NEWS ROUNDUP

Fight Global Warming by Taxing 'McMansions,' Dingell Says The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week announced a plan to fight global warming by reducing carbon emissions up to 80 percent by the year 2050. This would be done by raising gasoline taxes 50 cents per gallon and ending mortgage tax deductions on large houses, which the Michigan Democrat called "McMansions." During town hall meetings in Ann Arbor and in Dearborn, Rep. John Dingell said he will make these proposals as part of a multi-tiered bill he will introduce on Sept. 1 in his committee, which handles legislation dealing with global warming. Some home-contracting firms, however, criticized Dingell's proposal as misguided and economically detrimental. And some conservative tax experts agreed, noting that Americans already pay too much in taxes and raising taxes more will only curtail consumption and investment. But the congressman's most controversial recommendation was to take away the mortgage interest deduction for "McMansions," which he defined as homes larger than 3,000 square feet and which use more energy than smaller houses. Dingell was joined at the town hall meetings by representatives from several environmental groups, including Clean Water Action, the Ecology Center, the League of Conservation Voters, the National Wildlife Federation and Environment Michigan....
Sens. seek to safeguard Piñon land Responding to widespread fear the Army will seize land to expand its Piñon Canyon training site, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar said he will write legislation to block mandatory property sales. The Democratic senator said in an interview that he is considering a measure that would not only insulate property owners but force the Army to say what it is doing with its current property and why it needs more land. Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Wayne Allard also has hardened his position. Allard is negotiating with the Army on legislation that would offer assurances to landowners who do not want to sell, a top aide said. The willingness of the two senators to step in now, after weeks of saying they wanted to balance conflicting needs of the Army and residents, could alter the military's plan for growth. "The Army has told me that they only want to purchase land from willing sellers," Salazar said. "If that's the case, we ought to put it into law." The fight over expanding the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site by more than 400,000 acres heats up next month when the Senate returns from its August break....
"No one is neutral" in water fight Out on the CX Ranch - a patch of ponderosa-pine prairie straddling the Wyoming-Montana border - water is hard to come by. So a few years ago, when an energy company approached ranch manager Chuck Larsen with the idea of using water from its coal-bed methane gas wells, the burly cowboy didn't hesitate. Today, on 37 lush, green acres, Larsen is growing 3 to 4 tons a year of alfalfa irrigated with water pumped out of an underground coal seam. "Without the water, that field wouldn't be here," Larsen said. About 120 miles southeast of Larsen's spread, Ed Swartz is convinced coal-bed methane water isn't saving his ranch, but ruining it. In October 1999, Wildcat Creek, usually just a trickle, was swamped, flooding the Swartz Ranch with coal-bed methane water. "The water just kept running for over a year, and I noticed my trees started dying," Swartz said. "It was garbage water." As far as Wyoming sheep rancher Pat O'Toole is concerned, the worst thing anyone could do with coal-bed methane water is waste it. Over the next eight years, up to 450,000 barrels of water a day are projected to be produced in southern Wyoming's Atlantic Rim Basin, where a major coal-bed methane reserve has been discovered. The federal government wants companies to reinject the water into the ground....
Energy bill targets Wyo issues While the recently passed House energy bill would make a nationwide push toward cleaner fuels, it also contains less-publicized provisions that could have an on-the-ground impact on energy development in Western states. Conservationists pushed to include measures that would slow oil and gas drilling on public lands, while the industry lobbied to have them taken out. The compromise struck in the House bill will be fought over during final negotiations with the Senate, which did not include the measures. The overall House bill would require electric utilities to produce 15 percent of their power from renewable sources such as wind, solar or biomass by 2020. It also would repeal $16 billion in tax breaks over 10 years for the oil and gas industry, using the money for renewable fuels and efficiency programs. Other provisions would raise the fee for permits to drill on public lands, give surface owners more rights on so-called "split estates," increase the dollar amount of bonds for development on public lands and increase water regulations for energy developers. The bill has drawn a range of reactions....
