Watch Your Ash
Smoking Ban Looms

A committee of ACC Commissioners last week suggested three possible options for a smoking ban in local bars. Bars (and the smoking sections of restaurants) are exempted from Athens' ten-year-old anti-smoking ordinance. Last month over 40 citizens addressed the same committee at a public hearing. Most opposed a ban.
But committee chairman Tom Chasteen has told Flagpole a number of commissioners "would like to see a ban," and Commissioner John Barrow defended it as "an equal-access issue" for people who cannot tolerate second-hand smoke in bars or music venues.
"If we've learned anything" since the initial ordinance was passed, he said, "it is that you can't share the same air with a smoker and not smoke yourself." He said the current ordinance provides "no coverage at all for restaurants, as a practical matter" since it requires a "non-smoking" area but doesn't specify what that means. Even "one table in the corner" would fulfill the ordinance, he told Flagpole, "so naturally no one bothers to do even that." Barrow also noted that the current ordinance bans smoking in music venues, but that provision isn't enforced, because ACC's Fire Marshall categorizes music halls as bars if they sell alcohol.
According to the U.S. Public Health Service, smoking causes lung cancer and other cancers, coronary heart disease and chronic obstructive lung disease and low birth weight pregnancies, and can complicate other illnesses. Perhaps half of long-time smokers will eventually die of smoking-related diseases. Secondhand smoke is less dangerous, but puts non-smokers at some risk of lung cancer and can cause respiratory problems in children.
Various studies available on the Internet maintain that smoking bans haven't hurt businesses, but at last month's public hearing Daniel Berg, assistant manager of a local bar, said a ban would have an "obvious impact" on business, otherwise the restaurant owners who spoke would not be so worried about losing customers to bars.
Commissioners have also expressed concerns that a ban might favor one group over the other. Berg and others predicted that smokers would go outside and crowd the sidewalks, and he suggested that outdoor smoking areas be considered.
For over an hour last week, as several dozen citizens watched, the five commissioners on the Legislative Review Committee discussed what should go into a new ordinance. Chairman Chasteen said the county attorney had obtained copies of anti-smoking ordinances from six other Georgia cities and counties. Most of those ordinances provide an exemption for smoking in tobacco stores, and some allow smoking in adult entertainment venues, music venues or bars. Chasteen wanted to provide a "skeleton" proposal for the full commission to consider.
Saying "a lot of people have been hurt" by smoking, Commissioner Charles Carter favored an outright ban covering all bars and restaurants. That became one of three proposals accepted by the committee. But Chasteen pressed for a nighttime changeover time or "witching hour" after which smoking would be permitted only in bars (or restaurants with bars). Suggestions ranged from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. "or later;" 11 p.m. became the working proposal. A third option would exempt bars that serve no food from any ban, and allow smoking after 11 p.m. in those that do.
By a vote of 4-1 the committee directed the county attorney to draw up the three proposals. Commissioner George Maxwell voted against any ban, fearing it would be "detrimental to downtown Athens." Downtown once became a "ghost town" after many traditional businesses moved to the mall, Maxwell said. Now it is a convention center and tourist attraction, but hampering the bars and nightlife could "shut down downtown Athens again," he argued.
The proposals are expected to be discussed by the full commission in June and then to be decided in July. Commission items are normally discussed first as "new business" without a vote being taken, then decided by vote a month later. Votes are taken only at "regular" first-Tuesday Commission meetings.

John Huie

John Huie only smokes when he is on fire.

