Date: Fri, 9 Jun 1995 10:17:16 -0400 (EDT) From: Competitive Enterprise Institute To: Recipients of the CEI List Subject: CEI List: NAFA's Forests The Forest Through NAFTA's Trees by James Sheehan Washington Times, May 2, 1995 The news about Mexico's financial crisis has begun to die down. Just when you thought the surprises about the North American Free Trade Agreement were over, along comes another one. A number of environmental activist organizations, including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Audubon Society, recently formed a coalition to oppose pending U.S. legislation which includes new provisions on logging in national forests. That's nothing new. What is new is the novel legal argument they are using -- that increased logging in this region would violate the terms of the NAFTA. The green lobby is asking President Clinton to enforce the environmental provisions of the NAFTA treaty by vetoing Congress' spending rescission bill, along with forest management provisions offered by Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) and Rep. Charles Taylor (R- NC). A House-Senate conference committee will likely consider the timber measure by the end of April. If the forest provision becomes law, the environmentalists will mount a challenge through the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a supra-national body created by the NAFTA treaty. Interestingly, the challenge comes from environmental groups that had both supported and opposed the passage of NAFTA itself. The bill's primary purpose is to cut billions of dollars from the federal budget, but it would also exempt certain "salvage" logging from federal environmental laws. Many forest biologists agree that salvage logging is long overdue and would benefit the forest environmentally. There are millions of acres of drought- killed, insect-infested, disease-ridden, and fire-damaged timber in the Pacific Northwest. The dead and dying timber across the area is now a ticking time bomb and poses a severe risk of devastating forest fire. Fortunately, much of it is still commercially useful if salvaged in time. Salvage logging would save thousands of jobs at hard-pressed sawmills in the region. The effected area east of the Cascade Mountains is not inhabited by the endangered spotted owl, so it should not re-kindle that heated political controversy. The environmental lobby contends that the bill is "the most far- reaching assault on public forests and U.S. environmental laws in at least a quarter century." The salvage logging provision would permit timber sales by suspending all applicable environmental laws for the protection of forests, fish and wildlife, and water quality -- such as the Endangered Species Act, the National Forest Management Act, and the Clean Water Act. Environmentalists claim that the legislation would modify the Clinton Northwest Forest Management Plan and overturn decades of judicial precedents. In so doing, the timber salvage bill would violate the NAFTA environmental agreement's mandate to "effectively enforce" environmental laws (Article 5) and to ensure access to administrative and judicial proceedings by interested parties to remedy violations of environmental law (Article 6). Civil litigation is a familiar weapon in the environmentalist arsenal. The anti-logging coalition notes that private enforcement actions, or "citizen suits," are the most effective means of enforcing environmental laws. Environmental pressure groups hope to repeat past successes by utilizing civil litigation against new environmental initiatives in Congress. Many of Congress' freshman class, who are trying to rationalize environmental policy, may not yet comprehend the legal implications of NAFTA, but a few veterans painstakingly read the fine print in 1993. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) of the Senate Commerce Committee was specifically worried about NAFTA's impact on the vital National Forest Management Act. The Clinton administration is using this law to implement the evolving concept of "ecosystem management," which is foreclosing the use of increasing amounts of land. In response to Sen. Stevens' 1993 inquiry, U.S. trade representative Mickey Kantor explained that because the Act "places restrictions on harvest [of timber] to protect water quality and fish habitat," the provisions "would have as their primary purpose environmental protection." According to Mr. Kantor, the Act's provisions constitute environmental law that must be "effectively enforced" under NAFTA. The point of bringing this matter before the NAFTA environmental commission is to prompt the U.S. government to enforce restrictive environmental standards, no matter how irrational. "It would be embarrassing for the United States to be investigated for being an environmental outlaw," claims Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. The environmentalists urged the President to keep the country off this "lawless path" in violation of international treaty obligations. In the past, environmental activists have maneuvered to obtain a series of judicial delays, stays, or injunctions, preventing timber salvage long enough for the wood to rot, become infested with beetles, and lose all economic value. The result has been closed sawmills, lost jobs, and ghost towns. Even union leaders know that timber salvage is the last chance to keep many sawmill workers employed. "If we don't get whacked one way, we get whacked another with NAFTA," said a representative of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. NAFTA has become the latest weapon in the environmentalists' war on the West. James M. Sheehan is a research associate at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. _______ __________ ___________ / | / | | | |__________ | | | | \ | | \ _______ |__________ ___________ COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE 1001 Connecticut Ave. NW #1250 Washington, DC 20036 202-331-1010, fax 202-331-0640 Permission to reprint must be obtained from the publishing journal listed above. Permission to copy granted as long as these lines are left intact. To subscribe to the cei list, send a message to CEI@digex.com. "The Virtual Hand: CEI's free-market guide to the information superhighway" is available for $5. 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