November, 24 2008, 02:31pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Kristen Boyles, Earthjustice: 206.343.7340 x33Â /Â
Shawn Cantrell, Seattle Audubon Society: 206.359.1363Â /Â
Ivan Maluski, Sierra Club: 503-238-0442, x304Â /Â
Steve Holmer, American Bird Conservancy: 202.234.7181 x216Â /Â
Dr. Dominick DellaSala, NCCSP: 541.482.4459 x302Â /Â
Nina Carter, National Audubon Society: 360.789.0792Â /Â
Noah Greenwald, Center for Biological Diversity: 503.484.7495Â /Â
Bob Sallinger, Audubon Society of Portland: 503.292.6855Â /Â
Randi Spivak, American Lands: 202.547.9029Â /Â
Conservation Groups Move to Rebuild Spotted Owl Population and Protect Old-Growth Forests
Effort begun to reverse weak habitat protection and flawed recovery plan in Pacific Northwest
WASHINGTON
Conservation groups challenged inadequate protections for northern
spotted owls today in federal district court in Washington, D.C. The
groups asked the court for permission to intervene in an ongoing timber
industry lawsuit which is aimed at weakening owl protections in order
to log more western mature and old-growth forests.
The conservation groups say the Bush administration violated the
Endangered Species Act when it slashed the amount of forest protected
as critical habitat for the owls by about 1.6 million acres. The Bush
administration reduced protected habitat in spite of warnings from
scientists that spotted owl populations have been declining by 4
percent a year for the past 15 years. Much of the decline in owl
populations is due to the logging of mature and old-growth forests
needed by owls to survive.
The Bush administration justified reducing owl critical habitat on the
basis of a scientifically discredited plan to recover owls, which the
conservation groups are also challenging. This is part of an overall
trend of political interference in science decisions by the
Administration, with dozens of cases currently under investigation.
"The critical habitat reduction and unscientific recovery plan ignore
years of scientific study and public opinion finding our old-growth
forests need to be protected," said Kristen Boyles, an attorney with
Earthjustice representing 18 national and regional conservation
organizations in the legal action. "We need to reverse these actions
and restore scientifically based protection for Pacific Northwest
wildlife and natural areas."
"We are pressing for a more sensible approach to managing Northwest
forests," said Shawn Cantrell, Executive Director with Seattle Audubon.
"Protecting mature and old-growth forests is about owls and more -- it
is key to protecting rivers and streams, drinking water, and outdoor
recreation, a major economic contributor for local communities across
the region."
The Fish and Wildlife Service listed northern spotted owls as a
threatened species in 1990 and originally protected its critical
habitat in 1992. Only 15-20 percent of the original old-growth forests
remain throughout the Pacific Northwest. In addition to providing
critical habitat for spotted owls, salmon, steelhead and other species,
mature and old growth forests are important sources of clean water and
help reduce global warming.
A copy of the request to intervene and complaint are available here.
Intervention motion:
https://www.earthjustice.org/library/legal_docs/owlintervenemotion112408.pdf
Complaint:
https://www.earthjustice.org/library/legal_docs/owlcomplaint112408.pdf
LATEST NEWS
Democrats to Biden: 'Reject Willow Now and Protect the Arctic'
"It would be a victory for Big Oil and a huge step backwards on climate," warned Rep. Ro Khanna, who co-signed the letter.
Mar 04, 2023
Nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers from the U.S. Senate and House—as well as independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont—have written to President Joe Biden imploring him to put the last nail in the coffin of an "ill-conceived and misguided" oil and gas drilling project in Alaska that experts say would destroy the president's climate legacy if approved in any form.
Led by Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, and Sen. Ed Markey(D-Mass.), Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, the letter urges Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to reject final approval of the 30-year ConocoPhillips' Willow Project in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve.
"No version of the Willow [Master Development Plan (MDP)] is consistent with your commitments to combat the climate crisis and promote environmental justice, especially as reflected in the Inflation Reduction Act, historic legislation on which we all collaborated to achieve these crucial goals," the letter states.
"If allowed to proceed," the lawmakers argue, the Willow project "would pose a significant threat to U.S. progress on climate issues," citing estimates that the project could unleash upwards of $19.8 billion in climate-related damages.
\u201c.@POTUS\u2014we must stop the Willow project. It is the largest proposed oil development project on federal lands and it threatens our environment, our planet, and our future. Reject Willow now and protect the Arctic.\u201d— Ed Markey(@Ed Markey) 1677878820
The letter comes days after White House officials floated the possibility of a scaled-back Willow Project, but environmentalists have said, as Common Dreamsreported Wednesday, that "no form of this project is OK."
The Burea of Land Management has estimated that even a scaled-back version would emit around 9.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year and Earthjustice, which has fought Willow in court, has warned that the approval request now before the Interior Department "would bring at least 219 wells, 267 miles of pipelines, and 30 miles of roads to a vast public lands area in Alaska's Western Arctic, permanently altering a globally significant and ecologically rich landscape."
