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When Every Friday Feels Like the 13th
Continuing its strategy of making controversial environmental policy announcements on Fridays, the day when the public is typically most distracted from news events, the Bush administration recently announced a cap on land eligible for wilderness designation. On Friday, April 11, the Interior Department said it intends to halt all reviews of its Western land holdings for new wilderness protection and to withdraw wilderness status from some 3 million acres in Utah.
Clean Air Draws A Crowd
On March 31, the EPA held hearings in North Carolina, Utah, Michigan, Texas, and New York on its proposal to alter the Clean Air Act's New Source Review program. Under the new rules proposed by the Bush administration, power plants and other major sources of pollution would be allowed to expand or modify their facilities and increase emissions without modernizing air pollution controls. The hearings drew activists, scientists, doctors, grandmothers, and many others concerned about the health risks of dirtier air. To keep up to date on issues involving pollution of our air and water, subscribe to the Environmental Quality Activist Newsletter at www.sierraclub.org/planet/redirect/eqnewsletter.
A Smelly Deal
Last year, the Sierra Club report "The RapSheet on Animal Factories" exposed the shocking record of criminal and civil violations by animal factories. Now, Bush administration officials at the EPA are contemplating an alarming agreement proposed by the meat industry that would shield polluting animal factories from enforcement for Clean Air Act or Superfund violations. A copy of the industry proposal is available at www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/ 2003/may/cafo_papers.asp.
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