Wisconsin prides itself as being an environmentally friendly state, with citizens who enjoy and respect their natural surroundings. In fact, Wisconsin's own former governor and senator Gaylord Nelson organized the first Earth Day events in 1970. Recognized as both a great politician, and an exceptional steward of the land, Sen. Nelson embodies the Wisconsin environmental ideology. However, an increasing amount of anti-environmental legislation by both the federal and state government necessitate that Earth Day be used as a day to highlight recent environmental rollbacks and re-energize ourselves as Wisconsin citizens around the issues that affect our air, our water, and our land.
The Bush administration makes it apparent that demands of big business matter more than environmental health. The administration creates a believable fa??ade by proposing pro-industry bills with pro-environment titles. The Healthy Forest Initiative and the Clear Skies Act illustrate this idea.
The 'Healthy Forest Initiative' is supposed to prevent forest fires by thinning heavily forested areas. On the surface, the bill sounds like an adequate solution for limiting the forest fires that ravaged more than six million acres of the western US in 2002. However, the initiative limits environmental analysis as well as public participation, basically leaving the critical task of protecting wilderness areas up to the logging industry. Instead of focusing efforts on edges of heavily forested areas, where risks are high for housing communities, the initiative allows logging in the heart of heavily forested areas where old growth forest still exists. This bill seriously affects the health of most of the only remaining old growth forest left in the continental United States.
Clear Skies is another clever but inaccurately named pro-industry act. It completely guts the standards of the Clean Air Act by allowing companies to wait 15 more years to install effective pollution-control equipment. As a result, dangerous levels of toxic pollutants including more than 450,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, 1 million tons of sulfur dioxide and 9.5 tons of mercury will be added to current pollution.
The Bush Administration also has lowered and in some cases eliminated New Source Review Requirements in an effort to increase nationwide energy output. According to the new rules, plants are allowed to use their two worst polluting years as a baseline for future emissions. This rule change would allow for 50 percent of nationwide plants to expand without having to perform vital cleaning measures.
Taking a lesson from the federal administration, the Wisconsin legislature has also taken a liking to inaccurately named anti-environmental legislation. The so-called Jobs Creation Act that was recently passed by the Wisconsin legislature and signed by Gov. Jim Doyle effectively removes environmental controls for new and expanding businesses. Cutting back on key environmental protections, the bill not only weakens previous air pollution limits, but also prevents the Department of Natural Resources from setting standards higher than the federal government. Created by a conservative task force behind closed doors and rushed through legislature, it is a blatantly anti-conservation bill. The Jobs Creation Act, enacted in record time with stunningly little public input, has little to do with creating jobs.
Bogus bill names and a process that no longer involves citizen input make it perfectly clear that our natural resources are in jeopardy. Considering 2004 is an election year, the best way to help the environment is to vote pro-environment in the upcoming election. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., continuously votes in favor of the environment. His 96 percent pro-environment record has earned him an endorsement by the League of Conservation Voters, the key political environmental group in the nation. In order to protect America's pristine natural areas, to limit power plant pollution and further the quest for renewable energy, I will be voting for John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election.
In response to national and statewide attacks on the environment, the Wisconsin Earth Day Coalition 2004 plans to engage 600 volunteers from six communities across the state. Volunteers will be a part of a massive literature drop to educate 40,000 households about policy rollbacks harming the health of citizens and the environment. Wisconsin Earth Day 2004 is the largest Earth Day event Wisconsin has seen in years. Considering the serious threats to our natural surroundings, educating the public about the environment is a great honor to Gaylord Nelson's novel ideas and Wisconsin's natural history.