\u201cThe Willow Project, a massive new drilling proposal in Alaska, would devastate local wildlife and lock us into decades of dirty energy. \n\nHere are two easy ways to tell the Biden Admin to #StopWilliow:\n\n1/ Sign @NRDC's petition here: https://t.co/s0FjtCHc9n\u201d— Julia Louis-Dreyfus (@Julia Louis-Dreyfus) 1677868714
In their letter, the lawmakers tell Biden and Haaland that the only course of action should be "no action," following the release of the final supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) on the project earlier this year. According to the letter:
The final SEIS includes a preferred alternative that would defer one drill site and require additional analysis for another, but we fear that the Willow MDP is intended to serve as an infrastructure hub that anchors a decades-long push towards increased drilling in the Western Arctic. Climate damage is unlikely to stop with the first phase of the Willow project; your Administration needs to draw the line now.
In a separate letter on Friday, the grassroots advocacy group Progressive Democrats of America also urged Biden to recognize the historic and legacy-building opportunity in rejecting the Willow project completely.
"We appeal to what is most honest, wise, and most courageous in you," states the group's letter, which was signed by leaders and members of PDA chapters nationwide. "To the elder in you. To the grandfather in you. Do not gamble with our lives and with the lives of generations yet unborn. Reject the Willow Oil Project."
"To the elder in you. To the grandfather in you. Do not gamble with our lives and with the lives of generations yet unborn. Reject the Willow Oil Project."
Grijalva and Markey were joined in the bicameral letter by Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Rep. Jamaal Bowman(D-N.Y.), Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Rep. Pramila Jayapal(D-Wash.), Rep. Ro Khanna(D-Calif.), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), Sen. Jeffrey A. Merkley (D-Ore.), Rep. Gwen S. Moore (D-Wis.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-N.Y.), Sen. Bernie Sanders(I-Vt.), Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren(D-Mass.), and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
"The Willow Project would lead to over 9 million metric tons of carbon emissions per year," said Rep. Khanna in a social media post Friday night. "It would be a victory for Big Oil and a huge step backwards on climate."
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UN Human Rights Chief Condemns Israeli Minister's​ 'Unfathomable' Threat to Huwara
Noting that communities like Huwara are often targeted by Israeli settlers, Amnesty's regional director urged Israel "to remove all settlements, which are war crimes under international law, and to dismantle its system of apartheid against Palestinians."
Mar 03, 2023
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday called out Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for saying that Huwara, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, "needs to be wiped out" and "the state of Israel should do it."
Smotrich's comment Wednesday came after Israeli settlers on Sunday rampaged through Huwara, killing a 37-year-old Palestinian man—mass violence that came just hours after a Palestinian gunman murdered a pair of Israeli brothers, who were 19 and 21.
While presenting a report on Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine and "the current intensification of violence" to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Türk blasted Smotrich's remark as "an unfathomable statement of incitement to violence and hostility."
"Over half a century of occupation has led to widening dispossession, deepening deprivation, and recurring and severe violations of their rights, including the right to life."
More broadly, Türk lamented that "the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory is a tragedy. A tragedy, above all, for the Palestinian people. Over half a century of occupation has led to widening dispossession, deepening deprivation, and recurring and severe violations of their rights, including the right to life. Nobody could wish to live this way—or imagine that forcing people into conditions of such desperation can lead to an enduring solution."
"2022 saw both the highest number of Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces in the past 17 years, and the highest number of Israelis killed since 2016," he highlighted. "This death toll has further, and sharply, deteriorated in the first weeks of 2023, and in the month that has just ended."
Türk's office found that over the reporting period, Israeli security forces frequently used lethal force, "regardless of the level of threat—and, at times, even as an initial measure, rather than as last resort." Researchers also documented "several cases of apparent extrajudicial, targeted killings" by such forces.
As the rights chief told the council, other key findings in the report include:
- Israeli security forces killed 131 Palestinians—including 65 people who were unarmed and did not engage in violence—and since 2017, fewer than 15% of such killings have been investigated, and fewer than 1% led to an indictment;
- Palestinians killed 13 Israelis—and nine more, including three children, have been killed in two attacks since then;
- Israel increasingly imposes collective punishments such as the blockade of Gaza, which are prohibited by international law, on Palestinians;
- 967 Palestinians are being held in "administrative detention," the highest number in 15 years; and
- There are over 270 illegal Israeli settlements across Palestine.
"The occupation is eating away at the health of both societies, on every level—from childhood to old age, and in every part of life," Türk stressed. "For this violence to end, the occupation must end. On all sides, there are people who know this."
The U.N. leader urged decision-makers in the region and around the world to heed the recommendations of his office's reports "and to step back from the precipice to which increasing extremism and violence have led."
