Sierra Club Currents - Rally for the Refuge
Volume V, #38
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Quote of Note:
"In fact, yesterday, NASA announced that we are going to send a man to the moon again by 2018, but President Bush won’t support a substantial increase in the fuel economy of our nation's cars and SUVs by that same year. What’s the problem? It's not rocket science – it is auto mechanics!"
- Congressman Ed Markey on Arctic Refuge Action Day. Rep. Markey and other leaders addressed a crowd of thousands of Americans who believe the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is too special to be sacrificed to feed the United States' oil addiction.
(1) Arctic: Rally for the Refuge
(2) Katrina: How Toxic is Too Toxic?
(3) Take Action: Oppose the Pombo Bill to Gut the Endangered Species Act
(4) Take Action: Protect Moratorium Areas from Oil and Gas Drilling
1. Arctic: Rally for the Refuge
Today, thousands of Americans from across the country gathered in front of the United States Capitol to urge lawmakers to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling. This unprecedented event united activists, families, religious leaders, Native American leaders, drummers and musicians from as far away as Oregon and Alaska. Both the House and Senate are expected to vote this fall on a budget reconciliation bill that would open the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling, but citizens have sent millions of messages to Congress making it clear that they want to protect, not drill, the Refuge. Today they took that message directly to Congress' front door.
Learn what you can do to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in these last few weeks before the vote.
2. Katrina: How Toxic is Too Toxic?
Less than a week ago, the Environmental Protection Agency found bacteria, fuel oils and E. coli in the floodwaters covering New Orleans, and advised in a press release that people "avoid all contact with sediment deposited by the flood water, where possible." Now they're telling the public that preliminary tests don't justify labeling New Orleans' floodwaters "toxic" yet. The situation is an eerie reminder of the EPA's premature "all-clear" on Manhattan's air quality after the terrorist attacks of September 11. Two years later, the EPA inspector general found that political pressure, not solid evidence, had led EPA to wrongly reassure the public. This time, the EPA needs to resist that pressure until New Orleans is truly safe.
Read the Philadelphia Inquirer editorial "Don't wade in the water."
Read "Experts size up contaminants" in the Baton Rouge Advocate.
3. Take Action: Oppose the Pombo Bill to Gut the Endangered Species Act
Opponents of traditional fish and wildlife conservation are trying to ram legislation through Congress that would gut the Endangered Species Act, America's safety net for its natural heritage. Congressman Richard Pombo has introduced a bill, H.R. 3824, that would eliminate habitat protections on tens of millions of acres, allow for the injuring and killing of threatened species such as the bald eagle, and require the federal government to pay developers and other special interests to avoid negatively impacting publicly owned fish and wildlife. The House may vote on the Pombo bill as early as next week, September 28.
Tell your member of Congress to reject these efforts to pull the rug out from under over 30 years of successful stewardship under the Endangered Species Act.
4. Take Action: Protect Moratorium Areas from Oil and Gas Drilling
America's shorelines are a national treasure, providing sanctuary for wildlife, destinations for vacationing families, and the economic lifeblood for tourism and fishing communities. But our long-protected coastlines and oceans are under threat from oil and gas industries. A provision of the polluting energy bill passed by Congress and signed by the Bush administration calls for the inventory of oil and natural gas reserves off America's coasts – a destructive process that would severely damage our fragile shores and ocean wildlife. Now, the Interior Department is soliciting public comment on oil and gas resources off of California, the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic coast from the Carolinas south "for the development of its 2007-2012 five-year leasing plan for energy development."
Tell the Mineral Management Service to exclude all moratorium areas in the next oil and gas leasing plan.
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As we continue to watch the horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many people are asking themselves "As an environmentalist, what can I do? How can I help?"
You can help by contributing to the Sierra Club's Gulf Coast Environmental Restoration Project. Donate now or learn more.
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