nw 3fpigan Daitm
Eighty-Six Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Mining interests imperil MEPA
Thursday, October 16, 1975
News Phone: 764-0552
I
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104
No womenl in Bo territory
IN TERMS OF sports, the Univer-
sity's Athletic Department may
have the latest in just about every-
thing. But in terms of morality, com-
mon sense, and intelligence, Bo's boys
et al. are somewhere north of the Ice
Age.
With blatant disregard for the facts
of life, they have traditionally treated
women as unfortunate mutants to. be
ignored in the hopes that they will
someday disappear. Women's teams
have been neglected, and typical of
their mentality is the exclusion of
women's facilities in the University's
Multi-Sports Building. But it's the
little things that really hurt most of
all - those gnawing, ridiculous, be-
So lets speculate what would hap-
pen if women were allowed to pollute
the minds of our precious players and
rub shoulders with, them on their
next charter flight.
"Darling," she cooed as she gently
caressed the inside of the player's
thigh. "Tell me all you know about
the strategies in the next game." The
devil in disguise. Wouldn't you know
that a women - damn them anyway
- would be a spy for the other team?
SHE MILKS THE unsuspecting,
melting player for all he is worth
and then adjourns to the powder
room. All eyes follow her as she
struts her stuff to the back of the
plane.
Suddenly Bo rises to his feet to dis-
cuss some of the intricacies for the
coming game. "Smith," he says.
"What are we going to do when we
get out on that field?"
"'TITS," says Smith with a glazed,
lascivious stare. Bo looks aghast
and tries to gloss over Smith's re-
sponse. "Jones," he calls to a player
in the back of the plane. "Tell Smith
here what we are going to do?"
"TITS," says Jones as the magazine
on his lap suddenly changes po-
sition.
Bo surveys the clan only to find
them all in the same stupor. Sud-
dehly the toilet flushes in the Ladies
Room. "I can't stand it," screams one
of the players. "I have to get some."
fHe rnhes to the emergency exit and
with Herculean strength, rip s the
door from its hinges.
The next day you read about it in
the newsnapers: Entire Wolverine
Team Perishes in Plane Wreck.
Thank you Athletic Denartment for
preserving the glory and goodness of
our football team. And by the way,
thanks for reminding us about the
power of the "weaker" sex.
Editorial Staff
GORDON ATCHESON CHERYL PILATE
Co-Editors-in-Chief
DAVID BLOMQUIST................Arts Editor
BARBARA CORNELL .. Sunday Magazine Editor
PAUL HASKINS.............Editorial Director
JOSEPHINE MARCOTTY Sunday Magazine Editor
SARA RIMER ......... Executive Editor
STEPHEN SELST.................. City Editor
JEFF SORENSON .. .. Managing Editor
MARY LONG . .,.. Sunday Magazine Editor
STAFF WRITERS: Susan Ades, Tom Allen, Glen
Allerhand, Ellen Bresow, Mary Beth Dillon,
Ted Evenoff, Jim Finklestein, Elaine Fletch-
er, Stephen Hersh, Debra Hurwitz, Lois Joi-
movich, Doe Kralik, Jay Levin, Andy Lilly,
Ann Marie Lipinski, George Lobsenz, Pauline
Lubens, Rob Meachum, Robert Miller, Jim
Nicoll, Cathy Reutter, Jeff Ristine, Tim
Schick, Katherine Spelman, Steve Stojic, Jim
Tobin. Bill Turque, Jim valk, David wein-
berg, Sue Wilhelm. David Whiting, Margaret
Yao.
Photography Staff
KEN FINK
Chief Photographer
STEVE KAGAN ..............Staff Photographer
PAULINE LUBENS ..........Staff Photographer
By MARC BASSON
A MAJOR TEST seems to be
shaping up in the Michigan
House between conservationists
and industrialists over a bill de-
signed to ease environmental re-
strictions on iron and copper
mining in the Upper Peninsula.
After passing the Senate by a
vote of 21 to 13 last year, Sen-
ate Bill 1003 was rejected by the
House, 29 to 68. However, fol-
lowing a long established system.
of legislative courtesy, the
House agreed to reconsider the
matter when it reconvened this
term.
Under the terms of the mo-
tion to reconsider, the re-vote
can be postponed for only one
day at a time, and so the House
has been making such one day
postponements every day since
it began its new session Monday
evening. Several sources have
indicated that the House lead-
ership plans to stop postponing
the bill and to bring it up for a
vote this afternoon. House spon-
sor Dominic Jacobetti (D-Ne-
gaunee) insists, however, that
the bill will not be brought to a
vote before Tuesday, October 21,
since he will be meeting with
the Upper Peninsula Legislative
Council over the weekend to dis-
cuss the bill. In any event, the
final vote is near since the
House leadership is unlikely to
allow SB 1003 to clog up the
legislature's action on conserva-
tion bills much longer.
