 
> Some in the Republican leadership are using the
> disaster in the Gulf and
> high gas prices as an excuse to push through
> legislative proposals that
> would solely benefit the oil and gas industry while
> increasing America's
> dependence on oil, gas and their vulnerable
> infrastructure. Republican
> leadership proposals have been floated that would
> open up America's
> coastlines to oil and gas drilling, waive key
> environmental safeguards for
> oil and gas activities, and put communities at risk
> by building new
> refineries without proper environmental and safety
> reviews.  These
> proposals will do nothing to help consumers at the
> gas pump or when they
> face high heating costs this winter.
> 
> We anticipate that more forward-looking Members of
> Congress will respond
> with proposals for actions that will actually help
> reduce the price of oil
> and gas, increase our security, and help wean our
> dependence on oil. The
> legislation would raise fuel economy standards and
> create a temporary
> windfall profits tax on the oil industry to fund
> programs to help consumers
> and move America towards energy independence.  This
> legislation would also
> fund tax credits to consumers to buy fuel-efficient
> vehicles, public
> transit projects, assistance to low-income families
> to pay their energy
> bills, and incentives for the auto industry to
> re-tool their plants to
> build more fuel efficient vehicles.
> 
> 2. Waiving Environmental Protections:
> 
> Under the guise of expediting hurricane cleanup
> response, Senators Inhofe
> and Vitter introduced a bill last week that would
> give the EPA authority to
> waive or modify any requirement after consulting
> with the Governor of the
> affected state.  The waiver would last for 120 days,
> with the possibility
> of an 18 month extension.   Despite his earlier
> assurance that these rules
> were not impeding cleanup and recovery, EPA
> Administrator Johnson suddenly
> welcomed the legislation giving him authority to
> waive every health and
> environmental requirement to protect public health,
> in any state in the
> union.  On September 17, the EPA and Centers for
> Disease Control and
> Prevention concluded that, "A complex array of
> environmental health
> problems exists in New Orleans." The EPA had
> previously warned that water
> and sediments in New Orleans contain
> health-threatening contaminants.  It
> continues to find industrial and household hazardous
> wastes throughout the
> area.  As the muck left by the flooding dries, it
> has the potential to
> cause air pollution problems.  In conditions like
> these, the people of New
> Orleans need public health and environmental
> protections now more than
> ever.
> 
> Politicians should not use disasters as a pretext
> for waiving laws that
> protect our health and the environment when this is
> the time our citizens
> need these protections most.  The aftermath of the
> attack on the World
> Trade Center in 2001 demonstrates the importance of
> protecting people's
> health and welfare in the wake of a disaster.  Days
> after the attack, the
> EPA found that worrisome levels of asbestos, a
> cancer-causing agent,
> contaminated parts of lower Manhattan. 
> Unfortunately, that warning never
> reached the public because the White House edited
> the press release so as
> to speed recovery.  Let's not sacrifice the health
> of those responding to
> the disaster in New Orleans and returning residents
> just because Senators
> Inhofe and Vitter think -- but have no evidence to
> substantiate -- that
> environmental laws are slowing the recovery.
> 
> 3. Operation Off-Set
> 
> The proposals for cost-cutting known as "Operation
> Off-Set" appear to be
> another attempt to ram through an existing agenda
> under the guise of
> Hurricane relief and reconstruction.  The cost of
> relief and reconstruction
> are obviously astronomical, but the Sierra Club is
> particularly concerned
> over efforts to eliminate programs that reduce
> America's dependence on
> polluting fossil fuels such as Energy Star while
> apparently now refusing to
> give back funds for bloated pork projects like the
> "Bridge to Nowhere" in
> Alaska.
> 
> 4. Budget Reconciliation--Arctic Refuge/Off-Shore
> Oil Drilling
> 
> Although pushed back, there will be a major vote,
> likely following the
> Columbus Day recess, on the fate of the Arctic
> National Wildlife Refuge and
> possibly on lifting the moratorium on off-shore oil
> drilling. Drilling
> proponents in Congress are trying to use the Budget
> process to advance
> these controversial issues. Congress has included
> anticipated revenues from
> lease sales in the Arctic in the Federal Budget
> Resolution, even though the
> revenue projections are inflated to 80 times the
> current average.  And
> Congress is pursuing this course despite the fact
> that a majority of
> Americans oppose drilling in the Arctic Refuge and a
> full 73 percent of
> Americans oppose sneaking this provision through the
> budget. The Sierra
> Club agrees with the American people: Congress
> should give the Arctic
> Refuge the complete and careful consideration it
> deserves - not as a
> backdoor addition to the Budget Reconciliation.
