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New EPA water quality report shows U.S. waters
are getting dirtier
September 30, 2002: In
response to a Freedom of Information Act Request filed by NRDC
and American Rivers, EPA today released its biannual report of
U.S. water quality conditions, and the news is not good. This
year's report shows that U.S. waterways are becoming
increasingly polluted. From 1998 to 2000, the percentage of
polluted rivers rose from 35 percent to 39 percent, the
percentage of polluted estuaries jumped from 44 percent to 51
percent, and the percentage of polluted shorelines increased
from 12 percent to 14 percent. The percentage of polluted
lakes remained unchanged.
"This is a very disturbing
trend," said Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC's Clean Water
Project, "and given the Bush administration's water policies,
it is bound to become even worse."
The EPA report
documents water quality trends for rivers, lakes, and
estuaries based on information provided by states and other
jurisdictions. A waterbody is declared "polluted" if it not
safe for its intended uses, such as swimming, boating, aquatic
habitat or drinking water. The full report is available on the
EPA's website.
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Bush administration rewriting rules to boost
logging in Northwest
September 30, 2002: As
part of legal settlement, the Bush administration has agreed
to ease environmental restrictions in order to clear the way
for more logging on federal land in the Northwest. Last
January, the timber industry filed the lawsuit against the
government alleging that the landmark Northwest Forest Plan --
a 1994 compromise plan between environmentalists and loggers
that set safeguards for remaining old-growth forests in the
region -- contained onerous and unnecessary wildlife
protections.
Although President Bush expressed his
support for the Northwest Forest Plan when he visited Oregon
in August, administration officials have complained that the
plan's logging goals have been stymied by environmental
requirements, particularly the survey-and-manage rules. The
timber industry and administration officials have criticized
those surveys for taking too long (years, in some cases),
costing too much (more than $25 million last year), and
including little-known wildlife (such as snails and fungi).
Because timber sales have been slowed by the wildlife surveys,
as well as tied up in lawsuits and appeals by environmental
groups, the administration plans to revise rather than
eliminate the wildlife safeguards by next July. In the
meantime, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land
Management will make immediate changes to "streamline" the
current survey-and-manage rules and release the new version in
February. The timber industry agreed to stay its lawsuit
pending the outcome of the revision process.
"This is
yet another example of the Bush administration's eagerness to
cut a secret deal that helps its industry friends profit at
public expense by rolling back rules that protect our national
forests," said Nathaniel Lawrence, director of NRDC's forest
program.
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Bush administration relinquishing federal
water rights
September 30, 2002: Signaling
a major shift in federal policy, the Bush administration
appears ready to give Western states more control over scarce
water resources traditionally reserved for federal lands, at
the expense of natural resources. Under the Clinton
administration, the federal government exerted its authority
to prevent states from transferring enormous volumes of water
away from national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and other
federal lands for urban and agricultural uses. In a case that
could set a new precedent in this long-running battle over
water needed by federal lands, the Bush administration is
loosening its claim to river water stored in a federal
reservoir upstream from a national park in
Colorado.
The dispute over water for Black Canyon of
the Gunnison River National Park is before a state water
court, which ruled in 1978 that the federal government had the
right to an unspecified quantity of water from a tributary of
the Colorado River to preserve the park's ecology and beauty.
But Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who repeatedly challenged
federal water claims when she was Colorado's attorney general,
has indicated that the administration is willing to reach a
settlement that would give the federal government considerably
less water. As part of any agreement, the government would
seek to make up the difference by acquiring water from other
sources, which could mean having to buy it back from the
state.
The administration's stance in the Colorado case
is consistent with other recent actions on water rights,
including a situation last year in which the administration
opted not to challenge a state court decision that allowed
Snake River water to be diverted from a national wildlife
refuge in Idaho -- to the detriment of federally protected
fish and bird species. At least five other Western states have
begun efforts to challenge the government over water
rights.
"The Bush administration wants to relinquish
the federal government's long-recognized rights to reserve
enough water to protect natural resources whenever it sets
aside land for a national park or other use," said Johanna
Wald, director of NRDC's land program. "But giving up federal
water rights to the states is more than a question of law;
it's a question of survival for wildlife that depend on ever
dwindling supplies of water from nearby rivers and
streams."
