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FOIA Number: 2012-0769-F FOIA MARKER This is not a textual record. This is used as an administrative marker by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Staff. Collection/Record Group: Clinton Library Collection Subgroup/Office of Origin: Council on Environmental Quality Series/Staff Member: Kathleen (Katie) McGinty Subseries: [Correspondence] OA/ID Number: 2254 FolderID: Folder Title: [E - August 1993] [Loose] Stack: Row: Section: Shelf: Position: S 61 5 2 2 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON August 11, 1993 Ms. Nancy Edwards 11546 Poema Place, #204 Chatsworth, CA 91311 Dear Ms. Edwards: Thank you for contacting me regarding your thoughts about the Animal Damage Control Act. We are in the process of reviewing our policy with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior on this very important matter. I agree that further study of the options involved is necessary for an informed and balanced decision to be made. Be assured that we will give every consideration to your concerns as we look at this issue. Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Sincerely, Katten a. Mang Kathleen A. McGinty Director, White House Office on Environmental Policy KAM/avl Date 7/29/93 Kathleen McGinty Old Executive Office Building, Room 358 Washington, DC 20501 Dear Ms. McGinty: We urge you to do everything in your power to bring to an end the outdated, tax-supported federal war on wildlife being waged by the Animal Damage Control (ADC) Program. The ADC exists as a blatant subsidy to the livestock industry. Taxpayers should not be expected to provide a zero-risk environment for anyone. We want a more efficient government in which public interests, not private interests, are served first. The ADC Predator Control Program is neither cost effective nor bio- logically sound. In 1992, the ADC spent over 45 million taxpayer dollars to kill wildlife on public lands and to develop poisons and control techniques for wild animals. Most of these techniques are indiscriminate and place threatened and endangered species in jeo- pardy. Animals, quite obviously, have different attributes and capabili- ties than humans; but every sentient creature has inherent value and the primary right not to suffer needlessly. Just as intelli- gence is not a criterion for determining the rights of humans, neither should it be for non-human animals. The ADC's killing methods of poison baits, traps, snares, denning, and aerial gunning are not only indiscriminate, but cause uncon- scionable pain and suffering to many precious creatures. This in- humane insanity must stop. Please speak out on behalf of these helpless, voiceless beings. Protect our natural heritage. Most sincerely, Nancy Edwards 115461 Poema Pl. #20Y Chatsworth CA 91311 Member of WHAT WE CAN DO Letters on Behalf of Animals "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animlas are treated." - Gandhi THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON August 2, 1993 Mr. Larry Edwards Greenpeace Alaska Forests Campaign Sitka, Alaska 99835 Dear Mr. Edwards: Thank you for contacting me regarding the proposed change in the U.S. Forest Service administrative appeals regulation. It was good to hear from you, and I apologize for the delay in my response. As you know, I share President Clinton's and Vice President Gore's commitment to the preservation of our environment. In response to overwhelming interest on this issue, the Forest Service extended the public comment period on the administrative appeals process to last 45 days. I appreciate learning your thoughts about this matter. Again, thank you for sharing your concerns with me. Sincerely, Kathleen A. McGinty Director, White House Office on Environmental Policy KAM/avl 3 GREENPEACE D Alaska Forests Campaign Box 6001 Sitka, Alaska 99835 907-747-8996 1 Larry Edwards N May 27, 1993 FAX R-360 (I) w FOR: Katie McGinty Office of Environmental Policy The Whitehouse I 8 PAGES FOLLOW VI : Dear Katie, The Alaska Region of the Forest Service and the Stikine Area Office have taken actions to unduly restrict the time allowed a to submit appeals on the North and East Kuiu Plan, and at the same time has denied the public meaningful access to the planning record. IT Since time is running short for Q correcting these injustices before logging E and road building begin under the plan, I am a sending you copies of emergency requests I have made of the Chief of the Forest Q In Service. I am sending them to you in hopes that higher levels of the administration can come to