NEWS ROUNDUP

Green groups dismayed as flights soar to record high Aviation growth is soaring to an all-time high, raising the prospect of a huge increase in the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. For the first time, more than 2.5 million commercial flights will be made around the world in a single month, with 2.51 million scheduled for May, says the flight information company OAG. This beats the previous record of 2.49 million flights last August. The figure marks year-on-year global growth in flight numbers of 5 per cent, which translates as an extra 114,000 flights and 17.7 million extra passenger seats compared with May last year. The growth rate, green campaigners said yesterday, would considerably outstrip any improvements the airlines could make in engine fuel efficiency or traffic management to bring down emissions. Aviation is the fastest-growing source of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, and also the origin of other greenhouse gases including nitrous oxide and water vapour....
Climate change threatens California water supply California's tallest mountain range, the Sierra Nevada, may lose nearly all its snowpack by the end of the century, threatening a water crisis in the nation's most populous state, a leading scientist and Nobel laureate said. California could lose 30 percent to 70 percent of the snowpack to the ills of greenhouse gases and global warming, Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the 1997 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, told Reuters. A "bad scenario" of atmospheric carbon could mean the loss of 70 percent to 93 percent, Chu said in an interview, citing published climate models. California depends on the snowpack to generate hydroelectricity, help irrigate the biggest agricultural economy in the United States, fill reservoirs, and support wildlife and recreation on the state's rivers. "I think that's a much more serious problem than the gradually rising sea level, unless Greenland just completely melts," Chu said. "This is a huge water supply concern for California and the Southwest."....
Climate change issue heats Capitol Hill Global warming was impossible to avoid on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, with a trio of hearings on the consequences or cures for climate change and another on the related question of endangered wildlife. But even as the climate change issue spurred debate among U.S. lawmakers, a demographer said that while Americans take this matter seriously, they are lukewarm about taking any tough action to control it. "It's real, it's serious -- impressions of that are certainly growing," said Karlyn Bowman, who watches polling data at the pro-business American Enterprise Institute. "But in terms of what people are willing to do: They're willing to do things that are easy ... It just isn't a top-tier issue." Global warming has been a top-tier issue in Congress since Democratic leaders took over in January, including members of a new committee dedicated to energy independence and climate change....
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to Consider Major Global Warming Lawsuit On Monday, May 14th, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will consider the Center for Biological Diversity’s challenge to the Bush administration’s national fuel-economy standards for SUVs and pickup trucks. The lawsuit asserts that the government violated the Energy Policy and Conservation Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by ignoring greenhouse gas emissions and global warming when setting the fuel-economy standards for model year 2008-2011 SUVs and pickup trucks. The transportation sector is responsible for nearly one-third of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and the vehicles in question in this case will produce approximately 2.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide over their lifetimes. This vast amount of pollution is nearly six times the entire annual emissions of the State of California, which emits approximately 471 million metric tons each year. Carbon dioxide is a leading contributor to global warming, which threatens climatic and biological stability worldwide. The case, Center for Biological Diversity v. National Highway Traffic Administration, No. 06-71891, will be considered by Senior Circuit Judge Betty Binns Fletcher, Circuit Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, and Sixth Circuit Senior Judge Eugene E. Siler; the hearing is expected to last about an hour and will occur during the Court’s 9:00 am session on Monday, May 14th, at the U.S. Court of Appeals, 95 Seventh Street, San Francisco. The case is consolidated with similar challenges by California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, District of Columbia, and the City of New York, and four other public interest groups, the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen, and Environmental Defense....
Piñon Canyon and The National Interest It takes some trying to get Environment Colorado, the conservative Independence Institute, and the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association all lined up against you. But if anybody can do it, it’s the Pentagon, which seems these days to specialize in stirring up multi-party opposition in local populations. Defying the U.S. Army’s stated intent to expand the Piñon Canyon Training Area, in southeast Colorado, the Colorado legislature this week passed and Gov. Ritter signed a bill forbidding the military from condemning additional land in the area. The Army has reportedly been eyeing another seeking 418,000 added acres surrounding Ft. Carson’s current training range at Piñon Canyon (nearly tripling the existing 235,896 acres to), and is said to be after an even huger swathe covering 2.3 million acres in the next two decades – “ the ENTIRE Southeast corner of the state of Colorado,” one agitated opponent stated on the Piñon Canyon Expansion OppositionCoalition Web site. Whether Colorado can actually prevent the federales from buying or condemning the additional land is doubtful. Several big ranches could be affected, or wiped off the map, as a result. This messy dispute might be seen by outsiders as Local Cowheads vs. Land-Grubbin’ Federals, Chapter 172, except that it involves a couple of much, much larger issues: federalism and the Endless War....
