Friday, 12 Apr 2002

Lies, Lies, and Videotape

A picture is worth a thousand words: So reasoned Interior Secretary Gale Norton when she mailed copies of a videotape of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to major television stations and encouraged news producers to use the footage in their coverage of the debate over drilling. (In contrast to videos of the Arctic Refuge produced by conservation organizations, which generally feature wildlife and breathtaking views, the video shows a desolate-looking winterscape.) According to Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Norton committed a major no-no. The video was developed by Arctic Power, a pro-drilling lobbying group, and Markey says Norton illegally used her office -- and by extension taxpayer money -- to distribute propaganda from a special-interest group. An Interior spokesperson denied any wrongdoing on Norton's part. Meanwhile, Republicans bought extra time to prepare for the showdown over the Arctic Refuge when the Senate agreed to postpone introduction of the GOP drilling proposal until next Tuesday.

Supremely Bad Judgement

The Florida Supreme Court dealt a blow to environmentalists and landowners yesterday by ruling that property owners in the state must continue to foot most of the bill for Everglades restoration, despite overwhelming support for a 1996 amendment to the state constitution that would have made polluters pay instead. The court determined that the amendment, which was approved by two-thirds of state voters as part of a plan to restore the Everglades, was too vague for the state legislature to be able to act on. Environmentalists contend that state lawmakers purposely failed to implement the amendment because they are beholden to the sugar industry, which helped engineer the defeat of a second part of the plan that would have imposed a tax on sugar growers. The ruling means that, under a 1994 law, funds for an $800 million water-treatment system will continue to come from everyday tax-paying property owners.

Boxer Takes Off Her Gloves

Senate Democrats accused the Bush administration yesterday of slowing the pace of toxic waste cleanups under the Superfund program as a favor to industry, which historically has picked up most of the tab for the costly cleanups. A Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee asked Superfund officials to explain why the administration dropped 25 sites from the cleanup list this year and shifted much of the cost from industry to taxpayers. The Bush administration explained the reduced number of cleanups by saying it had chosen to focus on a handful of "megasites," but Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Superfund oversight subcommittee, said, "The most important parts of the program -- the pace of the cleanup and the principle that the polluter must pay -- are now under attack by this administration." The tax on industry that funds the cleanups expired in 1995, and the White House has declined to ask Congress to reinstate it. However, as Superfund coffers run low, administration officials said they might reconsider that position in 2004.

Logan's Heroes

Here's a stellar example of your tax dollars at work: Last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published an Anna Karenina-sized draft study of a proposal by Arch Coal to strip mine 3,100 acres of West Virginia. The strip mine would be the largest ever in the state, and the company has been seeking a permit since 1997. The environmental impact study, a necessary step on the way to approval, provided an exhaustive discussion of the potential economic benefits of the mine to Boone County. Trouble is, the strip mine is planned for Logan County; it even says so on the cover of the study. Oops. The Corps blamed the error on Michael Baker, Jr., the consulting firm it hired, which claimed it could "lawsuit-proof" the study; the Corps also contends that the blooper does not cast doubt on the credibility of the rest of the report. Environmentalists aren't buying it: "Unfortunately, this is the kind of carelessness we've come to expect from the Corps," said Nathan Fetty of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition.