Crimes Against Nature (26 page)
Read Crimes Against Nature Online
Authors: Jr. Robert F. Kennedy
My agent, Kris Dahl of ICM, proved herself, as always, a wise and extraordinary resource, and a wonderful friend.
My thanks to Pace Law students Stephanie Haggerty, Audrey Friedrichsen, Elana Roffman, Erin Flanagan, Daniel Yohannes, Jennifer Nelson, Robert Manfredo; to Riverkeeper interns Daniel Jacobson, Garen McClure; to EPA attorney Marla Wieder; and to former EPA attorney Janet MacGillivray, who helped me research and then thoroughly fact-checked the book.
Waterkeeper Alliance’s attorneys Kevin Madonna and Daniel Estrin read and fact-checked my sections on industrial hog production and the Wise Use Movement.
Riverkeeper’s Reed Super advised me on power plant issues, and Kyle Rabin, also at Riverkeeper and a human encyclopedia on nuclear power plants, helped me understand the vulnerabilities of those plants as a national security issue.
To all my colleagues at the Natural Resources Defense Council who provided research, insight, and support on different parts of the book, especially Greg Wetstone, Wesley Warren, Dave Hawkins, Erik Olson, Rob Perks, Jon Coifman, Jon Devine, Daniel Rosenberg, Karen Wayland, Sharon Buccino, John Walke, Aaron Colangelo, Linda Greer, Jennifer Sass, Dan Lashof, Johanna Wald, Chuck Clusen, Alyssondra Campaigne, Alan Metrick, Melanie Shepherdson, Tom Cochran, Andrew Wetzler, and Kidd Dorn.
Kristin Sykes; Joan Mulhern of Earthjustice; and Louise Dunlap, formerly of the Environmental Policy Institute, contributed research and advice about Steven Griles and mountaintop mining. Attorney Ed Gramdis and Joe Lovett of the Appalachian Center for the Environment and the Economy were also a helpful resources on mountaintop mining. Charlene Epperson helped me locate and interview Interior Department insiders on the subject.
My friend and fishing buddy Dick Russell came to my aid on the Texas chapter at the moment I most needed help. I am also indebted to Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose for their research on George W. Bush’s environmental record as governor.
I also want to thank OMB Watch and its former policy analyst Reese Rushing for research on John Graham’s record, and Public Citizen for the research that it maintains in its online “Graham Watch.” I am grateful to the Center for Media & Democracy and its “PR Watch,” and to Bill Moyers, whose thoughtful work has helped alert America to the threat that current trends in media consolidation pose to our democracy. The Center for Responsible Politics provided invaluable help with its online database of campaign contributors, as did Common Cause with its report “Chemical Reaction.”
I am most indebted to my children — Bobby, Kick, Conor, Kyra, Finbar, and Aidan, who uncomplainingly put up with weekends without their dad and who gave up our regular ski trips to the Catskills so that I could grind away at the book; to my brilliant partner Karl Coplan, who covered my cases and classes so that I could focus on the writing; and to my friends Laurie David and Mike Papantonio, without whose support and encouragement I could not have undertaken this project.
NOTE: Internet sources are supplied case-sensitive.
1
. The Luntz Companies, “The Environment: A Cleaner, Healthier, Safer America,” viewed at http://www.ewg.org/briefings/luntzmemo/pdf/LuntzResearch_environment.pdf.
2
. “Key Facts: Race, Ethnicity and Medical Care,” The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, June 2003, viewed at http://www.kff.org/minorityhealth/6069-index.cfm.
3
. Janet MacGillivray, interview by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., June 2004.
4
. “The New Nationalism,”
National Edition of the Works of Theodore Roosevelt,
vol. XVII (New York, 1910), p. 52.
1
. Tom Horton, “Texas Economy: George W. Bush and the Environment,”
Rolling Stone,
December 11, 2003.
2
.
Water Quality Program and Assessment Summary,
Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, September 2003, pp. 8-16, available at http://www.tnrcc.state.tx.us/water/quality/02_twqmar/02_305b/02_program_summary/13-str&rivass.pdf.
