 The Toledo Blade
Steve Pollick One of the most important conservation bills ever to flow through the Congressional pipeline has sailed through the U.S. House of Representatives but may get dammed up in the Senate. The bill, called the Conservation and Reinvestment Act, or CARA, would provide more than $2.8 billion a year for 15 years for everything from coastline and marine resource protection to land and water-conservation projects. It would help fund urban parks and recreation programs, historic preservation, and farmland and endangered species protection. Many such conservation and natural resources programs are deeply underfunded and perenially end up as a political funding football that often is fumbled away. CARA is an opportunity to provide fiscal security for them. CARA money is not new, but rather a redistribution of revenue generated from leases and royalities of gas and oil drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. "Currently the Federal Government keeps almost 100 per cent of these revenues, with little returned to the states to protect and conserve our national treasures," said the Wilderness Society in support of the bill. CARA sailed through the House, 315 to 102 on May 12. The Senate version, S. 2123, has nonpartisan support. "It's going to be tough," summed Charles Boesel about CARA's chances in the Senate. Boesel is press secretary for Sen. Mike DeWine (R., Ohio), a CARA proponent. He added that Ohio alone stands to receive $46 million for conservation from CARA next year, if it is approved. On Thursday, DeWine and Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.), wrote their colleagues in the Northeast-Midwest Senate Coalition, encouraging them to support CARA. "To date only a fraction of our Outer Continental Shelf revenue has been used for program such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for which it was originally intended,'' the senators said. They are co-chairmen of the Senate's Great Lakes Task Force, and DeWine worked hard to include the Great Lakes as "coastline" in the CARA funding formula.
The senators noted that along with coastal resources, CARA would fully fund many important programs that historically have enjoyed broad nonpartisan support - "without raising a dime in taxes." These programs include the LWCF, the Pittman-Robertson Fund for wildlife conservation, the Urban Park and Recreation recovery Fund, Historic Preservation Fund, federal and Indian lands restoration, conservation easements and species recovery, and other programs. "Among many projects, these programs have conserved land for the large hunting and outdoor recreation interests of the Great Lakes region, along with parks and open space," the senators said. Sen. Spencer Abraham (R., Mich.), also supports CARA, his office said. Sen George Voinovich (R., Ohio), however, opposes CARA. Mike Dawson, his press secretary, said that Voinovich thinks that the offshore oil money should be used to reduce the national debt and prop up Social Security and Medicare, among other spending priorities. He also thinks that many of the items covered under CARA are the responsibility of state and local governments, Dawson added. On the other hand, all 50 of the state governors and the U.S. Conference of Mayors support CARA, along with a wide range of conservation and natural-resources organizations. Commentary: CARA is a long-sought golden opportunity to assure that America's renewal resources are well conserved. One need only review the rise and fall of former great civilizations to plainly see that those which failed to be good stewards of their lands and waters invariably declined. CARA is rooted in a now-defunct plan called Teeming with Wildlife. TWW was a good idea, one that one day still may be needed. It would have created an excise tax on certain outdoors equipment, from binoculars and tents to cross-country skis, to provide funds for nongame wildlife and "biodiversity" programs. Hunters and anglers for decades have paid millions of dollars in excise taxes on firearms, ammunition, and fishing tackle, among other items, to pay for fish and wildlife programs across the country. These are the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson Funds. TWW would have brought on board outdoor recreationists who do not hunt and fish yet who benefit directly by using the wild lands and water purchased under the P-R and D-J funds. It also directly would have boosted funds available for nongame programs. Then CARA came along and TWW faded into the woodwork. It had failed to generate the enthusiasm seen with CARA. That's OK. It's bigger, it's better, and it's almost here. To help make it happen, write your U.S. senators. Three of four in Ohio and Michigan already back CARA, but an "attaboy" always helps. And maybe your letter will help change the mind of Senator Voinovich.
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