July 11, 2000
One of the things that makes running a zine interesting is synchronicity--events happening coincidentally but not really coincidentally.
Just today, a column by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman arrived in the editor's electronic mailbox with the subject "Fronting for Big Coal," in which M & W write about attending a press conference held by Center for Energy and Economic Development (CEED), a front for the coal industry. M & W's column was almost immediately followed by the message reproduced below, authored by the Pulp & Paperworkers' Resource Council (PPRC).
Who is the PPRC? Considering the big guns that turned out for a rally against new environmental standards recently released by the EPA -- Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana), Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas), Rep. Ronnie Shows (D-Mississippi), Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Missouri), Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Arkansas), and Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota) -- it is clear that PPRC is no political lightweight.
The dead giveaway, however, was the domain name of sender Dale Walker's email address: gapac.com. Click on this link to see from where this Dale Walker sends his email: http://www.gapac.com. That's grassroots for you.
Now let us investigate why these senators and representatives, including our own Ronnie Shows, would turn out for an anti-EPA rally. We suggest you investigate who gives them contributions. Click on this link to Project Vote Smart http://www.vote-smart.org.
To learn more about the actual EPA rule over which these folks are waxing wroth, go to http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/finalrule/factsheet1.html. There is a link near the bottom of the page to download the entire rule. Use you own head and judge who is right.
Read Mokhiber and Weissman's synchronous article "Fronting for Big Coal." http://www.jacksonprogressive.com/issues/mokhiberweissman/bigcoal071100.html
So much for grassroots movements. You have been warned
To: Jackson Progressive
Date: Tue Jul 11 16:52:32 2000
Subject: EPA Protest
From: Dale Walker tdwalker@gapac.com
July 11, 2000
Jackson Progressive
P.O. Box 2050
Jackson, MS39225-2050
To Jackson Progressive,
Rumford Chapter, 35 Hartford Street, Rumford, Maine 04276
Tel (207) 369-2618, www.pprcmaine.org, Fax (207) 369-2798
pprcmaine@pprcmaine.org
RELEASE: July 11, 2000
CONTACT: Don Barker (207) 369-2618
PAPERWORKERS, MEMBERS OF CONGRESS BLAST EPA
Washington, DC (July 11, 2000) - Congressmen, labor leaders, and pulp and paper mill workers rallied this morning in the Nation's Capital to protest the growing thicket of needless federal regulation which increasingly threatens workers' livelihoods. Dale Walker from Monticello--a paper mill worker from Mississippi--joined labor people from all over the country to share labor's views on abusive new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations.
Don Barker, a mill worker at Mead Paper's Rumford, Maine paper mill who chairs the Pulp & Paperworkers' Resource Council (PPRC), introduced members of congress and mill workers concerned about EPA's forcing through regulations which attack the life-blood of rural communities.
"For bureaucratic arrogance, it is hard to match EPA's attack on U.S. workers in two recent regulations," Barker said. "I mean the proposal to take the Clean Water Act's non-point source regulating authority away from proven state-run programs, and the EPA's "New Source Review' enforcement initiative, which capriciously overturns prior permitting decisions under the Clean Air Act."
Congress intended the New Source Review as a means to ensure that industries expanding or altering processes chose pollution control technologies which reduced or stabilized then-current emissions levels. The EPA, however, is enforcing the provision by overturning permitting decisions made as long as 20 years ago, with retroactive fines, rather than confining itself to setting standards for new operations or environmental upgrades.
"If any regulation was ever designed to penalize pro-active environmental engineering and drive manufacturing off-shore, this is it," Barker said. "Rather than setting standards and leading constructive change, EPA is giving manufacturers the old bait-and-switch. Workers and communities then pay the price."
The other regulation Barker spotlighted was EPA's push to usurp state regulation of non-point-source pollutants in the nation's waterways. Under an authority which EPA is attempting to create for itself, groundwater and other broad watershed impacts, such as those associated with agriculture and forestry, would suddenly become a federal matter.
Barker indicated that EPA wanted to put itself in a position to threaten landowners with an arbitrary permitting process for just about any land use. "If forest landowners must do their planning under a constant threat of regulatory harassment, or litigation from groups that oppose forest management, many of them will withdraw their land from forestry. In the end, that hurts the workers and communities that derive their livings from the forest, and if it forces land conversion, that hurts the environment, too," he said.
"In spite of vocal landowner opposition at dozens of state-level rallies, in spite of a July 3 act of Congress to de-fund this regulatory nightmare, EPA and the White House are determined to implement it anyway, through a truly cynical circumvention of the appropriations process," Barker said.
With Barker at the podium were Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana), Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas), Rep. Ronnie Shows (D-Mississippi), Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Missouri), Rep. Jay Dickey (R-Arkansas), and Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota), as well as Keith Romig of the PACE International Union and six representatives from PPRC's regional chapters.
Founded in 1991, the Pulp & Paperworkers' Resource Council is a grassroots organization representing over 400,000 forest-dependent mill workers nationwide.
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Sincerely,
Dale Walker