Changes to mine law may shake state In the 1890s, when prospectors came from across the nation to Cripple Creek with gold nuggets in their eyes, the government sold them land for $5 an acre, and often less. A century later, when a mining company wanted land in Crested Butte — a resort town where new homes go for $1 million — it got the same bargain. That’s because the law governing mineral mining on federal land hasn’t changed significantly in 135 years. The General Mining Law of 1872, meant to help settle the West, still says miners can stake claims and buy public land at a price capped at $5 an acre, with no royalties, little environmental regulation and few options for federal agencies to deny their applications. This year, the Democrat-controlled Congress is taking aim at the law, an effort that has pitted lawmakers against the Bush administration and environmentalists against the mining industry. The mining law played a major role in shaping Colorado. With 20,300 active mineral claims on federal land here — not to mention 2,600 abandoned mines, many of them sources of pollution — and mining companies taking a new interest in Colorado’s uranium deposits, a rewrite of the law could have a wide-ranging im- pact here....
Rio Grande Gorge: Bighorns return home to historic range For the hunters and gatherers who called Northern New Mexico home in prehistoric times, seeing Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep roam from the state’s highest peaks down the 800-foot basalt cliffs that form the Rio Grande Gorge was part of life. Petroglyphs chiseled into boulders up and down the river depict big-horned mammals, but it was long ago that the majestic animals disappeared from the area. On Saturday, state and federal wildlife managers took a step toward reintroducing the past as they lifted the latch on a livestock trailer and a group of bighorn sheep — after a bit of hesitation — thundered out, kicking up dust and scrambling one after the other as they made their way up the rocks. “They belong here. They’re part of the diversity,” said Sam DesGeorges, head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s field office in Taos. “Having the habitat and the animals that occupy that habitat is very important biologically.”....
National forests battle damage Near a rock formation twisting into the Arizona sky, the desert floor has been torn up by off-road vehicles. There's a tattered VCR and a bullet-riddled washing machine lying in a heap. Unscrupulous visitors have chosen this spot filled with prickly green cacti in the Tonto National Forest outside Phoenix to tear up with their ATVS, illegally dump garbage and shoot guns. Many national forests, especially ones near burgeoning metropolises, are suffering from the environmental damage similar to what is happening in the Tonto. With fewer employees and a tight budget, the U.S. Forest Service is struggling to keep up. The proposed fiscal year 2007 budget was 2.5% lower than 2006, although actual spending hasn't yet been finalized, said spokeswoman Angela Coleman. Fire suppression now eats up about 40% of its annual budget, meaning programs dealing with everything from visitor education to maintenance have been cut back, said Cecilia Clavet, an associate at the Wilderness Society in Washington D.C., who researches Forest Service issues....Oh, the poor things. It was Forest management policies, some of which were forced on the agency via lawsuits by environmental outfits like the Wilderness Society, that created the fire hazards we face today. If almost half their budget is spent on fighting fires, they have no one to blame but themselves.
Burning Man and Yucca Mountain not what they seem Burning Man and Yucca Mountain have something in common - both are highly dubious projects in the Nevada desert. Let me explain. Burning Man, the annual naked drug festival co-sponsored by San Francisco-based Black Rock City LLC and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), will take place over the Labor Day weekend in the Black Rock Desert near Gerlach. It will attract some 40,000 "free spirits" who will pay between $250 and $400 apiece for the "privilege" of baking in the sun for three or four days. Doing the math, it's clear that the festival will gross more than $10 million for its aging hippie organizers. And the BLM will rake in about a million dollars - last year's BLM take was approximately $843,000 - for looking the other way as participants do drugs and get naked in the presence of young children. For years the Burners have claimed that their event is nonprofit and non-commercial and that they're dedicated to art and assorted consciousness-raising activities. But seven-time Burner Chris Taylor, who writes for the techie magazine "Business 2.0," has revealed the truth about the festival in the July issue of that magazine. Taylor confirms that Burning Man is a $10 million business that is now seeking corporate sponsorships. So much for the high-minded New Age baloney that Burning Man organizers "lord Larry" Harvey and "Maid Marian" Goodell peddle to the media every summer....
