Liberty
Matters News Service
June 25, 2003
EPA Global Warming Report Draws Criticism
An
article appearing in the New York Times accuses the White House of deliberately
editing out sections of an EPA report on global warming that refers to risks
from rising global temperatures. A synopsis of the Times piece by The National
Center For Public Policy Research reveals that it was written in response to
complaints from EPA staffers that the report does not conclude there is
scientific consensus on global warming. EPA Chief Christie Todd Whitman said
"she is 'perfectly comfortable' with the compromise and the report" according
to the Times. Bill O'Reilly of Fox News has made a big deal out of the story,
saying in his June 19 broadcast that the White House tried to sanitize a
government study on global warming. O'Reilly reported that rewriting the report
amounted to censorship, when, in fact, it was merely a clarification of the
language. The Boston Globe's editorial writer Derrick Jackson demonstrated his
loony bias when he claimed that the White House's participation in an
Administration report amounted to "frying climate change," which led him to the
conclusion that "Bush cooked the books for war [against Iraq]." And this is
what passes for journalism these days.
The EPA Global Warming
Report
Silvery Minnow Ruling Prompts Calls for ESA Reform
The Tenth Circuit's ruling
that the Rio Grande silvery minnow has water rights, superceding those of
humans, has New Mexico politicians demanding significant changes in the
Endangered Species Act. Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman, Sen.
Pete Dominici (R-NM), told the Senate that the Court's decision "favors fish
over people." "I believe we can amend this law to better protect struggling
species while still allowing people access to the resources we need to
survive," and says he will prepare legislation to attach to the next bill
moving out of the Senate. Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM) is singing a
different tune from last week's bombast of calling in the "God Squad" to rule
on the minnow case. Now he says, "I don't think we can amend or change the
Endangered Species Act. I don't think there's the votes or the strength or the
effort to change it." (Read "guts"). Environmental groups say they see
Domenici's legislation as a serious threat to the ESA. Brock Evans of the
Endangered Species Coalition calls 2003 the most dangerous year ever for
endangered species: "There are at least six different pending bills not
counting all of the riders to other pieces of legislation that would repeal the
act." A search reveals not one bill to repeal the Act. Mr. Brock and others of
his ilk must see a super fundraising issue here.
Domenici Move In Minnow Case
A Threat To ESA
Domenici Says Ruling 'Favors
Fish Over People'
Ohio Town Invokes Eminent Domain for Profit
The city fathers of Lakewood,
Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, are planning to use the power of eminent domain to
raze 50 homes and four apartment complexes to make way for a $151 million
shopping center. Lakewood joins a growing number of municipalities that have
seized upon eminent domain as a convenient means to replace small businesses
and homeowners with higher tax producing private businesses. However, the town
has run into a snag with its revenue-enhancing scheme. The Institute of Justice
has offered to help the homeowners fight city hall and has $6 million to
finance the job. "Everybody's home would produce more tax revenue as an office
building," said Dana Berliner, senior attorney at the Institute. Gideon Kanner,
professor emeritus at Loyola law School in Los Angeles calls the practice "a
racket." "Towns are misusing the power of eminent domain in an effort to raise
money, which they should properly be doing with taxes." Edward Hill, Lakewood
resident and professor at Cleveland State University's Levin College of Urban
Affairs believes some homeowners must be sacrificed to save the town.
In Ohio, A Test For
Eminent Domain
New York Times' View of States' Rights
The New York Times frets that
Interior Secretary Gale Norton is plotting to return control of public lands to
the states in which they are located and, gasp, open them to a "wider range of
commercial and recreational uses." The Times reports that Secretary Norton is
maneuvering to change public policy in a manner "more threatening than anything
attempted by James Watt, Ronald Reagan's reactionary interior secretary." Not
only did Interior recently release 2.6 million Utah acres from Clinton's de
facto wilderness designation, the Secretary refuses "to seek and recommend to
Congress additional lands for wilderness protection." The Times continues to
distort the truth when it reports that "a deal" between Utah Governor Mike
Leavitt and Secretary Norton, to maintain "rights-of-way" over federal lands,
is a scheme to pave the way to turn primitive roads into superhighways to
promote development and "pre-empt future wilderness designation." According to
the Times, Democrats believe the RS2477 provision "tilts the rules in favor of
the states while denying the public and Congress any meaningful say in the
outcomes." Colorado is also asking Interior for a Memorandum of Understanding
allowing the state to gain jurisdiction over public roads that cross public
lands, a move that has the Times and its preservationist friends worrying that
hiking trails will be turned into paved highways.
Gale Norton Rouses
Congress
Appeal
Targets Wilds Deal
An Interior Department
Record Of Success