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Date: 3 January, 2001
Those persons concerned about stewardship of the environment have been told
to be patient with the administration about to take office in the United
States. We're told we will be pleasantly surprised with the initiatives taken
for care of the land and our natural resources. We're told there is a
'honeymoon' offered to new presidents; our president-elect, too, surely
deserves to be given a period to develop wisdoms for the execution of his
duties. We're told...to give our new leader some slack.
American PIE suggests we forget the honeymoon and 'pull in the slack.'
In past EcoAlerts, American PIE has lamented the fact that the environment
was not a central issue in the 2000 presidential campaign. We hope that
recent events will join the issue clearly for all American citizens. Key
appointments in the U.S. federal government - the head of the Environmental
Protection Agency and office of the Secretary of the Interior - have been
offered to two people who have demonstrated in their past actions little
affiliation with the land and only passing concern for the health of the
environment.
Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (NJ), the nominee to take over Carol Browner's
job, according to a recent Washington Post report "cut New Jersey's
environmental protection budget by 30%...relaxed enforcement of pollution
regulations, promoting voluntary compliance and cooperation instead of
fines...abolished the state's environmental prosecutor's office and replaced
its public advocate with a business ombudsman...and kept her pledge made at
her inauguration to make the state 'open for business.'"
Gale Norton, a former protege of James Watt, has been tapped to fill Bruce
Babbitt's shoes at the Interior Department. According to a recent New York
Times article by Douglas Jehl (12/30/2000), Ms. Norton, as a young lawyer in
President Ronald Reagan's Interior Department, was part of an unsuccessful
attempt to persuade Congressional Democrats to open Alaska's National
Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. With George W. Bush's determination to
allow oil companies access to the wildlife refuge, he has slyly positioned a
'Yes'-person in the office charged with stewardship of American lands.
Contact your federal representatives today. Say "No"... and 'pull in the
slack.'
Act today on this EcoAlert, and thank you for your environmental
responsibility.
American P.I.E.
Public Information on the Environment
124 High Street, P.O. Box 340
South Glastonbury, CT 06073-0340
Telephone: 1-800-320-APIE(2743)
E-Mail: Info@AmericanPIE.org
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