3
.
Texas
2000
Air Quality Study,
Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, August-September 2000, p. 1, available at http://www.utexas.edu/research/ceer/texaqs/visitors/news1.pdf.
4
. “George W. Bush: The Polluters’ Governor,” Sierra Club, February 16, 2000, available at http://www.commondreams.org/news2000/0216-01.htm. The Sierra Club based its findings on its study of the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory Database, 1990-1997, and Emergency Response Notification System Database.
5
.
Remember the Past, Protect the Future,
U.S. EPA, Region 6, April 2000, p.30.
6
. “Polluters Bet Big on Bush on the Campaign Money Trail,” report by Texas PEER, November 1995, viewed at http://www.txpeer.org/Bush/Polluters_Bet_On_Bush.html.
7
. Frederick Lurman et al., “Assessment of the Health Benefits of Improving Air Quality in Houston, Texas,” Sonoma Technology, Inc., November 1999, p. ES-4.
8
. Tom “Smitty” Smith, interview by Dick Russell, February 20, 2004; Texas PEER, “Polluters Bet Big.”
9
. “Bush’s Environmental Record,”
NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
transcript, August 22, 2000, viewed at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/election/july-dec00/bush_environment_8-22.html.
10
. Louis Dubose, “Running on Empty,”
The Nation,
April 26, 1999.
11
. Vulliamy, “Dark Heart of the American Dream,” available at http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,738196,00.html; Bob Herbert, “Bush Goes Green,”
New York Times,
April 6, 2000; Jay Root, “Bush Record on Pollution in Texas Draws Fire,”
Chicago Tribune,
November 26, 1999; Molly Ivins and Louis Dubose, “Bush and the Texas Environment,”
Texas Observer,
April 14, 2000, available at http://www.bushfiles.com/00_04_14/000414_bush_and_environment.htm.
12
. Herbert, “Bush Goes Green.”
13
. Ralph K. M. Haurwitz and Stuart Eskenazi, “Statement Equating Slaves with Property Denounced,”
Austin-American Statesman,
October 14, 1994. Kuykendall made the reference twice in September 1994: first at a forum in Kerrville sponsored by the Kerr County Republicans Club and subsequently during a call-in session on KUT-FM, the public radio station of the University of Texas.
14
. Texas PEER, “Polluters Bet Big.”
15
. Molly Ivins and Louis Dubose, “Bush and the Texas Environment.”
16
. Neil Carman, interview by Dick Russell, February 20, 2004.
17
. Molly Ivins and Louis Dubose,
Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush
(New York: Random House, 2000), p. 119.
18
. John Coequyt, “Fuzzy Air: Why Texas is the Smoggiest State,” Environmental Working Group Policy Analysis, October 17, 2000, available at http://www.ewg.org/reports_content/fuzzyair/fuzzyair.pdf.
19
. Horton, “Texas Economy.”
20
. Natural Resources Defense Council Press Release, “U.S. Beach Closings at Record High for Second Year in a Row Despite Drought, According to Annual NRDC Beach Quality Report,” August 3, 2000, available at http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressReleases/000803b.asp.
21
. Michael King, “A Thousand Points of Darkness,”
Austin Chronicle,
January 12, 2001; Vulliamy, “Dark Heart of the American Dream.”
22
. Rose Farley, “Bottom of the Ninth,”
Dallas Observer,
February 12, 1998, viewed at http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/1998-02-12/news2
.html.
23
. Rose Farley, “Something In The Air,”
Dallas Observer,
June 19, 1997, viewed at http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/1997-06-19/feature.html.
24
. Ibid.
25
. Jim Yardley, “Bush Approach to Pollution: Preference for Self-Policing,”
New York Times
, November 9, 1999.
26
. Texas PEER, “Polluters Bet Big.”
27
. Neil Carman, interview by Dick Russell, February 20, 2004.
28
. Vulliamy, “Dark Heart of the American Dream.
29
. “Texas Air Quality Study 2000,” viewed at http://www.utexas.edu/research/ceer/texaqs.
