In February, a meeting scheduled in Washington will decide the next
step towards the implementation of the “sustainable development”
environmental concept, along with other measures that critics say will
drive even more people out of rural areas and into larger cities, while
imposing stricter greenhouse gas emissions standards and limiting
private property use.
The President’s Council on Sustainable Development PCSD, a
presidential
advisory group with representation from industry, government,
environmental and some Native American organizations, is planning its
21st meeting Feb. 10 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International
Trade Center.
Though many Americans have never heard of it, the phrase “sustainable
development” emerged from a 1987 report of the United Nation’s World
Commission on Environment and Development (also known as the Brundtland
Commission) entitled “Our Common Future.” Though the term has no legal
definition, it means “… to meet the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,”
according to the Brundtland Commission report.
According to an official statement, the council plans to “forge a
consensus on policy, demonstrate implementation, get the word out about
sustainable
development, and evaluate progress” on a range of federal land use and
environmental issues.
During the meeting the PCSD will try to decide upon four main issues:
(1)
domestic implementation of policy options to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions; (2) the next steps in building the new environmental
management system of the 21st Century; (3) promoting
multi-jurisdictional and community cooperation in metropolitan and rural
areas; (4) policies that foster the United States’ leadership role in
sustainable development internationally.
The press release also said the Council planned “to take public
comment and
finalize recommendations for its report to the President,” but one
expert
says opposition to the Council’s proposals isn’t likely.
“There are federal EPA regulations which require the PCSD to hear
opposing viewpoints but those points of view aren’t likely to be heard
at this
meeting,” said Henry Lamb, executive director of ECO, a Tennessee-based
activist organization opposed to more federal land and conservation
regulations. “They won’t allow it.”
Lamb said that his organization attempted to air some opposition to
the
current PCSD policy recommendations at a similar meeting held late last
year in the state of Maine, but was not allowed to speak. He said
despite the
fact that the EPA regulations on opposing viewpoints is clear, the
agency
gets around them by “contracting” with local area Non-Governmental
Organizations [NGO’s] who then make up the rules as to who can and
cannot offer commentary at these “open” meetings.
“At the Maine meeting, we were not allowed to speak because we were a
private organization, not another NGO,” Lamb told WorldNetDaily. “They
made a rule that only members of an NGO could speak, and then invited
NGO’s favorable to their beliefs to the meeting.”
The most alarming aspect about the PCSD’s mission is the planned
implementation of the Kyoto environmental treaty, which calls for
drastic
cuts in so-called greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from the United
States
and a few other industrialized nations. Lamb told WorldNetDaily that the
most damaging countries — China, for instance — would not be required
to
reduce their emissions at all, thus placing an unfair economic burden on
the U.S.
Furthermore, he said, the real goal of the sustainable development
issue is
to implement the administration’s “Agenda 21” environmental regulatory
control plan, and “move people from the rural areas to the big cities,”
so
that government control of the population is made easier.
“It really has very little to do with the environment,” Lamb said.
In a recent issue, Science Magazine described the end result of the
Agenda
21 plan — if successful — as a move that would “create islands of
human
habitat in an ocean of wilderness.”
Lamb said the PCSD has been meeting since 1993, and every effort is
being
made by the Clinton administration to implement Kyoto and other
provisions without proper Senate authorization.
“If this is supposed to be a treaty, it’s supposed to be presented to
the
full Senate for a vote,” Lamb said.
“The final step is implementation,” Lamb added. “No policy document
developed by non-elected officials carries the weight of law. Therefore,
it
is necessary to find ways to get the policies written into enforceable
law.”
Ron Brown, the late secretary of the Department of Commerce, told the
10th
meeting of the PCSD that his department had determined that it could
implement 67 of the PCSD’s 154 recommendations within the framework of
existing legislative authorities. The Department of Interior is
currently
implementing the Ecosystem Management Policy by reinterpreting existing
legislative authority. And the EPA is implementing Agenda 21 objectives,
and the objectives of the earlier Framework Convention on Climate
Change, by revising existing clean air standards through the rule
promulgation
process.
None of these measures, however, are beyond the scope of Congress,
Lamb
emphasized. But neither party seems too interested in stopping the worst
abuses, he said, because the overall goal of moving people out of rural
America and into “manageable urban centers” has been progressing
unabated.
In communities across America, Lamb said, “stakeholder” councils are
being
formed, or have already been formed, to advance Agenda 21 to transform
cities and towns into “sustainable communities.” The “consensus process”
is
used to gain the appearance of public support for the principles of
sustainability, applied to a particular community. The process is
designed
to take the public policy-making function away from elected officials
and
place it in the hands of professional bureaucrats, while giving the
appearance of broad public input into the decision-making process.
