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- Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!sgigate!sgi!cdp!cberlet
- From: cberlet@igc.apc.org (NLG Civil Liberties Committee)
- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Subject: Re: Wise Use in Northeast (anti-Green)
- Message-ID: <1425500040@igc.apc.org>
- Date: 13 Dec 92 22:24:00 GMT
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- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
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- Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!cberlet Dec 13 14:24:00 1992
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-
- /* Written 2:22 pm Dec 13, 1992 by cberlet in igc:publiceye */
- The Scent of Opportunity:
- A Survey of the Wise Use/Property Rights
- Movement in New England
-
- by William Kevin Burke
-
- December 12, 1992
-
- Conclusion
-
-
- The year 1992 represents a political watershed
- for the discussion of environmental issues in the
- U.S. Recently President George Bush backed Dan
- Quayle's Council on Competitiveness over his own
- appointees at the Environmental Protection
- Agency. Bush upheld a Competitiveness Council
- ruling that allows factories to increase
- pollution emissions by up to 245 tons without a
- public hearing (N.Y. Times 6/26/92). David
- McIntosh, the Competitiveness Council's point man
- for such deregulation efforts, spoke at the most
- recent national Wise Use gathering in Reno,
- Nevada. In several recent environmental photo
- opportunities and public statements, President
- Bush voiced the Wise Use argument that an
- extremist application of environmental protection
- laws harms economic growth. The election of Bill
- Clinton and Al Gore changes the atmosphere in
- Washington, D.C., but the Wise Use/property
- rights movement will undoubtedly continue to
- target state and local environmental projects.
-
- Environmental regulations may impede certain
- development projects, especially those planned
- for fragile or valuable eco-systems, but there is
- ample evidence that environmental concerns can
- equally well serve as the basis for rebuilding
- our economy and infrastructure. This
- environmental point of view holds that our
- society needs to move from environmental
- regulation to environmental investment. By
- protecting vanishing resources, we lower the net
- social costs to future generations from foul air
- and water. The corollary to this argument, that
- it is possible to build a sustainable economy by
- promoting energy conservation and the growth of
- industries like recycling and solar power, has so
- far gotten little national airplay.
-
- These are serious issues that deserve wide public
- debate. Some applications of environmental
- regulations are no doubt burdensome to resource
- extracting industries and developers. If both our
- nation and the ecosystems that make human life
- and prosperity possible are to survive, it is
- important that all sectors of U.S. society debate
- ways of continuing to expand environmental
- reforms while promoting economic activity. But at
- the national level--and in New England--the Wise
- Use/property rights movement is dedicated to
- preventing such open, fair debate. Intimidation
- and misinformation are not the basis of a
- free society.
-
- ===============================================================
- Copyright 1992, PRA. Electronic network posting of unmodified
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- ===============================================================
-
- This report is available in print form from PRA.
-
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-
- Political Research Associates
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