Complete list of press releases

Today is the deadline for companies to submit “Risk Management Plan” data on accident scenarios to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as required by the 1990 Clean Air Act. Later this summer, the public will be able to obtain data submitted by tens of thousands of facilities using hazardous chemicals; however, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today urged the public, the media, and researchers to immediately request RMP data from nearby facilities and to urge plants to post the data on company websites.

The data, which includes both worst-case and “more likely” accident scenarios, describes how large an area could be affected by a chemical accident, and the danger to nearby schools, hospitals, and residences. Facilities required to submit the data include chemical plants, refineries, gas processing facilities, drinking water plants, and others. Congress decided to require companies to submit RMP data in response to the December 1984 chemical accident at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, which killed thousands and injured hundreds of thousands. In addition to accident scenarios, RMPs include information on most recent safety inspections, five-year accident histories, prevention strategies undertaken, and emergency response information.

“The public has a right to information about how a chemical accident could affect them or their families,” said Lois Epstein, an EDF engineer. “The public can use these data to engage in dialogues with plant managers about how to reduce or eliminate accident hazards. The law already has had beneficial impacts, with some plants reducing or eliminating their accident hazards in order to avoid reporting.”

Epstein added that, “Plants should design for safety by using safer materials and technologies, while avoiding control systems such as sprinklers and containment, which can fail to protect the public, workers, and property. Reducing process pressures, temperatures, and on-site storage, and using less toxic, less flammable chemicals are the best ways to protect the public.”

Congress and the Clinton Administration still are determining how to release the data to the public, as required by the Clean Air Act. Some in industry and government have argued the data might be used by terrorists; however, the data do not contain information on how to create an accident. Instead, RMP data provide important information on the health and environmental consequences of an accident.

“This law encourages companies to reduce accident hazards, which will make our communities safer,” said EDF legislative director Steve Cochran. “Congress should not delay the public disclosure requirements of the Clean Air Act.”

The US Fish and Wildlife Service today released its long-awaited national policy on endangered species “safe harbor” agreements. Safe harbor agreements allow private landowners to create, restore, or enhance habitat on their property for endangered species without incurring regulatory restrictions on the use of their property. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which was instrumental in establishing the nation’s first safe harbor program in North Carolina, calls safe harbor agreements “an innovative new tool to make landowners partners in conserving rare species.”

“We hope that the new policy will encourage even more landowners to join those already helping conserve endangered species through these agreements,” said Michael J. Bean, who heads EDF’s wildlife efforts.

The first landowner in the nation to sign a safe harbor agreement was the Pinehurst Resort and Country Club in Pinehurst, North Carolina. One of Pinehurst’s premier golf courses is the site of this week’s US Open golf tournament. Earlier this year, endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers began nesting at a Pinehurst Club site that had been restored for this rare bird under the Club’s safe harbor agreement. “The fact that an endangered species is now breeding at a safe harbor site is proof that this novel approach really works,” said Robert Bonnie, an EDF economist.

Safe harbor programs have been initiated in North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas and cover over one million acres of private lands. Under these programs landowners are restoring habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker, Attwater’s prairie-chicken and the northern aplomado falcon. These are among the rarest birds in North America.

Today the Environmental Defense Fund unveiled its own “virtual library” of information about incentives for landowners to conserve endangered species. A comprehensive handbook on safe harbor agreements, intended to help landowners understand how they work, appears on EDF’s website at www.environmentaldefense.org/documents/929_handbook.pdf. The EDF library also provides a host of other materials about endangered species safe harbor agreements, including the new policy, related state laws, sample landowner agreements, and commentaries about the new safe harbor tool. Eventually, the website will be expanded to include information about other economic and regulatory incentives for landowners to conserve endangered species on their property.

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today criticized the failure of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to control shark fin amputations in the Pacific. Hawaii-based fishing vessels commonly catch blue sharks accidentally while fishing for tuna and swordfish. Crew members amputate the fins of about 95% of these sharks and throw the mutilated carcasses back into the water.

