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Ah, the 104th Congress. Could there be a more
environmentally hostile group of 535 men and women anywhere
on the planet? Impossible, you say? Not at all. At this very
moment, in fact, the folks who brought you the Gingrich-Dole
Congress in 1994 are gearing up for the second act - during
which, they hope, the anti-environmental juggernaut launched
two years ago will roll to victory. The sponsors of the War
on the Environment can count votes as well as anyone, and
they know how tantalizingly close they came to drilling the
Arctic Refuge, developing the Utah wilderness, crippling the
Clean Water Act, dismantling the National Parks System,
repealing the Endangered Species Act, revoking wetlands
protections, and on and on and on. Just a few more "ayes"
and they would have had it ....
Those same corporate special interests will be back with a
vengeance this year, spending as much as it takes to move
from free rein on Capitol Hill - something they achieved in
1994, when they began rewriting environmental laws to suit
their own selfish needs - to sovereignty over America's air,
water and wilds. For environmentalists, the problem is
simple: How do we move from blocking the polluters' agenda -
something we achieved, but barely, in the 104th Congress -
to getting on with the job of protecting America's
environment for generations to come?
The six candidates here are a good place to start. They're
among our most dependable champions in Congress, which means
two things: (1) we desperately need to keep them in
Washington, and (2) their opponents will be rolling in
contributions from corporate PACs hoping to finish the
destruction begun by the 104th Congress. January's Senate
race in Oregon - in which then-Rep. Ron Wyden won with the
backing of the Sierra Club - demonstrated how the right
message can win out over big money. Unfortunately, it does
take money to convey that message effectively. To help the
green candidates below get their messages out to the voters
in 1996, please send a check to the addresses listed. It's
the only way to halt the anti-environmental juggernaut once
and for all, and resume a quarter-century of progress toward
a clean, safe, healthy planet - for our families, for our
future.
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