our aid. By "our" I mean approximately 13 environmental, community and tribal organizations which have participated in the planning process and are preparing to appeal. Thanks for whatever you can do to help us. Sincerely, T. . J y Edward 0 Recycled peper. MAY-27-93 THU 9:19 Larry Edwards P.02 Adelaide Amsterdam Anchorage Auckland Brussels Buenos Aircs Chicago Copenhagen Dublin Gothenberg Humburg Lowes-UK Luxembourg Madrid Montrcal New York City Oslo Palms de Mallores Parls Rome Sun Francisco San Joso- Costa Ricz Seattle Stockholm Sydney Toronto Vancouver Vienna Washington Zurich GREENPEACE Alaska Forests Campaign Box 6001 Sitka, Ak 99835 907-747-8996 May 24, 1993 Chief Dale Robertson BY FAX U.S.D.A. Forest Service Box 96090 Washington, DC 20090-6090 Dear Mr. Robertson: I am writing concerning the denial to the public of its right to due process in its review and appeal of the North and East Kuiu Final Environmental Impact Statement ("Kuiu Plan"). The purpose of this letter is to request that you extend the deadline for the submission of appeals, in order that the rights of the public are respected in full. We request that you order the appeal period to remain open through at least June 18 and that any actions allowed by the Record of Decision (ROD) be stayed until the appeals have been considered. We make this request for the following reasons: 1. THE PUBLIC HAS BEEN DENIED ACCESS TO THE PLANNING RECORD, AND THE TIME THE RECORD WAS UNAVAILABLE FOR REVIEW SHOULD BE ADDED TO THE PERIOD ALLOWED FOR APPEAL SUBMISSION. During a critical period of time, extending from publication of the Kuiu Plan ROD on April 23 until tomorrow (May 25), the public has been denied its entitled access to the administrative record and project files for the Kuiu Plan. Public access to the administrative record and project files was, to our knowledge, not attempted until May 14. From that date to the present, access has been denied; however the Forest Supervisor has promised improved access beginning tomorrow. It remains to be seen how much access will be allowed. Therefore we request that the deadline for submission of appeals be extended from June 7 to June 18 at the earliest, and longer if full access to the records is not allowed beginning tomorrow or if there is delay in considering this request. MAY-27-93 THU 9:20 Larry Edwards GREENPEACE -- May 24, 1993 Page 2 The FEIS states: "The public may also review the planning records at the Forest Supervisor's Office located at 15-12th Street, Petersburg, Alaska 99833." The record has not been available for review as indicated however. To date access to the record has been highly restricted. The public has not been allowed to peruse the record, documents have only been provided for review if selected "by title," an index to documents (providing titles) was not available until late last week, and an appointment is required to review documents. Consequently only two documents have been obtained to date. This is despite a conserted effort which I made to obtain access to the record, beginning May 14 and spanning four working days. I made a trip to Petersburg in order to review the record as the FEIS indicated I could, but was denied the opportunity. While it appears that better access to the record may be allowed beginning tomorrow, valuable time and this opportunity to review the record have passed by. Also, much effort which should have been spent on reviewing the record and preparing our intended appeal had to be diverted to battling Planning Staff Officer Michael Condon (the Forest Supervisor was out of town) over access to the record. This is not right, especally in view of the limited time allowed for submitting appeals. We ask you to remedy this by extending the appeal deadline. The reason given by Mr. Condon for the near total suppression of access is that the record contains FOIA-exempt documents and that an appointment must therefore be made 80 that the researcher can be "assisted" by a Forest Service employee. He said this is necessary SO documents containing protected information on cultural sites or attorney-client communications can be withheld, and that each requested document would therefore have to be reviewed by the agency employee before being passed to the requestor. He also said such supervision was necessary SO that a record could be kept for Forest Service attorneys of who saw which documents. He said that he had no personnel available to oversee our review, and that an appointment would be necessary. Thus, three types of delay are presented to the public -- the need to await an