THE DAILY GRIST
A Dung Deal
Toxic pollution in Arctic likely caused by contaminated bird poop
Native residents of northern Arctic regions are ridden with toxic chemicals -- some of the highest body concentrations in the world -- and new research has uncovered an unlikely culprit: guano, or as we prefer to call it, bird dookie. Scientists have long assumed that the industrial world's toxic effluents were carried northward on wind and water currents, but that doesn't explain why they concentrate in particular hotspots. A new study in the journal Science places the blame on migratory birds, which eat chemical-ridden food and poop chemical-ridden poop, which then moves up through the Arctic food chain. The researchers hope that their discovery will allow Native populations to resume eating traditional foods -- many had moved to new diets, escaping high toxin concentrations but running headlong into Type II diabetes and other ailments -- by choosing to gather them in (relatively) cleaner areas. But the real long-term solution, say activists, is to end the use of the toxic chemicals -- DDT, mercury, and several long-lasting chlorinated pollutants.
straight to the source: New Scientist, Anna Gosline, 14 Jul 2005
straight to the source: BBC News, Richard Black, 15 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
The Axis of Oil
China gets pushy about finding oil and gas supplies outside Mideast
Historians cataloguing the unintended consequences of the Iraq war can add another to their list. Until 2003, China had been wooing Saddam Hussein, hoping to lay claim to some of Iraq's undeveloped oil reserves. But the U.S.-led war, perceived by China's leaders as a bid to secure geopolitical hegemony in the Middle East, KO'd that plan. So now China is trying to secure energy supplies in some unsavory regions (think Sudan, Iran, and Myanmar) less directly influenced by the U.S. -- one reason state-owned Chinese oil company CNOOC is bidding hard for California-based Unocal Corp., which controls many Asian oil and gas fields. Said an anonymous Chinese government energy adviser, "No matter if it's rogue's oil or a friend's oil, we don't care. Human rights? We don't care. We care about oil."
straight to the source: The Washington Post, Peter S. Goodman, 13 Jul 2005
straight to the source: USA Today, Edward Iwata, 15 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
Slitherin' Scholastic
Greens urge boycott of Harry Potter's U.S. publisher
J. K. Rowling and a coalition of eco-muggles are giving props to Canadian publisher Raincoast Books for printing Rowling's hotly anticipated sixth novel -- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, being released tonight -- entirely on recycled paper. Canadian conservation group Markets Initiative estimates that Raincoast's good green citizenship will save 28,221 trees -- more than would fill New York City's Central Park -- while increasing costs no more than 5 percent. Meanwhile, U.S. publisher Scholastic, the world's biggest Potter publisher, declines to reveal how much paper used in its 10.8-million print run of the book is post-consumer pulp, saying only that company policy is to not use paper made from old-growth forests. (Greenpeace contends that Scholastic contracts with suppliers that use paper made from Canadian old-growth boreal forests.) A coalition of green groups is urging Americans to boycott Scholastic and order the latest Potter tome from Canada, via Amazon.ca or Chapters.ca.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Miguel Llanos, 14 Jul 2005
straight to the source: The Book Standard, Anna Weinberg, 12 Jul 2005
see also, in Gristmill: Attention all muggles
___________________________________________________________________
Bad for the Fish, Good for the Grist Swim Team
Warmer waters put wildlife under deadly stress along Pacific Coast
Freaky environmental anomalies along the Pacific Coast from central California to British Columbia may devastate the region's wildlife, scientists say. Ocean temperatures in the area are 2 to 5 degrees higher than usual this summer; no one's sure why, but scientists suspect a lack of northerly winds during the spring stalled the usual seasonal upwelling of cold water, which brings important nutrients to the ocean's surface. Without them, the marine food chain may be breaking down. "In 50 years, this has never happened," said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer Bill Peterson. Death rates for Brandt's cormorants on the Washington state coast are disturbingly high, and juvenile salmon numbers on the Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia coasts have been 20 to 30 percent lower than expected in June and July. Scientists are largely baffled, but Peterson says many suspect global warming may be involved.