NMFS on Monday released the executive summary of a report on shark finning, which fails to adequately address blue shark deaths. The Western Pacific Fisheries Management Council will consider the report and related management actions at their June 17 meeting at the Ala Moana Hotel in Honolulu.

While some claim that blue sharks are more prolific breeders than other sharks, there are no quantitative studies of the impacts of this indiscriminate and wasteful killing on the sustainability of the blue shark population. “Allowing fishermen to continue killing tens of thousands of sharks a year through finning is irresponsible. NMFS and the Western Pacific Fisheries Management Council should take action immediately to reduce the killing,” said Dr. Rod Fujita, an EDF marine ecologist.

“NMFS does not allow finning in the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean. In addition, the United Nations recently adopted an international plan of action to protect sharks which emphasizes caution until scientists better understand shark ecology,” said Dr. Stephanie Fried, an EDF policy analyst. “Vessel owners use money from the sales of shark fins to subsidize low crew wages. Crews should be able to earn adequate wages without relying on the wasteful practice of finning.”

The executive summary of the NMFS report indicates that crew members of fishing vessels sell the fins upon returning to shore and keep the profits. Shark fin profits amounted to about $1 million in 1998, during which time about 55,000 sharks were killed. Because the shark fins are sold on a cash-only basis, Hawaii does not derive any tax revenue from this trade.

The Environmental Defense Fund, a leading national, NY-based nonprofit organization, represents 300,000 members. EDF links science, economics, and law to create innovative, equitable, and economically viable solutions to today’s environmental problems.

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Arizona Public Service Company (APS) today announced the opening of a new renewable power facility in rural San Juanico, Mexico. The facility is a hybrid renewable, battery and diesel power station that will improve rural electrification in an environmentally-preferable manner in the Baja California Sur region of Mexico. The facility will provide the environmental protection and rural energy development envisioned under the Joint Implementation provisions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“This project demonstrates how environmental protection, reliable electricity and economic development can work together for the good of the global climate. The plant will provide energy in a far less polluting fashion than would have been possible using traditional electricity-generating techniques, and will help curb the growth of air pollution, affecting the health of local citizens,” said Dan Dudek, an EDF senior economist.

The San Juanico facility uses highly efficient US wind turbines and solar panels, with back up power supplied by batteries and diesel generators, providing 24-hour power to citizens in this area of rural Mexico. Previous generating facilities produced power for only a few hours a day. “This project means a dramatic increase in the amount of power for the local area from a plant that will produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a traditional plant of the same capacity,” said Dirk Forrister, EDF’s energy program director. “The San Juanico plant is a powerful example of how developing nations can provide much-needed power for their citizenry while using greener technologies and fewer polluting fossil fuels, which contribute to local smog and global warming.”

The San Juanico project fulfills a commitment APS made under a 1994 agreement with EDF and Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation, when the organizations agreed to work cooperatively to assist others in reducing their contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions.

North Carolina’s more than 3800 open-pit hog waste lagoons are contaminating the state’s drinking water, polluting its air and streams, and threatening the state’s economy according to a report released today by the North Carolina Environmental Defense Fund (NCEDF). The report, North Carolina’s Hog Lagoons: Pitting Pork Waste Against Public Health and Environment, details how the primitive system used to treat the 19 million tons of hog waste produced annually in North Carolina is threatening the state’s economy, public health and environment.

“The state’s moratorium on new hog factories ends in 82 days. We have abundant evidence that the old system of lagoons and sprayfields is damaging public health and the environment. Governor Hunt put forward a compelling and sound plan, but seven weeks later the legislature has not acted. The state cannot afford to wait any longer to address hog operations,” said Dan Whittle, EDF attorney. “North Carolinians want, and deserve, immediate action from the legislature.”

