Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1992 10:36:58 CDT
From: James P Love <
[email protected]>
Subject: File 4--Battle over Landsat/Public Domain (fr: Corp. Crime Rept)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Original message++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Reprinted with permission from Corporate Crime Reporter.
[Corporate Crime Reporter is published by American Communications and
Publishing Co., Inc. 48 times a year. ISSN Number: 0897-4101.
Principal Editorial Offices: 1322 18th St, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036.
Telephone: (202) 429-6928. Editor: Russell Mokhiber.]
Vol 6, No. 15, April 13, 1992.
STATES, ENVIRONMENTALISTS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO RETURN LANDSAT TO
PUBLIC DOMAIN. "A NASTY FIGHT IS BREWING"
A loose coalition of state officials and environmentalists has formed
to challenge the 1984 decision by the federal government to privatize
Landsat, the first satellite dedicated to the environment.
In a letter last month to Congressman James Scheuer (D-New York),
Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Environment of the House Science,
Space and Technology Committee, a number of environmental groups,
including Greenpeace, Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund,
called for a "clean break with the patently unsuccessful %experiment
in commercialization'."
Landsat was first launched in 1972. Until 1984, the satellite was in
the public domain. State governments, environmental groups, and
universities used the data for a range of purposes, including
environmental management and enforcement of environmental laws.
In 1984, the Reagan Administration "commercialized" the satellite,
taking it out of the public's hands, and giving the data rights to a
private company owned by General Electric and Hughes, to sell on the
commercial market.
The coalition of users and environmental groups fighting to return
Landsat to the public domain argue that the "experiment in
commercialization" has been disastrous. High prices have dramatically
reduced the availability of the data to researchers, academics, and
conservationists. Images that once cost under $100 have now soared to
$4,500 per scene.
"At a time when destruction of tropical forests is recognized as an
international calamity, the Landsat sensors are infrequently even
turned on over the most threatened regions," the environmentalists
argued. "Those who need remote sensing most, namely conservationists
and third world natural resource agencies, are able to afford it
least."
Congressman George Brown (D-California) has introduced legislation
(H.R. 3614) that would take back some public control over the data
base. But the environmental groups are not happy with H.R. 3614. They
charge that H.R. 3614 sets up "a complicated system of partial
commercialization."
"It seems to us much better to simply eliminate %commercialization' as
rapidly as possible under existing contracts," they write.
In the letter to Scheuer, the groups argue for a return to the policy
in effect before 1984, thus making data available "to all who request
it at marginal cost of copying and distribution."
Hill staffers close to the impending battle predicted a bitter fight.
"A nasty fight is brewing," said one. "There are some former NASA
scientists who are hell-bent on returning Landsat into the public
fold. They believe that there is something wrong with commercializing
publicly funded data about the environment at prices only industry can
afford. And on the other hand, the big aerospace firms know how to
play hardball. GE and Hughes are not going to roll over and play
dead."%
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