Crowdog
11-11-2002, 07:54 AM
Power shift worries environmentalists
Republican control threatens fundamental conservation laws
By Benjamin Spillman
The Desert Sun
November 10, 2002
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It’s said all politics are local.
That may explain why during the midst of a historic power shift in Washington D.C., much of the region’s environmental community has its thoughts on the plants and animals of the Southern California desert.
On Election Day, Tuesday, the Republican Party seized control of the Senate, giving the GOP control of both houses of Congress and the presidency, just the second time since the Civil War one party held such sway.
By Wednesday, desert activists and eco-organizers worried aloud what the takeover would mean to endangered species, air quality and environmental preservation in the Coachella Valley and surrounding desert.
Much of the concern centers around earlier calls by President George W. Bush for changes to the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act and the National Environmental Policy Act -- some of the nation’s most fundamental conservation laws.
"Stuff that (Bush supporters) would not be able to get through the Senate will now be able to get through," said Jeff Morgan, a longtime member and vice chairman of The Tahquitz Group of the Sierra Club. "I think (the environment) is more threatened now than it has ever been."
Specifically, Morgan and others worry that without Democratic checks and balances, Bush appointees like Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton will intensify efforts to make public land more accommodating to timber, mining and off-road vehicle interests.
The Bureau of Land Management, one of the agencies under Norton’s direction, manages more than 10 million acres of land in the California deserts.
"The agency works for President Bush," said Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist for the Center for Biological Diversity. The group, with an office in Idyllwild, is widely known for its aggressive attacks on what it perceives as mismanagement of public lands. The center regularly turns to the courts to compel public agencies to enforce existing regulations.
"A Republican-controlled Congress could try to push for rollbacks of certain environmental laws," Patterson said.
But not everyone in the desert considers Republican control in Washington as threatening to the local environment, especially because the party does not have the 60 votes it needs to prevent filibusters by Senate Democrats.
At USFilter Corp. in Palm Desert, vice president and general counsel Stephen Stanczak said a slim 52-47 margin, "doesn’t really give you a lot of control," when it comes to wielding power.
USFilter is trying to convince elected officials on both sides of the aisle to support its plan for restoring the Salton Sea. The company stays abreast of water and environmental policy issues because much of its water treatment and purification business is done with government.
"At the end of the day, you still have to win over some members of the opposition party to get things done," Stanczak said.
Morgan was one of a number of local conservationists who mentioned cooperation by Rep. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, on local environmental issues as evidence of Republican interest in preservation.
A Bono spokesman said the congresswoman was unavailable for comment.
Bono supported creation of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument in 2000. She also recognized the potential damage to local air quality if the Salton Sea were to shrink as the result of a pending water transfer between Imperial Irrigation District and water users in San Diego and the Coachella Valley.
At a recent event in Thousand Palms to unveil a hydrogen fuel cell bus, Bono said she wanted to be "the Republican poster child for alternative fuel."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., however, said Republican energy initiatives will harm the state’s environment.
Boxer criticized Bush’s "Clear Skies" initiative that would amend the Clean Air Act.
The Sierra Club says the initiative will decrease air quality by allowing companies to purchase credits that allow for pollution, among other criticisms.
Boxer said she worries Republicans will also renew pitches for oil exploration in national forests and off the California coast.
"These are things they already have tried to do and we were able to stop them," Boxer said.
Despite widespread disdain by conservationists for the Republican environmental agenda, Democrats have also managed to rile desert activists.
Donna Charpied, a Desert Center resident leading the fight against converting an abandoned iron ore mine near Joshua Tree National Park to a landfill for urban garbage, is harshly critical of Republican land use policies.
Charpied called Tuesday’s power shift "a real sad day for the environment of the desert."
But she reserved some criticism for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for leaving the site out of the California Desert Protection Act of 1994.
"She actually protected the dump from the desert instead of the desert from the dump," Charpied said.
The New York Times News Service contributed to this article.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benjamin Spillman can be reached at 778-4643 or by e-mail at Benjamin.Spillman@thedesertsun.com
http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories/local/1036898993.shtml
Republican control threatens fundamental conservation laws
By Benjamin Spillman
The Desert Sun
November 10, 2002
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s said all politics are local.