“Atmospheric pollution and runoff resulting from hog operations in eastern North Carolina have substantially increased nitrogen pollution in the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, waters already saturated with more nitrogen than they can handle,” said EDF scientist Dr. Joe Rudek. “These waters are considered among the nation’s premier fishing grounds and an essential draw for North Carolina’s $2 billion coastal tourism industry.”

The report highlights the danger posed by the nearly 550 abandoned lagoons in North Carolina. Abandoned hog waste lagoons often contain sludge laden with high levels of nutrient and heavy metal pollutants that have accumulated over the lifetime of the hog-raising operation. “Hog operators have little incentive to clean up abandoned lagoons because state law sets no time limit for when ‘inactive’ lagoons must be cleaned up and closed,” said Rudek.

NCEDF today joined with the Sierra Club, Conservation Council/NC, NC Wildlife Federation, and the Southern Environmental Law Center in calling on the state legislature to adopt a firm plan to solve hog waste problems before a moratorium on new hog factories ends on September 1, 1999. The coalition endorsed the report’s detailed recommendations to solve the problems caused by hog waste lagoons, including:

• Adoption of permanent environmental and health-based performance standards for new and existing hog operations.
• Extension of the legislature’s moratorium until a plan is adopted and underway to eliminate open-air lagoons and aerial sprayfields.
• Measurable improvements to current hog operations.
• Closing and proper cleaning of abandoned lagoons within two years.
• Ending the “pork barrel double standard” and requiring large corporate hog producers to share responsibility and liability with small hog farmers for meeting all environmental laws. Currently large companies are not penalized in a meaningful way if there is an environmental violation.

The Endangered Species Act has fostered significant improvement in the well-being of many imperiled plants and animals, according to a joint report released today by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Endangered Species Coalition. The report documents population increases over time for a wide variety of species.

“Many endangered species are making steady progress toward recovery under the Endangered Species Act,” said Michael Bean, who heads EDF’s wildlife program. “Unfortunately, much of this progress is overlooked by those who want to judge the Act only by number of species that have fully recovered. Full recovery will come in time, but gradual progress must come first.”

“Our study shows that the road to extinction can be reversed, with species getting on the road to recovery instead,” said Brock Evans, who heads the Endangered Species Coalition.

Species as varied as the gray wolf in the Great Lakes states and the northern Rocky Mountains, the whooping crane in Texas, the Lange’s metalmark butterfly in California, and the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle in the Gulf of Mexico have all shown dramatic improvement since protective measures were taken under the Endangered Species Act, which was signed into law in 1973.

In Texas, the black-capped vireo has increased dramatically at both the Kerr Wildlife Management Area and Fort Hood Army base as a result of management measures. If similar efforts are implemented more broadly throughout this songbird’s range, its recovery is clearly attainable, according to the report.

The whooping crane has been the subject of what is perhaps the longest sustained conservation effort for any species in the US. Beginning more than a half century ago, when numbers of this tall, marshland bird had plummeted to fewer than twenty, an extraordinary effort has been undertaken to rescue this stately species from extinction. These efforts have boosted the number of whooping cranes living in the wild to over 250, which is likely more than at any time this century.

In the 1970s, the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle was virtually extinct. The dramatic decline in sea turtles was the result of the plundering of eggs on the beach and the drowning of adult and immature turtles in the nets of shrimp fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico and the south Atlantic. The Endangered Species Act required American shrimp fishermen to equip their nets with ‘turtle excluder devices’ or “TEDs.” Contrary to the claims of those who opposed the TED requirements, shrimp landings by American shrimp boats have remained high since the requirements have been in place, and numbers of Kemp’s ridley sea turtles are steadily growing.

The report does note, however, that species recovery will often take many decades to accomplish and will require active management, rather than a passive “hands-off” approach, and significant resources.