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Associated Press, 13 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
Lend Me Your Gears
Car sharing slowly but surely taking off in cities worldwide
Car sharing is gradually gaining ground around the globe, and the future looks bright for a concept once derided as a green fever dream. About 300,000 people worldwide now participate in car sharing; it's taken off especially well in European nations like Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, where the largest company has 2,400 cars and 60,000 members (compared to a total of roughly 1,000 shared cars in the U.S.). New technologies like online car booking are making it easier for companies to manage larger numbers of vehicles and for customers to sign up to use them. Even big-biz players like Hertz and Shell have begun dipping their toes in the water, suggesting potential for future growth and profitability. Studies indicate that car-sharing services reduce overall traffic and pollution: One shared car can replace 4 to 10 cars as folks retire older vehicles, with a net 30 to 45 percent decrease in miles driven per customer.
straight to the source: The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Elisabeth Rosenthal, 14 Jul 2005
see also, in Grist: To Share, Perchance to Drive -- Umbra offers advice on renting hybrids and sharing cars
___________________________________________________________________
The Revolution Will Be Localized
Sundance getaway turns mayors into climate activists
Robert Redford helped to convert a few dozen U.S. mayors to the cause of climate activism this week at his Sundance resort in Utah. The green-leaning star cohosted a three-day summit that brought together municipal leaders from small towns and big cities across the country -- some more skeptical about climate change than others -- to chat about global warming and local actions they can take to fight it. Muckraker was there to take the conference's temperature.
new in Muckraker: The Revolution Will Be Localized
___________________________________________________________________
Beyond the Pail
Dealing with big-city garbage is big business for small towns
As landfills top off and shut down near big U.S. cities, taking in the trash is becoming a profitable enterprise for smaller towns hundreds of miles away from metropolises. Despite local concerns that landfills may cause long-term environmental problems, trash-industry execs insist communities are taking few risks when they accept big-city garbage. And many municipalities welcome the revenue. "We're rich," says a supervisor of Fox Township, Penn. (pop. under 4,000), which takes in 1,300 of the 50,000 tons of garbage exported every day from New York City -- and has millions of dollars in the bank as a result. Nearly a quarter of all municipal trash crossed state lines on its way to a final dumping ground in 2003, according to the Congressional Research Service, and the number of states importing at least one million tons of trash a year increased from two in 2001 to 10 in 2003.
straight to the source: USA Today, Associated Press, 12 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
One Tree Shill
Sierra Club touts new Ford hybrid SUV
The Sierra Club has long criticized Ford Motor Co. for its environmental offenses, primarily the industry-worst average fuel economy of its fleet. So members may be surprised when Ford's hybrid Mercury Mariner SUV is prominently featured in an upcoming club newsletter and on SierraClub.org. When the green group first offered to promote a Ford hybrid SUV last year, the company turned it away, but now -- thanks to intervention from CEO Bill Ford -- it is welcoming the opportunity to buff its battered green image. Ford, claims the club, deserves credit for becoming the third global automaker to offer a hybrid vehicle. Other activist groups aren't so complimentary. Ford's actions are encouraging, says Rainforest Action Network's Michael Brune, but "the production levels [for its hybrid SUV] are so low that it will have no measurable impact on Ford's bottom-of-the-barrel fleet-wide fuel efficiency or off-the-charts greenhouse-gas emissions."
straight to the source: Canada.com, Associated Press, Dee-Ann Durbin, 12 Jul 2005
straight to the source: The New York Times, Danny Hakim, 12 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
The Food, the Bad, and the Ugly
In a warmed world, even food won't be as good for you
Green strategists have been angling to make climate change into a "kitchen table" issue. Well, how's this for kitchen table: The food on yours could soon become less nutritious due to the rapid buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While a globally warmed world is likely to produce greater crop yields, those crops may be skimpy on critical nutrients. Glenn Scherer reviews the research and explores how this troubling trend might shake out for wildlife, livestock, and you.
new in Main Dish: The Food, the Bad, and the Ugly
__________________________________________________________________
A-Raisin' Money in the Sun
Investors pouring millions into new nanotech solar-energy firms
A merger of cutting-edge nanotechnology with the earth's oldest power source may revolutionize clean energy. At least three U.S. start-ups are aiming to develop thin, flexible sheets of tiny solar cells for the mass market. If perfected, the companies say, these nano-cells would catapult solar to the forefront of clean-energy generation: they'd not only cost much less to produce than current solar panels, but would provide electricity as cheaply as average utilities do now, about $1 per watt. It may take five years or more before the technologies are perfected for mass production, but investors are enthusiastic -- the three companies have collectively raised more than $120 million in funding since 2001. A report from the Energy Foundation suggests that cost-effective solar could provide much of the nation's electricity if available rooftop space is more fully utilized, and claims that the market for such technology might be $6.6 billion a year.