DA will seek death penalty in fire case District Attorney Rod Pacheco announced Wednesday that his office will seek the death penalty for the man accused of setting a wildfire last October that killed five firefighters. Pacheco said he decided to pursue death against Raymond Lee Oyler after meeting with relatives of the U.S. Forest Service firefighters and with law-enforcement investigators. Factors including Oyler's past criminal record also influenced his decision. "I considered what I personally considered to be an incredible and callous disregard to the safety of the firefighters who would respond to the fires over a period of time," Pacheco said. "He expressed on numerous occasions that he wanted to burn the mountain down." Oyler's attorney, Mark McDonald. said Wednesday that his defense has always been prepared for the likelihood the Riverside County district attorney would seek the death penalty....
Tieton Canyon: The hinge between forest and desert At first glance, it's the history of a million years that makes Tieton Canyon so captivating. It was about that long ago when the mantle for the canyon's dramatic landscape was laid down, issuing forth from a volcano near the crest of the Cascades and oozing almost 50 miles to where now spreads the city of Yakima. Geologists say it was the longest known andesite magma flow on Earth, and today it is manifested in many impressive shapes of basalt: vertical towers, horizontal ribs, twisted columns, wavy forms and pillow shapes. These provide aeries for golden eagles, spires for rock climbers, prime habitat for bighorn sheep, a scenic setting for hikers and campers and a dramatic backdrop for stunning spring wildflower displays. You now are assured of experiencing much of it in its natural state, unfettered by development, thanks to a four-year effort to preserve and add 10,000 acres of private land to the state's Oak Creek Wildlife Area....
Pombo back in land-use battles After nearly two decades as an elected official, Tracy's Richard Pombo has come full circle: The former Republican congressman entered politics as a fighter for private property rights, and now that he's off Capitol Hill, Pombo's latest venture thrusts him right back into the land-use wars he so enjoys. On Wednesday, Pombo took the reins of the Partnership for America, a national organization funded by utilities, mining, logging, oil, natural gas and coal companies and agricultural and hunting rights groups. Its goal is an overhaul of the federal Endangered Species Act and increased domestic energy production. The Partnership for America coordinates the efforts of the kind of folks Pombo used to be: local activists facing local versions of national problems, such as the Endangered Species Act's "critical habitat" program, which even many Democrats say needs reform. "I spent 14 years in Congress fighting for what I believe in and doing what I knew was right," Pombo said. "But the fight is far from over....
Data-tinkering review vowed A top Interior Department official said Wednesday that her agency would review instances of manipulation of scientific reports on endangered species by Julie MacDonald, the former deputy assistant secretary overseeing the agency's program. But Deputy Secretary P. Lynn Scarlett did not say the review would be exhaustive, and her pledge to conduct the review came well into a hearing before the House Resources Committee and after several efforts to brush aside the question. The muted response bolstered the view of critics that the Interior Department won't comprehensively review MacDonald's work despite conclusions by the department's inspector general that she broke federal rules by behaving abusively toward government scientists and revising reports to help developers and agricultural interests. Despite Miller's heated questioning about what the department planned to do as a result of MacDonald's alteration of documents, Scarlett merely affirmed the agency's commitment to use the best science available in making determinations. Only after the questioning persisted did Scarlett pledge that the agency would work to correct instances where scientific conclusions were altered. "Where there is scientific manipulation, we want to correct that," she said. "We will explore where those instances are, and address them." After prolonged discussions of MacDonald's role in decisions on the northern spotted owl, whose endangered status has sharply reduced logging in Pacific Northwest forests, Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., said Scarlett should resign because of her "stunning lack of awareness."....
Congressman Wants to Release Wolves in Central Park? In what we can only imagine was a poorly considered joke, Rep. Stevan Pearce (R-New Mexico) said on Wednesday he hoped the Department of Fish and Wildlife would release Mexican gray wolves in Central Park and Washington, D.C. "I think we should bring them here and turn them loose on the [national] mall," Pearce said during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on whether the Bush administration has meddled with science related to the Endangered Species Act. Pearce who hails from Hobbs on the eastern side of New Mexico was railing about the wolves that, since 1998, have been released on the western border of his state in an attempt to restore a species hunted to near extinction. Some county officials in New Mexico have asked federal authorities to remove the wolves, which can attack livestock. Fish and Wildlife denied the request yesterday. Pearce described a recent attack on a horse, saying the wolves devoured the animal like "piranhas." Soon, he implied, they might hunger for human flesh. Nothing is more attractive to a wolf than the sound of a crying baby, Pearce said. It would only be fair to visit the same fanged fears on the people of New York City and Washington, D.C....