In a joint letter today, the Alliance To End Childhood Lead Poisoning (Alliance) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) called on the Lead Industries Association to cease distribution of its video, Lead Poisoning … A Message for Parents of Young Children. The free video, which does not clearly state that it was produced by the Lead Industries Association, is misleading, fails to mention lead’s neurotoxic effects, and uses a Sesame Streetcast member to deliver the lead industry’s self-serving messages.

“The Lead Industries Association’s video is biased, manipulative, and potentially dangerous to children’s health. It should be immediately withdrawn from distribution. Parents and health care providers should beware of this video, which features ‘Susan,’ a Sesame Street character long trusted by children and their parents,” said Don Ryan, of the Alliance.

The video has many inaccuracies and omissions, including:

• The video fails to make any mention of how lead poisoning harms young children by reducing IQ and attention span and causing learning difficulties and behavior problems.
• It downplays the danger of chronic exposure to invisible, toxic lead dust on floors and other surfaces, the most common pathway of poisoning.
• Its recommendations are too vague to be helpful, offering no practical tips on how to safely repair peeling paint or remove lead-contaminated dust.
• The video’s emphasis on behavior change (e.g., hand washing and diet) diverts attention from the steps needed to control the serious hazards of peeling lead paint and toxic lead dust.
• Some of the steps recommended are not sufficient to protect children from lead poisoning. For example, ordinary housekeeping is not a reliable method for removing lead-contaminated dust.

“The lead industry’s success in stonewalling regulation is the reason it now faces potential legal liability for the harm lead poisoning causes children, and the costs it imposes on America’s health-care and education systems,” said Ryan.

• Alabama Steel Mill Ranks Among Worst in Nation for Toxic Releases
• Illinois Steel Mills Ranks Among Best and Worst in Nation for Pollution Prevention
• Two Indiana Steel Mills Rank Among Worst in Nation for Pollution Prevention
• Kentucky Steel Mill Reported Unreliable Pollution Data
• Maryland Steel Mill Ranks Among Worst in Nation for Pollution Prevention
• Two Ohio Steel Mills Rank Among Worst in Nation for Pollution Prevention
• Utah Steel Mill Ranks Among Worst in Nation for Toxic Releases
• West Virginia Steel Mill Ranks Among Worst in Nation for Air Pollution

See the rankings
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A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted a request to delay implementation of a major clean air program aimed at curbing smog across the eastern United States yesterday. At issue is a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program requiring 1.2 million tons of reductions in smog-forming pollutants in a number of eastern states.

“These reductions are critical in protecting children and other vulnerable populations from both short- and long-term lung damage,” said Joe Goffman, an Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) attorney. “In addition, the reductions would provide vital protection against continued acid deposition in our forests, lakes and streams.”

The court granted a request by several states to delay their implementation of the program. The three-judge panel included two of the same judges that recently issued a setback to EPA’s national clean air standards for smog and soot. It is important to recognize that the court did not find that the EPA smog-reduction program was invalid.

“What’s so surprising about this decision is that EPA gave the states so much implementation flexibility to begin with,” said Sarah Wade, an EDF economist. “This delay is particularly frustrating since the states have had ample time to prepare their clean air plans.” The EPA smog reduction program allows states to rely on flexible market-based mechanisms to achieve the reductions, and gives states until the year 2007 to achieve ultimate compliance with the reductions.

A study to be published in the May 20, 1999, Nature magazine finds that pollen from genetically engineered corn plants is toxic to monarch butterflies. The corn was genetically engineered to contain a toxin from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). In 1998, almost 20% of US corn acreage was planted with Bt corn as a means to control insects, and acreage is expected to increase in 1999.

“Bt corn is engineered to contain a pesticide throughout the plant,” said Dr. Rebecca Goldburg, an Environmental Defense Fund senior scientist. “Today’s Nature study clearly demonstrates that the pesticide in Bt corn is dispersed with pollen, killing monarch butterflies.”

