Sneakin through the back door

This week, the US Senate will debate and likely pass HR 4200 - the so-called Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act. This will likely happen without much fanfare or hubbub.

However, in reviewing this bill, which I will affectionately term FERRA (as in, do you republicans mistake us FERRA idiot), I found that it is a microcosm of the methods and madness of king george the junior and his band of eco-butchers.

FERRA, in a nutshell: What's at Stake
Our public forests, when left to their natural cycles, are a thriving and diverse home to an endless array of wildlife, fish, and spectacular old growth stands. We treasure these roadless wildlands as places to camp, hunt, fish and hike, and we depend on these places for fresh water and clean air.
Almost 600 renowned scientists have stated that after events such as wildfire, nature knows best about how forests should recover.
View a copy of a letter from scientists here [pdf].
H.R. 4200 would permit aggressive salvage logging operations on federal lands that would degrade valuable fish and wildlife habitats. Logging after fires and other natural disturbances can be harmful to recovering forests, damaging water quality and the fish and wildlife that depend on them.
What's the Threat?
HR 4200 will change the way our public forests are managed. These national forests should be managed to benefit all of us -- for clean water, wildlife habitat, and recreation for our families. Instead, HR 4200 would make it easier to implement harmful logging after fires and other natural events. Science clearly shows that forests recover best after such events when left alone, and that logging and other related activities hurt, rather help, this recovery.
The legislation would also exclude the public from decisions regarding the management of our public lands, would remove protections for roadless areas and old growth forests, and would waive the Endangered Species Act for logging on an unlimited number of acres across the country.
Unfortunately, HR 4200 passed the House in May. However, with your help, the vote margin was narrow, indicating the controversy surrounding this bill. It is critically important that we now stop this legislation in the Senate.
Finally, promising schools that they will receive funding from HR 4200 is insincere. Based on a Congressional Budget Office's Cost Estimate, it is estimated that HR 4200 may generate approximately $3.4 million per year. This is negligible compared to what these schools require; for example, rural schools received a total of $394 million last year. The proponents of HR4200 are attempting to gain more support by creating an unfair link between logging our forests and funding rural schools. In the end, they can neither ensure that HR 4200 will generate nor meet anywhere close to the needs of rural schools.

Consider:

1. FERRA allows the department secretary (interior, agriculture) to bypass the time-honored public input process of NEPA (you know, the process that allows americans to decide what america should do about the land called america) by "Deem[ing] specified activities concerning the preparation and use of pre-approved management practices required by this Act and the use of emergency procedures provided under this Act to satisfy certain requirements of the Act and its implementing regulations." In other words, the secretary can declare NEPA compliance "because I said so, right here."

2. Ditto #1, except insert Endangered Species Act. We complied with the ESA, because right here we said we complied with ESA.

3. The title suggests the repubs are taking action which protects, even promotes, the environment. This is a common bit of trickery in which this administration engages ("Healthy Forests Act", "Clean Skies Initiative", etc. ad naseum). However, anyone paying attention knows better. One could write a book on this one; I'll probably blog the living crap out of it, soon.

4. They are considering attaching the legislation to un-related bills concerning school funding (Secure Rural School and Self Determination Act) and defense appropriations. Again, this is a tactic this administration uses regularly (i.e., attaching legislation which opened ANWR to oil drilling to legislation funding troop supplies in Iraq. The strategy is obvious: make the offensive bill part of other legislation which is important, even crucial.

With the ANWR bill, it was obvious: if you vote against opening this unparalleled and pristine wilderness area to unnecessary and damaging oil exploration activities, you obviously don't support the troops and must hate America. Hell, you might even be a terrorist. Somebody put a wiretap on that guy's phone.

With FERRA, to oppose the damaging legislation, you must oppose school funding and protecting America. You're not only a bad american, you're a bad person in general. Go to hell, go directly to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

5. Finally, once again, conservatives are using legislation to strip science and research from environmental protection. Part of the problem with being a conservative and being anti-environment is that science is not on their side. The solution? Strip science from the process and paint environmental protection as anti-people. (See my recent post on king george the lesser closing EPA libraries). Rocket Science, by rocket scientists.

This legislation once again allows the departments/agencies at issue to short-circuit the research and scientific process, and move directly to (presumably no-bid) logging sales, in the name of ...

6. ... National Security and Emergency Response.
Ah, the usual. Fear, fear, fear, the sky is falling, terrorists are hiding out in your closet, better vote for war-mongers and throw all caution to the wind. Respond now, think later (or preferably, never). Fear everyone, and everything. Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out. Waive all the rules, give up all your rights. Those paying attention see this time and time again with this band of knee-jerkers.

This time, they're using national disaster (which, of course, they will define for us). Remember how well junior and company responsed to Hurricane Katrina? Yeah, that should promote confidence in their ability to respond to national disaster. With FERRA, come "national disaster" time (remember, this is a group of green-haters who are well funded by oil companies, timber interests and extreme anti-regulatory types), which they will define, they get to bypass NEPA and ESA and go directly to liquidating our national forests.

Can you see it now? Joe Timber, having contributed substantially to repubs over the years, may have to shut down his timber operations because his company has overlogged a certain area. So he picks up the phone and calls in a marker to his friend Junior or Dick Cheney. They declare the "disaster", with no public input (hell, they hardly even have to "alert" the public), waive all applicable environmental laws, sign the no-bid contract, and away they go.


Apparently, we WILL get fooled again. And again. And again.

Dear god, let these next 2 years pass quickly. And would someone mind waking America up and closing the back door? We seem to have ECO-TERRORISTS sneaking through it.