Liberty Matters News Service
September 19, 2001
God
Bless America
As we move forward from the tragedy of September 11, 2001, it is vividly clear that liberty matters. Our sense of stability and national security has been shaken to the very core of every American. Today we face many forces and challenges that if we are not careful, will alter, if not destroy, our way of life and take away our ability to overcome these adversities. Liberty is not our enemy. Don’t let it become a victim in this ordeal. Our strength is our ability to own and use private property. Without that ability, we have no security. Remain vigilant, safe and we pray for those who lost their lives and for those who risked theirs to save others. May God Bless America.
Let Common Sense
Prevail
The September 11, 2001
attack on America has brought renewed interest in domestic oil
exploration. The United
States currently imports 60 percent of its daily oil consumption, most
of which comes from 11 OPEC members, six in the Middle East.
President Bush has proposed exploration in the Gulf of Mexico off
North Carolina and federal land in the Rocky Mountains and the Alaska
National Wildlife Refuge. There
is stiff opposition to the proposals, even in the wake of last week’s
terrorist attack. Rep. Ed
Markey, D-MA, said; “Responding
to such terror by allowing oil drilling the ANWR would be breathtakingly
ineffective and irrelevant.” But
Patrick Burns of Citizens for a Sound Economy refutes that argument. “Our unwillingness to meet more of our energy needs at home
may have helped to strengthen our enemies abroad.
Our ever-increasing dependence on foreign sources of energy has
afforded some foreign governments undue influence over the U.S.
economy.” The Natural
Resources Defense Council, and Sierra Club, among other environmental
groups, are laying low for the time being.
“[I]t would be self-serving and insensitive for anyone to
‘use this national tragedy to advance an agenda,’ said one.
Deutsche Banc oil analyst, Adam Sieminski, held a different view.
“To trade a relatively small environment damage to the
Porcupine caribou herd in return for the World Trade Center?
I know where I would come down.
Who wouldn’t?”
Attacks
Turn Eyes On ANWR
Governor
Davis to Regulate Private Property Logging
Governor Grey Davis of
California is still dancing to the environmentalists’ tune.
If the California Board of Foresters approves his plan, private
landowners will be required to get state approval before they can
harvest “ancient” trees on their own property.
Mary Nichols, secretary of the state resource agency said,
“this new rule is the first time that the state has ever placed
restrictions on a private landowner’s ability to cut down trees.
This will expand enormously on the number of old trees that will
be protected in this state.” “Under
current law, a landowner could legally cut down a 200-year-old-tree
without paying any regard to its environmental impact,” said Davis.
The proposed new rules will close this loophole and require
landowners to prepare a Timber Harvest Plan assessing environmental
impact before any trees are cut. Environmentalists
say the plan doesn’t go far enough and is little more than a
“political sleight of hand.” Funny,
no one mentions anything about the steady erosion of freedom in
California.
State
Tackles An 'Ancient' Issue/Davis Backs Plan to Classify Old Growth Trees on Private Lands
Bush
Urged to Maintain Lock on Forests
Democrats
joined environmental groups at a demonstration demanding President Bush
follow through on former President Clinton’s plan to close millions of
acres of the nation’s forests to logging, mining and other
development. Senator
Barbara Boxer, D-CA, led the charge saying, “We have a basic message
for President Bush today. Don’t
sell out our forests.” Rural
interests claimed they had very little input into the decision to close
the forests and that their very livelihoods were at stake.
The comment period was re-opened for sixty days, ending September
10th. Last May,
a federal judge blocked the Forest Service from implementing the Clinton
rules following a lawsuit by the state of Idaho and Boise Cascade
Corporation. The U.S. Court
of Appeals in San Francisco will decide whether to uphold the injunction
in an October 15th hearing.
Democrats
Urge Bush to Listen to Forest Preservation Advocates
Norton Designates Dump a
National Historic Landmark
While
many were still trying to digest why Secretary of the Interior, Gale
Norton, would designate the Fresno Sanitary Landfill as one of President
Bush’s first 15 National Historic landmarks, reporters uncovered that
the dump had a more interesting problem.
Since 1989, it was listed as a Superfund site that taxpayers have
spent $38 million trying to clean it up.
Apparently unaware of the dump’s already infamous reputation,
the Secretary recommended the site as the oldest true sanitary landfill
in the United States, and praised the dump for being the first to use
the trench method of disposal and compaction.
According to California health officials, methane gas and vinyl
chloride from the landfill had contaminated groundwater in surrounding
areas, which led to its Superfund designation.
Norton’s aides have indicated that the dump might be removed
from the administration’s list.
Norton's
'Historic' Dump May Haunt Her