30
. Herbert, “Bush Goes Green.”
31
. Texas PEER, “Polluters Bet Big.”
32
. Yardley, “Bush Approach to Pollution.”
33
. Jeffrey St. Clair, “Cash and Carry,”
In These Times,
March 6, 2000.
34
. Janet Hook, “GOP’s Go-To Guy Could Pose Risks for President,”
Los Angeles Times,
June 16, 2003, p. A1.
35
. George W. Bush,
A Charge to Keep
(New York: William Morrow, 1999).
1
. J. I. Bregman, “How to Clean Up the Mess,”
World and I,
June 1989, available at http://www.worldandi.com/specialreport/1989/june/Sa16169.htm. No known attempt to prevent air pollution was made until the opening of the fourteenth century, when an antismoke ordinance forbidding the use of “sea coal” in London was established by royal proclamation. It is believed that at least one violator of this law was put to death by order of Edward I.
2
. Gwen Florio, “Coors Has a Reputation, but No Political Record to Run On,”
Rocky Mountain News,
April 10, 2004.
3
. Russ Bellant,
The Coors Connection
(Boston: South End Press, 1991), pp. 85-87; Carl Deal,
The Greenpeace Guide to Anti-Environmental Organizations
(Berkeley, California: Odonian Press, 1993), p. 64; John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton,
Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry
(Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995), p. 142.
4
. “Heritage Foundation President Mourns Death of Joseph Coors,” Heritage Foundation press release, March 16, 2003.
5
. David Helvarg,
The War Against the Greens
(San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1994), p. 20; Deal,
The Greenpeace Guide,
p. 58.
6
. See “The Heritage Foundation,” Anarchy for Anybody, available at http://www.cat.org.au/a4a/fake25.html.
7
. People for the American Way, “Follow the Money: Funding and Support for Voucher Programs,” viewed at http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=10723; Capital Research Center database, viewed at http://www.capitalresearch.org/search/orgdisplay.asp?Org=HER100#fin.
8
. John Saloma III,
Ominous Politics: The New Conservative Labyrinth
(New York: Hill and Wang, 1984), p. 14.
9
. Bellant,
The Coors Connection,
pp. 9-10.
10
. Ibid., p. 87.
11
. Helvarg,
The War Against the Greens,
p. 69.
12
. Ibid.
13
. Dale Russakoff, “James Watt and the Wages of Influence,”
Washington Post,
May 4, 1989, p. A21.
14
. Lawrence Mosher, “Move Over, Jim Watt, Anne Gorsuch Is the Latest Target of Environmentalists,”
National Journal,
October 24, 1981, p. 1899.
15
. Ibid.
16
. Tom Turner, Friends of the Earth, interview by David Ludlum, May 6, 2004.
17
. Michael J. Sniffen, “Watt Charged with Coverup in HUD Scandal,” Associated Press, February 22, 1995.
18
. Helvarg,
The War Against the Greens,
p. 72.
19
. Ibid.
20
. Ibid., pp. 76-77.
21
. Katherine Long, “His Goal: Destroy Environmentalism — Man and Group Prefer That People Exploit the Earth,”
Seattle Times,
December 2, 1991.
22
. Helvarg,
The War Against the Greens,
pp. 260-61.
23
. Michael Lind, “Rev. Robertson’s Grand International Conspiracy Theory,”
New York Review of Books,
February 2, 1995.
24
. Esther Diskin, “Robertson’s Book Parallels Militia’s Ideas,”
The Virginian-Pilot
[Norfolk], April 30, 1995, p. A1.
25
. Stauber and Rampton,
Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!,
pp. 85-87.
26
. Alan Cooperman, “DeLay Criticized for ‘Only Christianity’ Remarks,”
Washington Post,
April 20, 2002, p. A05.
27
. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,
The Riverkeepers
(New York: Scribner, 1997), p. 230.
28
. David Greenberg, “The Clinton Warrior,”
Washington Monthly,
June 1, 2003.
29
. “Evolution Revolution,” PBS.org., viewed at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/religion/revolution/1990.html.
