Congratulations to U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, co-author of the Restoring Resilient Reefs Act, which provides $61 million to federal and state agencies to protect and restore threatened reefs (“Defense bill seeks to protect, restore threatened reefs,” Star-Advertiser, Dec. 8). Any amount spent on improving the environment is good news.

Now for the not-so-good news: This benign act is buried within yet another record-setting military bill — the $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act. In perspective, the reef money is small compensation for the massive damage done to land, air and water by the U.S. military — one of the world’s major environmental polluters. Locally, we need look no further than Red Hill’s fuel and chemical leaks and Pohakuloa’s unexploded ordnance.

Genuine efforts to fix the environment deserve stand-alone legislation. Why hide it in an outsized fiscal package designed to perpetuate war and line the pockets of the military-industrial complex?

Wally Inglis

Palolo Valley

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