September

Greenwire
September 30, 2003
Enviro Lawsuits en Route - Delays Continue for Vermont Highway Plan
Brian Stempeck

One of the four projects championed by Mineta last week was the Chittenden Circumferential Highway, a long-delayed 16.7-mile highway around Chittenden County, which includes Burlington, the largest city in the state.

But later that month, Bush's executive order trumped EPA's concerns, according to environmentalists in Vermont. Just before his 2002 election, Gov. Jim Douglas (R) -- in the middle of a close gubernatorial race -- met with Vice President Dick Cheney, urging the administration to include the Chittenden project on DOT's high-priority project list. On Oct. 31, 2002, the project was included on DOT's list, and a week after the list's release, Douglas won the election by about 6,000 votes.

"It was a political move to give a boost to Douglas a few days before the election," said Brian Dunkiel, an attorney who represents the Vermont chapter of the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth.

Correspondence between FHWA and EPA officials shows that highway officials were able to address some of EPA's concerns about growth issues and stormwater pollution, Dunkiel said. But that doesn't address what the agency stated as its broader concern.

"In EPA's original letter, they were questioning the wisdom of the project itself," he said. "That fundamental question of EPA's was never dealt with in these meetings. It appears to have been dropped by EPA without any explanation."

Bill McKibben, Enough, 2003

"Some environmentalists have broken ranks with some parts of organized science, their usual allies in the fight against climate change or for habitat conservation. 'The idea of redesigning humans and animals to suit the primarily commercial goals of a limited number of individuals is fundamentally at odds with the principle of respect for nature,' Brent Blackwelder, the director of Friends of the Earth, said as the first cloning debates began."

Financial Times
September 11, 2003
Peruvians Find Loans for Gas Pipeline at IDB
By Demetri Sevastopulo

The Inter-AmericanDevelop-ment Bank has approved Dollars 135m (Euros 120m, Pounds 85m) in loans to the Camisea natural gas pipeline in Peru, a controversial project that the US Export-Import Bank refused to finance because of environmental concerns.

The IDB decision immediately came under fire from environmental groups. "Public money is now being used for the destruction of the Amazon rainforests, and the IDB shall be held accountable," said Jon Sohn of Friends of the Earth.

Agence France Presse
September 10, 2003
IDB approves financing for Peru's Camisea gas project

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Wednesday approved 135 million dollars in financing for Peru's Camisea natural gas project, over the objections of environmental activists.

The bank's board approved a 75-million-dollar loan from the lender's own books and a loan of 60 million dollars pooled from other institutions, the IDB said.

Environmental and indigenous peoples' advocates, who had enlisted Hollywood celebrities in an all-out lobbying effort to block the financing, said the project would harm Peru's Amazon rainforest and native communities.

"Camisea violates international environmental standards," said Jon Sohn, lead campaigner at Friends of the Earth. "We're very disappointed."

"If there are any violations of the IDB's conditions, we'll be pressing hard and fast for the loan to be revoked," said Sohn, at Friends of the Earth.

Reuters
September 4, 2003
Celebrities: Bush, Don't Fund Peru Rainforest Ruin
By Jude Webber

LIMA, Peru, Sept 4 (Reuters) - A group of show business celebrities urged President George W. Bush on Thursday not to let U.S. tax dollars destined for a Peruvian energy project be used to fund the ruin of one of the planet's most precious rainforests.

The letter, signed by Susan Sarandon, Chevy Chase, Ruben Blades, Kevin Bacon, Jessica Lange and rock star Sting, among others, turns up the heat on the Camisea gas project ahead of a key vote on a $75 million loan next week by the Inter-American Development Bank at which the U.S. position will be crucial.

"We ... are writing to urge you to take immediate steps to ensure that our tax dollars not contribute to the wholesale destruction of one of the planet's most biodiverse and remote rainforests and to the demise of vulnerable indigenous populations," said the letter, released by environmental groups Amazon Watch and Friends of the Earth.