Corn plants produce huge quantities of pollen, which dusts the leaves of plants growing near corn fields. The Nature study found that close to half the monarch caterpillars that fed on milkweed leaves dusted with Bt corn pollen died. Surviving caterpillars were about half the size of caterpillars that fed on leaves dusted with pollen from non-engineered corn.

“For too long genetic engineering has been presented to the public as a ‘safe’ alternative to traditional pesticide spraying, but genetically engineered crops are really just being used as a new means to disseminate chemical pesticides. Monarchs that feed on pollen covered milkweed near Bt corn fields might as well be eating pesticide sprayed milkweeds,” said Goldburg. “Either way the result is dead butterflies.”

Monarch butterflies are noted for their remarkable annual migration, which takes them from central Mexico in the winter to as far north as Minnesota in the summer. In the summer months, the Midwestern corn belt is home to about half the US population of monarch butterflies.

“It would be tragic if genetically engineered crops decimated populations of monarch butterflies similar to the way that DDT decimated populations of bald eagles and other birds,” said Goldburg. “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which regulates pesticides, must take action to protect monarchs from poisoning by Bt corn. We urge that the EPA severely restrict farm acreage planted in Bt corn unless and until a plan can be developed to protect butterflies.”

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) released a new report today, finding more funding available now than in the past decade for highways, while transit funding lags behind in Alameda County. EDF’s report indicates that although there has been a dramatic increase of State and Federal dollars dedicated to highways in Alameda County, local transit service is woefully underfunded and has few funding sources other than the Alameda County transportation funding measure, Measure B. Transit activists are calling for the Alameda County Transportation Authority (ACTA) to reevaluate Measure B’s priorities and use the Measure to meet the county’s most critical transportation needs. EDF will present its report to ACTA at the agency’s upcoming meeting on May 17.

“People want better transportation choices in Measure B,” said Meg Krehbiel, EDF policy analyst. “With increased Federal and State transportation dollars available for highways, Alameda County has more flexibility to use local funds such as the Measure B transportation funding measure to improve transit options for all county residents.”

“Alameda County will be able to meet its highway needs now and into the 21^st Century,” said Daniel Kirshner, EDF senior analyst. “With continued availability of substantial highway funds, the county can afford to reserve Measure B to improve transit service that desperately needs funding.”

A coalition of Alameda County residents, community groups, and environmentalists including EDF have developed a plan for an improved Measure B package that accounts for recent funding increases for highways and dedicates funds to provide improved transportation choices county-wide. The plan restores weekend and evening bus service, funds a cost-effective rail connection from Alameda County to jobs in Santa Clara and San Mateo County, increases service of the Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) train, and slows freeway-choking sprawl by protecting open space.

EDF Report: Funding Highways Into the Next Century in Alameda County

Citing a new analysis by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) as more evidence of the damage hog factories are doing to public health and the environment, the North Carolina Environmental Defense Fund (NCEDF) today called again upon Governor Hunt and the legislature to step up to the plate and protect North Carolinians. NCEDF called for a 5 point solutions package to solve hog waste problems once and for all.

“The DHHR study confirms, once again, that the state simply cannot afford to delay any longer a solution to the state’s devastating health and environmental impacts from factory hog farms. We have enough research that tells us that 10 million hogs, over 4,000 hog lagoons and countless more sprayfields are a serious risk to people and the environment in eastern North Carolina,” said Jane Preyer, NCEDF director. “With his proposal to phase out hog lagoons and sprayfields and convert them to improved technologies, Governor Hunt has stepped forward and set the stage for real reform, but only if the legislature puts the proposals into action now.”

“Some modest progress has been made in dealing with hog waste problems, but the problems are far from solved, as this report clearly shows. In fact, as things stand now, the moratorium on building new hog operations will end in 116 days, and North Carolina will be no further to requiring clean up of this industry than we were a year ago,” said NCEDF attorney Dan Whittle.

NCEDF urged that 5 key solutions be enacted by the 1999 North Carolina legislature.

