WASHINGTON-Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) has asked Federal Communications Commission Chairman Bill Kennard to delay any decision on antenna siting pre-emption for a year to give policy makers more time to sort out the emotionally charged issue.
“Given the complexity of the issue, and the fact that many important implications of the decision have not been adequately studied, including possible health hazards, we believe that a one-year delay would be in the best interests of the public,” said Shays in Nov. 11 letter to Kennard.
Kennard could not be reached for comment, but he stated during his Senate confirmation hearing and afterward that pre-emption should be considered only as a last resort.
Kennard could rule that federal law take precedence over local and state antenna siting regulations, although it is not known if such a rule would hold up in court.
Last Monday, Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) met in Vermont with civic leaders and representatives from local, state and national government who are opposed to shifting local control on antenna siting issues to the federal level.
Meanwhile, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has written President Clinton and the FCC urging against further pre-emption of local zoning authority.
“I see no good to be served by treating the issue of placement of highly intrusive, if necessary, communication towers and the standard of proof in evaluating that placement, at the national level,” Dean told Clinton in an Oct. 21 letter.
Sanders and others huddled on how to advance anti-pre-emption legislation past the wireless telecom industry and powerful lawmakers, like Senate Commerce Committee John McCain (R-Ariz.) and House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.)
But while both lawmakers want to put more teeth in existing federal telecom pre-emption laws, they have ceased pursuing the issue as aggressively as industry would like because of opposition within their own ranks and fear of the political fallout from having to do battle with throngs of voters.
“If anyone here is under the impression that Vermont is the only state with objections to this loss of authority, you are mistaken,” said Sanders. “In fact, over 250 moratoria on the siting of wireless broadcast facilities have been passed in towns across the country since the Telecommunications Act became law in February of 1996.”
The hue and cry over antenna siting and threat of expanded federal pre-emption comes as the wireless industry confronts scores of antenna siting moratoria while attempting to erect 100,000 antennas as personal communications services networks are rolled out and cellular networks are expanded.
“Efforts on Capitol Hill and elsewhere that are designed to stop the growth of this consumer-driven industry dead in its tracks are wrong,” said Jay Kitchen, president of the Personal Communications Industry Association. “The FCC should utilize its authority to stop unreasonable moratoria,” Kitchen added. “Significant anti-consumer fallout will occur if the FCC is stripped of its authority. We are confident that the vast majority of Congress understands that the American people are demanding more affordable and available wireless products and services and that these unreasonable efforts will be rejected out of hand.”
PCIA ran a full page ad in last Thursday’s USA Today touting the public-safety benefits of wireless products.
The wireless industry aggressively lobbied Congress this year to further dilute local and state authority over antenna siting. Under the 1996 telecom act, local and state officials cannot turn down a siting application solely for health reasons if the carrier complies with federal radio-frequency radiation exposure guidelines.
But any progress the industry made early on has since been smothered by the avalanche of opposition from mayors, county commissioners, governors, congressmen, senators, environmentalists and organized labor worried about possible health risks, property devaluation and aesthetic loss from more towers.
Indeed, these groups have sued the FCC in three federal appeals courts for what they believe is inadequate health and safety protection in the 1996 RF radiation exposure standard.
“The very broadcast and telecommunications industries that cry foul at any government or citizen attempt to restrict or place guidelines on their products now attempt to censure our voices,” said Janet Newton, head of the Thistle Hill Neighborhood Alliance at the Nov. 17 Vermont RF Summit.
On a separate but related matter, New York Gov. George Pataki called on the FCC to kill a proposal to pre-empt local oversight of digital TV tower siting “that would threaten the state’s longstanding protections in the Adirondack Park and other environmentally sensitive areas, while also usurping local control over land use.”