TO UNDERSTAND SB 1003,
we must look back at the history
of the MEPA. The act sprung
from a lawsuit brought by a con-
servationist group in the late
h"'d}:;; g;":"g mvr."vr" :{y ;;;;s}%"{.:;:
hopes to create 2,000 new jobs.
JACOBETTI has consistently
alleged that companies like
Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company
have been unable to obtain loans
because of the risk of costly de-
lays imposed by the MEPA.
However, according to James
R. Gillen, Vice President and
Associate General Counsel of
The Prudential Insurance Com-
pany of America, which is now
negotiating a loan with Cleve-
land Cliffs, "Prudential was un-
aware of the existence of this
bill and had not ever discussed
the issues involved with Cleve-
land Cliffs."
Along the same economic
lines, Jacobetti explains, "Sim-
ple arithmetic shows that, with
an ever present danger of clos-
ing 12 per cent of our steel in-
dustry production through the
potential shutdown of Reserve
Mining, plus the nine per cent
loss of available Venezuelan iron
ore pellets, the American steel
industry is faced with the po-
"Over 3000
people
Bo
low the belt incidents that really por-
tray the Department's disregard for
Women.
And one such policy is the immortal
"Tits Off" ruling. Women are not al.-
lowed to travel with the Michigan
football team because it will "dis-
tract" the players. It's enough to
make you ralph your morning coffee.
DISTRACTION? Bolderdash! The
players settle down in the plush
seats of their chartered plane to tell
dirty jokes, pour through the latest
pages of Playboy, Penthouses, Oui
and Orgasm, and scope the leggy
stewardesses as they scurry to serve
them. But would any extra travelling
tits on the plane be enough to drive
the Mighty Men of Michigan to "dis-
traction?" Or do you mean to tell us
that the football players take a tour
of duty in the local monestary before
they are allowed to hit the Tartan
Turf. Unlikely.
TODAY'S STAFF
News: David 'Garfinkel, Lois Josimo-
vich, Jo Marcotty, Jim Nicoll, Sara
Rimer, Jeff Sorensen, Bill Turque
Editorial Page: Marc Basson, Paul
Haskins, Debra Hurwitz, Tom Kett-
ler, Marc Letica, Robert Miller, Judy
Nudelman
Arts Page: Chris Kochmanski
Photo Technician: Ken Fink
in the Upper P
sula hold jobs en
ing or carrying ob
water pollution
tes alone. By des
ing the MEPA,
betti hopes to c
2.000 new jobs."
sixties to stop thirty-fiv
from using DDT and die'
insecticides. The suit
thrown oit of court
grounds that there exi
legal basis for such a la
Appalled at this legal v
conservationists asked Pr
Josenh Sax of the Unive
Michigan Law School tc
for them a law powerful
to force industrial com
with an environmental
Thus, the MEPA wast
eive the citizen the right
for nrotection of, hise
ment.
Representative Jacobe
gues that the MEPA is
undesirable piece of
tion in its present form,
in favor of the extremi
of environmentalists, wh
been using it in the cou
very dilatory and irresp
manner."
He has also claimedt
1003 is necessary to allow
tries to exnand andT
more jobs. Professor Sa
tered that the act inr
prevents industries from
new personnel and exp
but simply makes suret
it without polluting. F
more, Sax continues,t
quirements of the MEPA
themselves create jobs in
servance and enforcem
fact, over 3,000 people
Upper Peninsula hold j
forcing or carrying outt
ter pollution statutes al
destroying the MEPA, J
ut the tential 21 per cent shortage of
available iron ore pellets that
statn.- make up the steel industry's
present rate of production.
stroy- Therefore, you can readily see
that the expansion of the mining
Jaco. industry in the Upper Peninsula
is not just to the advantage of a
'reate few mining companies, but has
a direct bearing on the future
economy and defense position of
our nation as a result of the nec-
essary required production of
K, r our mines to feed the steel in-
dustry."