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Bush administration revives controversial
California gold mine
September 27, 2002:
Thanks to the Bush administration, Reno-based Glamis Gold
Ltd. is one step closer to excavating a 1,571-acre mine on
public land in California considered sacred by local Indians.
In January 2001, the Clinton administration rejected the
project due to the irreparable damage it would cause to an
area administered by the Bureau of Land Management that
contains cultural and religious sites treasured by the Quechan
Indian tribe. Interior Secretary Gale Norton reversed that
decision, ruling that the former administration misinterpreted
the law in rejecting the project, and now has found that the
company's claims to develop the mine are valid. Norton also
agreed with BLM staff who concluded that the mine would be
profitable, given economic conditions and the site's ore
content. The next step is a three-month review of the
previously conducted environmental impact study, after which
the agency will make a final decision on the project or
possibly decide to seek more information on the mine's
environmental effects.
"Environmentalists and the
Quechan Indians supported the BLM's original and thoughtful
decision to kill this mine, and since then both the California
Legislature and the U.S. Senate have tried to bury it," said
Johanna Wald, director of NRDC's land program. "The Bush
administration is playing Dr. Frankenstein for the mining
industry by bringing this monster of a project back from the
dead."
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Bush administration plans to lift federal
protection on wolves
September 25, 2002:
The Bush administration is gearing up to remove federal
protections for wolves by next year. Craig Manson, an
assistant secretary of the Interior Department, told reporters
that the time is right for the government "to be relieved of
the burdens" of the Endangered Species Act, and said that the
administration will vigorously defend its action against
expected lawsuits from wildlife advocates. There are about 700
wolves now roaming free in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming -- an
area comprising less than 10 percent of historically occupied
wolf habitat. And even though most Western states have no
wolves, Mason said the government plans to call for delisting
wolves across the West -- from Colorado to Washington -- after
a December count of the species.
"The wolves are
recovering nicely in a few states but that's no excuse for the
Bush administration to roll back endangered species protection
across a significant portion of the animal's historic range,"
said Joel Reynolds, an NRDC attorney.
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Bush administration to reconsider Clean Water
Act protections
September 19, 2002: In a
move that could reverse the progress made over the past 30
years in cleaning up the nation's waters, the Bush
administration announced that it plans to consider new rules
for enforcing the Clean Water Act. During a House subcommittee
hearing, high-level officials with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers testified
that their agencies have decided to propose new rules that
redefine "waters of the United States" for purposes of the
Clean Water Act. The agencies said they now question whether
certain waters, including streams that dry up periodically,
and wetlands next to these streams, should be protected under
federal law.
The administration claims that its
position reflects a January 2001 Supreme Court decision on
wetlands, despite the fact that the ruling in question,
Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. Army Corps of
Engineers, struck down only a policy that allowed the
corps to extend its jurisdiction to water bodies used by
migratory birds. In light of the court's decision, industry
representatives -- primarily developers -- argue that federal
authorities are exceeding their jurisdiction in many water
pollution cases and should leave enforcement to the states.
Environmentalists insist that many states lack adequate laws
to cope with massive industrial pollution.
"On the eve
of the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, the Bush
administration is acting at the behest of polluting industries
by using a narrow loophole created by this Supreme Court
ruling to roll back fundamental water quality protections,"
said Robin Marx, a water quality specialist at NRDC. "Engaging
in an unnecessary rulemaking to limit the government's
jurisdiction to enforce water quality protections would throw
open the doors to a host of pollution in so-called
non-navigable waterways, as well as the filling and
destruction of wetlands."
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Forest Service smoothing the rails for Bush's
logging proposals
September 19, 2002: With
President Bush's controversial wildfire prevention proposal
stalled in Congress, the U.S. Forest Service is preparing to
streamline the administration's plan to "thin" flammable
forests by granting some logging projects in national forests
immunity from laws and regulations that could slow the
projects down. According to agency officials, the
administration is moving ahead with plans to exempt logging on
millions of acres of western forests from environmental
reviews and citizen appeals, regardless of whether pending
legislation gets enacted. The administration's strategy is not
surprising, given that last week Forest Service Chief Dale
Bosworth told reporters that the 1993 law that forces the
agency to accept appeals of all land-management decisions
"doesn't make sense," and that Congress should repeal
it.
In accordance with the administration's approach,
environmental impact statements or assessments -- which
provide opportunities for public input -- will no longer be
required for fire reduction and some other logging projects.
