League of Conservation Voters National Scorecard Special
October 17, 1998
Alabama Congressional Delegation's National Environmental Scorecard
Record -
Dismal
The League of Conservation Voters released their annual National
Scorecard
this past week. The following is how the Alabama delegation voted
for 1998.
Senate
Richard Shelby 0% (4 straight years 0%)
Jeff Sessions 0% (2 years 0%)
House of Representatives
Callahan 8%
Everett 0%
Riley 0%
Aderholt 0%
Cramer 23%
Bachus 14%
Hilliard 69%
The following is a brief description of the "votes"
this scorecard was based
on.
Senate Votes
1. Weakening Land Use Protections - "Takings"
- S.2271 - This bill would have
threatened both federal environmental laws and local zoning. The
legislation
was opposed by the National Governor's Association, National League
of
Cities, U.S. Conference of Mayors, religious organizations and
environmental
groups. It was supported by developers. NO was the pro-environment
vote.
2. Environmental Funding Priorities - The 1997 balanced
budget agreement
proposed decreasing overall environmental spending until at least
2003.
During consideration of the 1999 budget even deeper cuts were
made. Sen
Frank Lautenburg countered with an amendment that would have restored
funding
including the following initiatives: A Clean Water Action Plan,
increased
funding to cleanup toxic waste dumps, and increased funding to
expand the
Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Loan (monies that
bring
drinking water facilities up to date) YES on the amendment was
the
pro-environment vote.
3. Selling Public Lands - This amendment to the budget
proposed selling
Bureau of Land Management to raise revenuesThe revenues would
be used to
provide private landowners with incentives to protect endangered
species.
While consevationists are generally supportive of these incentives,
they
should be funded through sustainable, long term revenue mechanisms
rather
than sales of public land.
4. Tax Breaks for Mining on Public Land - Currently
under the 1872 Mining
Law companies can mine gold, silver and copper without paying
royalties. On
top of that, not only do hardrock companies get the minerals for
free but
they are also able to buy the land bearing the minerals by patenting
it for
as little as $2.50 an acre (that is not a typo - remember this
is the
"public's" resource!!) Included in this list of giveaways
is a special rule
under the tax code called the "percentage depletion allowance"
which permits
mining companies to deduct a percentage of their taxable gross
income from
federal taxes they must pay. The deduction is intended to reflect
the
reduction in the value of the mineral deposit over time as minerals
are
extracted. But since, under the 1872 Mining Law, mining companies
pay
nothing to obtain minerals, these tax deductions allow the mining
industry to
get publically owned minerals without cost and receive a tax break
to mine.
OMB estimates that this subsidy will costs taxpayers $294 million
over the
next 5 years. An Environmental amendment to remove this tax break
was
proposed. A motion to table (kill) the amendment was approved.
5. Blocking Mining Reform - In the 1999 Interior Appropriations
Budget an
amendment to delay by 2 years Mining Reform through stronger BLM
regulations
was attached to the bill. Sen. Bumpers (Ark) made a motion to
remove the
delay. That motion was defeated 58-40.
6. Transferring Public Lands to a Bombing Range - Sen
Dirk Kempthorne added
language to the Defense Authorization bill that would transfer
12,000 acreas
of the pristine Owyhee Canyonlands for a supersonic combat bombing
range
-despite the availability of training ranges nearby.
7. Nevade Nuclear Waste Dump - Since 1987 Congress has
pushed to locate the
nation's high level nuclear waste from power plants to a permanent
repositiory at Yucca Mountain (which is 100 miles from Las Vegas).
It is
widely accepted that the area's groundwater will be contaminated
with waste.
The proposed legislation would establish an interim waste site
near the Yucca
Mountain. The establishment of an interim waste storage site,
would likely
bias the decision to site the permanent locations regardless of
the
scientific findings.
8. International Family Planning Funding - With the
world's human population
nearing 6 Billion, overpopulation is seen as the greatest root
cause of
environmental destruction. The State Department authorization
bill included
amendments that would have put severe restriction on international
family
planning agencies.
House Votes
There were 13 House votes listed on the scorecard. The votes included:
1. Takings - See the Senate vote description
2. Logging in the National Forest - A vote to prevent
"salvage" logging in
our National forests
3. Protecting Roadless Areas - A vote to create a moratorium
on logging
roadless areas in the National Forest.
4. Alaska Logging Roads - The Tongass National Forest
in Alaska is America's
last temperate forest. This motion pushed to eliminate the 110
miles of new
roads into the forest (ie. biggest money losing timber program
in the country
to boot!)
5. Alaska Wildlife Area Road - An amendment to prevent
the construction of a
road across the Chugach National Forest - home to the world's
largest
population of trumpeter swans.
6. Gulf of Mexico Fisheries management - Amendment pushed
by Sonny Callahan
of Alabama to nullify the use of Bycatch reduction devices (BRDs).
These
nets reduce the incidental catch of marine animals other than
shrimp.
7. Fighting Environmental Riders - This bill would prevent
legislators from
attaching anti-environmental riders on unrelated legislation.
For example,
last year must pass emergency spending bills on Bosnia and flood
disaster
relief were saddled with unrelated anti-environmental riders.
8. Restricting New Health and Safety Protections - Expanded
Unfunded Mandate
legislation that focuses on costs but does not include extinction
of a
species, or the preventive costs of reducing pollution hence the
risks of
birth defects, and premature deaths.
9. Funding Energy Efficiency Programs - This amendment
would have shifted
some fossil fuel funding to energy efficency programs.
10. Global Warming Gag Rule - Riders were attached to
House pending
legislation to prevent EPA from conducting educational or informational
seminars on global warming. Enviros pushed an amendment to remove
such an
amendment.
11. Removing Anti-Environment EPA Riders - 9 riders
including delaying
federal action to protect children from the effects of pesticides
in food,
delay the cleanup of mercury from power plants, interfere with
EPA's effors
to clean air in national parks, and interfere with Superfund cleanups.
12. Undermining Environmental Reporting and Information
- Bill would waive
civil penalties for first time violations of reporting requirements
regardless of the importance of the missing or incorrect information
or the
magnitude of the violation.
13. Tropical Forest Conservation - This innovative program
(Debt for Nature)
would help restructure developing country debt to help conserve
tropical
forests.
To receive a more detailed description of these votes and how
our legislators
voted on each particular item, please visit the LCV website at:
or call them to order a scorecard 202-785-8683
Please share BEN with friends and fellow conservationists.
If you have any questions about BEN, contact Pat Byington at
205-226-7739 or pkbyington@aol.com
