GP Protests "Contract with America"

[The.Greenbase@gb.greenpeace.org]

>>  GREENPEACE PROTESTS "CONTRACT WITH AMERICA"


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                    GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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>>  GREENPEACE PROTESTS "CONTRACT WITH AMERICA"
 
WASHINGTON, March 9, 1995 (GP) Activists from the environmental
group Greenpeace took to the steps of the U.S. Capitol today to
protest the Republican's "Contract With America" and its
potentially devastating impact on public health and the
environment.
 
On the same day the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs was
addressing the Contract's regulatory moratorium, and
Representative Bill Archer (R-TX) was unveiling a House GOP tax
plan that could cost as much as $700 billion over 10 years, more
than a dozen Greenpeace protesters dressed in gas masks and full-
body orange hazard protection suits unfurled a 30-by-seven foot
banner reading "Warning: The Contract With America Is Hazardous
To Our Health."
 
"Although it does not directly use the word environment, the
Republican's "Contract with America" contains hidden provisions
that, if passed, will hinder the enforcement of every
environmental law in this country,"  said Greenpeace campaigner
Rick Hind.
 
Already proposals are coming before Congress that will deeply 
undermine much of the work Greenpeace and the environmental
movement have done for the past twenty-five years.   Three
potentially-devastating proposals of the "Contract with America"
have already passed in the House:  legislation to drop  "unfunded
mandates"; legislation to apply "risk assessment" and cost
benefit analysis as a precondition on federal regulations; and,
legislation to protect private-property rights, also known as
the" takings" proposal.  
 
In its lead editorial today,  the Washington Post said " the cost
[of the takings proposal] would be enormous; the government would
in many cases be paying people and companies to stop doing
things--polluting the air, destroying streams--inimical to the
public interest."  Said Rick Hind, "If people in this country are
dissatisfied with anything, it is that environmental laws and
regulations are not strong enough, not that they are too strong."
 
It is hard to believe that anyone who knows what is actually
happening in towns and cities across America could actually
propose rolling back environmental and public health protection. 
But, while we are made ill from toxic chemicals, air pollution,
and unsafe drinking water, Congress IS in fact rolling back
environment and public health laws.  And they're doing it TODAY. 
 
ENDS
 
 
CONTACT:  Rick Hind, 202-319-2505; Jonathan Hall, 319-2542; or
Tim Andrews, 319-2494.