appointment, the need to await screening of individual documents by Forest Service personnel, and the need to await production of the DATALIB index before documents can be selected. Our contention on the other hand is: that no requirement for an appointment was stated in the FEIS, that requiring an appointment is therefore and otherwise unreasonable, and that the Forest Supervisor or planning team have had ample time to prepare the planning record for completely unfettered public access and review. The Record of Decision was signed January 20, 1993 -- four months ago. In that length of time, documents containing legitimately FOIA- exempt information could have easily been set aside or have had GREENPEACE -- May 24, 1993 Page 3 specific sections redacted. In fact, this could have been done on an on-going basis as documents were added to the record. Therefore there should have been little or no need for supervision of citizen reviewers by agency personnel. Finally, the desire of agency attorneys to discover what documents the public might find of interest is an unreasonable rationalization for the oppressive restrictions to access. From one of the few documents we were unable to obtain (1992- '93 Kuiu APC Long-Term Sale Implementation Analysis Study Plan, 4/17/90, page 13) we note the following: "Because this is a particularly high-visibility project, it is essential that the planning process, including all analysis and conclusions, be well documented. The records will be current and organized in a fashion that facilitates easy document retrieval." "The planning record will be maintained by the team leader on an on-going basis. An automated index of the record will be maintained using the DATALIB software During repeated visits to the S.O. on May 17, 18 and 19, I was told by Mr. Condon (the former team leader and now the Planning Staff Officer) that the DATALIB index was not available and would take ten days to two weeks to obtain. He also said that it was only out of the kindness of his heart that he would provide it at all, since it was not an existing document and therefore not subject to FOIA. Access to this index was essential to my review efforts since I was shut out of the record unless I could request documents "by title." This index should have been "maintained," up-to-date, and immediately available to the public. As it happened, on the afternoon of May 19 while battling Mr. Condon for the timely production of a named document, he mentioned as an after-thought that he had found a copy of the DATALIB index a little while before. After a heated argument about producing it, he agreed to expedite copying the index to provide a copy at the close of business that day. The index was provided as promised; however, my days in Petersburg were up, and I had to fly out early the next morning. The index was therefore of very limited usefulness to me, but I passed it on to interested environmentalists in Petersburg. Attachment-B was received with the index in response to Attachment-A. Becky Knight of Narrows Conservation Society (Petersburg) will avail herself of an appointment subsequently obtained for tomorrow -- I will be unable to return to Petersburg at that time. In my 3-1/2 working days in Petersburg I had been able to inspect only two documents from the record, plus the DATALIB index (whose production was not timely). The purpose of my trip to Petersburg -- a thorough review of the public record -- had been COMPLETELY frustrated. Other environmental organizations that are GREENPEACE -- May 24, 1993 Page 4 considering appealing the ROD were also interested in what my review might reveal, and withholding the planning record is deterimental to their appeal efforts as well as mine. I therefore request that the time allowed for public appeal be extended as described above and that any action under the ROD be stayed until all appeals can be considered. 