Officials oppose environmental exemption

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Officials oppose environmental exemption
Wed, 04-21-2004 - 5:30pm

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1153&slug=Military%20Environment


Wednesday, April 21, 2004 · Last updated 1:56 p.m. PT


Officials oppose environmental exemptions


By JOHN HEILPRIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration hasn't demonstrated the need to further ease environmental laws in the name of military readiness, five state attorneys general, two of them Republicans, said Wednesday.


"This is a solution in search of a problem," Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said during a hearing on the issue by two House subcommittees. "Is this really about readiness, or is it about another opportunity for environmental rollbacks by the Bush administration?"


Attorneys general of California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Washington state submitted a statement to the two panels opposing any further relaxation of environmental standards for the military.


They said the Defense Department has not identified any such conflicts between military readiness and three laws from which it wants exemptions "and we are not aware of any."


"We think that the likelihood of future conflicts is small," they said in their statement to the House Energy and Commerce Committee's air quality and hazardous materials subcommittees. Idaho's and Utah's attorneys general are Republicans; the other three are Democrats.


In the last two years, Congress has approved five of eight exemptions from environmental laws requested by the Pentagon. The Defense Department and the Environmental Protection Agency have been working together to develop ways of making the remaining three requests more palatable to lawmakers.


The Pentagon wants the Clean Air Act amended so any extra air pollution from training exercises wouldn't count for three years in states' plans for meeting federal requirements. States also could require cuts from other sources, such as power plants, rather than make the military reduce its pollution.


Other changes sought by the military have to do with toxic waste laws, and what defense officials describe as cleanups resulting only from munitions used for normal purposes during training exercises on 525 operational range complexes nationwide.


"They remain essential to military readiness and range sustainment and are as important this year as they were last year - maybe more so," Raymond DuBois, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, told the House panels.


Republicans generally backed the Pentagon's request. "Today's bureaucratic red tape does impede training," said Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif.


"If it's a close call," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., "the military has to be able to make its case, and make it in a way that doesn't slow up its training."


The General Accounting Office said in a 2002 report that it found little evidence to support the Bush administration's claims that environmental laws hamper military training. And last year, then EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said she couldn't recall any training missions scrapped or delayed due to environmental regulations.


Among the military's previous requests granted by Congress were to lower the threshold for what is considered harassment of a marine mammal, and fewer requirements for setting aside areas to help recovery of species of plants and animals that could vanish.


Rep. Richard Burr, R-N.C., expressed concern about contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, the largest Marine base on the East Coast. It potentially affects Marines and their families who lived in base housing between 1968 and 1985, when the wells contaminated with solvents and other organic compounds and pollution were closed.


"Trust is absolutely essential when one asks for these exemptions," Burr said of the Pentagon's requests.


---


On the Net:


Defense Department: http://www.acq.osd.mil/ie/environment.htm


Natural Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/030312.asp

cl-nwtreehugger


 


Community Leader: In The News & Sports Talk


I can also be found at Washington, TV Shows & QOTW