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Paul Carlstrom, 11 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
The Terror of Our Ways
Conflating environmentalists and terrorists is all the rage
A new PBS documentary -- "The Fire Next Time," which premieres tomorrow, July 12 -- portrays the vitriolic, deep-rooted conflict over environmental issues in one Montana community. Said conflict has been stoked in part by a right-wing radio DJ named, ironically enough, John Stokes. He regularly compares environmentalists to terrorists as he advocates for their elimination. And Stokes isn't the only one propagating this dubious connection: the FBI's in on the game too, along with a number of politicians and other leaders. Michael Kavanagh investigates the sources and possible effects of the "eco-terrorism" trope.
new in Main Dish: The Terror of Our Ways
___________________________________________________________________
G8 Expectations
Bush gets the watered-down G8 climate statement he wanted
President Bush got exactly what he wanted on climate change during last week's G8 meeting of industrialized nations: The appearance of compromise without any shift in his administration's position. Just when it seemed that U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair -- buoyed by London's winning bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games -- was succeeding in putting real international pressure on Bush to budge on the issue, a series of terror attacks struck Britain's capital city, distracting the world's attention, muting protests, and casting a pall over the G8 agenda. One day later, a joint statement on climate change was released, and the results of U.S. efforts to water it down were clear: It promised a "new dialogue" on the subject -- just what's needed! -- and acknowledged that anthropogenic climate change is, um, real, but conspicuously lacked language about specific targets or deadlines for reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. Even language calling global warming an "urgent" threat was removed at the U.S.'s request. What remained was largely happy talk about new technology. Maybe next year ...
straight to the source: The Independent, Colin Brown, 09 Jul 2005
straight to the source: The Washington Post, Jim VandeHei and Paul Blustein, 08 Jul 2005
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, 11 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
Gutting, No Glory
House Republicans trying to tweak cornerstone environmental laws
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) and allies on the House Resources Committee have laid siege to two key environmental laws. They've inserted language into the House version of the energy bill to remove numerous drilling projects from review under the National Environmental Policy Act, which mandates environmental impact assessments and citizen involvement for projects on public lands. Industry and developers have long groused that NEPA stalls progress with long, costly environmental reviews and lawsuits. Pombo and pals have also drafted a rewrite of the Endangered Species Act that would fundamentally reorient federal agencies away from long-term planning to return species to robust health, which opponents argue stalls progress with long, costly environmental reviews and ... wait a minute, this sounds familiar. Says Defenders of Wildlife's Jamie Rappaport Clark, the rewrite "takes a wrecking ball to the whole Endangered Species Act."
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Tim Reiterman, 07 Jul 2005
straight to the source: The New York Times, Felicity Barringer, 04 Jul 2005
see also, in Grist: GOP has set its sights on revamping the Endangered Species Act
___________________________________________________________________
How a Bill Becomes a Flaw
Senate passes energy bill
Late last month, after seemingly endless go-rounds, the Senate passed an energy bill that contains big boosts for nuclear power, "clean coal," and corn-blended ethanol, and would require 10 percent of electrical utilities' power to come from renewables by 2020. "With oil prices recently topping $60 a barrel, this legislation can come none too soon," said Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), though the bill's allegedly propitious timing was cast in doubt by Energy Secretary Sam Bodman's forthright acknowledgment that it wouldn't actually affect oil prices at all. The Senate's version of the bill bypasses several contentious issues -- including a liability shield for manufacturers of MTBE and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- likely to sow discord in the coming House-Senate conference committee meetings, where a final bill will be hashed out. Two previous versions have died there, but President Bush has all but demanded an energy bill on his desk before Congress' August recess. Don't make him come down there.