> 
> And even after the damage wreaked by Katrina on
> off-shore oil and gas
> infrastructure in the Gulf showed how dangerous our
> dependence on oil is
> and how vulnerable offshore drilling infrastructure
> is, some in Congress
> are, incredibly, proposing increasing drilling off
> America's coasts.
> Congress should not use the budget process to allow 
> drilling in one of our
> nation's last great wilderness areas and on our
> sensitive coastlines. At a
> time of three dollar-a-gallon gas, drilling in the
> Arctic Refuge will do
> nothing to lower the price of gas at the pump, nor
> put a dent in our
> dependence on foreign oil and it would do nothing to
> strengthen our
> national security. Increasing our drilling will only
> put us more at risk,
> and the Energy Information Administration estimates
> that even 20 years down
> the road, when Arctic Refuge oil would be at or near
> peak production, gas
> prices would only be affected by about a penny per
> gallon.
> 5. Endangered Species Act:
> 
> Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA) is pushing forward
> with his long-standing
> agenda to gut the Endangered Species Act, America's
> safety net for fish and
> wildlife at the edge of extinction.  His bill, H.R.
> 3824, which has a
> committee vote scheduled for today (Thursday), would
> rob American children
> of their natural birthright, abandon conservation
> principles that have been
> around since Theodore Roosevelt was President, and
> take America backwards
> to a time when the loss of healthy fish and wildlife
> populations was
> considered a reasonable cost of doing business.
> Specifically, his bill
> would repeal established conservation measures that
> prohibit the killing or
> injuring of hundreds of thousands of threatened
> species, and would waste
> taxpayer money by requiring the federal government
> to pay developers, the
> oil industry and polluters to avoid destroying the
> habitat of publicly
> owned fish and wildlife.
> 
> 6.  National Environmental Policy Act:
> 
> The Congressional NEPA Task Force, which was formed
> by California
> Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA) is expected to have
> a final hearing in
> Washington, DC this fall on whether to weaken the
> bedrock protection for
> safe and healthy communities.  The 35-year old
> National Environmental
> Policy Act was signed into law in 1970 by President
> Nixon.  It requires
> federal agencies to study and disclose the community
> and environmental
> effects of major projects and include the public in
> the decision-making
> process for federally funded projects.  However,
> there are some in Congress
> who want to curtail NEPA’s environmental review
> process and public
> participation in the name of speeding up projects.
> Too often local
> communities aren’t involved, and the impacts can
> be devastating.
> 
> 7.   Update on Mercury Vote:
> 
> On September 13th, the Senate voted down by a narrow
> margin a resolution
> brought under the Congressional Review Act (CRA)
> addressing mercury
> pollution from power plants.  The CRA allows
> expedited Congressional
> procedures to disapprove of particular agency
> actions, in this case the
> Environmental Protection Agency's weak power plant
> mercury plan.  The vote
> failed, 47-51.  In March, 2005, the Environmental
> Protection Agency issued
> rules for reducing mercury pollution from power
> plants.  The rule doesn't
> treat power plants as sources of toxic pollution. 
> Instead, it institutes a
> pollution trading scheme that allows some facilities
> to buy their way out
> of the need to reduce, and delays clean up until
> 2018 or later.  Senators
> Leahy (D-VT), Collins (R-ME), and Snowe (R-ME)
> brought a resolution to
> "disapprove" of the rule under the Congressional
> Review Act, which allows
> an up or down vote on the floor of the Senate.  The
> resolution failed
> narrowly, with 9 Republican Senators joining the
> majority of Democrats to
> vote in favor of the resolution.
> 
> ***
> Katrina is a wake-up call, a warning not to repeat
> the mistakes of the past
> and a chance to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf
> Coast in resilient,
> visionary and environmentally responsible ways.  The
> rebuilding of these
> communities should emphasize flood and hurricane
> protection, energy
> conservation, the use of renewable fuels, wetlands
> protection, rethinking
> how toxic chemicals are stored and shipped through
> our communities, and
> ensuring that every resident -- rich or poor--can
> live in a safe and
> healthy neighborhood.
> 
> ###
> 
> 
> David Willett
> National Press Secretary
> Sierra Club
> (202) 675-6698 (w)
> (202) 491-6919 (m)
> [log in to unmask]
> www.sierraclub.org


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