Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Ensign-led panel hears environmental, military battle

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., has landed in the middle of a high-stakes fight between the Pentagon and environmentalists in his new job as chairman of an Armed Services subcommittee.

Activist groups are increasingly suing the Defense Department under federal environmental laws, which threaten the military's access to its own bases -- and its ability to train for war, officials from the four top branches of the military told Ensign at a hearing Thursday.

"The problem is it's getting progressively difficult to train," said Gen. John Keane, vice chief of staff for the U.S. Army. "Each year it gets worse."

But environmental groups said the Pentagon is asking for "outrageous" exemptions from five important laws: the Clean Air Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the "Superfund" law aimed at cleaning up some of the most polluted sites in the nation.

Environmental lobbyists targeting Ensign's panel say the request would endanger air, water, land and animals. The proposal would be "disastrous" for marine wildlife in particular, said Gerry Leape, National Environmental Trust.

Green groups say military bases can both prepare for conflict and protect the environment, as they have for decades.

John Walke, a director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the legislation is "dangerously vague."

"The frightening thing about the legislation is just how broad it is," Walke said.

Ensign inherited the highly charged issue when he became chairman of the 17-member Armed Services readiness subcommittee this year. The challenge will be to balance the needs of the military and the environment, he said.

"We're already doing both, it's just that some of these lawsuits will have a dramatic effect on military readiness," Ensign said after the hearing.

Ensign plans a second hearing in a few weeks for testimony from environmental groups.

"I want to hear from the other side, but based on the case the military has made to me, they have some major, major concerns with regard to readiness," Ensign said.

Critics of the Pentagon request include a number of state and local governments. About 30 state attorneys general told Congress that the Pentagon proposal may stick states with dirtier air and water.

Defense officials said that in the last 30 years the U.S. military has transformed itself from careless polluter to the nation's top steward of public land, but environmentalists said that's not the case.

The vice chiefs said they just want relief from environmental laws that go too far. In California, a critical shrimp habitat proposal would restrict training at all of Travis Air Force Base. And at Fort Lewis in Washington, 72 percent of the training land is protected for the Northern Spotted Owl, even though none actually exist on the land, Keane said.

"The impact is profound," Keane said. "It frustrates the leaders and soldiers. Does this pass the common sense test?"

Another debate centers on the use of a new Navy low-frequency sonar designed to track a new generation of quiet enemy submarines, Adm. William Fallon, vice chief of Naval Operations, said.

A federal judge in November restricted use of the system. The Navy obtained necessary federal permits to use the sonar, and its effect on marine life would be "negligible," Fallon said in written testimony. But for now the Navy is limited to using the sonar in a small area of the Western Pacific, even though the Navy has an "immediate need" to use the technology to track subs being produced or acquired by China, North Korea and Iran, Fallon said.

Critics say the sonar, which can spread over thousands of miles, permanently damages marine mammal hearing and completely changes their behavior. The Navy initially field-tested its new sonar in violation of federal and state laws, the National Resources Defense Council said.

And environmental groups say the Defense Department's proposal is broader than the sonar issue. The Pentagon wants to weaken the definition of "harassment" of sea creatures, the groups say. More marine mammals would be injured and their ability to breed, nurse, feed and migrate would be impaired if the Defense Department gets its way, according to a brief prepared by 12 environmental groups.

The Pentagon has requested that Congress attach its proposal to the must-pass Defense Authorization bill, a Pentagon spending measure that is approved each year.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, backs the Pentagon proposal as it is. He is optimistic the bill would be well-received in the GOP-controlled House. Gibbons said "extremist environmentalists" were using scare tactics to funnel support away from reasonable requests by the Pentagon.

"The life of an American serviceman is worth more than a willow flycatcher," Gibbons said.

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