Butte couple escape bear attack on camper Bruce Hemphill has nothing against a midnight snack. He just doesn't want to become one. Last weekend, Bruce and his wife, Pat, believed they almost became a snack as a large black bear tried to claw its way into their camper. "It was probably the most scared I've ever been in my life," Hemphill said. The Butte couple was camping in the Lowland Campground, 8 miles north of Butte off Interstate 15, when they had a rude awakening about 3 a.m. Sunday. Their entire camper started violently shaking, Hemphill said. "It felt like an earthquake or something, everything was shaking," he recalled Thursday. He would have preferred an earthquake. Instead, he encountered a black bear. The bear had climbed up the hood of his truck on top of his camper. He saw the animal through the roof vent, which he had left open before going to bed. He quickly tried to reel the vent closed, but the bear whacked the aluminum vent cover with its paw, bending it as easily as tin foil. The bear then clawed through a bug screen in the vent....
BLM fills three key leadership positions The Bureau of Land Management has announced the appointment of three career professionals to key leadership positions in the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters. Edwin L. Roberson, currently serving as manager of the BLM's Las Cruces District in New Mexico, will be the new assistant director for Renewable Resources and Planning; Michael D. "Mike" Nedd, who was director of the agency's Eastern States Office in Springfield, Va., is now assistant director for Minerals, Realty, and Resource Protection; and Celia Boddington, who headed the bureau's Washington, D.C., Public Affairs Office for more than a decade, becomes assistant director for communications. "I am very pleased to announce the appointment of these high-caliber individuals to key positions in our agency," said BLM Deputy Director Jim Hughes. "All three bring with them proven management skills of the highest order and years of experience with the Bureau."....
Feds respond to lawsuit over grizzly protection The federal government has responded to seven environmental groups that filed suit recently, seeking to restore endangered species protections for grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone area. In a document filed in U.S. District Court, federal lawyers argued the environmental groups were wrong in their allegations. They said the groups were not entitled to any legal relief, and that they may not have standing to bring a lawsuit. Plaintiffs include the Western Watersheds Project, the Sierra Club, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. They're challenging the decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lift the "threatened" status of 500 to 600 bears in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho....
Montana brings sage grouse concerns into oil and gas decisions Montana officials are imposing a new restriction on the oil and gas industry that gives more say to state wildlife biologists who have sought to slow energy development to protect an imperiled bird, the greater sage grouse. The restriction - criticized as a potential new hurdle for companies seeking to do business in Montana - underscores the state's shift away from neighboring states and provinces that embraced aggressive energy policies to maximize economic returns. Across the Rocky Mountain West, from New Mexico to Alberta, Canada, a boom in exploration this decade has sparked a backlash from environmental and conservation groups. They claim game animal populations have suffered from a proliferation of oil and gas wells in once-undeveloped areas. In Montana, those groups are finding allies in state agencies under Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer. During Schweitzer's tenure, the state has charted a more circumspect course for development, giving greater weight to potential negative effects on wildlife and the environment....
Discord threatens Klamath River water talks But as the projected November deadline for a deal moves steadily nearer, environmental and Indian tribal leaders are raising concerns that the pact that everyone so desperately wants is in danger of slipping away because of what they see as political manipulation. "Whatever comes out of these negotiations has to have a scientific basis, rather than a political basis," said Clifford Lyle Marshall, Hoopa Valley Tribe chairman. "There were political strings being pulled before the negotiations started -- and they are still in play." Critics warn that the evolving 60-year agreement is being shaped by Bush administration officials and is looking more and more like a $250 million-plus gift to irrigators, assuring them of ample water and subsidized power to pump it in exchange for a huge but possibly elusive environmental victory -- knocking down four dams on the river. The hydroelectric dams are owned by Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp, which is no longer involved in the talks. Greg Addington, director of the Klamath Water Users Association and a strong advocate of a negotiated settlement, said he was disappointed that critics are beginning to go public before a deal is done. "I'd hope that we could work these things out amongst ourselves and not in the media," he said. But he added that even among irrigators there are "big concerns," despite assurances of water and subsidized power....
