QLG Update: The Tide Is Turning!

by Daktari and Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion

The Quincy Library Group (QLG) bill (H.R. 858) swept through the House like a tidal wave on a 429-1 vote and looked like it was going to swamp the Senate, but now the tide seems to be turning against this sinister timber sale scam. The Senate was scheduled to take a voice vote on the QLG because not even one Senator was willing to stand up and speak against it. Just to make sure the timber industry would get this bill passed, two forest-death raiders masquerading as forest-health crusaders orchestrated a QLG rider in the wee hours just before Congress was going to recess. Congressman (sic) Helen Chenowith attached the QLG bill, as amended by Larry Craig, to a House bill dealing with mineral rights in North Dakota (say what!?).

At the last possible minute Senators Patrick Leahy and Dale Bumpers put a "pocket hold" on both QLG bills, effectively stalling a vote until next session of Congress. Then, in a surprise move, an initial co-sponsor of the QLG bill, Senator Barbara Boxer, dropped her sponsorship and claimed she would actually vote against it. New analysis has revealed that the QLG will devastate critical old-growth stands in the Sierras, and as the "greenest" member of the Senate, this made it unacceptable to Boxer. Despite these miraculous "death bed" reprieves, forest activists now essentially face "double jeopardy" with two QLG bills coming up for votes in the Senate at the end of January.

That Ole Compromise Yackety-Yack

The QLG looks good to politicians and the press. In fact, it's too good to be true. The QLG presents itself as a collaborative community effort between "local" timber industry executives and "grassroots" environmentalists. Together, this group of 30 folks came to consensus about how they want to continue logging on 2.5-million acres of three national forests in California. This group's understanding of "consensus" is a little warped, though. They believe that everyone else in the country-that's 280-million fellow citizens and future generations of all species-must be bound by the terms of their private consensus agreement. Because this whole scenario fits so perfectly into the right-wing agenda of asserting "local control" against "Big Government," the QLG curried favor with local Congressmen Wally Herger and Frank Riggs. In a wimpy Congressional compromise, "green" Democrats like George Miller somehow came to consensus with vile anti-environmental Republicans. Consequently, the QLG bill has been championed by both Republicrats and Demoblicans alike: Frank Riggs and George Miller, Helen Chenowith and Barbara Boxer, Larry Craig and Bill Clinton. Unfortunately, this self-deluding compromise yackety-yack didn't stop with congressional politicians. Sierra Club CEO Carl Pope collaborated in the QLG scheme by offering to write "friendly amendments" for Senator Boxer in order to help her mollify outraged California activists. Fortunately, dissident Sierra Clubbers in the John Muir Society caught wind of Pope's collaboration and raised holy hell over it.

Pope's maneuvers led Boxer to believe that mainstream enviros would support her, but now she has had to make an embarrassing retreat from the legislation, leaving her California colleague and co-sponsor of the QLG bill, Diane Feinstein, holding the bag. However, the rest of the Senate, especially Feinstein, can only fool themselves for so long. Despite the self-hype about consensus between timber goons and eco-freaks on the QLG, the happy fact of the matter is that over 140 environmental groups from across the country have voiced their adamant opposition to the QLG bill-and not a single environmental group has endorsed it!