• Adopt permanent environmental and health-based performance standards by December, 1999 for new and existing operations, using the goals defined by the General Assembly in HB 1480 last year.
• Maintain the moratorium on construction of new or expanded hog operations until all existing operations have been converted to technologies that meet these standards, by no later than 2006.
• Strengthen the closure standards for abandoned lagoons and require that all abandoned lagoons be cleaned and closed properly within two years. Reward companies that commit to early closure with priority for state cost share funding.
• Require that hog growers and corporate integrators (owners of the hogs) share responsibility and liability for complying with environmental laws.
• While new technologies are being developed and installed on existing operations, direct the state to take several inexpensive, short-term steps (commonly used in other states) to reduce impacts of unacceptable odors and air emissions of ammonia from hog operations.

“It’s time we stopped sacrificing the health and welfare of rural North Carolinians,” Preyer said. “This new analysis adds more alarming evidence that factory hog farms endanger neighbors and the environment, coming just months after State Health Director Dennis McBride concluded that odor from factory hog farms is a threat to public health.”

For more information:
Visit EDF’s website www.hogwatch.org, a clearinghouse and advocacy site focused on environmental threats from factory farming in the U.S.

Today the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) praised a draft of new legislation that calls for electric utilities to reduce emissions from grandfathered power plants by 50% for nitrogen oxides and 25% for sulfur dioxides by May 1, 2003. Representative Steve Wolens, Chairman of the Texas House Committee studying electric utility restructuring, released the latest version of the electricity legislation today. The proposal uses market mechanisms designed to reduce pollution levels in the most cost-effective manner possible.

“Chairman Wolens has shown real leadership and innovation in addressing the thorny issue of grandfathered power plants,” said Mark MacLeod, EDF’s director of state energy programs. Currently, over 75% of Texans live in or next to regions with unhealthy air. “Chairman Wolens understands that the electric utility restructuring legislation provides an opportunity to decrease air pollution and protect public health. It is provisions such as this that allow all of the citizens of Texas to benefit from electric competition legislation. This bill will help reduce unhealthy air pollution all over Texas, but particularly in Dallas-Fort Worth.”

Often called cap-and-trade, the proposal would limit smog-forming nitrogen oxide emissions from grandfathered facilities to 50% of their 1997 levels and limit sulfur dioxide emissions to 75% of their 1997 levels. Placing a cap on emissions is a better method to clean up pollution than merely cutting emission rates because under a cap the total amount of pollution remains limited while an uncapped reduction plan would allow pollution to increase over time.

The proposal also allows utilities to minimize the costs of achieving the required emission reductions, giving utilities the flexibility to determine at which plants, and with which technology, they will achieve the emissions reductions. Utilities can look to the market for innovative ways to reduce pollution and lower compliance costs. If the costs of cleaning up a particular power plant are very high, rather than incur large costs, a utility can purchase an emissions allowance from another plant that has made extra reductions, as long as the additional allowance does not violate any air quality standards.

Grandfathered facilities are the result of an exemption dating back to 1971 that said facilities that were in existence or under construction would not be subject to State emissions limits. In 1985, a State panel recommended that the exemption expire in 1995 but the Texas Legislature failed to adopt the recommendation. The approximately 130 grandfathered power plants account for almost 35% of all grandfathered emissions in Texas. The remainder come from oil refineries, industry, and other sources.

Wolens’ bill requires utilities to make specific and substantial emissions reductions at grandfathered plants by a date certain. In contrast, the widely criticized Senate Bill 766 relies on industries’ volunteering to make emissions reductions without any time limit or sanctions for companies that refuse to clean up their old plants.

Many people are aware that cars with good fuel efficiency are better for the planet than trucks that get fewer miles to the gallon, but did you know a solid-colored car can be better for the environment? A new Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) website, Green Car: Guide to Cleaner Vehicle Production, Use and Disposal, tells you why. Painting and coating is the most polluting process of vehicle assembly. Two-tone paint jobs require a second trip through the paint booth, generating far more air pollution than a single- color paint job, so picking a solid-colored car can help reduce pollution.

