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CNN Live Today
Interview With Sean Cosgrove
Aired December 03, 2003 - 10:56 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now President Bush has a lot of people behind him who have been pushing for this. There are a lot of people who don't agree with it, however. One of those is Sean Cosgrove. He is the national policy specialist from the Sierra Club and he joins us from Washington today. Sean, good morning.
SEAN COSGROVE, NATIONAL POLICY SPECIALIST, SIERRA CLUB: Good morning, Daryn. Glad to be here.
KAGAN: I guess your perspective this, is not a good morning. You've had problems with this bill. Briefly can you highlight what you don't like about it?
COSGROVE: Well I tell you, this is a bill that's going to leave communities at risk. It's going to increase commercial logging in some of our most sensitive wildlife areas and some of our most rare and precious ancient forests.
The Bush administration laid down a pretty heavy smoke screen related to their forest fire policy on this. This is just another piece of legislation that the administration is pushing in a long line of anti-environmental provisions.
KAGAN: Let me ask you this, Sean. Would you at least admit that something had to be done? When you look at the incredible -- I just want to throw some numbers here at you. Just in this last round of wildfires in southern California, 750,000 acres burned, 3,600 homes destroyed, not to mentioned businesses and over 1,100 other structures.
And that wasn't even the worst of the fire years. 2000 and 2001 were each worse than this summer. And nothing's been done to control the forests and the overgrowth.
COSGROVE: Well, actually quite a lot has been done and I think a lot more needs to be done. That's the problem with this bill. It doesn't do enough, it doesn't do the right amount of fuel reduction activities around homes and communities.
You know, Daryn, the Sierra Club has been pushing for over ten years to do more fuel reduction around homes and communities. We've been asking the Forest Service and other federal agencies to provide the resources and personnel, asking the Congress to fund it.
But they haven't been able to do that. I mean the Forest Services had all of the authority that they've needed for years to do this kind of work. But instead what the Bush administration is pushing today and what the president is signing is a piece of legislation that's just going to reduce the amount environmental impact analysis and it's going to provide subsidies and increase commercial logging in some of our most rare and precious forests.
KAGAN: My last question for you is what do people who are against these initiatives go from here? Because the president did touch on this. A key part of this law, it changes the way the courts work. It changes that the judges must look at the environmental impact versus the fire danger.
And even if the environmentalists won a court case every 60 days it's supposed to come up for review. That sounds like a very expensive legal process if you're trying to fight an initiative in the forests.
COSGROVE: Well it's outrageous the way the administration has tried to interfere with the judiciary. The judiciary had always been independent, should be independent, and the administration should have no place in interfering with them.
We're going to be looking at the projects that the administration plans on the ground. We want to see good fuel reduction around communities. Sierra Club members in Colorado and all over the country have been working on different projects like that.
But we're also going to be watching the administrations projects that increase commercial logging. I mean right now they're planning the largest commercial timber sale probably in modern history in Oregon. A place that will desecrate 12,000 acres of wild forests.
So, we're going to need to see the administration put their money where their mouth is on this bill.
KAGAN: And you'll be watching. Sean, thanks for your input. Appreciate it. Sean Cosgrove.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 3, 2003 - 10:56 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now President Bush has a lot of people behind him who have been pushing for this. There are a lot of people who don't agree with it, however. One of those is Sean Cosgrove. He is the national policy specialist from the Sierra Club and he joins us from Washington today. Sean, good morning.
SEAN COSGROVE, NATIONAL POLICY SPECIALIST, SIERRA CLUB: Good morning, Daryn. Glad to be here.
KAGAN: I guess your perspective this, is not a good morning. You've had problems with this bill. Briefly can you highlight what you don't like about it?
COSGROVE: Well I tell you, this is a bill that's going to leave communities at risk. It's going to increase commercial logging in some of our most sensitive wildlife areas and some of our most rare and precious ancient forests.
The Bush administration laid down a pretty heavy smoke screen related to their forest fire policy on this. This is just another piece of legislation that the administration is pushing in a long line of anti-environmental provisions.
KAGAN: Let me ask you this, Sean. Would you at least admit that something had to be done? When you look at the incredible -- I just want to throw some numbers here at you. Just in this last round of wildfires in southern California, 750,000 acres burned, 3,600 homes destroyed, not to mentioned businesses and over 1,100 other structures.
And that wasn't even the worst of the fire years. 2000 and 2001 were each worse than this summer. And nothing's been done to control the forests and the overgrowth.
COSGROVE: Well, actually quite a lot has been done and I think a lot more needs to be done. That's the problem with this bill. It doesn't do enough, it doesn't do the right amount of fuel reduction activities around homes and communities.
You know, Daryn, the Sierra Club has been pushing for over ten years to do more fuel reduction around homes and communities. We've been asking the Forest Service and other federal agencies to provide the resources and personnel, asking the Congress to fund it.
But they haven't been able to do that. I mean the Forest Services had all of the authority that they've needed for years to do this kind of work. But instead what the Bush administration is pushing today and what the president is signing is a piece of legislation that's just going to reduce the amount environmental impact analysis and it's going to provide subsidies and increase commercial logging in some of our most rare and precious forests.
KAGAN: My last question for you is what do people who are against these initiatives go from here? Because the president did touch on this. A key part of this law, it changes the way the courts work. It changes that the judges must look at the environmental impact versus the fire danger.
And even if the environmentalists won a court case every 60 days it's supposed to come up for review. That sounds like a very expensive legal process if you're trying to fight an initiative in the forests.
COSGROVE: Well it's outrageous the way the administration has tried to interfere with the judiciary. The judiciary had always been independent, should be independent, and the administration should have no place in interfering with them.
We're going to be looking at the projects that the administration plans on the ground. We want to see good fuel reduction around communities. Sierra Club members in Colorado and all over the country have been working on different projects like that.
But we're also going to be watching the administrations projects that increase commercial logging. I mean right now they're planning the largest commercial timber sale probably in modern history in Oregon. A place that will desecrate 12,000 acres of wild forests.
So, we're going to need to see the administration put their money where their mouth is on this bill.
KAGAN: And you'll be watching. Sean, thanks for your input. Appreciate it. Sean Cosgrove.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
