House Republicans threaten subpoena over EPA Alaska (Pebble) mine study

Leave it to the Daily Caller to push all the pro Pebble talking points in this story about Republican push back on the EPA's Bristol Bay watershed assesment.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have sent a follow-up letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, demanding they provide more documents regarding the agency’s review of a potential mine in Alaska or face a subpoena to appear before the committee.

LINK

This drivel is in need of some comments, we just added ours.

I Voted the Environment

by Yvon Chouinard

Now that the election is over, our work continues. I support the front-line activists, the river keepers and tree sitters who work to save a single patch of land or stretch of water. Today in the United States, small groups of kayakers and fishermen work tirelessly to bring down dams; duck hunters toil to preserve wetlands. And it’s mothers who exert the most pressure to clean up local toxic landfills. Activism never dies. Keep up the good work.

(via:The Cleanest Line)

Pebble Mine Meets Weird Science

The top investigator for the science committee in the House of Representatives, Georgia Republican Rep. Paul Broun, wrote the EPA and said its study of the proposed Pebble mine in the Bristol Bay region fell short and shouldn’t be used to block development.

“These are serious concerns. If EPA ultimately uses this watershed assessment as justification to pre-emptively veto mining permits in Bristol Bay – not withstanding EPA’s legal authority to do so – the scientific credibility of the assessment will need to be beyond reproach,” Broun wrote. “This is obviously not the case.”

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/08/10/161540/republicans-say-epa-is-digging.html#storylink=cpy

LINK (via: McClatchy)

Republican Rep Paul Broun, the top investigator for the House science committee believes evolution is a lie from the pit of hell and the earth is 9,000 years old. 

LINK  (via: The LA Times)

Broun is not the only crackpot on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/08/10/161540/republicans-say-epa-is-digging.html#storylink=cpyS

You Decide

Carol Browner addressing Great Lakes leaders in Cleveland

That's the headline Keep America Fishing used when they recently published the Presidential candidate's answers to some policy questions surrounding various issues important to anglers. One of those questions specifically revolved around the Great Lakes, most notably the threat from invasive Asian Carp. It's always easy to make policy statements, it's another to back them up. A recent Great Lakes event in Cleveland is perhaps more telling when it comes to the respective candidates answer to that Great Lakes policy question.

Romney's Silence on Great Lakes Protection Speaks Volumes

Last week in Cleveland, over 500 leaders from around the Great Lakes gathered in Cleveland to talk about the challenges facing the drinking water source for 38 million Americans - our Great Lakes.

On the agenda were assessments of toxic waste cleanup projects, the threat of Asian Carp and other invasive species, the growing water quality problem of nutrient pollution and algae overload, and evidence that climate change is already having significant impacts on this critical resource.

After weeks of considering whether to participate, the Romney campaign ultimately made the call: blow it off.

President Obama's campaign sent Carol Browner, until recently Obama's top adviser on energy and environmental policy, and also former head of the EPA for eight years. Browner spoke knowledgeably and forcefully about Obama's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a program Obama created to clean up contaminated sites, restore the Great Lakes ecosystem's natural areas, and protect drinking water. She talked about the administration's multi-pronged defense against the Asian Carp, and of the new Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement the administration just signed with Canada.

LINK (via: The Huff Post)

Republicans and the Environment

Russell Train, who led the Council on Environmental Quality under President Nixon and then the Environmental Protection Agency under Gerald Ford, died Monday, September 17. The New York Times in its obituary said that Mr. Train, "shaped the world’s first comprehensive program for scrubbing the skies and waters of pollution, ensuring the survival of ecologically significant plants and animals, and safeguarding citizens from exposure to toxic chemicals."

In 2004 Patagonia published an essay Train wrote that is as timely today as it was seven years ago.

I’ve been a Republican all my life. For eight years, under the administrations of Nixon and Ford, I was Undersecretary of Interior. I was the first Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality. I was the second head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

I list these things not to boast, but to establish both my credentials and my point of view when I say that the environmental clock is now running backwards. Environmental quality is a key determinant of the quality of our lives – of our health, the health of ecosystems, our economic well-being, even the security of our nation.

LINK (via:The Cleanest Line)

Presidential Hopefuls Share Their Views on Recreational Fishing

Keep America Fishing asks the President, and the stiff trying to take his job, eight questions regarding recreational fishing. Given that Keep America Fishing is funded in large part by the conventional tackle industry, it should be no surprise that there are a couple of questions regarding federal "overreach" in recreational marine fisheries management.

LINK