The free EDF site offers a truckload of recommendations for choosing and using your vehicle to minimize its impacts on the environment (select Vehicle Use). One significant source of environmental damage from vehicles is the pollution coming out of the tailpipe, which accounts for about 50 percent of America’s air pollution, according to US Environmental Protection Agency estimates. For drivers concerned about the impact of their pollution, the site offers a Tailpipe Tally, which calculates the pounds of pollutants your make and model of vehicle sends into the air each year.

“The Tailpipe Tally clearly shows that driving a sport utility vehicle, minivan or light truck is much worse for the environment than driving a car, which produces roughly 40 percent less emissions,” said EDF policy analyst Christo Artusio.

The site also offers tips for reducing the pounds of pollution that your car generates. For example, flooring the gas pedal at intersections (jack-rabbit accelerations) consumes up to 50 percent more fuel and generates 100 times more carbon monoxide than slow, smooth acceleration.

The EDF site also offers suggestions for vehicle purchasing. Lightweight cars with higher gas mileage and lower emissions levels are currently the least damaging vehicle choice for the environment. EDF and other environmental groups, however, are calling on auto manufacturers to offer consumers cleaner vehicles in all classes. EDF is promoting a Green Vehicle Standard for the auto industry. The standard calls on automakers to offer a vehicle during the year 2000 that is at least 50 percent more fuel efficient than other vehicles in its class, meets the tightest California emissions standards, and was built using state-of-the-art clean production practices. Visitors to the Green Car site can let the auto industry know they want the choice of greener vehicles by signing the Green Vehicle Pledge.

“By committing to integrate green vehicle standards into their purchase decisions, consumers can convince automakers that there is market demand for clean production processes and products,” said Kevin Mills, director of EDF’s Pollution Prevention Alliance.

Major funding for the Green Car site was provided by the Joyce Foundation of Chicago.

Six of the nation’s largest environmental organizations today asked President Clinton to review three Army Corps of Engineers projects on the lower Mississippi River that would drain 100,000 to 200,000 acres of wetlands. The authorized projects, designed to increase production of corn and soybeans, would cost federal taxpayers roughly $300 million.

In a letter signed by the heads of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), American Rivers, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, Izaac Walton League, National Wildlife Federation, and the Sierra Club, the groups question whether these projects are compatible with the President’s Clean Water Action plan which attempts to create a net increase in wetlands of 100,000 acres per year.

“Why should taxpayers pay $300 million to drain wetlands to increase production of crops when the federal government is spending $2 billion a year under a different program to do just the opposite — to get farmers to halt overproduction of crops in the face of falling prices by turning farmland back into wetlands?” said Tim Searchinger, an EDF attorney.

The three projects would use pumps, drainage channels and levees to drain the St. Johns Bayou and New Madrid Floodway areas in Missouri, and the Yazoo Basin and Big Sunflower River in Mississippi. The original project planning documents sent to Congress estimated only a few hundred or at most a few thousand acres of wetland impacts. But a new draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Missouri project estimates that it alone would drain 36,000 acres of wetlands, and new data available for the Yazoo Pump indicate that it would impact more than 100,000 acres.

Normal requirements that local beneficiaries pay for at least 25% of the costs of the projects were waived for all three projects.

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has filed suit to block construction of the Big Sunflower Maintenance dredging project. “The time has come to convert the Corps of Engineers from a destroyer of nature to one of its major restorers,” said NWF president Mark Van Putten. “We cannot tell America that the Corps will fix its mistakes in places like the Everglades if it keeps making the same errors in the Delta.”

“The Corps of Engineers has helped drain 95% of the wetlands along the Mississippi River. That makes the remainder even more critical for migrating ducks and geese and the river’s once staggering fisheries,” said Paul Hansen, Executive Director of the Izaac Walton League.