Sierra Club on Environment

Sub-sections under Environment:
• Energy
• Forests
• Population
• Other issues under Environment

Not sound science to ban predators on wildlife refuges

• President Trump signed H.J. Res. 69, overturning the rule that banned "predator control" on federal wildlife refuges in Alaska unless "based on sound science in response to a conservation concern."
• Any rule mentioning "sound science" is in trouble under a Trump administration.
• So what kinds of practices will the Trump administration now allow on our federal wildlife refuges? Activities that include shooting or trapping wolves while in their dens with pups, or hunting for grizzly bears from airplanes.
• It's all about ensuring a maximum yield of prey species like elk, moose, and caribou for the real apex predator: humans. So if having more elk requires killing wolf pups in their dens, then so be it.
• The Obama administration's rule (which Trump revoked) never tried to stop all hunting. Subsistence hunting was still allowed.

Publicize grant opportunities for diesel emission reduction

• Low or No Emission Vehicle Deployment Program (LoNo) offers funding to transit agencies for the acquisition and leasing of zero- and low-emission transit buses and related equipment with a budget of $22.5 million.
• Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ) provides funding for projects that reduce transportation-related emissions.
• State Energy Program (SEP) offers grants typically in the range of $300,000-$800,000 to advance programs that create jobs and further climate and energy security.
• TIGER Discretionary Grants are available to surface transportation infrastructure projects that will have a significant impact on the nation, a region, or metropolitan area, with grants ranging from $100,000 to $25,000,000.

Mandatory labeling for GMO products, then long-term testing

Right now, you are eating GE food without knowing it. The average American eats their weight in GE ingredients in a year. But no independent, long-term studies have been done to determine if these foods are truly safe. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not require GE food to be labeled, but permits it voluntarily. Virtually no companies have labeled their GE food under this system. [We advocate] the mandatory labeling of GE food.

Urge president to establish more national monuments

• Fort Ord, California
• Berryessa-Snow Mountain: California
• Organ Mountain-Desert Peaks: New Mexico
• Greater Canyonlands: Utah
• Arctic National Wildlife Refuge-Polar Bear Seas: Alaska

NGO campaign killed Bush's "Clear Skies" initiative

Strict regulation & restrictions for offshore oil drilling

• Strengthen the Coastal Zone Management System with immediate full funding.
• Lease sales should be prohibited in areas that possess:
  • High seismic activity
  • Fragile or unstable geological structures
  • Proximity to particularly diverse or productive marine ecosystems, or marine sanctuaries
  • Where visual impact of offshore structures would significantly reduce aesthetic values
  • Where the risks are unusually high.
• Petroleum exploration and production that does take place must be conducted in accordance with the strictest controls possible under current technology, and must be subject to automatic, heavy fines for all oil spills regardless of cause.
• The Sierra Club opposes leasing of lands beyond 200 meters depth until international agreements [define] ownership of sea floor resources.

Spend by giving tax breaks

We need protected forests

Stabilize population and reduce wasteful consumption

The goals of the Global Population Stabilization Program are to protect the global environment and preserve natural resources for the future by stabilizing population and reducing wasteful consumption. We strive to achieve these goals by:
• romoting family planning programs and reproductive health services
• empowering and educating women and girls
• reducing excessive consumption and encouraging people to live in ways that have less of an impact on the earth’s resources.

Pesticide law is "corporate captured" by farm lobby.

Congressional Summary:Amends the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA) to prohibit the EPA or a state from requiring a permit for a discharge into navigable waters of a pesticide authorized under FIFRA. Excepts stormwater discharges and discharges of manufacturing or industrial effluent.

Proponent's argument for bill:(Blue Ridge Times-News, April 2013): Sen. Kay Hagan announced a bill to eliminate a "redundant and burdensome" requirement that 365,000 pesticide users get a CWA permit before spraying in or near lakes and streams. Farmers and other chemical users already have to meet stringent requirements for pesticide application under FIFRA, Hagan said, and the CWA permit only adds a duplicative, unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. Hagan said the "overlapping regulations" have also forced some municipalities to cut down on spraying for mosquitoes "because they don't have the manpower (to deal with the extra red tape), and they fear lawsuits."

Opponent's argument against bill: (Oregon Sierra Club newsletter Dec. 2012): Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" turned 50 this fall: it catalyzed the environmental movement [by focusing on pesticides like DDT]. Today we still face the issues she outlined in Silent Spring. Pesticide law and regulation in the US is a case study in corporate capture: beholden to the farm lobby in Congress, all the way back to the 1947 formation of FIFRA.

FACT: From 1988 to 1995, more than 65 bills were introduced in Congress to tighten pesticide regulations. None of them passed.

FACT: In the late 1990s, two separate investigations revealed that more than half of all former top-level pesticide regulators at the EPA subsequently went to work for, or were paid by, pesticide and chemical industry interests actively involved in fighting EPA efforts to protect the public from pesticides.