30
. Michael Weisskopf and David Maraniss, “Forging an Alliance for Deregulation,”
Washington Post,
March 12, 1995, p. A1.
31
. David Rogers, “General Newt: GOP’s Rare Year Owes Much to How Gingrich Disciplined the House,”
Wall Street Journal,
December 18, 1995.
32
. Pat Williams, University of Montana Center for the Rocky Mountain West, interview by David Ludlum, February 26, 2004.
33
. Ron Arnold, Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, interview by David Ludlum, February 24, 2004.
34
. Sheila Callahan, National Legal Center for the Public Interest, interview by David Ludlum, February 24, 2004.
35
. Maria Weidner and Nancy Watzman,
Paybacks, Policy, Patrons, and Personnel: How the Bush Adminsitration Is Giving Away Our Environment to Corporate Contributors,
Earthjustice and Public Campaign, 2002, viewed at http://www.publicampaign.org/publications/studies/paybacks/Paybacks.pdf.
36
. The Center for American Progress & OMB Watch for the Citizens for Sensible Safeguards Coalition, “Special Interest Take-over: The Bush Administration and the Dismantling of Public Safeguards,” May 25, 2004, available at http://www.sensiblesafeguards.org/sit.phtml.
37
. “Rewriting the Rules: The Bush Administration’s Assault on the Environment,” NRDC, April 2004, p. 3, viewed at http://www.nrdc.org/legislation/rollbacks/rr2004.pdf.
38
.Ibid, p. 1.
39
. Andrew Martin, “Documents Detail Lobbyists’ Impact on Air-Quality Plan,”
Chicago Tribune,
May 16, 2004.
40
. See Mackinac Sierra Club website, http://michigan.sierraclub.org/issues/cafos/hazards.html.
41
. Eric Schaeffer, former director of the EPA’s Office of Regulatory Enforcement, interview by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., September 2004.
42
. “Koch Industries Indicted for Environmental Crimes at Refinery,” U.S. Department of Justice press release, September 28, 2000, viewed at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2000/September/573enrd.htm; James Pinkerton, “Koch Slapped with Big Penalty/Guilty of Hiding Pollution Violation,”
Houston Chronicle,
April 10, 2001.
43
. NRDC, “The Bush-Cheney Energy Plan,” viewed at http://www.nrdc.org/air/energy/aplayers.asp.
44
. “Ron Arnold named as ecoterrorism expert in major study,” Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise press release, viewed at http://www.cdfe.org/arnold_named_as_consultant.htm.
45
. Paul Krugman, “Noonday in the Shade,”
New York Times,
June 22, 2004.
46
. In contrast, the environmental “monkey-wrenchers” Earth First and Earth Liberation Front (ELF) ascribe to a strict coda to protect all animal and human life. For example, when ELF activists burned Hummers at a California car dealership, they first entered the shop to move aquariums of live fish to safety. In contrast, anti-abortion terrorists have murdered 11 Americans and caused millions of dollars of property damage. Right-wing terrorists are responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people, and countless other attacks and acts of terrorist violence against American citizens (see David Helvarg,
The War Against the Greens;
Robert L. Snow,
Terrorists Among Us: The Militia Threat
[New York: Perseus Books Group, 2002 ]). The Bush administration has taken pains to distract the public from the terrorist threat from right-wing militia and their brethren (see Paul Krugman, “Noonday in the Shade”).
47
. NRDC (citing
Yale Law Journal,
July 1984), “Gale Norton Biographical Timeline,” viewed at http://www.nrdc.org/legislation/norton/app1.asp.
48
. Oliver A. Houck, “With Charity for All,”
Yale Law Journal,
vol. 93, p. 8, July 1984.
49
. NRDC, “Gale Norton Biographical Timeline.”
50
. Ibid.
51
. “Gale Norton’s Associations with Anti-Environmental and Wise Use Groups,” Clearinghouse on Environmental Advocacy and Research (CLEAR), viewed at http://www.clearproject.org/reports_nortonWU.html.