2. THE TIME ALLOWED FOR PUBLIC APPEAL HAS BEEN CUT SHORT, AND SHOULD BE RESTORED. As you probably know, Greenpeace and other organizations that are preparing appeals recently submitted a collective request for emergency stay of the ROD to Regional Forester Mike Barton. This was granted only in part. Action under the ROD was planned to commence today, May 24, two weeks before the end of the 45 day appeal period specified in the ROD (see ROD, page 36). Mr. Barton agreed to stay that action until June 2, a critical five days before the end of the appeal period on June 7. This effectively shortens the appeal period to less than the number of days promised in the ROD. This shortening of the appeal period is unfair and improper, especially when combined with the denial of the planning record to the public, as described above. I assure you that Greenpeace and others who will appeal the North and East Kuiu ROD will raise very substantial issues on appeal. I ask only that we be given a fair shot at bringing our appeals -- meaning full access to the record for the number of days originally allotted in the ROD, and no action until our appeals have been considered. Respectfully, Larry Edwards Alaska Forests Campaigner Voice: 907-747-8996 FAX: 907-747-4801 CC: Mike Espy, Secretary of Agriculture Jim Lyons, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture The Honorable George Miller, Chairman, House Nat. Res. Committee Katie McGinty, Office of Environmental Policy Two PAGES ATTACHED. United States Forest Alaska Region Tongass National Forest Department of Service Stikine Area Agriculture P.O. Box 309 Petersburg, AK 99833 ATTACHMENT Reply To: 6270-1 B Date: May 19, 1993 Larry Edwards, GREENPEACE Becky Knight, Narrows Conservation Society This is in response to your information request, made under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), dated May 19, 1993. In your letter you requested "an index of all documents in the Planning and Administrative Record and freedom to peruse and copy all documents". After submitting this initial request, Larry Edwards made a subsequent visit to this office to request a copy of the Public Involvement Plan for the North and East Kuiu Project. Enclosed is a copy of the planning record index (85 pages). This index includes a brief description of each document in the record. Also enclosed 1s the Public Involvement Plan you requested (10 pages). To "peruse and copy" documents in the planning record, you can set up an appointment with Michael Condon of my staff. An appointment is necessary to make sure that we have someone available to assist you in finding and copying documents and also to make sure that FOIA excempt documents are removed from any records you review. At your option, you may select individual documents from the planning record index, and copies will be provided to you. It is my understanding that your use of these documents is in the public interest and not for commercial gain and so I waive any fees associated with gathering and copying this information. In your request you stated that you felt you "have been treated improperly" because you were denied immediate access to the planning record. Please understand that I have a limited number of people and a significant workload. If, in the future, you call shead to schedule a meeting and give us some advance warning so that we can be prepared, we will be in a much better postion to meet your scheduling needs. Sincerely, michal Condoz Acting for ABIGAIL R. KIMBELL Forest Supervisor FS.6200.28(7.22) Adelaide Amsterdam Anchorage Auckland Brussels Bucnos Aires Chicago Copenhagen Dublin Gothenberg Hamburg Lewes-UK Luxembourg Madrid Montreal New York City Oslo Pulma de Mallorca Paris Rome San Francisco San Jose. Costa Rica Scattle Stockholm Sydney Toronto Vancouver Vienna Washington Zurich GREENPEACE Alaska Forests Campaign Box 6001 Sitka, Ak 99835 907-747-8996 May 26, 1993 Chief Dale Robertson BY FAX U.S.D.A. Forest Service Box 96090 Washington, DC 20090-6090 Subj: Emergency Request for Determination on Our KUIU APPEAL EXTENTION REQUEST of Yesterday. Dear Mr. Robertson: At the beginning of business your time yesterday, I sent you a request for an extension of the time allowed for the public to appeal the ROD for the North and East Kuiu FEIS. I am writing now to provide additional information and to ask that the extension go beyond the June 18 mentioned. Yesterday Becky Knight of Narrows Conservation Coalition visited the Stikine S.O. to review the Kuiu planning record. She was allowed to select and review documents for about 2-1/2 hours, and in that time was able to look at only about 20 of approximately 50 documents she had selected for inspection. Her work was slowed by because Planning Staff Officer Michael Condon interposed himself in the process, retrieving documents from the file and reviewing them himself first before delivering them for inspection. While Ms. Knight is not doing this work for Greenpeace, she has agreed to provide us (and other interested organizations) with the information gleaned. Her work is of vital importance to us in preparing our appeal. Full access to the project files is essential; we have not had that yet, and it is now apparent that we will not have it within the timeframe