Excellent quote in post 1. We need to tally these!
Posted on 03/19/2007 6:51:24 PM PDT by pissant
Environmentalists and other opponents of the Pentagon's plans to roll back major environmental laws were dealt a serious blow last week when the House of Representatives passed the 2004 Defense Authorization Act.
After months in a congressional conference committee, the final version of the bill includes important changes to the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act that favor military training over environmental conservation.
If approved by the Senate and signed by President Bush, the law would have an immediate and lasting effect on Camp Pendleton and other bases where endangered species have settled and sometimes retreated to survive the rampant development and pollution in the surrounding civilian communities.
"Everyone's kind of in shock right now," said Nick Guroff, California Representative for the National Environmental Trust. "They're not thinking of the repercussions of their actions. We're going to see the effects of this down the road in lost habitat and loss of important species."
The bill is expected to move to a full Senate vote by Monday, according to Rep. Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee who championed the changes to environmental laws contained in the bill.
Camp Pendleton became the battleground for the bill as the Pentagon used restrictions placed on training there as examples to make its case.
Expected by some to be elated with the passage of the bill in the House, Camp Pendleton officials were mum.
"It would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time," said 1st Lt. Sarah Kansteiner. "If they say 'these are the new rules,' then we'd say aye, aye sir,' and carry out the job."
The bill would amend the Endangered Species Act so that environmental and other citizens groups cannot sue the military for destroying habitat critical to endangered and threatened species. It would eliminate areas designated "critical habitat" by the Department of Fish and Wildlife in favor of closely monitored conservation plans developed by the military.
It also would give the military more leeway to disturb or harm marine life, and it would block environmentalists from suing to halt the military exercises and activities that cause the disturbances.
Environmentalists say the bill would shield the military from penalty if it breaks the rules and amounts to a system where the Pentagon only has to say "trust us."
Not so, says Hunter, who said environmental groups go overboard trying to protect endangered rodents and songbirds.
Hunter calls the environmental portion of the bill the "Freedom to Train Act," and said it strikes a reasonable balance between nature and national security.
"We went at this with the viewpoint that the most important endangered creature is the 19-year-old Marine rifleman," he said Friday in a telephone interview.
"Now we can say OK ---- we're going to have these 100 acres for a rifle range, and these other hundred acres for habitat," he said. "Now, once we put that into effect, these groups can't then come in to sue to close the rifle range."
He said the changes make military training grounds "lawsuit-proof."
The Pentagon lost out on its bid for exemptions to other environmental regulations, including the Clean Air Act and the Superfund toxic waste laws.
The House bill passed Friday also would require the Defense Department to study how its training affects drinking water and quantify how growth and activities in civilian communities around bases affects military readiness.
The bill was the more radical of the two versions that were considered by Congress.
A softer Senate version of the legislation would have dropped the changes to the Marine Mammal Protection Act and would have exempted the military from critical habitat designations only in cases where the Interior Department approved the exemptions and only if the military's own conservation plans were fully funded and complied with Fish and Wildlife Service standards.
Environmentalists lobbied hard to persuade Congress to adopt the Senate version.
"We had something that was very workable ---- something agreeable to both sides," Guroff said Friday. "Now we've got something a lot worse ---- something that is very much part of a right wing agenda."
Leading up to Friday's vote, some San Diego-area Democrats made an eleventh-hour plea for Hunter to soften his stance.
Reps. Bob Filner, D-Chula Vista, and Susan Davis, D-San Diego, wrote Hunter Wednesday saying the House bill "provides exemptions to laws even where military readiness is unaffected," and that some of the military's basic arguments for exemptions, especially regarding Camp Pendleton, were "grounded in misleading and inaccurate information."
State Sen. Dede Alpert, D-Coronado, San Diego City Council members Donna Frye and Toni Atkins, as well as Del Mar Councilman Henry Abarbanel and Imperial Beach Councilwoman Patricia McCoy also signed the letter.
Neither Davis nor Filner was available for comment Friday.
Just damn, you gotta hand it to the man.
Post number 1 excellent quote PING
p.s. glad I am not the only one for whom preview doesn't always work "Duncan Hunter slpas.. "
Yep. Just give the lad a charisma transplant, and expunge his "conservative" record of voting for congressional pork, and he'd be da man!
oops. slpas = slaps. Knucklehead Pissant.
Hunter's pork is all military and border protection. There is no Hunter Creative Arts Center or Duncan Memorial drives, my friend.
But there is a very effective border fence. My kinda pork.
It's yiddish for slaps!
Bump for Hunter.
It's about time they tell the enviros to stop screwing with military training.
His pork is like every other Congresscritter's pork: it's about sending money to his district, military or not. And some of the pork may seem worthwhile, but you can't call it "fiscal conservatism".
"slpas = slaps. Knucklehead Pissant"
See past dynachrome thread wherein the title referenced "hompsexuality" (most thought it some kind of new perversion)
Yep. Trying to chronicle the many accomplishments of this fine congressman. No more do I want to hear how he's "just a blowhard congressman". He's done more for this country than 98% of politicians have ever thought of doing.
You are right. But I at least give him kudos for constitutional pork. Not some damn Diversity Studies Center. And he is a tax cutter to the core.
Well there is humpsexuality, is there not? LOL
Between you, me and the fence post, I'd have no problem at all if Hunter became President. Unfortunately, wishing won't make it so, and right now the guy kinda reminds me of Bob Dole (i.e. war hero, reliable mainstream Conservative guy), without Bob's charisma and sense of humor.
To each is own. Hunter is one of the most biting, non PC guys to be in Congress in a long time. And his quotes are better than Dole's. You just don't hear much of him...yet.
Yes!! Hunter says it like it ought to be said - I love this guy!
GO DUNCAN HUNTER!!!
He consistenly fights the good fight w/o worrying about appearing unkind to libs.
Excellent quote in post 1. We need to tally these!
It's a GD disgrace this took so long to pass. I hope the folks at Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune can train, fire artillery, etc. without worrying about that f(*&ing woodpecker.
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