some wins...
Jun. 17th, 2008 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelidonLet no one say that elections don't change anything. Here is a case where one lone Republican, operating in a clearly undemocratic fashion, managed to hold up and block wilderness-preserving legislation for years, until he finally lost his seat. Good riddance, asshole. And good for Congress for doing something right. Credit where credit is due, even if it's all too rare an occurrence. No, this doesn't make up for the oil and gas leases and other federal land giveaways for development in all the years prior to the change of control in the Congress, but it's something, and hopefully, it's just a start.
http://www.truthout.org/article/congress-pushes-keep-land-untamed
excerpt:
Congress Pushes to Keep Land Untamed (subhed: Bills could add millions of acres of wilderness.)
Monday 16 June 2008
by: Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post
(full text here)
Index, Washington - With little fanfare, Congress has embarked on a push to protect as many as a dozen pristine areas this year in places ranging from the glacier-fed streams of the Wild Sky Wilderness here to West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest. By the end of the year, conservation experts predict, this drive could place as much as 2 million acres of unspoiled land under federal control, a total that rivals the wilderness acreage set aside by Congress over the previous five years.
A confluence of factors is driving this wilderness renaissance: the shift in Congress from Republican to Democratic control; environmentalists' decision to take a more pragmatic approach in which they enlist local support for their proposals by making concessions to opposing interests; and some communities' recognition that intact ecosystems can often offer a greater economic payoff than extractive industries.
[snip]
In recent weeks the House has passed six wilderness bills, including Wild Sky, that would protect more than 500,000 acres. The Senate Energy and Resources Committee has approved another four wilderness bills and the panel could pass more, an effort that Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said was aimed at addressing "some pent-up demand for bills that had been in the works for most of the last decade."
Although several factors have spurred the flurry of legislative activity, much of it stems from the fact that former House Resources Committee chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) - who fiercely opposed designating any new wilderness - lost his seat in 2006. As many as a dozen bills are expected to pass this year, and another seven have been introduced recently.
http://www.truthout.org/article/congress-pushes-keep-land-untamed
excerpt:
Congress Pushes to Keep Land Untamed (subhed: Bills could add millions of acres of wilderness.)
Monday 16 June 2008
by: Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post
(full text here)
Index, Washington - With little fanfare, Congress has embarked on a push to protect as many as a dozen pristine areas this year in places ranging from the glacier-fed streams of the Wild Sky Wilderness here to West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest. By the end of the year, conservation experts predict, this drive could place as much as 2 million acres of unspoiled land under federal control, a total that rivals the wilderness acreage set aside by Congress over the previous five years.
A confluence of factors is driving this wilderness renaissance: the shift in Congress from Republican to Democratic control; environmentalists' decision to take a more pragmatic approach in which they enlist local support for their proposals by making concessions to opposing interests; and some communities' recognition that intact ecosystems can often offer a greater economic payoff than extractive industries.
[snip]
In recent weeks the House has passed six wilderness bills, including Wild Sky, that would protect more than 500,000 acres. The Senate Energy and Resources Committee has approved another four wilderness bills and the panel could pass more, an effort that Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said was aimed at addressing "some pent-up demand for bills that had been in the works for most of the last decade."
Although several factors have spurred the flurry of legislative activity, much of it stems from the fact that former House Resources Committee chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) - who fiercely opposed designating any new wilderness - lost his seat in 2006. As many as a dozen bills are expected to pass this year, and another seven have been introduced recently.
