Sep 3, 2002 3 min read

Dear Editor: I got a good laugh when I read that Rep. Bill DeWeese criticized Rick Santorum. Can you imagine Mr. DeWeese criticizing any politician?

Here’s a representative who is so full of himself, he actually believes he represents the taxpayers well.

Name which counties in the state are the most distressed and have the highest unemployment and the highest welfare rolls. Let’s all think. Could it be Fayette and Greene counties?

Of course, Mr. DeWeese and all the other politicians in Harrisburg, never heard about cutting taxes and the waste of taxpayers’ money at the hands of our representatives.

Want to know what’s wrong in Pennsylvania? Mr. DeWeese, just look in the mirror.

David Gardner

Uniontown

Logging isn’t the answer

Dear Editor:

I am appalled that President Bush has once again introduced legislation designed to degrade the environment. King of euphemisms, Bush follows up the dramatic introduction of his “Clear Skies Initiative,” a plan that will weaken the Clean Air Act and dramatically increase air pollution, with the “Healthy Forest Initiative” whose objective it is to cut down trees.

It is clear that the effects of these “initiatives” will be incredibly injurious to the environment, and it is especially disturbing that the administration feels the need to disguise their cutbacks in environmental legislation behind euphemistic pseudo-titles.

This should only demonstrate to the public how much the Bush administration recognizes the opposition to its plans – enough, in fact, to attempt to disguise its intent. Under the “Clear Skies” initiative, power plants will be allowed to release 36 percent more smog-forming NO2, 50 percent more of the acid-rain precursor SO2, and 190 percent more mercury, which causes neurological damage, especially in infants.

With the release of plans for the Healthy Forest Initiative on Aug. 22, the Bush Administration demonstrated that it was willing to use this summer’s epidemic of forest fires as an excuse to raze crucial forest protections.

This proposal would give timber companies free reign to log even the very fire-resistant old growth trees and would open countless paths into previously untouched areas of our forests. Additionally, the immediate targets of this “thinning” are not the areas around people’s homes and communities, that are in jeopardy because of the fires, but rather deep in the woods where the timber industry would rather log.

Environmentalists recognize that a solution to the rampant wildfires is needed, but the Bush administration’s plan provides nothing but more problems. I urge the Bush administration to be increasingly cautious in the role it plays in shaping the environment.

Rather than to invent misguided initiatives that slash and burn our environmental policies, it should sponsor legislation like the Clean Power Act, which will reduce smog and other air pollution by 75 percent and provide long-term energy solutions and the National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Act, which will protect 58.5 millions acres of our nation’s oldest (and most fire-resistant) forest. Here is where the real solution lies.

Emily Flechtner

Pittsburgh