BOND TOUTS HIGHWAY PETITION

More than 10,000 people have signed U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond's "Highway Safety First" petition urging the Sierra Club and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment to withdraw their lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Republican senator from Missouri continues to wage war against the Sierra Club, contending the lawsuit threatens federal highway funding in the state.

Bond visited Cape Girardeau Wednesday to tout the petition effort and once again urge the Sierra Club to withdraw its lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington.

He spoke at a press conference at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office. Some 30 people attended, including the three members of the Cape Girardeau County Commission and several area lawmakers.

Bond criticized the Sierra Club for what he called its "anti-transportation, anti-growth agenda."

The senator said the lawsuit argues that the Environmental Protection Agency must impose highway sanctions because the St. Louis area hasn't met air quality standards specified in the federal Clean Air Act.

The EPA has decided against imposing sanctions. "The EPA made the determination that everything is in place for the St. Louis area to come into compliance with the Clean Air Act," said Bond.

"But the Sierra Club has determined that the EPA is wrong, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources is wrong, that the leaders in the St. Louis metropolitan area are wrong, and that the overwhelming majority of Missourians are wrong," Bond said.

The lawsuit threatens to jeopardize $600 million a year in federal highway funding for the state, he said.

Bond said sanctions would cripple highway construction and improvements in the St. Louis area and jeopardize highway funding in other parts of the state.

But Ken Midkiff, director of the Sierra Club of Missouri, said in a telephone interview later in the day that the lawsuit doesn't threaten all federal highway funding for Missouri.

"No highway safety projects would be affected, not even in the St. Louis area quality control region," he said.

The region includes St. Louis city and county, and the three surrounding counties in Missouri.

If the Sierra Club wins its lawsuit, it would affect some highway funding in the St. Louis metropolitan area, Midkiff said.

But he said it won't affect highway funding statewide. "The federal court cannot order the EPA to withhold federal funds outside of the air quality control region.

"We don't ask the court to do it because the court can't do it," he said.

The lawsuit makes reference to "statewide" sanctions, but Midkiff termed the wording a "statement of opinion" and not a legal request to the court.

Bond plans to send the petitions to the Sierra Club. Missourians from throughout the state signed the petitions, he said.

Signers included 15 state senators, 72 state representatives, officials from 27 chambers of commerce, officials from 42 cities and commissioners from 70 counties.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission and the mayors of Cape Girardeau and Jackson were among those supporting the petition.

Lloyd Smith, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, said this is one of the few times that Bond and the EPA are on the same side.

Southeast Missouri farmer Charles Kruse, who heads the Missouri Farm Bureau, was among the petition backers at the press conference. The Farm Bureau collected more than 5,000 of the signatures.

Kruse said the Sierra Club wants to put Missouri "back in the mud."