Forest supervisors will be able to revise timber management
plans without going through environmental and public reviews.
The president also has directed federal land agencies to speed
work on Western forests by using so-called categorical
exclusions to exempt logging projects from review under the
National Environmental Policy Act. Currently, more than 1,500
projects are being considered for categorical exclusions.
Meanwhile, the Forest Service is at work on a categorical
exclusion to exempt timber sales under a certain size from
environmental reviews, which would pave the way for thinning,
salvage and other logging projects to proceed much faster. A
federal court rejected such an exclusion last year.
"If
at first you don't succeed in giving the timber industry
unfettered access to national forests, then try, try again,"
said Nathaniel Lawrence, director of NRDC's forest program.
"Only this time, the administration is using a sham fire
reduction plan to increase logging at the expense of the
environment and citizen involvement."
FOR MORE
INFORMATION
Press Release: 8/22/02
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Bush orders agencies to streamline
environmental review of transportation
projects
September 18, 2002: In a major
victory for the nation's road lobby, President Bush signed an
executive order directing the Department of Transportation and
other federal agencies to speed up the approvals process for
federally-backed projects, such as highway construction or
airport projects. The president's order calls for
"streamlining" environmental review and limiting public
participation in planning and permitting processes. The order
also establishes an interagency task force to promote
cooperation between agencies, and to provide the White House
with annual reports on the agencies'
progress.
Environmentalists warned that the executive
order will undermine environmental protections and is part of
a larger campaign to weaken the National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA). They noted several major problems with the order.
First, it grants the Department of Transportation, an agency
that is not usually focused on environmental protection, the
power to oversee environmental review of new roads, highways
and other projects. Second, the order calls for speeding up
these reviews despite the fact that the Federal Highway
Administration's own assessment showed that project delays are
due to lack of funding, local opposition, or project
complexity -- not environmental reviews. Finally, the new task
force likely will recommend further ways to "streamline"
NEPA.
"NEPA is what keeps pavement out of our remaining
fragile watersheds and wildlife habitat. Unfortunately, what
the Bush administration means by 'streamlining' NEPA is that
it wants to 'steamroll' the law that protects the environment
and the right of citizens to be involved in the
decision-making process," said Deron Lovaas of NRDC's Smart
Growth Program. "There are ways to improve transportation
environmental reviews -- such as better and earlier public
involvement and more resources for overworked review agencies
-- but weakening key environmental safeguards is not the way
to go."
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U.S. EPA misses deadlines on air toxics
standards
September 17, 2002: The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency is nearly two years behind in
fulfilling its statutory responsibilities to develop standards
for some 176 air toxics, according to the Inspector General.
Air toxics such as benzene, mercury and asbestos are regulated
by the Clean Air Act through a two-phased approach as called
for by the law's 1990 amendments. Toxic air pollution remains
one of the most significant health and environmental problems
in the U.S., causing cancer, neurological, immunological and
other serious health problems, according to the IG report.
Despite the potential for serious harm, the EPA has so far
finished only 82 industrial categories that emit the
pollutants, with an estimated completion date for the first
phase in 2004. The IG report also said the agency relies
heavily on industry's own data.
"Given the risks air
toxics pose to human health and the environment, the EPA
should stop lagging and pick up the pace of its assessments,"
said John Walke, director of NRDC's clean air program.
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Bush replacing health scientists who don't
favor industry views
September 17, 2002:
The Bush administration, unhappy with the findings of the
scientific advisory committees that guide federal policy, has
begun a broad restructuring at the Department of Health and
Services. In the past few weeks, some committees that were
coming to conclusions at odds with the president's views have
been eliminated and membership in others has been reshuffled.
For example, all but a few of the 18 members of a committee
assessing the effects of environmental chemicals on human
health are being replaced, in most cases by people with ties
to the industries that manufacture the chemicals. (One new
member is a California scientist who helped defend Pacific Gas
& Electric Company against Erin Brockovich.) The changes
mark the beginning of the restructuring of a system of more
than 250 committees that funnel advice to HHS Secretary Tommy
Thompson.
"The Bush administration has rolled back
environmental protections for big business, and now it's
stacking the deck on these health advisory panels by replacing
respected scientists with those hand-picked by industry," said
Dr. Linda Greer, director of NRDC's public health program.
"Science should not be for sale."
