The Sierra Club’s Scott Nicol writes in the Arizona Republic, “How does waiving the Endangered Species Act in Glacier National Park help secure the border? Simple. It doesn’t. But that doesn’t matter to U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, author of the National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act (HR 1505).”
On October 5, the US House of Representativesā Natural Resources Committee voted 26-17 to approve HR 1505, the National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act. The proposed legislation would waive 36 environmental and other laws for US Customs and Border Patrol activities on public lands within 100 miles of US borders. The area covered by this legislation includes the Great Lakes, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (on Lake Superior), Olympic National Park (in Washington), Cleveland National Forest (California), Big Bend National Park (Texas), and, as Nicol mentions, Glacier National Park (Montana).
Laws that would be waived include – the Safe Drinking Water Act, Federal Water Pollution Control Act, Solid Waste Disposable Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, Fish and Wildlife Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, Wilderness Act, Federal Land Policy and Management Act, National Park Service Organic Act, National Historic Preservation Act, Farmland Protection Policy Act, and Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Nicol adds, “The irony is that the Border Patrol has not asked for the power to ignore environmental laws but instead has sent officials to testify against the bill in Congress. Last spring, the Government Accountability Office found that ‘most agents reported that land management laws have had no effect on Border Patrol’s overall measure of border security’. …Bishop’s targeting of environmental laws simply fits the current Republican zeitgeist. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has attacked environmental regulations and the Environmental Protection Agency as ‘obstacles to economic growth’ that must be ‘removed’. And GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney says the Clean Air Act should be rewritten to exclude the regulation of greenhouse gasses.”
He concludes, “Environmental laws have nothing to do with our economic crisis, but the bad economy provides cover for efforts to repeal or rewrite them. HR 1505 is just more of the same. Waiving environmental laws would not make our nation any safer, but then Bishop’s bill isn’t really about protecting our borders. It is an assault on federal lands and environmental laws using border security as a convenient Trojan horse.”
The Council of Canadians is particularly concerned about the impact this legislation would have on the Great Lakes. We are calling for the Great Lakes to be recognized as a lived commons, public trust, and protected bio-region. We are currently organizing a speaking tour of Great Lakes cities in both Canada and the United States tentatively scheduled for May 2012.
On September 24, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow received the Sierra Clubās EarthCare Award at a ceremony in Oakland, California. The award honours āan individual who has made a unique contribution to international environmental protection and conservationā. The Earthcare Award is the highest international award presented by the Sierra Club US.
For more on HR 1505, please see http://canadians.org/blog/?p=11043 and http://canadians.org/blog/?p=10864.
