Hi there,

The job of a journalist is to go to where the silence is — especially when those in power seek to silence voices that question or challenge power. That is what we do at Democracy Now! day in and day out, and we're able to do it because of financial support from people like you — people who trust and depend on our independent reporting. If you believe that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential to the functioning of a democratic society, please donate today. Every dollar makes a difference. Thank you so much.

Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Please do your part today.

Donate

U.S. Military Seeks Freedom to Dump Spent Munitions, Pollute the Air and Poison Endangered Species Without Risk of Liability: Pentagon Quietly Seeks Major Exemptions From Environmental Laws

Listen
Media Options
Listen

The Pentagon is quietly seeking exemptions from the nation’s most important environmental laws.

The exemptions would give the military free rein to dump spent munitions, pollute the air and poison endangered species at its bases without risk of liability for any damage.

The proposal was slipped into the fine print of the 2004 military budget last week.

The Pentagon says it needs the exemptions because environmental laws get in the way of training troops. But a recent report from the General Accounting Office contradicted that claim. The GAO report concluded environmental statutes do not impact military readiness.

The exemptions were rejected last year by a Democratic Party-controlled Senate.

  • John Kostyack ­ senior counsel, National Wildlife Federation, expert on Endangered Species Act.
  • Dan Miller, First Assistant Attorney General in Colorado.

Related link:

Related Story

StoryMay 19, 2025Project Esther: NYT Details Right-Wing Plan to “Rebrand All Critics of Israel” as Hamas Supporters
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top