It’s Time to Rethink the Endangered Species Act Do you think that the Army Corps of Engineers should stop rebuilding the flood control levees of New Orleans if these massive earthworks threaten the habitat of an endangered beetle or butterfly? A federal law, passed in 1973, says that the answer to this question must be "yes." It's called the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In this law, Congress said that preserving endangered species of plants and animals is the highest priority of the federal government. Since there can be only one highest priority, the beetle or butterfly comes first (New Orleans second). The ESA commands all federal agencies to take no action which is "likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species or threatened species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of habitat of such species." These words have teeth, as was shown in the famous case of the snail darter versus the Tellico dam. The snail darter is a fish, about three and one-half inches long, one of 173 recognized species of darters in North America. This species was discovered in 1973 by a University of Tennessee ichthyologist, David Etner, who was snorkeling in the Little Tennessee River. Etner told a bystander that he had found "the fish that will stop the Tellico dam." He was right. The case reached the United States Supreme Court under the name Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill. There was no doubt that the dam, then 98% complete after an expenditure of more than $100 million, would destroy the habitat of the snail darter. Money doesn't matter, said the Supreme Court, because the language of the ESA does not allow any priority higher than saving the species. This illustrates the first problem of the ESA. It fails to acknowledge that, in the real world of politics and government, priorities must be weighed one against another. The second problem of the ESA is that it treats all endangered species as equally deserving of protection. Again, this is a failure to set priorities....
Cutthroat losing out to lake trout in Yellowstone Native Yellowstone cutthroat trout are losing their fight for survival in the heart of Yellowstone National Park. Non-native lake trout patrolling Yellowstone Lake are eating so deeply into the population that biologists last year found just 471 cutthroats at a spot where there were more than 70,000 in the 1970s. The downward spiral has been particularly noticeable at that spot - Clear Creek on the eastern edge of Yellowstone Lake - over the last several years. After biologists counted 6,613 cutthroats in 2002, the number dropped to 3,432 in 2003, 1,438 in 2004, 917 in 2005 and 471 last spring, according to numbers released Wednesday. They are the lowest numbers since record keeping began in 1945....
Bush Administration Sets All-time Record for Denying Protection to Endangered Species: Zero New Listings in Past Year Today marks exactly one year since the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service last protected any new U.S. species under the Endangered Species Act. Fittingly, on this same day, the House Natural Resources Committee is holding important oversight hearings on implementation of the Endangered Species Act by a recalcitrant Bush administration. The last time the agency went an entire year without protecting a single species was in 1981, when the infamous James Watt was Secretary of Interior. There are currently 279 highly imperiled species that are designated as candidates for listing as threatened or endangered and that face potential extinction. The Center’s report documents administration interference in two other key aspects of the Endangered Species Act: designation of critical habitat and development of species recovery plans. According to the report, interference by Bush political appointees, such as discredited former Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald, has led to the reduction of as much as 90 percent of all critical habitats designated under the administration and to widespread tampering with the scientific conclusions of recovery plans for the Apache trout, Northern spotted owl and West Virginia flying squirrel, among others....Go here to view the report.
Editorials: Humans first Given the choice of giving water to thirsty Southern Californians or the San Bernardino kangaroo rat, we'll choose the Californians. The Center for Biological Diversity wants the Santa Ana River to be free flowing to save the endangered species along the river. Fine, except for a couple of things: First, the river has never been “free flowing” as we usually think of a river. It has had periods when it was a mile wide, but most of the time it is a dry stream bed with little or no water most of the year. With construction of the Seven Oaks Dam, the opportunity came, not only to prevent flooding, but to preserve and use water stored behind the dam. So local water agencies applied for water rights behind the dam, planning to use good mountain water to replace water imported from Northern California and the Colorado River, both of which reach the Inland Empire much less pure than the Santa Ana River water. Second, the Center for Biological Diversity apparently has not seen the river and seems to have little information, except that provided by those paid exorbitant sums to find scarce plants and animals. If those species still exist, then it will not matter much whether the water is diverted; they already have survived the ups and downs of the river....
