Bully for the Senate

Despite the oil industry’s most energetic push yet to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling— not to mention enthusiastic White House and Energy Department help— the Senate on April 18 provided a resounding 54-46 victory for America’s natural heritage and a sensible, balanced energy policy. Not only were pro-drilling forces unable to find 60 votes break a filibuster, but they even failed to secure majority support.

REP is very proud of the following eight Republicans, who voted with the majority to keep this spectacular land protected for future Americans.

Lincoln Chafee (RI)
Susan Collins (ME)
Mike DeWine (OH)
Peter Fitzgerald (IL)
John McCain (AZ)
Bob Smith (NH)
Gordon Smith (OR)
Olympia Snowe (ME)

The Senate also turned aside, 64-36, another amendment that would have opened the refuge to drilling, and directed half the revenues to bailing out the steel industry. Twenty Republicans, including those above, voted against that.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was first protected by President Eisenhower in 1960. Eisenhower’s Interior Secretary, Fred Seaton, called the land “one of the world’s great wildlife areas.”

While the refuge remains protected for now, a future Congress could still authorize drilling in the refuge’s coastal plain. Full, permanent protection for the coastal plain—the heart of the Refuge—will come when Congress adds it to the National Wilderness Preservation System.

Thanks, Frank

It isn’t often that Green Elephant readers catch us thanking Senator Frank Murkowski. Now, however, is one of those special times.

Murkowski, one of the loudest advocates for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), recently ordered the Department of Energy to report how much drilling in the Refuge would reduce American dependency on foreign oil. When the results came in, Murkowski was probably kicking himself.

According to the DOE’s own report, by 2020, if ANWR is not drilled, 62 percent of the oil consumed in the United States will be imported. If ANWR were tapped, the report says, dependence would drop to 60 percent, an imperceptible difference.

True Courage and Patriotism

Early in March, REP sent thank-you letters to six Republican senators who courageously voted against party leaders and in favor of protecting our nation’s environment, economy and national security through updated fuel efficiency standards:

Lincoln Chafee (RI)
Susan Collins (ME)
Judd Gregg (NH)
John McCain (AZ)
Gordon Smith (OR)
Olympia Snowe (ME)

It is unfortunate that the majority of senators were convinced by arguments of some automakers and union representatives that they are not capable of building fuel-efficient, safe and economical cars that Americans will want to buy. REP thinks they are, and we applaud these six for their faith in America’s great can-do tradition.

Adopting much higher fuel efficiency standards is the single most effective step we could take to reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Improved fuel economy would add benefits by reducing the CO2 emissions that are increasing the risks of disruptive climate change, another security risk.

While the vote was a setback, we urge these six patriotic Republicans to continue working for improved energy efficiency and for diversifying our energy resources with clean fuels that can be produced here at home. REP stands ready to work with them to advance the responsible energy policies that our nation urgently needs.

Still More Praises to Sing

Hats off to Senators Bob Smith (R, NH) and John McCain (R, AZ) who joined Russell Feingold (D, WI) in introducing legislation to overhaul the Army Corps of Engineers. The bill pushes for independent reviews of all controversial projects and stricter environmental standards.

Given the Corps’ dreadful track record of wetlands and rivers ruined forever by costly dams and drainage projects, this bill comes not a moment too soon!

Unbelievable... but True

So much has already been said about who did or did not have access to Vice President Cheney’s Energy Task Force a year ago, that we hardly feel the need to report on that. But one thing has come to light that we find so remarkable (and so shameless) that we do feel compelled to mention it.

Reuters News Service reported this March that in May 2001, the Bush administration dipped into the funds budgeted by the Department of Energy for solar and renewable energy and energy conservation to find $135,615 needed to print 10,000 copies of its 170-page energy plan, which gave little more than lip service to energy conservation and renewable energy sources.

Furthermore, they spent $1,317.39 to print briefing boards, so administration officials could explain the plan.

At the same time that it was spending the renewables budget, the administration was busy lobbying Congress to cut funding for renewables and energy-efficiency research by more than 50 percent.

Foxes in the Henhouse, Again

Over the last 15 months, REP has watched with increasing dismay as the Bush administration appointed lobbyists and other friends of special interests to positions of power. Now, we’re sorry to say, they’ve done it again.

The newest fox in the Bush chicken coop is Stanley Suboleski, a top executive of Massey Energy who was just appointed to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.

According to the Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal, in an editorial opposing this appointment, Massey Energy “was responsible for a sludge pond breakout that dumped 300 million gallons of black goo into tributaries of the Big Sandy River in Eastern Kentucky, ruining homesteads, polluting water supplies and imposing a hugely expensive, years-long cleanup... Just last month, hundreds of coal miners rallied to protest the whole ugly environmental record of this company, whose leadership George W. Bush is elevating into the national regulatory hierarchy.”

In the words of the REP member who brought this appointment to our attention: “I truly do not understand this administration’s desire to continually put the very same people who were hostile to any kind of oversight as the overseer. I just find it shocking.”

So do we.

Loss of Credibility at EPA

Like every other environmental group in the country, REP was dismayed in March to learn of the resignation of Eric Schaeffer as director of the EPA’s Office of Regulatory Enforcement. In a blistering letter of resignation, Schaeffer cited the administration’s lack of support for existing laws—specifically Bush’s proposal to replace existing Clean Air Act standards with a weaker “Clear Skies Initiative” to control sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury pollution from power plants. Three polluting energy companies that had already agreed to change their behavior backed out of the deal as soon as they learned of the new proposal, and six others are pulling out of negotiations as well.

Schaeffer was appointed in 1990, during the first Bush administration, so his damning letter cannot be interpreted as partisan. He wrote, in part:

“It is hard to know which is worse, the endless delay or the repeated leaks by energy industry lobbyists of draft rule changes that would undermine lawsuits already filed. At their heart, these proposals would turn narrow exemptions into larger loopholes that would allow old ‘grand-father’ plants to be continually rebuilt (and emissions to increase) without modern pollution controls.

“Our negotiating position is weakened further by the administration’s budget proposal to cut the civil enforcement program by more than 200 staff positions below the 2001 level. Already, we are unable to fill key staff positions, not only in air enforcement, but in other critical programs, and the proposed budget cuts would leave us desperately short of the resources needed to deal with the large, sophisticated corporate defendants we face. And it is completely unrealistic to expect underfunded state environmental programs, facing their own budget cuts, to take up the slack.”