According to Dr. Sax, Jacobet-
e cities ti's logic is like that of a kid
Idrin as who says to his father, 'Dad, I
t was saved five cents by walking
on the home from schoolinstead of tak-
sted no ing the bus,' and the father re-
aw suit. plies, 'Well, tomorrow save $2.35
oid, the by walking home instead of tak-
rofessor ing a taxi."
rsity of
o draft IN ONE LAST attemptto con-
enough .fuse the issue and justify his
apliance stand on SB 1003, Representa-
code. tive Jacobetti suggests that, if
born to the MEPA is not repealed, "the
tto sue State of Michigan will be sued
environ- for aiding and abetting people to
obtain money under false pre-
etti ar- tenses, because it has issued
"a very worthless permits to companies
leeisla- who in turn have obtained funds
biased from lendors; and permits is-
st type sued have been found to be sub-
ho have ject to suit and, therefore, incur
rts in a- costly delays." Taken aback by
ponsible this argument when he first
read it, Sax finally commented,
that SB "It's the first time such an ar-
t indus- gument has ever been made. To
produce the best of my knowledge, it is
x coun- utterly without basis in law and
no way there's no validity in it."
a hiring Thus, although J a c o b e t t i
,anding, makes a lot of noises about
they do "streamlining the system" and
Further- speeding up the permit granting
the re- process, neither of which is the
k will in basic thrust of SB 1003, his ba-
n its ob- sic argument seems to boil
lent. In down to the overriding idea that
in the the mining industries want SB
obs en- 1003 and the State of Michigan
the wa- needs their money, so we had
one. By damn well better do what they
acobetti say.
en in-
iforc-
Sax
Mining companies have been
trying to get at the rich deposits
of iron and copper ore in the
Upper Peninsula for years, but
their operations in Michigan
have been impeded by the ne-
cessity of preparing elaborate
impact reports and permit ap-
plications, dealing with lawsuits
designed to stop construction of
polluting facilities, and taking
elaborate precautions to prevent
pollution.
IN ORDER to justify their po-
sition, supporters have present-
ed an elaborate scenario of en-
vironmentalists wildly initiating
suits against all industrial activ-
ities to drive the companies out
of Michigan.
Mike Prendergast, Director of
Public Relations for Cleveland
Cliffs Iron Mining Company, ex-
plains, "Our only objection to
the looseness of the current En-
vironmental ProtectionAct is
that for any reason you could
come in, and you may not be an
expert, maybe the company
fired your grandfather or some-
thing (This is really a far out
case, but vengeance is a funny
thing) and with all' of the per-
mits issued and all of the regu-
lations met, you could hold up
construction and add five hun-
dred to eight hundred million
dollars in additional costs."
However, a continuing study
by the University of Michigan
Law School on suits brought un-
der the MEPA since it was
passed demonstrates that the
law was in no way being abused
" and that some very important
issues were dealt with through
these suits, and dealt with, ef-
fectively."
REPRESENTATIVE Dan An-
gell, (R-Battle Creek) stated in
this connection, "Thebaverage
court case length has been less
than six months. I would, there-
fore, say the track record for
resolution of lawsuits has not
demonstrated an undue delay or
unnecessary harassment of in-
d"stry. There is simply no com-
pelling reason to water down a
good law."
Professor Sax charges that the
advocates of SB 1003, both in
and out of the legislature, had
more ulterior motives for intro-
ducing SB 1003 than simply try-
ing to eliminate the rare harass-
ment suit. "The recession," Sax
explains, "was seen as an op-
portunity by some industrialists
to mount an attack on the sta-
tute while public attention had
been diverted. It was a great
opportunity for a few good
whacks on the environmental
laws."
Representative Howard Wolpe
(D-Kalamazoo), s i m i 1 a r I y
viewed SB 1003 as a test case
for industry's attempts to over-
ride environmental protection
laws. "The bill remains a clas-
sic case of special-interest leg-
islation. It is a mining exemp-
tion bill, and now that the door
has been opened, we will be be-
sieged by similar efforts of oth-
er industries to build in their
own exemptions and to eventual-
ly gut the Environmental Pro-
tection Act."
GIVEN WHAT Representative
Thomas Holcomb (D-Lansing)
termed "a bill clearly designed
to accommodate special inter-
ests," the next logical question
is the authorship of the bill. Just
who is responsible for SB 1003?
Jacobetti originally claimed
that the New Yorkbased firms
responsible for loaning money to
the mining companies had re-
quested such a bill. However,
Prudential obviously knows
nothing about the bill at all. Ja-
cobetti also claims, "Nobody
speaks for me. My interest in
the bill is to get some jobs in
this state."
Thomas McGinty, senior vice
president for finance at Cleve-
land Cliffs, was quoted in the
Marquette Mining Journal as
saying, "It's purely a CCI bill.
