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SIERRA CLUB RESPONDS TO NATIONAL REVIEW, FOX NEWS COVERAGE BLAMING KATRINA ON ENVIRONMENTALISTS Statement by Carl Pope, Executive Director "In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration has faced significant criticism due to failures preparing for and responding to the catastrophe that hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region. Now the administration's emissaries are trying to deflect that criticism by blaming environmentalists. As they say in Louisiana, that dog won't hunt. "What the accusations have in common is that they mistake efforts to ensure good government decisions with a tragedy that had everything to do with bad judgment on the part of our government leaders. In each of the legal cases cited so far, conservation groups simply asked government agencies to look before leaping into projects that would have had major impacts on people and the natural systems on which they depend and to give local communities what our democracy requires: a say in projects coming out of Washington. That isn't just common sense; that's also the law. "Rather than grasping at straws, the Bush administration should authorize an independent review, modeled after the 9/11 Commission of government decisions before, during and after the hurricane. That would enable this and future administrations to not repeat the mistakes of the past and to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in resilient, visionary, and environmentally responsible ways." ### |
