Parks, Open Spaces, Wild Places Reports
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Executive Summary
Environment America is the new home of U.S. PIRG's environmental work. On April 22, 1970, America
celebrated its first Earth Day, demonstrating a national and truly bipartisan
outpouring of concern for cleaning up the environment. According to some recollections
of that day, "So many politicians were on the stump on Earth Day that Congress
was forced to close down. The oratory, one of the wire services observed, was
'as thick as smog at rush hour.'" 1 In the decade
that followed, Congress passed the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered
Species Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and other laws that form the cornerstone
of our country's commitment to protect the environment and public health.
While we have seen measurable
progress in environmental quality since 1970, we are far from achieving the
original vision laid out by the authors of these landmarks laws. Too many Americans
still breathe dirty air, and too many of our waterways remain polluted. Logging,
drilling, mining, road-building and other development continue to take their
toll on our forests, fragile coastlines and last wild places.
In a country that takes
great pride in its entrepreneurial spirit, these problems should inspire our
leaders to look for immediate solutions. Instead, the Bush administration has
taken the opposite course-looking for opportunities to weaken, not strengthen,
our environmental laws and please its allies in the oil, chemical, timber, electric
utility, mining and other polluting industries.
Over the last three years,
the Bush administration has proposed numerous policies to allow more pollution
in our air and water, more logging in our national forests, and more drilling
on sensitive public lands, while ignoring the pressing need to address global
warming pollution, rapidly clean up toxic waste sites, and reduce our dependence
on foreign oil. Although many of these proposals have been finalized, several
remain pending-offering the administration another chance to reinforce, rather
than undermine, the foundation of America's environmental laws.
These national policies
have a profound effect on residents of every state of the union.
Air pollution
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized two rules that eliminate
the teeth of the Clean Air Act's New Source Review program and the primary enforcement
mechanism for cutting soot and smog pollution from the nation's dirtiest power
plants. In December 2003, EPA also proposed a new plan to weaken and delay efforts
to clean up mercury emissions from the nation's 1,100 coal-fired power plants;
this proposal is still pending. These policies will only exacerbate air quality
problems across the country. Approximately 146 million Americans - or half of
the population - live in areas where the air is unhealthy to breathe. Currently,
43 states have fish consumption advisories in effect because of mercury pollution
in local waterways.
On a different note, in
April 2004 EPA plans to finalize a promising proposal to clean up dirty diesel
construction, farm, and industrial equipment. The rule would reduce pollution
from these engines by more than 90 percent, preventing an estimated 9,600 premature
deaths, 16,000 heart attacks, and nearly a million work days lost due to illness
each year.
Global warming
EPA has taken no meaningful action to address global warming emissions from
the nation's power plants, disavowing its authority to regulate carbon dioxide
as a pollutant in August 2003. The agency has supported only voluntary measures
to slow the rate of increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Global warming could
have profound effects on the country's environment and public health, including
more frequent heat waves and extreme weather events. In 2002, the U.S. recorded
almost $20 billion in losses due to weather-related disasters.
Water pollution
The Bush administration has proposed or enacted several policies to allow more
pollution to enter our waterways. In January 2003, EPA signaled its intention
to remove Clean Water Act protections for so-called "isolated" waterways;
EPA rescinded this proposed rule in December 2003, but has yet to recall a guidance
issued to EPA and Army Corps staff directing them to immediately stop protecting
these waters. The administration also has weakened enforcement of the Clean
Water Act; drafted plans to allow states to delay cleaning up polluted waters;
and proposed new rules to allow inadequately treated sewage to enter our waterways.
Already, more than 40 percent of our nation's waterways are too polluted for
safe fishing or swimming.
Logging in national forests
Under the guise of fighting forest fires, the Bush administration signed its
so-called Healthy Forests Initiative into law in December 2003. This new law
makes it easier for the timber industry to cut down large, fire resistant trees
while doing little to protect at-risk communities. The Forest Service also has
announced plans to weaken the popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule by allowing
governors to opt out of the rule altogether. The Roadless Rule would protect
58.5 million acres of the most pristine forest lands in the country from most
logging and road-building.
Drilling on public lands
The Department of Interior is working to provide the oil and gas industry with
easy access to our public lands, including wilderness areas and delicate ecosystems.
The Interior Department has removed protections for millions of acres of wilderness,
leaving them vulnerable to logging, road-building and development, and expedited
the permitting process for oil and gas drilling projects in the west, especially
Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
America's fragile coastlines
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is quietly rewriting
the federal rules that grant states the authority to protect their coastlines
from harmful federal activities. In July 2003, NOAA proposed changes to the
Coastal Zone Management Act that would weaken the voice of state agencies in
determining the environmental impacts of offshore federal operations and give
greater weight to the opinions of federal agencies. These changes could undercut
the right of California, Florida, and other states to protect their valuable
coastlines from harmful activities, including oil and gas development.
Dependence on foreign
oil
In December 2003, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
proposed changes to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard that could make
it easier for auto companies to qualify gas-guzzling SUVs and other light trucks
for weaker fuel economy standards. The best way to cut our dependence on oil
is to make vehicles go farther on a gallon of gas. With a 40-mpg fleetwide fuel
economy standard, the U.S. could save up to $88 billion at the gas pump and
conserve more than 50 billion gallons of oil annually by 2020.
Toxic waste cleanups
Superfund is the nation's preeminent law for making polluters clean up the
country's most contaminated toxic waste sites. Unfortunately, the Bush administration
has failed to support reinstating the "polluter pays" fees that help
fund cleanup of abandoned sites, slowed the pace of cleanups, and forced taxpayers
to pick up more of the bill for the cleanups that are happening. In 1995, the
year Superfund's polluter pays fees expired, taxpayers paid for only 18 percent
of abandoned Superfund cleanups, or $303 million. In 2004, American taxpayers
are paying all costs for abandoned Superfund cleanups, or about $1.257 billion,
an increase of 315 percent.
Exempting the Department
of Defense
The Department of Defense (DoD) is one of the most prolific polluters in the
United States. The Pentagon, capitalizing on increased public sympathy for the
military and desire for homeland security, has requested blanket exemptions
from several environmental laws. Having already won exemption from the Endangered
Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act, the DoD now wants amnesty from
cornerstone laws designed to protect people living on and near military sites
from exposure to toxic waste and air pollution. The DoD is responsible for 130
Superfund toxic waste sites in the U.S.-more than any other party.
Each state in the Union
will share the burden of the Bush administration's policies to weaken environmental
protections; this report, by no means exhaustive, details some of the administration's
harmful proposals and reveals how states will experience the very real, very
local effects of these actions.
Notes
1 John C. Whitaker, "Earth
Day Recollections: What It Was Like When The Movement Took Off." EPA Journal.
July/August 1988.
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