The US Department of Defense (dod) wants further exemptions from public health and environment laws in view of the country's military involvement in Iraq and the us-led war against terrorism. But environmentalists allege this is merely a part of the Bush administration's ploy to roll back environmental safeguards.
The dod is seeking that rules under the Clean Air Act; Resource Conservation & Recovery Act; and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (Superfund law) be waived to facilitate its 'Readiness and Range Preservation Initiative'. The latter aims to exempt military bases and some operations of the dod from environmental laws. It has approached the us Congress in this regard.
The Pentagon was exempted from the Migratory Birds Act in 2002, and the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act in 2003 under the same initiative. It claimed that these laws threatened to close hundreds of live-fire training ranges in the country, hindering military readiness. The exemptions will make it easier for the department to shift training sites for some weapons in the future. This, in turn, will allow the realignment of domestic military bases. "Past court cases have threatened to close down our military training, and that readiness risk is unacceptable," says Paul Mayberry, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Readiness. Emphasising that training is crucial for the country's current military role in Iraq as well as Afghanistan, Mayberry is reported to have remarked: "We as a department cannot wait for a train wreck."
However, environmental organisations like the Natural Resources Defense Council (nrdc) contend that the laws under consideration already have sufficient flexibility as they allow exemptions on a case-by-case basis in the interest of national security. They also point out that earlier, too, Pentagon's only "evidence" against the Endangered Species Act consisted of highly misleading and, in some cases, completely inaccurate anecdotes. The General Accounting Office, too, said in June 2003 that the dod had failed to produce any evidence showing that environmental laws significantly affected military readiness. Significantly, the National Park Service of the us department of the interior recently warned that the changes being sought "would cause substantial degradation of natural resources". But Karyn Wayland, legislative director, nrdc, feels that it might not be easy for the dod get fresh exemptions as many in Capitol Hill are opposed to its policies.