We drafted it, and we are the
ones who are pushing for it."
However, PR Director Mike
Prendergast denies that McGin-
ty ever said this and asserts
that McGinty was somehow
misquoted. (Wes Thorp, the
man who wrote the article, re-
portedly replied to allegations of
misquoting, "Maybe so, but
that's the way I reard it.")
Prendergast insists "We didn't
have a damn thing to do with
the perpetration or the writing
other than the fact that we
would support such a move."
McGINTY IS mysteriously out
of town and cannot be reached
until October 20. Senator Joseph
Mack (D-Ironwood), who ori-
ginally introduced SB 1003 into
the Senate last year, is also
mysteriouslytunavailable. His
office in East Lansing reports
that he will also be unreachable
until October 20.
Representative Jacobetti is
also insisting that the House of
Representatives wait until after
October 20 before acting on SB
1003.
Of course, the fact that all
three men seem fixated on Oc-
tober 20 and the fact that all
three have at one time or anoth-
er identified themselves as the
motivating force behind SB 1003
may be meaningless, but they
do seem suggestive of some-
thing.
Attorney Jim Clancy, who
serves as counsel for Cleveland
Cliffs and the Michigan Iron
Mining Association (MIMA), re-
vealed that he had written most
of the text of SB 1003 that was
originally submitted to the Sen-
ate and many of the amend-
ments to SB 1003 passed in the
Senate. However, he insisted
that his function as attorney for
Cleveland Cliffs was not rele-
vant to his participation in
writing the bill. Clancy claims,
that he became involved only
through MIMA, (of which Cleve-
land Cliffs is a member) and his
only comment on MIMA's tie to
SB 1003 was "We were in it be-
cause we're so well aware of
it." Clancy also claims that he
has totally lost touch with the
bill since it went to the, House
of Representatives.
REGARDLESS of who provid-
ed the initial impetus for SB
1003, it seems clear that Sena-
tor Mack and Representative
Jacobetti, both committee
chairmen, provided quite a bit
of impetus themselves once the
bill came to the attention of
their respective houses. Profes-
sor Sax saw SB 1003 as a test
as- to "whether the iron mining
industry with the support of two
of the most powerful legislators
can muscle this bill through."
One legislative source re-
mittee or made any deal."
As the activities of Senator
Mack, Democratic Floor Leader
William Fitzgerald had com-
mented, "This is the worst bill
I ever voted for, but I needed
Mack's vote on the teacher
strike and political reform
bills."
Jacobetti replied, "That's not
ise."
In fact, the whole history of
"If citizens are no
longer allowed to sue
under the MEPA, a
company could
con-
ceivably turn its Upper
Peninsiula propertyin
'to one gigantic strip
mine, and no one
could do anything to
stop it."
SB 1003 has been replete with
mysterious "compromises" hid-
den by the fact that no public
hearings on SB 1003 were ever
held. Representative David Hol-
lister (D-Lansing), recounted,
"This bill was introduced June
30, and was sent to the Senate
Conservation C o m m i t t e e,
chaired by the author of the bill.
Hearings were not held. The bill
was round-robined out of com-
mittee and placed on the Sen-
ate calendar in the rush of bud-
get bills, the teacher strike leg-
islation, the Business privilege
tax, and campaign reform legis-
lation. It has not received the
scrutiny and review required.
Now, (Aug. 14), after one short
month and some legislative foot-
work, parliamentary maneuver-
ing and horse trading, we are
faced with blatant special inter-
est legislation."
According to Professor Sax,
this disorganized "legislature
off the cuff and on the run" has
resulted in "a parody of statu-
tory drafting" with all of its
vague amendments and unclear
phrases. Sax termed the Gin-
grass amendment, which now
allows citizens their right to sue
but prevents the judge from act-
ing on the suit until the entire
case is settled several years la-
ter after all possible appeals are
exhausted, "a travesty of the
English language" and explod-
ed, "So what do they intend to
do? Who the hell knows? We
haven't had any hearings, any
memoranda. Nobody's thought
about it."
OVER THE YEARS, mining
industries have been steadily
pushing to get themselves ex-
empted from all of the environ-
mental statutes to maximize
their profits. They have almost
succeeded. Orly the Michigan
Environmental Protection Act
still stands intact. As Professor
Sax put it, "Of all the . god-
damned laws on the books, this
is the one that works and works
well.