straight to the source: Reuters, Chris Baltimore, 28 Jun 2005
straight to the source: The Wall Street Journal, Brody Mullins, 29 Jun 2005 (access ain't free)
Toxic pollution in Arctic likely caused by contaminated bird poop
Native residents of northern Arctic regions are ridden with toxic chemicals -- some of the highest body concentrations in the world -- and new research has uncovered an unlikely culprit: guano, or as we prefer to call it, bird dookie. Scientists have long assumed that the industrial world's toxic effluents were carried northward on wind and water currents, but that doesn't explain why they concentrate in particular hotspots. A new study in the journal Science places the blame on migratory birds, which eat chemical-ridden food and poop chemical-ridden poop, which then moves up through the Arctic food chain. The researchers hope that their discovery will allow Native populations to resume eating traditional foods -- many had moved to new diets, escaping high toxin concentrations but running headlong into Type II diabetes and other ailments -- by choosing to gather them in (relatively) cleaner areas. But the real long-term solution, say activists, is to end the use of the toxic chemicals -- DDT, mercury, and several long-lasting chlorinated pollutants.
straight to the source: New Scientist, Anna Gosline, 14 Jul 2005
straight to the source: BBC News, Richard Black, 15 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
The Axis of Oil
China gets pushy about finding oil and gas supplies outside Mideast
Historians cataloguing the unintended consequences of the Iraq war can add another to their list. Until 2003, China had been wooing Saddam Hussein, hoping to lay claim to some of Iraq's undeveloped oil reserves. But the U.S.-led war, perceived by China's leaders as a bid to secure geopolitical hegemony in the Middle East, KO'd that plan. So now China is trying to secure energy supplies in some unsavory regions (think Sudan, Iran, and Myanmar) less directly influenced by the U.S. -- one reason state-owned Chinese oil company CNOOC is bidding hard for California-based Unocal Corp., which controls many Asian oil and gas fields. Said an anonymous Chinese government energy adviser, "No matter if it's rogue's oil or a friend's oil, we don't care. Human rights? We don't care. We care about oil."
straight to the source: The Washington Post, Peter S. Goodman, 13 Jul 2005
straight to the source: USA Today, Edward Iwata, 15 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
Slitherin' Scholastic
Greens urge boycott of Harry Potter's U.S. publisher
J. K. Rowling and a coalition of eco-muggles are giving props to Canadian publisher Raincoast Books for printing Rowling's hotly anticipated sixth novel -- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, being released tonight -- entirely on recycled paper. Canadian conservation group Markets Initiative estimates that Raincoast's good green citizenship will save 28,221 trees -- more than would fill New York City's Central Park -- while increasing costs no more than 5 percent. Meanwhile, U.S. publisher Scholastic, the world's biggest Potter publisher, declines to reveal how much paper used in its 10.8-million print run of the book is post-consumer pulp, saying only that company policy is to not use paper made from old-growth forests. (Greenpeace contends that Scholastic contracts with suppliers that use paper made from Canadian old-growth boreal forests.) A coalition of green groups is urging Americans to boycott Scholastic and order the latest Potter tome from Canada, via Amazon.ca or Chapters.ca.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Miguel Llanos, 14 Jul 2005
straight to the source: The Book Standard, Anna Weinberg, 12 Jul 2005
see also, in Gristmill: Attention all muggles
___________________________________________________________________
Bad for the Fish, Good for the Grist Swim Team
Warmer waters put wildlife under deadly stress along Pacific Coast
Freaky environmental anomalies along the Pacific Coast from central California to British Columbia may devastate the region's wildlife, scientists say. Ocean temperatures in the area are 2 to 5 degrees higher than usual this summer; no one's sure why, but scientists suspect a lack of northerly winds during the spring stalled the usual seasonal upwelling of cold water, which brings important nutrients to the ocean's surface. Without them, the marine food chain may be breaking down. "In 50 years, this has never happened," said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer Bill Peterson. Death rates for Brandt's cormorants on the Washington state coast are disturbingly high, and juvenile salmon numbers on the Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia coasts have been 20 to 30 percent lower than expected in June and July. Scientists are largely baffled, but Peterson says many suspect global warming may be involved.