Hunter, angler numbers decline Fewer Americans are hunting and fishing today than 10 and 5 years ago. Preliminary results of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife Associated Recreation were released Thursday – a survey taken every five years – and it continues to show a decline in hunting and fishing across the country. Nationally, there were 12 percent fewer anglers in 2006 than five years ago. The number of hunters fell by 4 percent for that same time period. Wildlife watching around the house – which includes anyone who gazes at birds at a backyard feeder – increased 8 percent. The number of people willing to travel to see wildlife increased by 5 percent. There are a myriad of reasons for this trend. Hunting and fishing is more expensive than watching wildlife....
Rails trail to pass Bridal Veil Falls When the Alamogordo and Sacramento Mountain Railroad ran trains to Cloudcroft, the conductor would often stop at the foot of Bridal Veil Falls to give the passengers a chance to view the 40-foot waterfall. Now that New Mexico Rails-to-Trails Association has bought two easements that include the waterfall, volunteers have begun the work of converting the old railroad bed into a trail for hiking, bicycling and horseback riding. Money for this purchase came from an $180,000 grant from the New Mexico Recreational Trails Program, with matching funds and labor from the USDA Forest Service and NMRTA. Bridal Veil Falls Trail will link the Salado Canyon Trestle Trail to the Grand View Trail, for a total length of about 4.5 miles. Eventually this segment of the planned 68-mile Enchanted Trail will be connected to the 35.5 miles of existing trail between the Harkey Pedestrian Bridge and Oliver Lee State Park....
Farmers object to feds' hiring crackdown Farmers say a crackdown on hiring of illegal workers announced Friday by the Bush administration will cripple California agriculture. The state's $32 billion industry relies heavily on immigrant workers, many of whom are in the country illegally. "This isn't going to work. It is going to put people out of business," said Guillermo Zamora, a Fresno County farm labor contractor who hires about 200 workers a year to harvest crops. Under new rules announced by the Department of Homeland Security on Friday, employers will have 90 days to prove their workers are legal residents. If they miss the deadline, they must terminate the employee. They could be fined up to $10,000 per worker for failing to follow the rules. Construction, janitorial and landscaping companies and hotels and restaurants also rely on illegal workers. The new rules take effect in 30 days. "We are concerned that the new regulations will result in employers in numerous industries having to let workers go as the economy is facing an increasingly tight labor market," John Gay of the National Restaurant Association told The Associated Press....
Horses die near pipeline The deaths of 27 horses owned by a Malta rancher are being investigated to see whether there is any link to a leak discovered in an underground natural gas pipeline. Crews performing routine maintenance checks Aug. 3 on the pipeline owned by Williams Northwest Pipeline discovered 16 horse carcasses on Benjamin Bartlett's ranch, Michele Swaner, company spokeswoman, told the South Idaho Press. Swaner said the company immediately notified Bartlett and the Cassia County sheriff. Over the next several days, 11 more carcasses were found, she said. The company discovered a nickel-sized hole in the pipeline Thursday, and Swaner said that section was repaired and put back in service. Veterinarian Ward Wallace, of Burley, tested the carcasses last week, but said the time between death and his tests makes it nearly impossible to tell if natural gas played a role....
