NYT: Pentagon Is Pressing to Bypass Environmental Laws for War Games and A

[kskiska]

Pentagon Is Pressing to Bypass Environmental Laws for War Games and Arms Testing

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 - The Defense Department, which controls 28 million acres of land across the nation that it uses for combat exercises and weapons testing, has been moving on a variety of fronts to reduce requirements that it safeguard the environment on that land.

In Congress, the Pentagon has won exemptions in the last two years from parts of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. It has sought in recent years to exempt military activities, for three years, from compliance with parts of the Clean Air Act.

Also, the Pentagon, which controls about 140 of the 1,240 toxic Superfund sites around the country, is seeking partial exemptions from two laws governing toxic waste. And two months ago, it drafted revisions to a 1996 directive built on a pledge "to display environmental security leadership within Department of Defense activities worldwide."

The draft revisions eliminate the reference to environmental security, and emphasize instead that it is the Pentagon's role to sustain the national defense mission. Potential risks to the environment and worker safety, it says, should be addressed as part of a larger effort to manage risks, save money and preserve readiness.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/28/politics/28exempt.html?oref=login

[GetTheRightVote]

1. This is terrible news, I hope they do not get away with it.

:kick:

[Lerkfish]

2. why wouldn't they?

I mean, really, what HAVEN"T they gotten away with?

:shrug:

[baby_bear]

3. This requires capitulation by Congress and the states

The states are largely pushing back on this, but we all know what condition we are in environmentally with Congress.

There is nothing in it for the states to have the feds foist off soil and groundwater pollution to the locals to deal with. I think even the Republican governors are getting fed up with the Bush administration trying to get away with cutting and foisting onto the states, not just the environment but Medicaid and many other local issues that the feds have traditionally supported.

This is the dismantling of the social infrastructure, that Krugman and others have predicted and written about.

"starve the beast." It's working, but most of us knew it would.

b_b

[Lostnote03]

4. Maybe they're running out of excuses for Depleted Uranium....n/t

[evolvenow]

5. Very disturbing as it relates to War Games...What planet do these people

plan to live on? This is horrific...some one better start demanding accountability and boundaries to the devastation this admin is creating.

I have an idea...how about...they do wahtever they want, with the condition that the individuals, and their families must live in the most toxic areas.

We need serious help.