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Associated Press, 13 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
Lend Me Your Gears
Car sharing slowly but surely taking off in cities worldwide
Car sharing is gradually gaining ground around the globe, and the future looks bright for a concept once derided as a green fever dream. About 300,000 people worldwide now participate in car sharing; it's taken off especially well in European nations like Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, where the largest company has 2,400 cars and 60,000 members (compared to a total of roughly 1,000 shared cars in the U.S.). New technologies like online car booking are making it easier for companies to manage larger numbers of vehicles and for customers to sign up to use them. Even big-biz players like Hertz and Shell have begun dipping their toes in the water, suggesting potential for future growth and profitability. Studies indicate that car-sharing services reduce overall traffic and pollution: One shared car can replace 4 to 10 cars as folks retire older vehicles, with a net 30 to 45 percent decrease in miles driven per customer.
straight to the source: The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Elisabeth Rosenthal, 14 Jul 2005
see also, in Grist: To Share, Perchance to Drive -- Umbra offers advice on renting hybrids and sharing cars
___________________________________________________________________
The Revolution Will Be Localized
Sundance getaway turns mayors into climate activists
Robert Redford helped to convert a few dozen U.S. mayors to the cause of climate activism this week at his Sundance resort in Utah. The green-leaning star cohosted a three-day summit that brought together municipal leaders from small towns and big cities across the country -- some more skeptical about climate change than others -- to chat about global warming and local actions they can take to fight it. Muckraker was there to take the conference's temperature.
new in Muckraker: The Revolution Will Be Localized
___________________________________________________________________
Beyond the Pail
Dealing with big-city garbage is big business for small towns
As landfills top off and shut down near big U.S. cities, taking in the trash is becoming a profitable enterprise for smaller towns hundreds of miles away from metropolises. Despite local concerns that landfills may cause long-term environmental problems, trash-industry execs insist communities are taking few risks when they accept big-city garbage. And many municipalities welcome the revenue. "We're rich," says a supervisor of Fox Township, Penn. (pop. under 4,000), which takes in 1,300 of the 50,000 tons of garbage exported every day from New York City -- and has millions of dollars in the bank as a result. Nearly a quarter of all municipal trash crossed state lines on its way to a final dumping ground in 2003, according to the Congressional Research Service, and the number of states importing at least one million tons of trash a year increased from two in 2001 to 10 in 2003.
straight to the source: USA Today, Associated Press, 12 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
One Tree Shill
Sierra Club touts new Ford hybrid SUV
The Sierra Club has long criticized Ford Motor Co. for its environmental offenses, primarily the industry-worst average fuel economy of its fleet. So members may be surprised when Ford's hybrid Mercury Mariner SUV is prominently featured in an upcoming club newsletter and on SierraClub.org. When the green group first offered to promote a Ford hybrid SUV last year, the company turned it away, but now -- thanks to intervention from CEO Bill Ford -- it is welcoming the opportunity to buff its battered green image. Ford, claims the club, deserves credit for becoming the third global automaker to offer a hybrid vehicle. Other activist groups aren't so complimentary. Ford's actions are encouraging, says Rainforest Action Network's Michael Brune, but "the production levels [for its hybrid SUV] are so low that it will have no measurable impact on Ford's bottom-of-the-barrel fleet-wide fuel efficiency or off-the-charts greenhouse-gas emissions."
straight to the source: Canada.com, Associated Press, Dee-Ann Durbin, 12 Jul 2005
straight to the source: The New York Times, Danny Hakim, 12 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
The Food, the Bad, and the Ugly
In a warmed world, even food won't be as good for you
Green strategists have been angling to make climate change into a "kitchen table" issue. Well, how's this for kitchen table: The food on yours could soon become less nutritious due to the rapid buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While a globally warmed world is likely to produce greater crop yields, those crops may be skimpy on critical nutrients. Glenn Scherer reviews the research and explores how this troubling trend might shake out for wildlife, livestock, and you.
new in Main Dish: The Food, the Bad, and the Ugly
__________________________________________________________________
A-Raisin' Money in the Sun
Investors pouring millions into new nanotech solar-energy firms
A merger of cutting-edge nanotechnology with the earth's oldest power source may revolutionize clean energy. At least three U.S. start-ups are aiming to develop thin, flexible sheets of tiny solar cells for the mass market. If perfected, the companies say, these nano-cells would catapult solar to the forefront of clean-energy generation: they'd not only cost much less to produce than current solar panels, but would provide electricity as cheaply as average utilities do now, about $1 per watt. It may take five years or more before the technologies are perfected for mass production, but investors are enthusiastic -- the three companies have collectively raised more than $120 million in funding since 2001. A report from the Energy Foundation suggests that cost-effective solar could provide much of the nation's electricity if available rooftop space is more fully utilized, and claims that the market for such technology might be $6.6 billion a year.
