This
Tuesday, the House of Representatives will debate and vote on H.R. 2578, the Conservation and Economic
Growth Act. H.R 2578 is an omnibus of 14 bills that have passed through
committee, all of which are assaults on the laws that protect our nation’s air,
water, and land. One measure would remove a section of the Merced River from
protections afforded it by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act; another would allow
greater and longer grazing by livestock on public lands, a dubious practice
with environmental ramifications.
The
Conservation and Economic Growth Act includes H.R.1505, a bill authored by Rob Bishop, a GOP
Tea Party congressman from Utah. H.R. 1505, also known as The National Security
and Federal Lands Protection Act, would exempt the Homeland Security Department
from any need to comply with environmental and public health laws on federal
and tribal lands within 100 miles of the U.S. border. The exemptions would be
for all of this country’s most ambitious environmental legislation, including
the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Act.
DHS has not asked for this type of
legislation, and it’s unknown whether this bill would have any effect on the
department’s effectiveness. What is known is that this bill would affect nature
preserves and parkland. One of the National Park Service’s crown jewels,
Glacier National Park, would fall entirely under this legislation.
I
don’t know if the irony of Bishop’s proposed legislation has been impressed
upon him, but if it were made law, one of the most pristine National Parks,
home to wolves and moose—They even have grizzly bears up there—would have
gaping holes in the amount of environmental protection that our government is
willing to give it. As far as operations of the Homeland Security Department,
the wolves, bison, and bears would have zero protection in their natural
habitats in Glacier National Park.
Does
this make any sense?
I
live in San Diego, about 20 miles away from the border with Mexico. H.R. 1505
specifically mentions one of our most treasured preserves in the county, the
Otay Mountain Wilderness, as an area that would have no environmental
protection from the activities of Homeland Security. The preserve has already
been assaulted by the building of a border wall. In an adumbration of this
bill, that wall was built with the waiving of the same protections that H.R.
1505 seeks to negate.
H.R. 1505, like the
rest of the Conservation and Economic Growth Act, does not do away with the
Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, or other environmental laws, it is
nonetheless part of a strategy used by the GOP—and the interest groups whose
business interests they represent—of chipping away at environmental laws in
such a way that in 15 years, 20 years, 25 years they will be rendered
meaningless.
I’ve been following
H.R. 1505 for some time, but a big hat tip to my friend Jill Hoslin who notified
me today about the developments with this legislation. She is an insightful
blogger concerned with border issues. You can check out her blog here: http://www.attheedges.com/
Additionally, our
local paper, the San Diego UT, has not been covering this story, but they did
publish this op ed by Mark Starr: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jun/15/tp-a-veterans-voice-protect-san-diegos-public/?page=1#article
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