\u201c"The situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a tragedy," @UNHumanRights chief @volker_turk told the @UN Human Rights Council.\n\nFull STATEMENT at #HRC52 \u27a1\ufe0fhttps://t.co/Ay18urzszf\u201d— UN Human Rights Council \ud83d\udccd#HRC52 (@UN Human Rights Council \ud83d\udccd#HRC52) 1677865307
While the settler attack on Huwara drew rare widespread rebuke—including from Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and a pair of conservative Jewish organizations in the United States—the Israeli government's recent shift to the right has stoked fears that violence in the region will only get worse and more frequent.
As Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said earlier this week, "The Israeli settlers burning down Palestinian homes and attacking Palestinians in the street are supported by the Israeli military and the Israeli government."
Heba Morayef, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa, declared Friday that "under Israel's apartheid system, impunity reigns."
"Despite the intensity and scale of Sunday's attacks, which resulted in the killing of one Palestinian and the wounding of nearly 400 more, and despite a rare show of international condemnation of settler violence, Israeli police yesterday released six suspects who were arrested in connection with the attacks," she noted. "Meanwhile two others have been issued with administrative detention orders, which violate international law."
\u201c#Huwwara - Impunity reigns for perpetrators of settler violence. "@amnesty reiterates its call on #Israeli authorities to remove all settlements, which are war crimes under international law, & to dismantle its system of #apartheid against #Palestinians." https://t.co/Smn9VnPjLe\u201d— Khulood Badawi (@Khulood Badawi) 1677863325
Like Miller, Morayef emphasized that "Israeli authorities have long enabled and incited settler attacks against Palestinians, and in some cases soldiers have directly participated."
"State-backed settler violence is endemic in the occupied West Bank," she continued. "Towns and villages like Huwara, which was the epicenter of Sunday's attacks, are frequently targeted as they are surrounded by illegal settlements. For example, in October 2022, settlers broke into a school in Huwara where they smashed windows and beat teachers and pupils; less than two weeks later a café was set on fire, and groups of settlers assaulted Palestinian residents with pipes and rocks."
"Amnesty International reiterates its call on Israeli authorities to remove all settlements, which are war crimes under international law, and to dismantle its system of apartheid against Palestinians," Morayef added. "Apartheid is a crime against humanity and violence against civilians will continue for as long as it is in place."
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Rail Workers Warn Safety Bill Loopholes Are Big Enough to 'Run a Freight Train Through'
"If the language is not precise, the Class 1 railroads will avoid the scope of the law without violating the law, yet again putting the safety of our members and American communities into harm's way," said one union leader.
Mar 03, 2023
Amid heightened national focus on railway safety in the wake of the East Palestine, Ohio disaster and other recent accidents, one railroad workers' union warned Friday that, while welcome, a bipartisan rail safety bill has "loopholes big enough to operate a 7,000-foot train through."
The Railway Safety Act of 2023—introduced earlier this week by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), John Fetterman(D-Pa.), and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)—is meant to "prevent future train disasters like the derailment that devastated East Palestine."
The legislation would impose limits on freight train lengths—which in some cases currently exceed three miles. The measure was introduced a day after Democratic U.S. Reps. Ro Khanna(D-Calif.) and Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) put forth a billthat would require the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to impose stricter regulations on trains carrying hazardous materials.
"We welcome greater federal oversight and a crackdown on railroads that seem all too willing to trade safety for higher profits," Eddie Hall, national president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), said in a statement.
\u201cWith loopholes big enough to operate a 7,000\u2019 train through, this legislation essentially codifies a path to single person crews on many if not a majority of trains.\u201d— Railroad Workers United \u270a (@Railroad Workers United \u270a) 1677874220
While BLET appreciates that Brown's bill includes language stipulating that "no freight train may be operated without a two-person crew consisting of at least one appropriately qualified and certified conductor and one appropriately qualified and certified locomotive engineer," the union warned of "significant" exceptions in the proposal. For example, the bill as currently written would only apply to operations on long-distance freight trains.
BLET said it "will seek changes to the wording of the two-person crew language to tighten the loopholes."
"If the language is not precise, the Class 1 railroads will avoid the scope of the law without violating the law, yet again putting the safety of our members and American communities into harm's way," Hall argued. "You can run a freight train through the loopholes."
In 2015, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration finalized a rule requiring the installation of electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) braking systems on trains carrying hazardous materials.
Corporate lobbyists subsequently pressed the Obama administration to water down the rule, which was repealed entirely during the Trump administration's regulatory rollback spree.
\u201cThe proposed amendments are opposed by 5 major rail unions:\n\n@BLET (a member of @Teamsters)\n\nBrotherhood Railway Carmen Division (BRC/TCU/IAM) - a division of Transportation Communications Union (@TCUnionHQ)\n\n@smartunionworks \n\n(Others listed are not on Twitter)\u201d— Salem Snow (@Salem Snow) 1677870953
Current U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieghas not made reinstating the ECP rule a priority. Instead, DOT regulators are considering a proposal backed by the Association of American Railroads, an industry lobby group, that would reduce brake testing. Five major rail unions including BLET strongly oppose the proposal.
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