Be a Tough Cop, Mr. Leavitt
This fall, REP America sent a letter to Utah Governor Mike Leavitt, urging him to become a champion of public health by vigorously enforcing our anti-pollution laws. We reminded Mr. Leavitt that once he is confirmed as Environmental Protection Agency administrator, the best service he could render to President Bush and the American people would be to follow in the footsteps of great GOP administrators like William Ruckelshaus, Russell Train and William Reilly.
These men are remembered with respect and appreciation today, in large part because they recognized that pollution is a flagrant violation of individual rights. They respected the American people’s need and desire for strong, impartial enforcement of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and other laws that safeguard public health. They knew that swift, sure enforcement is the fairest and most reliable way to keep our nation’s environment safe, clean and healthy.
Knowing how often these days industries are allowed to dictate decisions made by federal agencies, REP America respectfully reminds Mr. Leavitt and others in the Bush administration that, as President Theodore Roosevelt once said: “Compliance with the law is demanded as a right, not asked as a favor.”
Hisses and Cheers
We would rather be reporting a win on this, but at least we can cheer for those who tried to save our magnificent Tongass National Forest from industrial-strength logging.
Hisses to Senator Ted Stevens (R, AK), who managed to attach a rider to the 2003 Interior Appropriations Bill that will make it virtually impossible for citizens to challenge road-building and logging plans in America’s largest publicly-owned national forest. Most at risk under the rider are forty areas in the Tongass where all or portions of a proposed timber sale are currently protected by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
Senator Barbara Boxer (D, CA) tried to remove the rider with an amendment but was foiled with a slick procedural “motion to table,” depriving senators of the right to vote on the Boxer amendment. The vote to set it aside was 52 to 44, leaving Stevens’ language in the final bill.
This kind of scurvy dealing—not even allowing senators a straight up-or-down vote on a major issue—is reprehensible. Hearty REP cheers for the following Republicans who voted no on the motion to table:
Sen. Lincoln Chafee (RI)
Sen. Susan Collins (ME)
Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (IL)
Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME)
Sen. Arlen Specter (PA)
Sausage Mill at Work
As this Green Elephant goes to press, deals are being cut and pork is being added as a congressional conference committee slaps together another embarrassment of an energy bill.
Congress had an opportunity to craft a modern energy policy to improve security, promote clean energy industries and reduce emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Instead, lawmakers are reaching into their old bag of tricks to pull out a jumble of goodies for long-established energy industries that can get along without taxpayers’ help.
Congress refuses to consider a meaningful increase in motor vehicle fuel efficiency standards, the single most effective step that could be taken to reduce foreign oil dependence. Don’t look for an aggressive blueprint to expand markets for clean, efficient energy technologies either.
The final product is likely to be a miserable mash of modest incentives for new technologies, a full gravy boat of oil and gas subsidies, and futile policies indulging the delusion that energy independence can be won by opening protected public lands to energy production.
