Whiplash on Climate Change
The news was delightful, if somewhat hard to believe. The Bush administration’s own EPA had posted on its web site an analysis of the problem of global climate change. The report acknowledged what the world’s scientific and environmental communities have been saying for years: that climate change (“global warming”) is real, that it’s caused by human activity, and that it will have disastrous effects on the US and the rest of the world.
Curiously, however, the report did not propose to actually do anything about the problem. But when one is hungry for good news on the GOP environmental front, this seemed at least a move in the right direction.
Unfortunately, just as REP was about to write letters commending President Bush and EPA Administrator Christie Whitman for acknowledging the problem—and urging them to take a proactive approach to solving it—the president rebuffed his own scientists with a terse “I read the report put out by the bureaucracy” and the golden moment vanished.
The kicker came when Whitman said she didn’t know the report was posted on the web site until she read about it in the newspapers. Oh, well.
Sellout at Interior
The job of protecting Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons from snowmobile pollution has fallen to Congress, now that the Interior Department has reversed a snowmobile phaseout adopted in 2000 to protect two of America’s most-loved treasures from noise and smog.
In June, the Department announced plans to allow continued snowmobile use despite overwhelming public support for its phaseout. In the past year, the National Park Service received 350,000 public comments on the issue, with 80 percent supporting phaseout.
Numerous scientific studies have documented the environmental damage that snowmobiles are causing in America’s first national park.
Since Interior Secretary Gale Norton apparently prefers to ignore science and disregard public opinion, Congress must step up to the plate.
Fortunately, some representatives —including several Republicans— have introduced HR 5044, which would order the Interior Department to implement the snowmobile phaseout rule. (See Proud to Praise 'Em!)
REP believes that activities that may be appropriate elsewhere are not appropriate in our national parks. We don’t permit motorcycle races at Gettysburg National Military Park or billboards on the Washington Monument. We shouldn’t allow noisy, polluting snowmobiles at Yellowstone or the neighboring parks.
REP encourages other Members of Congress to show leadership by backing HR 5044.
Is It Something in the Water?
Representative Denny Rehberg (R, MT) was one of several Western representatives who recently criticized federal agencies for, in their view, enforcing the Endangered Species Act more in the West than the East.
When a federal employee said that the East generally has less habitat due to industrial development, Rehberg asked: “You’ve already destroyed your habitat in the East, and you’re trying to protect us from destroying the West?”
You got it, Congressman.
Unfortunately, that’s not all Rehberg has been up to. He also filed legislation to permanently redraw national monument boundaries to exclude any land not managed by the BLM—allegedly to protect property rights in the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument. However, property rights there are already so well protected that even Interior Secretary Gale Norton had previously turned down a request that she adjust the boundaries herself.
Meanwhile, Representatives Mike Simpson (R, ID) and Scott McInnis (R, CO) are trying to curtail the president’s authority to protect public lands as national monuments by introducing a bill to sunset all new monuments over 50,000 acres unless Congress approves the designation within two years.
At a recent hearing, Simpson said Congress never intended for presidents to set aside “huge, vast tracts of land” when they were given authority in 1906 to establish national monuments.
McInnis said no president should be allowed to do what Bill Clinton did in establishing large national monuments on public lands.
Simpson and McInnis seem ignorant of the long and proud conservation legacy of Republican presidents, who were no slouches at establishing king-size national monuments.
Among Theodore Roosevelt’s great gifts were monument designations for Petrified Forest (60,776 acres), Mount Olympus (639,200), and Grand Canyon (808,120). All later became national parks. Herbert Hoover established a second Grand Canyon monument (273,145), plus White Sands (131,487), Death Valley (848,581), and Saguaro (53,510). Even Calvin Coolidge—arguably the most conservative GOP president of the 20th century—got into the act with Glacier Bay (1,379,316 acres).
Republicans for Environmental Protection believes that national monuments are treasures that exemplify our nation’s extraordinary beauty and embody its inspiring history. Established by presidents from both political parties, they protect our natural and historical heritage. There should be no change in the law that permits a conservation-minded president—of either party—from protecting such lands in the future.
But Where is the “E” Word?
Quite a few REP members reported receiving a “census document” supposedly sent by the GOP National Committee to “a select group of Republicans.” The cover letter by Chairman Marc Racicot says: “Your answers will be used to develop a blueprint for the Republican party for the next 10 years” and makes passing reference to “radical environmentalists.” But it asks no questions about the environment.
The accompanying questionnaire asks about the Bush administration’s positions on domestic and international security, defense, education and social issues (mentioning only faith-based programs). Global warming, air and water quality, deforestation, wetlands, species loss, and other environmental concerns don’t seem to figure in the RNC’s 10-year plan.
