
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 2, 1993                   TAG: 9308020362
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

GREENIES USED AS SCAPEGOATS

OBJECTION MUST be made to your editorial of July 3, A Setback For Virginia's Jobs, which levels criticism at environmentalists in general who oppose implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and U.S. District Judge Charles Richey in particular who has held that the pact violates federal law because no environmental impact statement has been made. First, the originators of the lawsuit are not material or even relevant, be they Ralph Nader, the Friends of the Earth, or your mother-in-law. It is what they are contending that counts.

Bill Clinton did not subscribe to NAFTA in its entirety and he made that clear in the presidential debates. The professed intent of both the President and Congress was to seek both protection for workers adversely affected and to make sure of Mexican compliance with environmental safeguards.

The inclusion of Communist Eastern Europe in this dialogue is strange if not diversionary, for Eastern Europe as well as the USSR have been described as toxic wastelands that may not recover for decades, if ever. You see, the Communists were doing just what some outlaw international corporations are getting by with in Mexico: fouling up the air and water along the the Rio Grande and lower California without regard to either present danger or future use. The problems are real and the greenies or environmentalists are simply being used as scapegoats.

The communists also did not want environmental impact studies or statements that could impede their plans. Somehow, you just didn't get it. GERALD HUBBS BEDFORD

by CNB