Sierra Club Blasts Senate Proposal to Trade Arctic Drilling for Steelworkers' Pensions

Letter from Steelworkers' District 11 Director below

Washington, DC: The Sierra Club today blasted proposals by the Alaska Senatorial delegation to swap votes for drilling the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for federal funding to pay for pension and health care costs for retired steelworkers as "raising cynicism and blackmail to an art form."

The proposals, under active discussion today between the Administration, and House and Senate Republican leadership, the Alaska delegation and some Senators representing steel-producing states, would involve all parties abandoning their stated political principles and adopting policies they profess to abhor, according to Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope.

"The security of pensions and health care for retired steelworkers should not depend on whether Senators from steel-producing states agree to destroy the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The livelihood and culture of the Gwich'in people of the Refuge, and the health of its caribou, musk-oxen, polar bears and migratory birds should not depend on whether the Bush Administration can terrify steelworkers into believing that their pension plans will collapse unless the Arctic Refuge is turned over to the oil industry."

The Sierra Club expressed its strong agreement with District 11 Director for the United Steelworkers, David Foster, who wrote in a letter to Senator Wellstone that "I am adamantly opposed to any effort from any source to tie the fate of steelworker legacy relief to drilling in the [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] or to any other provision of the Energy Bill. " (see full letter below)

Pope also pointed out the bitter history of promises made to working Americans by the Republican leadership in Congress since September 11.

"These discussions are happening with the same callous politicians who promised last fall that if the Congress agreed to bail-out the airlines, they would protect airline employees who were laid off. There is no reason to believe that this process will yield either protection for steel industry retirees, or responsible management of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.

"The Sierra Club has supported the principle that steelworker retirees need protection from the federal government for their health care and pension plans. We stood with the steelworkers a few months ago at their rally on the Mall. But Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan is right when she calls these proposals 'blackmail,'" continued Pope.

The Sierra Club also said that, "unfortunately, these cynical proposals are typical of the shape that energy legislation took first in the House, and increasingly in the Senate." The group pointed to yesterday's rejection of Senator Feinstein's amendment to require transparency in energy futures trading as another example of how the Senate energy bill has been "plundered" by special interests.

"If you or I kite bad checks, we go to jail," said Pope. "Senator Feinstein was only asking that Enron be required to disclose its energy trades, many of which amounted to fancy check kiting."

Pope concluded by saying, "indeed, the main thing that these Senators seems on the verge of learning from the Enron debacle is how to run their affairs just like Kenneth Lay ran his. The proposal to trade the destruction of the Arctic for pension security for steelworkers looks an awful lot like one of Enron's off-book partnerships."

###

Letter from David Foster, Director of United Steelworkers of America's District 11

contact: (612) 623-8045

United Steelworkers of America

District 11

April 11, 2002

U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone

Hart Senate Building

Washington, DC

Dear Paul,

As you know from our long association, my entire life in the Steelworkers' Union has been about fighting for the future of the men and women and retirees who have given their sweat and blood in America's steel mills and Minnesota's and Michigan's iron ore mines. Nothing has pained me more than the recent town meetings on the Iron Range where I have had to tell thousands of steelworker retirees about the loss of their health insurance benefits as a result of the steel crisis bankruptcies.

Two weeks ago I lobbied your office and the offices of 21 other United States senators on providing legacy cost relief to the hundreds of thousands of steelworkers whose retirement security is at risk. The vehicle for our effort was the as-yet-to-be introduced Rockefeller bill.

During the last two days I have become aware of attempts to derail this effort to provide legacy cost relief for steelworker retirees by tying its future to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other aspects of an unconscionable energy bill emerging in the U.S. Senate. This energy bill provides tax breaks for wealthy energy companies, hurts American consumers with massive deregulation schemes, and harms the interests of steelworkers in the aluminum industry in the Pacific Northwest.

I want to make myself unequivocally clear on this issue. I am adamantly opposed to any effort from any source to tie the fate of steelworker legacy relief to drilling in the A.N.W.R. or to any other provisions of the Energy Bill. I would expect, as my U.S. Senator from Minnesota, that you would fight this disastrous effort to couple these unrelated issues as the cynical political move that is. I would expect, as my U.S. Senator from Minnesota, that you would continue to stand against any drilling in the A.N.W.R. and to vote against any legislation that funded steelworker legacy relief in this fashion.

Please feel free to contact me for further discussion.

Sincerely,

David Foster, Director

United Steelworkers of America, District #11

(612) 623-8045

2829 University Ave. SE #100

Minneapolis, MN 55414