Yes, the assault on the environment continues, but the people are fighting back. A particularly destructive mission by BushCo to delete decades of progress identifying and effectively limiting the dispersal of toxic substances and pollutants is being fought by PEER, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
The bad news is that what PEER is specifically fighting at the moment appears to be a losing battle to preserve the public interest in the war against giant corporate polluters.
In a Pearl Harbor Day press release, we find that EPA officials are purging their website of documents, destroying documents and research data, and limiting the ability of their own scientists and researchers--and the public, too--from getting access to information that has been accumulated in libraries to serve the public interest.
For Immediate Release: December 7, 2006
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337
EPA SCRUBBING LIBRARY WEBSITE TO MAKE REPORTS UNAVAILABLE — Agency Sells $40,000 Worth of Furniture and Equipment for $350
Washington, DC — In defiance of Congressional requests to immediately halt closures of library collections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is purging records from its library websites, making them unavailable to both agency scientists and outside researchers, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA is taking steps to prevent the re-opening of its shuttered libraries, including the hurried auctioning off of expensive bookcases, cabinets, microfiche readers and other equipment for less than a penny on the dollar.
In a letter dated November 30, 2006, four incoming House Democratic committee chairs demanded that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson assure them “that the destruction or disposition of all library holdings immediately ceased upon the Agency's receipt of this letter and that all records of library holdings and dispersed materials are being maintained.” On the very next day, December 1st, EPA de-linked thousands of documents from the website for the Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, in EPA’s Washington D.C. Headquarters.
Last month without notice to its scientists or the public, EPA abruptly closed the OPPTS Library, the agency’s only specialized research repository on health effects and properties of toxic chemicals and pesticides. The web purge follows reports that library staffers were ordered to destroy its holdings by throwing collections into recycling bins.
“EPA’s leadership appears to have gone feral, defying all appeals to reason or consultation,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting that Congress has yet to review, let alone approve, the library closures. “The new Congress convening in January will finally have a chance to decide whether EPA will continue to pillage its library network.”
Meanwhile, in what appears to be an effort to limit Congressional options, EPA is taking steps to prevent the re-opening of the several libraries that it has already completely shuttered. In its Chicago office, which formerly hosted one of the largest regional libraries, EPA ordered that all furniture and furnishings (down to the staplers and pencil sharpeners) be sold immediately. Despite an acquisition cost of $40,000 for the furniture and equipment, a woman bought the entire lot for $350. The buyer also estimates that she will re-sell the merchandise for $80,000.
“One big irony is that EPA claimed the reason it needed to close libraries was to save money but in the process they are spending and wasting money like drunken sailors,” Ruch added, noting EPA refuses to say how much it plans to spend digitizing the mountains of documents that it has removed from library shelves. “While the Pentagon had its $600 toilet seat and $434 hammer, EPA has its 29 cent book case and file cabinets for a nickel.”
In spite of its pleas of poverty, EPA is spending millions on a public relations campaign to improve the image of its research program, as well as a $2.7 million program (more than its estimated savings from library closures ) to digitize all employee personnel files, in a program called “eOPF.”
“No one believes that EPA is closing libraries and crating up irreplaceable collections for fiscal reasons,” Ruch concluded. “Instead, the real agenda appears to be controlling access by its own specialists and outside researchers to key technical information.”
This jaw-dropping piece of journalism is concluded by a list of hypertext links:
- Look at the materials removed from the OOPTS Library website
- Note the December 1, 2006 date at the bottom of the notice of file unavailability for OPTTS collections
- Read the November 30, 2006 letter from Democratic House leaders requesting a moratorium on further library closures
- Revisit the order to “recycle” the OPPTS collection
- Trace EPA’s campaign to shut down its libraries
Impeachment
Howard Zinn weighed in with an inspiring reflection on history and the fall of evil administrations.
We can't expect George Bush to scurry off in a helicopter. But we can hold him accountable for catapulting the nation into two wars, for the death and dismemberment of tens of thousands of human beings in this country, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and for his violations of the U.S. Constitution and international law. Surely these acts meet the constitutional requirement of "high crimes and misdemeanors" for impeachment....
A country with military power can destroy but it cannot build. Its citizens become uneasy because their fundamental day-to-day needs are sacrificed for military glory while their young are neglected and sent to war. The uneasiness grows and grows and the citizenry gathers in resistance in larger and larger numbers, which become too many to control; one day the top-heavy empire collapses. Change in public consciousness starts with low-level discontent, at first vague, with no connection being made between the discontent and the policies of the government. And then the dots begin to connect, indignation increases, and people begin to speak out, organize, and act.
Tomorrow is the impeachment meet-up here in New York City. One hundred twenty-five people have signed up to attend. We are organizing a petition and grass roots effort to gather one million signatures to urge Congress to investigate and impeach BushCo.
Of course, impeachment won't solve the problems in Washington, the environment, Iraq, Palestine, or the New York City public schools. But working together, the American people can begin to tackle these issues again for the common good. Ousting BushCo might just ignite collective engines, too.
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