Wildflowers
Worth The Drive

On the eastern edge of Clarke County lies a uniquely rural area. Though only about five miles from downtown Athens, Barnett Shoals Road, from Whitehall Road to the intersection of Bob Godfrey and the Watkinsville section of Barnett Shoals Road, still has the sleepy, country feel you often have to go much farther to find. In order to draw attention to the beauty of this area and to emphasize why it is important to preserve, a coalition of individuals who live along the road are coordinating a Wildflower Celebration on Saturday, May 1 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Mayor Heidi Davison will proclaim May 1 as Wildflower Day in Athens- Clarke County. Organizers of the event can't promise what will be on view at the event, but the constantly changing panorama of wildflowers found along the road is sure to appeal: oxeye daisies, field pansies, golden ragwort, lyre-leaf sage, bluets, rabbitfoot clover, toadflax and many others are among the possibilities.
In addition to the wildflower display, numerous free activities to please the entire family are on tap. Drive out and see why this area is an Athens-Clarke County treasure. Bicycle enthusiasts, walkers, joggers, roller bladers and hikers are encouraged and welcome. Among the attractions will be:
o Children's Art Exhibit-Barnett Shoals Elementary School
o Tour of Children's Gardens - Barnett Shoals Elementary School
o Community Displays - Barnett Shoals Elementary School area
o Tour of Gardens at Athens Montessori School, Inc.
o Walking Tour, Rock and Shoals Granite Outcrop, led by Hugh & Carol Nourse (participation will be limited to 20 people - to sign up call 353-3440 or email gwhoge@charter.net)
o Walking/ hiking options tour of several private rural properties
o Antique car display (courtesy of George Bugg & Athens Antique Car Club)
o Harley Davidson motorcycle display (courtesy of Harley Davidson of Athens/Cycle World & Athens Hog Group)
o Animal viewing/petting (a mule, many horses, & goats)
o Pass-by Nitty Gritty Bike Band and Nitty Gritty Shadow Group
o And even more...

Gail Hoge

Gail Hoge is a member of the Keep Barnett Shoals Road Beautiful Committee.

