As the new home of OSPIRG's environmental work, Environment Oregon can be contacted regarding this news release.
PORTLAND—At an Earth
Day celebration on Saturday, Oregon's conservation and public health communities
were joined by Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury to speak with a united
voice about the value of protecting Oregon's environment and threats facing
the state due to changes in federal policy.
"Oregon's environment,
vigorous communities and economic development depend on each other," said
Bradbury, "As we come together to celebrate Earth Day, we should remember
that the prosperity of our generation and generations to come depends on the
recognition that environmental protection is fundamental to community and economic
health."
The groups also released
a new report, authored by Oregon State Public Interest Group, "Oregon's
Environment at Risk," which details the local impacts of Bush administration
policies and proposals that weaken environmental protections, and their specific
impacts in Oregon. The report is available at www.ospirg.org/reports.
"The decisions the
Bush administration is making in Washington, D.C. have very real, very local
effects here in Oregon," said Maureen Kirk, Executive Director of Oregon
Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG).
OSPIRG's report highlights
the Bush administration policies that will have the greatest impact on the environment
and public health in Oregon. Specifically:
- The forest service has
weakened the widely popular Roadless Area Conservation Rule, enacted in 2001
to protect 58.5 million acres of wild national forests, including nearly 2 million
acres of pristine forests in Oregon. The administration has exempted the nation's
largest national forest—Alaska's Tongass—from the protections, and
is considering next steps that put Oregon's forests at risk.
- This year, Oregon's taxpayers
will pay nearly $12 million, which previously was paid by polluting industries,
to clean up abandoned toxic waste sites like those on the Willamette River.
The Bush administration has opposed reinstating the "polluter pays"
fees that help fund cleanup of abandoned toxic waste sites which slowed the
pace of cleanups, and forced taxpayers to pick up more of the bill.
- The Bush administration
has proposed weakening protections for salmon that swim in the rivers of the
Northwest, and is quietly rewriting federal rules to undercut the right of Oregon
to protect its valuable coastline and important fisheries from harmful activities,
including oil and gas development.
The groups also pointed
to a number of decisions ahead that offer the Bush administration the opportunity
to protect the environment and public health. For example:
- EPA should protect the
health of America's children by withdrawing its industry-written proposal to
regulate toxic mercury emissions from power plants. Instead they should support
a rule that reduces mercury emissions by 90 percent by 2008—as EPA itself
has said is possible.
- The Forest Service should
fully implement the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and restore protections
to the Tongass.
"Not just on Earth
Day, but every single day, the public should make it our business to send a
loud and clear message to the White House, to the Forest Service, to the Environmental
Protection Agency, to our elected representatives," said Oregon Natural
Resource Council's Conservation Director, Jay Ward. "Let them know that
they should protect our air, water and last remaining wild places."
Oregon State
Public Interest Research Group · National Environmental Trust ·
Sierra Club · Save Our Wild Salmon · Oregon Natural Resources
Council · Oregon Center for Environmental Health · Citizens' Utility
Board · Oregon Toxics Alliance · Trout Unlimited · American
Lands · Water Watch · Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility
· Oregon Environmental Council · League of Conservation Voters
