Liberty
Matters News Service
October 30, 2003
Senate Approves Leavitt As EPA Head
Utah Governor Mike Leavitt was confirmed Tuesday by the
Senate as the next EPA head, 88-8, despite opposition from certain Senate
Democrats. Former Republican Jim Jeffords from Vermont, the ranking member of
the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, led a boycott of the
confirmation vote that left Republicans without a quorum and forced a two-week
delay. When the Democrats finally returned to business, Leavitt was approved,
16-2. Frank Lautenberg, (D-NJ), expressed his concern that Governor Leavitt's
environmental credentials left much to be desired. Incredibly, he asked, "do we
really want to return to the days when rivers caught fire and people literally
keeled over from air pollution?" Sen. Clinton (D-NY) dropped her opposition
after receiving assurances from the White House Council on Environmental
Quality that the administration would further investigate her concerns about
EPA's role in the World Trade Center cleanup. Democrats saw the writing on the
wall and realized they didn't have the votes to stop the nomination and Leavitt
sailed to an easy victory. Leavitt will be sworn in November 6, a day after
resigning as Utah governor.
Leavitt Confirmed as EPA
Head
Smart Growth Not Growing
Governor James E. McGreevey's
plan to enact the nation's most restrictive building constraints has slammed
head-on into a brick wall in New Jersey. During his State-of-the State address
last January, he promised to gouge "those who profit from the strip malls and
McMansions." But the New Jersey Builders' Association took those as fighting
words and launched a counter attack that has the state legislature reluctant to
enact the governor's draconian "Blueprint for Intelligent Growth." The New
Jersey experience is becoming more common as pockets of resistance are popping
up all over the country. Opponents of Loudoun County Virginia's strict growth
control measures have filed more than 200 lawsuits challenging development
restrictions. The new zoning limited development to one house per 10 acres and
imposed impact fees that made it all but impossible for builders to construct
anything other than expensive mansions. As a result, there is a shortage of
affordable housing in the county which critics say deprive ordinary citizens of
the opportunity to achieve the dream of home ownership. In fact, a Montgomery
Journal (MD) editorial recently posed this question. "If sprawl allows more
people to own homes, keeps housing prices down for middle-and lower-income
buyers, and lowers transportation costs and time spent in traffic, why are we
against it?" Other states are waking up to the financial and human consequences
of smart growth, too. California, Colorado, North and South Carolina, Michigan,
Oregon and Utah are all seeking to overturn previously enacted growth
restrictions in order to encourage development to bolster their sagging tax
bases. C. Kenneth Orski, writing for the Urban Mobility Corporation, concludes;
"The 'smart growth' movement is likely to go down in history as yet another
planning ideology that has foundered for lack of a realistic understanding of
demographics, market forces and consumer preferences."
The Backlash
Against Smart Growth
War on Sprawl in New Jersey Hits a Wall
Healthy Forests Act Too Late for Many
Senate obstructionists
continue to mount opposition to adoption of the Healthy Forests Restoration
Act, even as thousands of acres of forests in California and four other western
states continue to burn out of control. California's senior senator, Diane
Feinstein (D) insisted upon amending the bill to require 50 percent of the
planned thinning operations be carried out near communities and protect
old-growth timber (what's left of it), a provision demanded by environmental
groups. The Bush administration favors the House version, passed last May, that
would allow thinning efforts in back country forests, as well as near
communities, but the well-connected, wealthy environmental groups protested it
was only a ruse to allow timber companies to cut valuable large diameter trees
for profit. They also complained that a provision to streamline administrative
appeals of timber sales would deny citizens the right to challenge Forest
Service decisions, although few citizens have the time or money required to
file weekly lawsuits against the Forest Service like the enviros do. So far,
Republicans have managed to defeat the worst of the amendments and sources say
a vote will probably be taken late Thursday afternoon.
Brush With Disaster
McCain, Lieberman Like Kyoto
This week, the Senate is
scheduled to debate S. 139, the Kyoto-like McCain/Lieberman bill named the
Climate Stewardship Act that would require emissions of carbon dioxide and
other so-called green-house gases to be reduced to 2000 levels by 2010.
Implementation of the measure would cost the United States over $1.3 trillion
by 2025, according to analysis by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The Senate resoundingly rejected the Kyoto Protocol (95-0) in 1997 on the basis
it would be harmful to the U.S. economy. Russia expressed similar concerns when
it refused to sign on to Kyoto at the recent World Climate Change Conference in
Moscow. Dr. Andrei Illarionov, President Putin's economic adviser, said,
"Considering that the Kyoto Protocol is restricting economic growth…it
means dooming the country to poverty, backwardness and weakness." The Senate
should end the debate and delegate the Climate Stewardship Act to the ash heap
of history along with the Kyoto Protocol.
Flawed Environmental Policy
Courage Against the
'Consensus'