That may explain why during the midst of a historic power shift in Washington D.C., much of the region’s environmental community has its thoughts on the plants and animals of the Southern California desert.
On Election Day, Tuesday, the Republican Party seized control of the Senate, giving the GOP control of both houses of Congress and the presidency, just the second time since the Civil War one party held such sway.
By Wednesday, desert activists and eco-organizers worried aloud what the takeover would mean to endangered species, air quality and environmental preservation in the Coachella Valley and surrounding desert.
Much of the concern centers around earlier calls by President George W. Bush for changes to the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act and the National Environmental Policy Act -- some of the nation’s most fundamental conservation laws.
"Stuff that (Bush supporters) would not be able to get through the Senate will now be able to get through," said Jeff Morgan, a longtime member and vice chairman of The Tahquitz Group of the Sierra Club. "I think (the environment) is more threatened now than it has ever been."
Specifically, Morgan and others worry that without Democratic checks and balances, Bush appointees like Department of Interior Secretary Gale Norton will intensify efforts to make public land more accommodating to timber, mining and off-road vehicle interests.
The Bureau of Land Management, one of the agencies under Norton’s direction, manages more than 10 million acres of land in the California deserts.
"The agency works for President Bush," said Daniel Patterson, desert ecologist for the Center for Biological Diversity. The group, with an office in Idyllwild, is widely known for its aggressive attacks on what it perceives as mismanagement of public lands. The center regularly turns to the courts to compel public agencies to enforce existing regulations.
"A Republican-controlled Congress could try to push for rollbacks of certain environmental laws," Patterson said.
But not everyone in the desert considers Republican control in Washington as threatening to the local environment, especially because the party does not have the 60 votes it needs to prevent filibusters by Senate Democrats.
At USFilter Corp. in Palm Desert, vice president and general counsel Stephen Stanczak said a slim 52-47 margin, "doesn’t really give you a lot of control," when it comes to wielding power.
USFilter is trying to convince elected officials on both sides of the aisle to support its plan for restoring the Salton Sea. The company stays abreast of water and environmental policy issues because much of its water treatment and purification business is done with government.
"At the end of the day, you still have to win over some members of the opposition party to get things done," Stanczak said.
Morgan was one of a number of local conservationists who mentioned cooperation by Rep. Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, on local environmental issues as evidence of Republican interest in preservation.
A Bono spokesman said the congresswoman was unavailable for comment.
Bono supported creation of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument in 2000. She also recognized the potential damage to local air quality if the Salton Sea were to shrink as the result of a pending water transfer between Imperial Irrigation District and water users in San Diego and the Coachella Valley.
At a recent event in Thousand Palms to unveil a hydrogen fuel cell bus, Bono said she wanted to be "the Republican poster child for alternative fuel."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., however, said Republican energy initiatives will harm the state’s environment.
Boxer criticized Bush’s "Clear Skies" initiative that would amend the Clean Air Act.
The Sierra Club says the initiative will decrease air quality by allowing companies to purchase credits that allow for pollution, among other criticisms.
Boxer said she worries Republicans will also renew pitches for oil exploration in national forests and off the California coast.
"These are things they already have tried to do and we were able to stop them," Boxer said.
Despite widespread disdain by conservationists for the Republican environmental agenda, Democrats have also managed to rile desert activists.
Donna Charpied, a Desert Center resident leading the fight against converting an abandoned iron ore mine near Joshua Tree National Park to a landfill for urban garbage, is harshly critical of Republican land use policies.
Charpied called Tuesday’s power shift "a real sad day for the environment of the desert."
But she reserved some criticism for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for leaving the site out of the California Desert Protection Act of 1994.
"She actually protected the dump from the desert instead of the desert from the dump," Charpied said.
The New York Times News Service contributed to this article.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benjamin Spillman can be reached at 778-4643 or by e-mail at Benjamin.Spillman@thedesertsun.com
http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories/local/1036898993.shtml