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National Park Service removes controversial
ranger
September 17, 2002: For 30 years Bob
"Action" Jackson has patrolled the remote reaches of
Yellowstone National Park, catching poachers and railing
against hunting guides who illegally lure elk by placing salt
outside park boundaries on Forest Service land in Wyoming.
Jackson's legendary zeal in protecting the park's wildlife has
created controversy, and presumably that is why the National
Park Service ordered the part-time ranger to leave his post
before the hunting season heats up.
This is not the
first run-in Jackson has had with his superiors. He has long
criticized park officials for lax enforcement of hunting
rules, accusing the agency of assigning too few rangers with
too little experience to patrol the backcountry and ignoring
the poaching problem for fear of angering local hunters,
commercial outfitters and Wyoming politicians. In 2001, park
management ordered Jackson not to speak publicly about his
concerns and sent him home from his job early, telling him he
would not be hired the next season. After Jackson filed a
formal complaint, he was rehired for this season. Now, it
appears, the park service once again has no use for Jackson's
services.
"It makes no sense for an agency supposedly
dedicated to protecting Yellowstone's natural resources to get
rid of a ranger who is dedicated to protecting the park's
wildlife against illegal hunting activity," said Chuck Clusen,
NRDC's director of parks.
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EPA omits global warming section from
pollution report
September 15, 2002: Top
officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with
White House approval, deleted a chapter on global warming from
the annual report on air pollution. The new report, "Latest
Findings on National Air Quality: 2001 Status and Trends,"
notes a significant reduction in most emissions, but ignores
carbon dioxide (CO2), the pollution mostly responsible for
global warming. Emissions of CO2 increased by 17 percent
during the last decade. President Bush, who broke a campaign
promise to regulate carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel
burning power plants, acknowledged last year that carbon
dioxide appeared to be linked to rising temperatures. However,
he has resisted all but voluntary measures to slow emissions
from burning fossil fuels. In late May, the White House
approved, and the State Department submitted to the United
Nations, a "Climate Action Report" that included a section on
the projected harm to the United States from global warming.
The president later criticized the report as something "put
out by the bureaucracy."
"For the first time in six
years, EPA's report on air pollution trends has no section on
global warming. It doesn't take a rocket scientist, or a
climate expert for that matter, to figure out the reason why,"
said Dan Lashof, science director for NRDC's Climate Center.
"Unfortunately, the Bush administration's 'out of sight, out
of mind' approach won't solve the problem of global
warming."
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BLM's plans for California desert favor
commerce over conservation
September 13, 2002:
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management recently released a
long-awaited draft management proposal for a 5.5 million acre
portion of the California's Sonoran Desert that favors vehicle
recreation at the expense of wildlife, according to
environmentalists. Among other things, the plan rejects the
federal government's own prescription for saving the
endangered desert tortoise by reducing more than 150,000 acres
of critical habitat for the species. It also allows off-road
vehicles in dry stream beds that provide fragile habit for
dozens of other imperiled animals and rare plants. BLM
officials, who say they have worked for almost a decade to
strike a balance among public access, commercial interests and
conservation, believe their plan achieves common
ground.
"What good is a plan that satisfies no one,
least of all the endangered animals that the agency is
supposed to be protecting," said Johanna Wald, director of
NRDC's land program.
Meanwhile, the BLM is also under
fire for attempting to open up much of the 150,000-acre
Algodones sand dunes system to off-road vehicles, much to the
chagrin of environmentalists and biologists with the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service who have raised concerns about the impact
to a rare plant. The Bush administration has proposed
overturning a Clinton-era legal settlement banning motorized
recreation on about 50,000 acres of the dunes -- also known as
the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area -- which span nearly
40 miles in southeastern California. It turns out that BLM is
seeking to deflect concerns about the milk vetch plant's
survival by urging Fish and Wildlife to consider contradictory
research -- some of it paid for by the off-road industry group
lobbying to open up the dunes. BLM officials denied that the
Bush administration has pressured the field office to push the
off-road proposal through. The agency is expected to make a
final decision on off-road access in a few weeks.
