Delegate George Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said he supports the calls for an extension on the review period for the draft environmental impact statement on \u201clive-fire\u201d military exercises on the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the U.S. military is proposing will have a significant and long lasting impact on our community and everyone should take full advantage of the opportunity to make their views known during the public comment period,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n
The delegate said if more time is needed for technical analysis of the draft EIS, then \u201cit would be the right thing for the military to extend the comment period.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other lawmakers in the CNMI have also called for an extension of the review period.<\/p>\n
The Tinian and Aguiguan Legislative Delegation last week passed a resolution \u201cvehemently\u201d supporting Gov. Eloy S. Inos\u2019 request for the extension of the comment period of the draft EIS.<\/p>\n
The lawmakers are supporting other options for the military exercises, including a \u201cNo-Action Alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Show of force<\/strong><\/p>\n Some lawmakers on Capital Hill also vowed to invite their respective constituents to attend the public hearings on Saipan and Tinian.<\/p>\n Rep. Joseph Lee Pan Guerrero (R-Saipan) said he will invite constituents to attend the hearing.<\/p>\n He said has a lot of questions for the military, including specific reasons on why the CNMI was selected for the military exercises instead of other areas.<\/p>\n Earlier, PaganWatch founder Pete Perez said the group has been reactivated to respond to the challenge of protecting the Commonwealth\u2019s islands from the U.S. military\u2019s intention to use them as bombing ranges.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have teamed with Guardians of Gani, another local grassroots group opposed to the destruction of our beautiful islands. Together we are hosting \u2018Alternative Zero,\u2019 a local perspective event that will take place at the entrances to the three military draft EIS public hearings,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The public hearings are scheduled to be held on Wednesday, April 29, 2015, from 4pm to 9pm, at the Saipan Southern High School cafeteria; Thursday, April 30, 2015, from 4pm to 9pm, at the Tinian Junior Senior High School cafeteria; and Friday, May 1, 2015, from 4pm to 9pm, at the Garapan Elementary School.<\/p>\n \u201cThe military wants Alternative 1, Alternative 2, or Alternative 3\u2014all variations on bombing our islands for practice. We want Alternative Zero\u2014peaceful and productive use of our land and waters for the benefit of the people,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cAlternative Zero will inform the public as to the true nature of the military\u2019s intention\u2014the realities of turning beautiful islands into bombing ranges.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt will also educate people about non-destructive alternatives for Tinian and Pagan,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Delegate George Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said he supports the calls for an extension on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900,4],"tags":[4012,26,1503,200],"class_list":["post-200300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-local-news","tag-alternative-zero","tag-cnmi","tag-eis","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}