in which our appeal must be lodged. Mr. Condon told Ms. Knight yesterday that he would be unable to provide further access to the files until next week. Regional Forester Mike Barton has however made a decision that timber from the Kuiu Plan will be offered on June 2, next Wednesday. We are racing to prepare our appeal by that deadline; however, we are placed at a serious disadvantage by the unavailablity of documents. We need them now. We have made a concerted effort to obtain them. They have been denied to us. In view of the June 2 cutoff date, obtaining documents next week, or even tomorrow, does us absolutely no good. Therefore, at a critical time in the appeal process we have been denied access to the vast majority of the planning record -- the interested public has been able to obtain access to a grand total of only about 23 documents since attempts to access the record began on May 14. The clock should be left running on the length of the extension (i.e. beyond the June 18 date mentioned earlier) because access to the record is still highly restricted. We urge you to make an immediate decision on our request for an extension of time and a stay of action, 50 that we may know well the before close of business (Alaska time) on Thursday whether our request will be granted. The sooner we may know your decision the better. We ask for Thursday SO that if your decision on our request is affirmative, we will not waste considerable effort in preparing a hurried appeal which we will have to redo later. Also, this is a holiday weekend coming up. In conclusion, the Stikine S.O. has unfairly denied the public the freedom of information to which it is entitled. The need for access to the information is time-critical because of the necessity of preparing an appeal within a set period of time. The Regional Forester and the Stikine S.O. together are taking advantage of this fact by on the one hand making access to the record exceedingly difficult, and on the other hand by lopping about one week off of time allowed for appeal of decisions of this type. We urge you to repudiate these unfair and un-American tactics by granting our request. Thank you for your consideration. You may reply by FAX to 907- 747-4801. Sincerely, Larry Edwards Edwards Alaska Forests Campaigner CC: Mike Espy, Secretary of Agriculture Jim Lyons, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture The Honorable George Miller, Chairman, House Nat. Res. Committee Katie McGinty, Office of Environmental Policy GREENPEACE A Alaska Forests Campaign Box 6001 Sitka, Alaska 99835 907-747-8996 Larry Edwards 2 7 R-360 9 FOR KATIE M- GINTY I OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY - WHITE HOUSE 6 N 00 a MISSING PROE Focus For EARLIER R TRANSMISSION. E a 0 T C Recycled paper. MAY-27-93 THU 9:29 Larry Edwards P.02 5/19/93 ATTACHMENT TO: MICHAEL CONDON A PLANNING STAFF officer From: Lorry EDWARDS, GREENPEACE BECKY KNIGHT, NARROWS CONSENUATION SOCIETY DEAR MR. CONDON, WE ARE IN THE office TODAY TO too REVIEW THE PLANNING RECORD (SEE FEIS/KUIU PAGE 1-2). WE NEED THE IMMODIATE ACCESS TO THESE FICES AS PROVIDES For IN THE EIS, sovo FICOS SHOULD HAVE BEEN RESDAY For PUBLIC REVIEW. WE OBJECT THES ACCEBS Hps BEEN DENIED, AND FEEL WE HAVE BEEN TREATED IMPROPORLY. GIVEN THE SITUATION WE HAVE THEROBY BEEN PUT IN, WE ASK INSTEAD FOR PN INDEX ac pu Do COMMONTS IN THE PLANNING AND DOMINISTRATHS RECORD AND FREEDOM TO PERUSE AND Copy All Documents WHICO PRE NOT "CLASSIFIED" (EXCEPT PORTIONS WHICH ARE "CLASSIFIED" TO PROTECT SITE -SPECIFIC CUCTURSE RESURCES OR PTTONNEY/CUENT PRIVLEDGE. I & Edward LARRY EDWARDS BECKY KNIGHT Body knight P.S. PLEASE PUT P Copy of THIS CETTER IN THE PLANNING RECORD. THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON August 17, 1993 Mr. Edward F. Engle 1447 Old Town Road Winston-Salem, N.C. 27106 Dear Mr. Engle: Thank you for contacting me regarding your concerns on the Executive Order on Recycled Goods. It was good to hear from you. I share President Clinton's and Vice President Gore's commitment to preserving our environment in a way that leads to strong and sustainable economic growth. Recycling is one of our top priorities. As you know, through the hard work and initiative of many community and industry leaders, recycling has become almost routine to many people. To really make recycling a success, further outreach is needed to encourage both the supply and demand for recycled products. To that end, the President announced in his Earth Day speech his intention to sign an Executive Order on recycled goods. This Executive Order will