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EPA backs off issuing strong antipollution
standards for off-road vehicles
September 13,
2002: Bad luck prevailed on Friday the 13th as the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency finally issued new standards
for off-road vehicle emissions and engine regulations. Bowing
to White House and industry pressure, the EPA not only failed
to issue stronger standards to control pollution from these
vehicles but actually weakened the rule it proposed more than
a year ago. The rule does require sweeping reductions in
emissions from hundreds of thousands of off-road vehicles
whose pollution until now had not been regulated. But the
final rule will give snowmobile manufacturers two additional
years, until 2012, to achieve emissions reduction targets. It
also gives them more flexibility in how much each pollutant
they reduce, and allows all-terrain vehicles to emit 50
percent more pollution than under the original proposal. The
EPA revised its original rule after the White House Office of
Management and Budget forced the agency to undertake an
extensive cost-benefit analysis that critics say was biased
toward industry's economic concerns.
Off-road vehicles
are especially dirty. The pollution from a single snowmobile,
for example, can equal that of 100 cars, according to the EPA.
Under the new rules, the snowmobiles that today produce
100,000 cars' worth of pollution will, by 2012, produce only
50,000 cars' worth.
"That's still 50,000 too many and
too long to wait for cleaner air, especially in our national
parks where thousands are still allowed to roam -- thanks to
the Bush administration -- despite the environmental damage
they inflict," said Chuck Clusen, director of NRDC's parks
program.
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Army Corps of Engineers dawdling on Missouri
River plan
September 10, 2002: The Army
Corps of Engineers is unlikely to meet its 2003 deadline to
issue a new "master manual" for managing the Missouri River,
leaving endangered wildlife unprotected while dam operations
continue unchanged. As a result, environmentalists may file
lawsuits to force the agency to change the river's flow regime
in order to prevent species from going extinct.
In
November 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a
biological opinion that blamed current dam operations on the
river for threatening the existence of the pallid sturgeon,
interior least tern and piping plover. The agency suggested
revising the river's flow patterns to mimic natural flow
conditions, with a spring rise for fish spawning and lower
summer flows to provide nesting habitat for the birds. In May
of this year, the corps postponed its final decision;
officials indicated that additional interagency discussions
would be completed by August, and a final decision arrived at
by October. The new target for completing consultation is
December but even so, corps officials do not expect to reach a
final determination by March of next year when the revised
master manual is due out.
The corps has been in the
middle of a political tug-of-war since Fish and Wildlife
issued its biological opinion two years ago. Environmentalists
and politicians from upriver states, which would benefit by
getting more water in their reservoirs during the summer,
insist that the corps is legally obligated to implement Fish
and Wildlife's recommendations. But President Bush has sided
with downriver states and agricultural interests that demand
higher water levels in summer for navigation but not in spring
because of increased threat of floods.
"The Corps of
Engineers is making a de facto decision to maintain the status
quo with its strategy of delay after delay after delay," said
Karen Garrison, senior policy analyst with NRDC. "There will
be hell to pay in court without the high water come
spring."
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Norton rules out citizen's panel for
Trans-Alaska Pipeline
September 10, 2002:
Interior Secretary Gale Norton rejected the need for
establishing a citizens' panel to oversee the trans-Alaska oil
pipeline. State and federal regulators are holding hearings on
the renewal of the pipeline rights-of-way across public lands,
as oil companies seek to extend their use for another 30 years
beyond the January 2004 expiration. Environmentalists want a
citizens group to oversee pipeline operations, similar to the
regional citizens advisory councils created by Congress after
the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Norton
disagreed.
"Norton's views aren't surprising, given the
Bush administration's repeated attempts to weaken
environmental protections and shut citizens out of the
decision-making process when it comes to industry's activities
on public lands," said Chuck Clusen, director of NRDC's Alaska
programs.
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EPA seeks to boost
recycling
September 09, 2002: The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency launched a new campaign to
help boost recycling of materials -- ranging from metals to
plastics to paper -- and to reduce the generation of toxic
chemicals. The EPA's "Resource Conservation Challenge" aims to
meet or exceed two goals by 2005: increasing the national
recycling rate from 30 percent to at least 35 percent, and
curbing by 50 percent the generation of 30 harmful chemicals
found in hazardous waste. To help meet the goals of the
initiative, the agency announced a variety of new projects
that will test creative approaches to reduce the use of raw
materials, reuse waste materials to make new products or
generate energy, and cut the generation of toxic wastes. The
EPA plans to establish partnerships with industry, states and
environmental groups, and will provide training, tools and
technology assistance to meet the goals of the
campaign.