Arizona First State To Prohibit Mandatory Animal Identification Arizona became the first state in the nation to prohibit mandatory participation in a National Animal Identification System. State Senator Karen Johnson, who sponsored the bill, said, "We are delighted that the legislature and the governor recognize the dangers of allowing government to force people to register their premises, tag every one of their livestock animals, and then report to the government every time their animals move off their premises." The brief but powerful addition to the Arizona statutes says: "The Director, Department, or any other officer, agency or instrumentality of this state shall not mandate or force participation in the National Animal Identification System." At least a dozen other states (http://libertyark.org/action.shtml) are considering legislation to block efforts by both state and federal government to require livestock animal owners to participate in the NAIS. "Livestock owners see the NAIS as an intrusion into private property rights, which will cost animal owners a lot of money and time, and will have virtually no effect in preventing animal disease or improving food safety," says Judith McGeary, member of the Steering Committee of the Liberty Ark Coalition....
USCA Supports Efforts To Clarify Market Competition Laws The success of cattle producers depends on open, fair and competitive livestock markets. That is why the United States Cattlemen's Association (USCA) is pleased to support the efforts of Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) to increase competition in the agricultural marketplace and protect producers from anti-competitive practices by enhancing market transparency. “It is encouraging to see competition legislation introduced in the House,” says USCA Marketing Committee Chairman and Region VIII Director Allan Sents. “This bill, The Competitive and Fair Agricultural Markets Act of 2007, and its companion on the Senate side (S. 622) will provide the cattle industry with several critical market reforms.” “The interpretation of current law has been completely muddled by court and administrative rulings. This bill clarifies the law and instructs the Secretary of Agriculture to define terms in the Packers and Stockyards Act. Clarification will enhance producer protections and allow for more balanced enforcement of current law.”“If passed, the Boswell bill (H.R. 2135) will eliminate a defense based on arguments of competitive injury,” says Sents. “A significant part of the defense in the Pickett v. Tyson case was the notion that an action is justified if a competitor is doing it, regardless of whether the action is right or wrong.” The legislation will also improve rulemaking by requiring the Secretary of Agriculture to write regulations defining the term “unreasonable preference” under the Packers and Stockyards Act. Lastly, the Boswell bill will create an Office of Special Counsel for Competition Matters within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)....
WSJ: US Immigration Overhaul May Hit Farms As immigration overhaul teeters in the Senate, the White House and lawmakers are back facing the issue that started the whole debate: the treatment of undocumented immigrant farm workers. More than any other interests, Western growers and the United Farm Workers were early to put aside their differences and close ranks behind legislation that promised the industry a stable labor force and field workers a chance to begin to move toward citizenship. Dubbed AgJOBS, the bill has steadily gained bipartisan support in Congress over the past six years as a pilot program of sorts for larger immigration reform. Under AgJOBS, illegal-immigrant farm workers who have cleared criminal checks would first get blue-card visas to establish temporary residency. Tomove up the next step to permanent residency, a worker would have to stay in agriculture, working at least 150 work days annually for three years, or 100 work days annually for five. But with President Bush wanting a more comprehensive approach appealing to conservatives, workers are being asked to make concessions to help AgJOBS conform with the legislation being negotiated in the Senate. At the heart of the debate is the question of how far the government should go to accept individuals who entered the country illegally but are otherwise law-abiding workers important to the economy....
Time for Taxpayers to Sing the Blues Blue corn isn’t subsidized like white and yellow corn, and that’s just not right. Or so say the blue corn growers. Cindy Skrzycki’s “Regulators” column in the Washington Post today is the sort of thing that ought to make you a libertarian. So many lawyers writing so many regulations, with clauses and sub-clauses. And it’s all nonsense. So here’s the problem: Under the regulatory system that determines which crops qualify for inclusion in Department of Agriculture support programs, blue corn is an orphan. According to the department rulebook, it isn’t even considered corn because it’s not yellow or white, the only versions of the food that are eligible for federal agricultural loans and crop payments. This means that farmers who grow blue corn, which is made into the blue-corn tortilla chips that many of us love to dip into a nice salsa, aren’t growing “real” corn, so they don’t qualify for loan or other support programs, according to the government. Now you might think this is no big deal since blue corn sells for about twice what white and yellow corn do. But the growers feel hurt and victimized and, you know, invisibilized. They want to be an official government-recognized crop. And, you know, get the loans and subsidies. Like popcorn got in 2003....