BIG ENERGY
A Friend At Court

"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." - James Madison, in a letter to W.T. Barry, Aug. 4, 1822
RICHARD B. CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, ET AL. v. PETITIONERS: America may just chalk it up as a small victory of the Bush Administration. Big deal if Cheney doesn't have to rat out his Big Energy chums. America's disposition to protest has been deflated, ever since the erroneous presidential reports of Saddam Hussein's uranium purchases and non-existent WMDs in Iraq; so, what's a little huddle with oil executives behind closed doors?
There's more to the story than just a National Energy Policy that signals the overthrow of more than a decade's environmental progress. That's temporary. If Cheney wins this case, permanent constitutional powers flow into the halls of the Executive Office. This three-year-old story culminated on April 27 in the Supreme Court with Justice Scalia, Cheney's dear friend, participating in the decision. If Cheney wins, Bush and future presidents and their cabinets can rely on anyone – the Devil himself! – to make policy decisions, while they remain unencumbered by Congressional oversight or judicial review and therefore unaccountable to the public.
This change would be an emboldening foot-in-the-door for powerful special interests. In prospective commemoration of this verdict, let us review the record.
On January 29, 2001, newly inaugurated President George W. Bush established the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG) to formulate a comprehensive energy policy for his fledgling Administration. The Dick Cheney-led task force consisted of cabinet-level and other senior Administration officials. They collaborated during the first months of 2001 to produce a National Energy Policy, which would give policy recommendations and guidance to new appointees in the Departments of Energy, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Transportation, Commerce and the Environmental Protection Agency, in particular. The committee's final report went to the President in May (available at www.whitehouse.gov/energy/National-Energy-Policy.pdf).
Requesting information on "the number, purpose, membership, activities, and cost" of the committee, Congress, via the General Accounting Office, asked the NEPDG to release its documents to the public. The Department of Energy and other agencies have released 39,000 pages, to date, of heavily censored documents. So far, Cheney has declined Congress's requests and released none of the NEPDG papers.
Agency documents revealed a profound reliance on advice from utility companies and the oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy industries – many conspicuous campaign contributors, some of notoriously ill-repute, including Enron. The final draft of the National Energy Policy incorporated these companies' recommendations, often word for word. An email from the American Petroleum Institute containing an energy policy draft of API-friendly proposals was nearly identical in structure and content to the final National Energy Policy.
Both internal government requests and external investigations led to the conclusion that Cheney's group allowed uncomfortably close participation to energy industries. For example, the San Francisco Chronicle unearthed a memo from the infamous Kenneth Lay (former chairman of Enron, now-defunct 21st Century robber-baron, currently in custody for an unrelated matter) to Dick Cheney detailing eight recommendations for the proposed energy policy. Seven of the eight appeared in the final draft. Incidentally, George Bush's political career at that point had cumulatively received more contributions from Enron than from any other source.
The National Energy Policy suggests rolling back clean air emission standards, scrapping energy efficiency and fuel economy guidelines, and slashing development funding for wind power, solar power or other kinds of renewable energy. The Policy endorses burning more coal, using more nuclear reactors and drilling, drilling, drilling for oil, coal and gas: in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, in coastal waters and in various public lands throughout the Rockies.
Drilling permits have been a lobbying goal of federal land leaseholders for years. In short, the National Energy Policy is an "incentives smorgasbord," according to the National Resources Defense Council, for Bush-Cheney 2000 corporate sponsors, utterly disregarding the overwhelming preponderance of evidence, advice and protest from the scientific community.
The Sierra Club claims NEPDG never included a single renewable-energy scientist or environmentalist in its secret meetings. While there is nothing illegal about explicitly using policy advice from private companies, full disclosure would pull the sheets from the Administration exposing two former oilmen cozily in bed with Big Energy.
Preliminary discoveries fomented controversy over Cheney's documents. An avalanche of injunctions headed by the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch cited failures to open meetings to the public, to keep detailed minutes of each meeting and to make documents available for public inspection.
The Cheney camp played executive privilege, its ace of spades. Now this is a case about Constitutional protection for separation of powers. Bush has repeatedly appealed to the separation of powers to justify his decisions. (America has seen this argument resurface again and again, of note most recently in the Administration's assertion of rights to withhold Condoleezza Rice's testimony from 9/11 Senate hearings.)
Congressional investigations lack the jurisdiction to make the White House fully accountable. Now the Supreme Court will decide if the Judicial branch can order Cheney to hand over the documents. Both the DC District Court and the Court of Appeals have ordered a discovery plan for releasing the documents, but it seems that the winds have changed. The Supreme Court has decided to hear the case, and in its memo, takes issue with the District and Appeals Courts' decision to impinge on the President's powers.
Enter Scalia. For years, Justice Antonin Scalia has been a strident voice on the Supreme Court for "restoring the prerogatives of the executive branch." Scalia has consistently advocated protections for the presidency against Congressional committees and judicial review. At every opportunity he has expressed the strength of his convictions regarding the matter. The Administration knows that it has a friend in Scalia.
Sure enough, on January 5, 2004, not a month after the Supreme Court granted the case a hearing, Justice Scalia boarded Air Force II with Dick Cheney to enjoy a weekend of duck hunting on the property of an influential businessman who deals in offshore oil drilling equipment. Recusal motions have blown in from everywhere. In a memorandum, Scalia outlines a slick argument rejecting recusal motions and explaining his "duty" to hear the case. As the Sierra Club and most op-ed pages in America suggest, "it does damage to the integrity of the system;" first, because of the close, personal relationship between Scalia and Cheney, and second, because Cheney provided free air travel – material benefits – during the duck hunt to Scalia, the Judge who is about to try his case! Moreover, who knows what understandings or communications – even of the most basic sort – may have transpired, though Scalia vehemently denies any such insinuation.
Scalia must uphold the Appellate Court's decision to order full disclosure. Anything less would tarnish the Court's closely guarded image of neutrality. The Supreme Court heard the case on April 27. If Scalia and the Court decide in favor of Cheney, then Bush and future administrations are bolstered in their authority and disposition to conduct business behind closed doors, and this case is a signal that Big Energy, when it comes to all three branches of government, has its ducks in a row.

David J. Wrathall

David Wrathall studies public administration and policy at UGA and preoccupies himself with thoughts of justice in government.

Institute Index
Earth Day, Everyday

o Number of U.S. residents who live in areas the EPA considers "too smoggy to be healthy," in millions: 170
o Percent that federal prosecution of criminal pollution cases has dropped since 2001: 30
o Acres of wetlands removed from Clean Water Act protection since 2001, in millions: 20
o Number of babies born each year with enough mercury pollution to cause "severe health problems" including brain damage: 630,000
o Number of states and territories with fish consumption advisories due to mercury pollution: 44
o Percent by which current Administration proposals would increase allowable mercury pollution: 500
o Number of ex-National Park Service workers who last January charged Bush Administration with "short-changing, ignoring, or violating" conservation policies: 183
o Number of scientists who in April charged the current Administration with "manipulation and abuse of science" for political ends: 62
o Number of senior EPA officials who have resigned in protest since 2001: 2

Sources on file at the Institute for Southern Studies, www.southernstudies.org.