"Converting America's environmentally
destructive manufacturing sector and costly waste disposal
infrastructure to one that emphasizes recycling instead of
virgin materials exploitation, landfilling and incineration,
will take more than these few pilot projects can achieve,"
said Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist and coordinator
of NRDC's solid waste project. "We encourage the Bush
administration to put more emphasis in reviewing all agency
actions -- from IRS tax policies to Commerce Department
subsidies -- to authentically and meaningfully promote
recycling and help industries get off the pollution/resource
depletion treadmill."
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U.S. EPA air-quality enforcement sinks to new
lows
September 07, 2002: Under the Bush
administration, the number of U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency personnel assigned to enforce air quality laws has
fallen to the lowest level on record, according to an analysis
of records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by
AIR Daily. The number of inspectors and officials charged with
enforcement responsibilities fell by more than 12 percent --
from 528 to 464 -- in the past year alone. The current level
of staffing in EPA's Office of Enforcement of Compliance
Assurance (OECA) is now the lowest since the government began
keeping records in 1996.
Although it is impossible to
determine how this drop in staffing levels affected federal
enforcement activities by the agency, between 1999 and 2001,
the number of air-quality inspections by state environmental
agencies fell by 34 percent -- from 34,861 to 23,014.
Moreover, the number of EPA civil enforcement employees also
has been cut in the past year by 5.7 percent.
"These
drastic reductions undermine EPA's ability to detect and
punish environmental violations," said John Walke, director of
NRDC's clean air program. When it comes to holding violators
accountable, actions speak louder than words, said Walke.
"While the Bush administration talks tough about corporate
criminals," he added, "it quietly pulls environmental cops off
the beat so corporate polluters can get off the hook."
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Park Service temporarily bans personal
watercraft on Nevada lakes
September 06, 2002:
If you live in Nevada, guess what's not coming to a lake
near you? Jet skis. The National Park Service agreed to extend
a personal watercraft ban on eight water bodies, including
Lake Mead. The catch is that the ban won't begin until
November 7 -- the typical end of the state's recreational
boating season -- and not all areas of the lakes will be
off-limits. But beginning January 1, the ban will cover all
areas of the designated water bodies and remain in place until
a final lake management plan is completed.
"In keeping
with the natural beauty and solitude of these lakes, at last
people will be able to enjoy some much-missed peace and
quiet," said Chuck Clusen, director of NRDC's parks program.
"Let's hope that situation becomes permanent."
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Federal officials reject call to add white
marlin to endangered list
September 04, 2002:
The National Marine Fisheries Service, which regulates
offshore fishing, rejected a request to place the white marlin
on the federal endangered species list. Though the popular
sport fish has greatly declined to historic levels, the agency
said stocks have not dropped enough to warrant banning their
catch in American coastal waters. In 1997, the federal
government listed the white marlin as overfished. Listing them
for protection under the Endangered Species Act would have
barred U.S. recreational anglers from catching the far ranging
billfish. Two years ago an international agency that monitors
commercial fleets of 29 nations adopted conservation measures.
International fleets indiscriminately kill large numbers of
the fish while trying to catch tuna and swordfish. Estimates
are that eight times as many white marlin are caught as global
guidelines recommend.
"The U.S. ignored the chance to
join the international community in taking dramatic action to
save this fish from its collision course with extinction,"
said Karen Garrison, co-director of NRDC's oceans
program.
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White House seeks unprecedented exemption from
public disclosure rules
September 02, 2002:
In a case involving public access to information about
Vice President Cheney's secret energy task force, the Bush
administration is seeking broad immunity from disclosure laws.
Administration attorneys filed a brief in federal district
court hoping to block citizen groups from obtaining
information about sensitive energy policy documents. They are
arguing, for the first time ever, that virtually anyone
employed or detailed to the White House is exempt from public
access laws such as the Freedom of Information Act, the
Federal Advisory Committee Act and the Administrative
Procedures Act. If the judge approves the administration's
request for a "protective order," Cheney and other members of
the White House's National Energy Policy Development Group --
the so-called energy task force -- will be able to prevent
activists from gaining access to the documents.
"The
Bush administration's demand for an exemption from fundamental
public disclosure laws is as arrogant as it is outrageous,"
said Sharon Buccino, a senior attorney with NRDC. "This would
have a chilling effect on policy making because the White
House would be able to shield virtually any sensitive
decisions it makes from the American people."
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