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Paul Carlstrom, 11 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
The Terror of Our Ways
Conflating environmentalists and terrorists is all the rage
A new PBS documentary -- "The Fire Next Time," which premieres tomorrow, July 12 -- portrays the vitriolic, deep-rooted conflict over environmental issues in one Montana community. Said conflict has been stoked in part by a right-wing radio DJ named, ironically enough, John Stokes. He regularly compares environmentalists to terrorists as he advocates for their elimination. And Stokes isn't the only one propagating this dubious connection: the FBI's in on the game too, along with a number of politicians and other leaders. Michael Kavanagh investigates the sources and possible effects of the "eco-terrorism" trope.
new in Main Dish: The Terror of Our Ways
___________________________________________________________________
G8 Expectations
Bush gets the watered-down G8 climate statement he wanted
President Bush got exactly what he wanted on climate change during last week's G8 meeting of industrialized nations: The appearance of compromise without any shift in his administration's position. Just when it seemed that U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair -- buoyed by London's winning bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games -- was succeeding in putting real international pressure on Bush to budge on the issue, a series of terror attacks struck Britain's capital city, distracting the world's attention, muting protests, and casting a pall over the G8 agenda. One day later, a joint statement on climate change was released, and the results of U.S. efforts to water it down were clear: It promised a "new dialogue" on the subject -- just what's needed! -- and acknowledged that anthropogenic climate change is, um, real, but conspicuously lacked language about specific targets or deadlines for reducing carbon-dioxide emissions. Even language calling global warming an "urgent" threat was removed at the U.S.'s request. What remained was largely happy talk about new technology. Maybe next year ...
straight to the source: The Independent, Colin Brown, 09 Jul 2005
straight to the source: The Washington Post, Jim VandeHei and Paul Blustein, 08 Jul 2005
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, 11 Jul 2005
___________________________________________________________________
Gutting, No Glory
House Republicans trying to tweak cornerstone environmental laws
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) and allies on the House Resources Committee have laid siege to two key environmental laws. They've inserted language into the House version of the energy bill to remove numerous drilling projects from review under the National Environmental Policy Act, which mandates environmental impact assessments and citizen involvement for projects on public lands. Industry and developers have long groused that NEPA stalls progress with long, costly environmental reviews and lawsuits. Pombo and pals have also drafted a rewrite of the Endangered Species Act that would fundamentally reorient federal agencies away from long-term planning to return species to robust health, which opponents argue stalls progress with long, costly environmental reviews and ... wait a minute, this sounds familiar. Says Defenders of Wildlife's Jamie Rappaport Clark, the rewrite "takes a wrecking ball to the whole Endangered Species Act."
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Tim Reiterman, 07 Jul 2005
straight to the source: The New York Times, Felicity Barringer, 04 Jul 2005
see also, in Grist: GOP has set its sights on revamping the Endangered Species Act
___________________________________________________________________
How a Bill Becomes a Flaw
Senate passes energy bill
Late last month, after seemingly endless go-rounds, the Senate passed an energy bill that contains big boosts for nuclear power, "clean coal," and corn-blended ethanol, and would require 10 percent of electrical utilities' power to come from renewables by 2020. "With oil prices recently topping $60 a barrel, this legislation can come none too soon," said Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), though the bill's allegedly propitious timing was cast in doubt by Energy Secretary Sam Bodman's forthright acknowledgment that it wouldn't actually affect oil prices at all. The Senate's version of the bill bypasses several contentious issues -- including a liability shield for manufacturers of MTBE and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- likely to sow discord in the coming House-Senate conference committee meetings, where a final bill will be hashed out. Two previous versions have died there, but President Bush has all but demanded an energy bill on his desk before Congress' August recess. Don't make him come down there.
straight to the source: Reuters, Chris Baltimore, 28 Jun 2005
straight to the source: The Wall Street Journal, Brody Mullins, 29 Jun 2005 (access ain't free)
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 7:15 AM
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