Many of the nation's largest corporations, with help
from the Bush administration, are destroying some of America's last wild places
for short-term economic gain, according to a report released today by PennEnvironment.
"The Big Buck
Awards" recognize companies and several government officials that have
done the most damage to America's public lands and other resources.
"Countless corporate polluters have exploited America's
public lands for private gain, but there are several whose egregiousness really
takes the cake," said Casey Hildreth, PennEnvironment Preservation Associate.
"Of course, these corporations have received substantial help from the
current administration, so we've also given special recognition to those government
officials taking the most time out of their day to despoil our public lands."
The Big Buck Awards are named in honor of James H. "Buck"
Harless, a union-battling patriarch of West Virginia's coal and timber industry
and one of President Bush's top supporters. The awards are also named in honor
of the many extractive industries that contribute large sums of money to elect
officials sympathetic to their bottom line and to gain access to the highest
levels of government. Extractive industries, including the oil and gas, mining,
and timber industries contributed more than $48 million to federal candidates
in the 2000 elections and have given $21 million thus far in the 2002 election
cycle.
PennEnvironment awarded one or more companies in the
following industries for having had a particularly devastating impact on America's
public lands: logging, onshore oil and gas drilling, offshore oil and gas drilling,
coal bed methane drilling, mountaintop mining, hard rock mining, and off-road
vehicle manufacturing.
In addition to highlighting the direct destruction these
companies cause on America's public lands ranging from destruction of wildlife
habitat to polluted rivers and streams, the report looks at the anti-environmental
policies they pursue, their campaign contributions and political connections,
and any other notably damaging activities. In making the awards, PennEnvironment
calls on the award "winners' to take specific steps in order to avoid being
honored next year.
For example:
1. Mountaintop mining has flattened West Virginia's trademark
mountains, obliterated streams and devastated entire communities. Arch Coal's
mountaintop removal operations have devastated towns in West Virginia and have
destroyed hundreds of miles of waterways used by West Virginians for drinking
water, fishing and recreation. Arch Coal has been fighting for the better part
of a decade to "streamline" the permit process by which it obtains
permission to dump mountaintop-mining waste into valleys and waterways. Arch
Coal's PAC has contributed $187,500 to federal candidates and an additional
$75,000 in soft money since the beginning of the 2000 election cycle For its
devastating mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia and its efforts to
legalize the practice of dumping mining waste—literally entire mountaintops—into
rivers and streams, the Big Buck Mountain Mangler Award goes to Arch Coal.
In order for Arch Coal to avoid receiving the Mountain
Mangler award again next year, it needs to stop lobbying the Bush administration
to violate the letter and spirit of the Clean Water Act by dumping mountaintops
into rivers and streams. It should also end all mountaintop removal coal-mining
operations until rigorous, peer-reviewed environmental impact analyses have
been completed at each of the mining sites and communities have the opportunity
to offer public comment.
2. Off-Road Vehicles degrade air quality, create trail
erosion, and are responsible for the harassment and killing of wildlife. Furthermore,
the noise pollution they create interferes with enjoyment of some of America's
most treasured places. The National Park Service, recognizing the threats caused
by snowmobiles, enacted a widely popular rule to phase-out snowmobiles in Yellowstone
and Grand Teton National Parks. In 2001, Polaris Industries sued to prevent
this phase-out and convinced the Bush administration to reconsider. Since the
beginning of the 2000 election cycle, Polaris has given $44,000 in PAC contributions
to federal candidates. As one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors
of Off-Road Vehicles and a company that has pushed damaging activities on America's
public lands, the Big Buck Vicious Vehicle Award goes to Polaris Industries.
If Polaris wants to avoid receiving the Big Buck Vicious
Vehicle Award again next year, it should stop fighting attempts to keep off-road
vehicles out of environmentally sensitive areas, commit to equipping all of
its machines with four-stroke engines, and urge its customers to use their machines
in a sound manner that complies with government regulations and does not menace
wildlife or other people.
PennEnvironment also "honored" several members of the Bush administration
for ignoring their responsibility to act as stewards and instead working with
industry to drill, log, mine and otherwise pollute America's public lands, national
forests and other wild places.
This year's government Big Buck Awards include the following:
The Big Buck Logging Loyalist Award goes to Mark Rey,
Undersecretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and the Environment, for
his career working to undermine protections for America's national forests,
first as a top timber industry lobbyist, then as a staffer for the Senate Energy
and Natural Resources Committee, and now in his current position.
The James Watt Lifetime Achievement Award: Named for
James Watt, Ronald Reagan's Interior Secretary, this award goes to Gale Norton,
current Secretary of the Interior and a Watt protégé. Since taking
office, Norton has demonstrated her commitment to allowing industry to drill
and mine on America's public lands, in America's national forests and in other
wild places. For example, in 2002, she withheld information from the Fish and
Wildlife Service that was critical of a plan to relax wetlands rules protections,
and in 2001, she distorted government data about the impact of drilling in the
Arctic Refuge on Caribou populations. Her overall devotion to anti-environmental
policies has earned her this lifetime achievement award.
"We call on the winners of this year's Big Buck
Awards to stop destroying America's public lands for private gain. The American
people and America's last wild places should not be the losers," concluded
Mr. Hildreth.