Nitrates may have killed test site horses Diagnostic and toxicology results indicate that nitrate toxicity is the most likely cause of death in July for 71 wild horses managed by the Bureau of Land Management on the Nevada Wild Horse Range. High levels of nitrates were found in some water samples taken from a pond the horses used for drinking on a dry lake bed and also in the deceased horses’ blood serum and ocular fluid. Water test results indicated nitrate levels of more than 3,000 parts per million. The United States Health Service standard for drinking water for human consumption is less than 45 ppm. Livestock can tolerate higher levels but problems are known to occur when levels exceed 400 ppm and acceptable levels should be below 100 ppm. Acute nitrate toxicity in horses is not well understood and there haven’t been many instances of it reported. There is no indication that the problem is attributable to a contagious or infectious disease....
Stream may have spread foot and mouth The investigation into the foot and mouth outbreak is now focusing on a stream running through the two infected farms. Officials, meanwhile, have confirmed that a third farm being tested for the virus, 12 miles from the outbreak in Surrey, is free of the disease. The stream involved runs past an allotment used by a senior employee of the pharmaceutical company linked to the outbreak, before passing through nearby fields used by the two farms hit by the virus. Merial UK, which shares the Pirbright high-security laboratory site with the government-funded Institute for Animal Health, also admitted that blue chemical barrels scattered on the allotment had not been decontaminated before being taken off the site. Villagers in Normandy, Surrey, where the first case in the outbreak occurred, think the virus may have passed from the barrels on the allotment into the stream, contaminating water drunk by animals downstream. Investigators are now convinced the virus came from the Pirbright labs. A government report said the strain of the virus found was held in only a handful of labs around the world. Pirbright was the nearest and the next was in Belgium....
Insider reveals lax security at bio-lab A WORKER has raised concerns about bio-security at the state-owned research complex where the foot and mouth outbreak is believed to have originated. Percy Ravate, a contract worker, was struck down with life-threatening Legionnaires’ disease, which he believes he caught while repairing pipework at the Pirbright complex in Surrey. He said basic health and safety procedures were flouted, he was allowed to roam around laboratories and security measures such as checking visitors were not enforced. His allegations came as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) continued investigations into a senior scientist at the complex who had an allotment neighbouring the field in which the first case of foot and mouth was identified. He had been using chemical drums – thought to be from the complex – as plant tubs....
Practice of 'tail docking' draws foes On the one hand, it’s hard to watch youngsters dissolve into tears when months of work with a lamb is disqualified in moments at the Wyoming State Fair. But on the other hand, veterinarians, fair leadership and lamb industry reps can’t stand by and see an animal placed at risk for serious health problems and even death, just to look better in the show ring. As a compromise in an ongoing controversy over proper tail docking lengths on market lambs at the fair, a new rule this year should ease some of the tension for the young exhibitors while ensuring that any animal chosen as a champion will meet health standards. Breeders have docked, or cut, lamb tails for years. Ranchers with stock on the open prairie started the practice to prevent range conditions that could prove deadly to animals, Douglas veterinarian Dr. Dean Smylie explained. The issue now is over the length of the tail remaining after docking. In the past decade some breeders started cutting tails closer to the quick, possibly in response to judges who found the shorter tails visually appealing, even on an animal destined for market....
Beheaded rattlesnake bites rancher Turns out, even beheaded rattlesnakes can be dangerous. That's what 53-year-old Danny Anderson learned as he was feeding his horses Monday night, when a more than a metre-long rattler slithered onto his central Washington property, about 80 kilometres southeast of Yakima. Mr. Anderson and his 27-year-old son, Benjamin, pinned the snake with an irrigation pipe and cut off its head with a shovel. A few more strikes to the head left it sitting under a pickup truck. “When I reached down to pick up the head, it raised around and did a backflip almost, and bit my finger,” Mr. Anderson said. “I had to shake my hand real hard to get it to let loose.” His wife insisted they go to the hospital, and by the time they arrived at Prosser Memorial Hospital 10 minutes later, Mr. Anderson's tongue was swollen and the venom was spreading. He then was taken by ambulance 50 kilometres to a Richland hospital to get the full series of six shots he needed. The snake head ended up in the bed of his pickup, and Mr. Anderson landed in the hospital until Wednesday afternoon....