strengthen the previous Federal Agency Recycling Order of October 1991 by requiring a revision of procurement guidelines for recycled products, establishing new content standards for recycled printing and writing paper, and encouraging federal agencies to set procurement goals for recycled products. This is an important first step. The Excutive Order will also require that Federal Agencies begin to procure printing and writing paper containing post- consumer material. The purpose of this policy, among other things, is to provide an incentive for pulp and paper mills to use recovered materials, not just virgin materials, to make paper. This will provide markets for paper recovered from the municipal solid waste stream and ultimately result in substantially lower prices for recycled papers contacting recovered materials. Again, thank you for sharing your concerns with me. Sincerely, Kathleen A. McGinty Director, White House Office on Environmental Policy KAM/avl July 25, 1993 Ms. Katie McGinty Director, Office of Environmental Policy The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, D.C. 20500 **this paper contains 50% post-consumer waste** Dear Ms. McGinty, I understand that a presidential order requiring federal agencies to buy recycled paper with post-consumer material is to be issued during August and that Mack McLarty met with paper companies such as Georgia Pacific who want to weaken the already somewhat weak standards being proposed. I respectfully urge you to NOT to listen to those paper companies like Georgia Pacific who have dragged their feet the last three years in investing in deinking and other technologies while the country has faced a solid waste crisis and the general public has cried out for more markets for recycled paper. A modest recycled content goal for 1996 and beyond would do little to boost long term investment by paper companies in recycling technologies. In addition it would give the Japanese and European paper companies the edge in dominating the growing future markets for recycled paper products. There is NO evidence to indicate that even more ambitious post-consumer recycled content standards cannot be met and it is important to note that paper sales to federal agencies is a voluntary program--one one is forcing Georgia Pacific to sell to the federal government. The executive order would NOT force anyone to invest in recyclable technologies, but simply provides another incentive for paper companies to do so and therefore be more socially responsible. The proposed recycling standards being circulated provide paper companies six years to invest in and build new deinking capacity, yet, it only took 18 months for the Fox River Fiber and Eco Fiber plants in Wisconsin to add 300 tons a day of post- consumer deinking capacity so Georgia Pacific and others are wrong when they say it cannot be done. Such investments will save virgin timber, make the industry more efficient and competitive, and create jobs. Establishing a long-term recycled procurement standard of less than 50% would penalize pro-jobs, pro-environment paper companies such as Mohawk Paper in New York, Cross Pointe Paper in Minnesota and others who have already made these socially responsible investments. Please don't reward the inertia and short-sightedness of paper companies such as Georgia Pacific. I respectfully urge that the standard for post-consumer for 1999 and beyond be increased to 50% and that short term standards be maintained and not weakened from currently discussed levels: 15% post-consumer in '94 20% " " in '96 25% " II in '97 Many thanks for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Edward F. Engle 1447 Old Town Rd. Winston-Salem, N.C. 27106 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON August 3, 1993 oth .E. 56345 contacting my office regarding the siting of Lastrup, Minnesota. I apologize for the delay I share President Clinton's and Vice President to the preservation of our environment in a way ng and sustainable economic growth. learning your thoughts about the siting of the rup, Minnesota. Again, thank you for sharing me. Sincerely, Kathen a. Misis Kathleen A. McGinty Director, White House Office on Environmental Policy 100/3rd St. S.E, Little Falls, mn 56345 May 9, 1993 Dear Mr. Me Ginty, I am writing to tell you the I am opposed to the building of GWEN tower at Lastrup, MIV. I do not want this or any other GWEN Tower to be built. it is a waste of scarce resources and not neassary. Please do all in your power to stop this and all EWEN towers from being built. Sincerely yours, Mary Eltgroth