If SB 1003 is passed, there-
fore, mining companie will no
longer have to follow environ-
mental restrictions and guide-
lines. For example, land recla-
mation is now dictated only by
the MEPA. If citizens are no
longer permitted to sue under
the MEPA, a company could
conceivably turn its Upper Pen-
insula property into a gigantic
strip mine, and no one could do
anything to stop it.
Representative Tom Ander-
son's aide, Doug Reece claims,
"In all honesty, I think we've
got the bill defeated and I think
the sponsors realize that now.
When it gets down to the nitty
gritty of the vote, I think the
'Nos' will prevail."
ON THE OTHER hand, Rep-
resentative Jacobetti insists, "If
he's got the bill defeated, all
well and good, but he's not de-
feating me. I don't quit after
this one; this is just the first
round. If we are defeated, I'll be
back till justice prevails."
Pressed for a prediction on
the fate of SB 103, Jacobetti re-
snonded, "It's my intention that
we're going to win. We'll have
enough votes to pass it as
amended."
In the end, only the final
House vote will determine
whether SB 1003 succeeds or
fails. We can only wait and
watch and hope.
Marc Basson is a member of
the Editorial Page staff.
Jabobetti
SWMAl OW
LIFGGIHLI
ONp\ y
SGC Notes
Make administration listen.
vealed, "A lot of legislators, be-
cause of the timing of the thing,
with appropriations bills coming
up and bills they wanted out of
committee and vote trading (es-
pecially in the Senate) were
mostly saying that 1003 was not
a bad bill because they ddin't
want to get Jacobetti and Mack
mad.
In reality, the majority of the
House out of their own con-
sciences could not vote for it,
but they preferred to put off
trouble by stalling to get power-
ful people off their backs and to
keep them from getting mad at
the wrong times."
This House hypocrisy led Ja-
cobetti, fiveminutes before the
vote, to brag that he had 56
votes, and it led the conserva-
tionists to expect a close vote,
by a two or three vote margin.
"When the 68 no votes were
counted out, Tom Anderson
(Chairman of the House Con-
servation Committee and oneof
the original sponsors of the
MEPA) literally fell out of his
chair."
REPRESENTATIVE Jacob-
etti, of course, denies all allega-
tions thathe applied any sort
of pressure. "I in no way twist-
ed arms or applied pressure
from the Appropriations Com-
By DEBRA GOODMAN
T HAVE ALWAYS felt that the
long-term goal of Student Gov-
ernment Council (SGC) and any
student government or organiza-
tion should be the participation
of students in every aspect of
the decision-making process at
this University. Today, we are
forced to organize, rally, dem-
onstrate, petition, strike and oth-
erwise pressure the University
for even the right to be taken
seriously. And, as in the case of
the BAM strike, even successful
student struggles are easily
overcome by administration if
students do not maintain the
high level of statewide organiza-
tion and pressure it took to draw
attention to these issues.
It isn't fun having to spend
our entire University careers
convincing students on this cam-
pus that it is once again time to
put all our energies into pro-
LS&A IS THE largest college
in this University, and repre-
sents the most advanced form of
administrative control we have.
Just this Tuesday, The Daily
criticized this Executive Com-
mittee for its decision not to ap-
prove the Ann Arbor Teach-In
mini-course after it had been
approved by the curriculum
committee of LS&A. In this col-
lege, the Executive Committee
reviews all committee decisions
in closed session. No one can
speak at these committee meet-
ings about an issue directly con-
cerning himself, and the agenda
and minutes of these meetings
(and even their location) are
closely guarded secrets. I asked
that a letter from me to the Ex-
ecutive Committee be included
in this agenda and was informed
that nothing could be brought up
before this committee without
Dean Frye's approval.
Last year, the Regents direct-
ed Vice President Henry John-
son to form a Commission for.
the Study of Student Govern-
ment. The Regents will be dis-
cussing their report at their
meeting today, and voting upon
it next month.
The CSSG report can be brok-
en down into three basic propos-
als. The first would create a
new central student government
that would be more representa-
tive and more effective. The
second would create a non-vot-
ing ex-officio student position on
the Board of Regents. Thethird
would allow students to sit on
the Executive Boards of schools
and colleges - something that
is forbidden by the present by.
laws.
THE CSSG REPORT does not
assure us full representation in
the decision-making process, but
it does create that potential.
W ,'re nr~anizina around student
Contact your reps-
Sen. Phillip Hart (Dem), 253 Russell Bldg., Capitol Hill,
Washington, D.C. 20515.
Sen. Robert Griffin (Rep), 353 Russell Bldg., Capitol Hill,
Wncin tnn in'rflS15_
ry
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