The internet is s-l-o-w here tonight. Will try to catch up on the rest of the news tomorrow.

Australia urges US to ratify the Kyoto accord on global warming Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urged the United States on Wednesday to follow his country's lead and ratify the Kyoto Protocol, as divisions emerged over what a future international climate change pact should look like. Rudd signed documents this week to formally adopt the Kyoto accord, reversing a decade of resistance and leaving the United States as the only industrialized country to refuse its binding targets for greenhouse gas emissions. "Our position vis-a-vis Kyoto is clear cut, and that is that all developed and developing countries need to be part of the global solution," the newly elected prime minister told the Southern Cross Broadcasting radio network in Australia. "And therefore we do need to see the United States as a full ratification state." His comments further put the United States on the defensive at the Bali Climate Change conference, where nearly 190 nations aim to launch two years of serious negotiations on a future regime to head off dangerous climate change....
Not Enough Parking for Private Jets Going to UN Climate Conference As climate alarmists from all over the world head to Bali to talk about the sacrifices regular folks have to make to save the planet from global warming, it seems certain media will ignore all the private jets clogging the tiny airport. As if it’s not enough that the United Nations Climate Change Conference is being held at what NewsBusters reported as "a truly beautiful tropical island paradise," the management of the nearby airport has issued a warning to attendees that they are going to have to park their private jets somewhere else. Tempo Interaktif reports that Angkasa Pura - the management of Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport are concerned that the large number of additional private charter flights expected in Bali during the UN Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) December 3-15, 2007, will exceed the carrying capacity of apron areas. To meet the added demand for aircraft storage officials are allocating "parking space" at other airports in Indonesia. The operational manager for Bali's Airport, Azjar Effendi, says his 3 parking areas can only accommodate 15 planes, which means that some of the jets used by VIP delegations will only be allowed to disembark and embark their planes in Bali with parking provided at airports in Surabaya, Lombok, Jakarta and Makassar....
Western Colo. Congress stays green after 27 years hen the "founding humans" of the Western Colorado Congress first crowded into a farmhouse near Montrose in the spring of 1980, they brought plenty of potluck dishes. But they were short on political clout. They included schoolteachers, carpenters, a plumber, an attorney, a social worker and a wildlife agency spokesman. Local power players bent on development quickly dismissed these questioning environmentalists as tree-hugging kooks, and even communists. Last month, that same group — now boasting 3,100 members — drew Gov. Bill Ritter's presence and praise at its annual meeting. And last week, WCC members were invited to the table when the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission met with stakeholders about proposed rules for energy development. The rules are being changed thanks in large part to more than eight years of lobbying work by WCC and its affiliate members....
Spending ban on Pinon Canyon has 'refocused' Army planning Federal lawmakers who thought they had stopped the Army from doing any planning next year on expanding the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site might be surprised how little Army planners feel constrained by the congressional ban. For example, the Army currently has a $500,000-a-year contract with Booz Allen Hamilton, an international consulting firm, to help persuade the public, and Southern Colorado ranchers in particular, that the Army needs to nearly triple the size of the 238,000-acre training area northeast of Trinidad. That contract has been in existence for several years now. Ranchers trying to stop the expansion, however, persuaded the House and Senate last summer to adopt an amendment to the 2008 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act that bans the Army from spending any money next year on the planned expansion. Lt. Col. Jim Rice, the operations officer for Fort Carson's senior mission command, said he has directed the Booz Allen staffers working on Pinon Canyon to help prepare a lengthy Army report on why more ground is needed at Pinon Canyon. That report was ordered by Sens. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Wayne Allard, R-Colo., as part of the 2008 Defense Authorization Act, which lawmakers finished last month and the president has already signed. "I think we've been refocused (by the Musgrave-Salazar legislation), but not constrained," Rice said in a telephone interview Monday. "And that's what I believe Congress intended by approving this one-year 'time out' in the process."....
Wyoming hopes efforts keep sage grouse off endanger list If the federal government reconsiders special protections for the greater sage grouse, a state wildlife official says he hopes the work Wyoming and other states are doing to help the bird will lead to the conclusion that it's not endangered. However, a representative of an environmental group said the efforts to help sage grouse may be futile if the Bureau of Land Management continues to issue oil and gas leases in prime sagebrush habitat. A federal judge in Idaho on Tuesday ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider whether sage grouse should be listed as an endangered species. The agency in 2005 rejected petitions by environmental groups to list the greater sage grouse, saying special protections were not warranted because of local and state conservation efforts. States, fearing federal protections would shut off millions of acres to livestock grazing and energy development, have undertaken initiatives to study the bird and how to improve its habitat. John Emmerich, deputy director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said Wyoming has vast areas of sage grouse habitat and the bird is widely distributed across the state. "If a species like that gets listed, it'll have huge ramifications," he said....
Otero Co. chair supports outlawing wolf releases The chairman of the Otero County Commission says he supports a county ordinance that makes it illegal to release Mexican gray wolves and other predators within county limits. Otero County is the second New Mexico county after Catron County to pass an ordinance designed to protect its citizens, pets and livestock from the endangered Mexican gray wolves. Commission Chairman Doug Moore says even if the president released a wolf in Otero County, he would advocate arresting him. The comments came at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service meeting Monday about proposed changes to its wolf reintroduction program. John Slown a Mexican wolf planner with Fish and Wildlife, says if a wolf is released on federal land, the federal government has the final say on the release.
Critics charge ex-official uses influence to drive alternative energy policy Pacific Ethanol was still a fledgling business in 2005 when its founder, former Secretary of State Bill Jones, persuaded state officials to give him the small but exclusive fuel deal that established his company as a player in California's burgeoning alternative fuel market. Two years later, that company is an ethanol empire. And Jones is the fuel's most influential champion in the state, using his political connections and 21 years of Sacramento experience to shape policies that are dramatically boosting California's thirst for ethanol - stemming the state's dependence on gasoline, but at a cost of millions in taxpayer subsidies. The story of how this third-generation Central Valley farmer and former lawmaker has turned corn into cash shows the way politics and the push for profit are combining to drive California's fuel future. "Bill Jones is like a hurricane moving through the state of California," said University of California-Berkeley Professor Tad W. Patzek, a civil engineer and national ethanol expert. "It's actually amazing that he has pushed so many things through, and made so many gains with ethanol. He can say anything to promote his business - and people believe him." That's a concern, Patzek and other experts agree, because what to believe about ethanol, particularly corn ethanol, is a matter of much debate....