Big Brother to control thermostats in homes? Add thermostats to the list of private property the government would like to regulate as the state of California looks to require that residents install remotely monitored temperature controls in their homes next year. The government is seeking to limit rolling blackouts and free up electric and natural gas resources by mandating that every new heating and cooling system include a "non-removable" FM receiver. The thermostat is also capable of controlling other appliances in the house, such as electric water heaters, refrigerators, pool pumps, computers and lights in response to signals from utility companies. The proposal, set to be considered by the commission Jan. 30, requires each thermostat to be equipped with a radio communication device to send "price signals" and automatically adjust temperature up or down 4 degrees for cooling and heating, as California's public and private utility organizations deem necessary. Claudia Chandler, assistant executive director for the California Energy Commission, told WND the new systems would be highly beneficial to residents....
Redford Takes on `Goliath' in Texas to Block Coal-Fired Plants The Sundance Kid is taking on ``Goliath'' to block the building of coal-fired electricity plants in Texas, the most power-hungry state in the U.S. Robert Redford, the actor, movie director and longtime environmentalist, narrates ``Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars,'' a documentary chronicling the efforts of a group of Texas mayors and citizens to block construction of coal-fired plants. The film will have its premiere tonight at a Waco theater hosted by the Redford Center at Sundance Preserve. ``Fighting Goliath,'' which cost $60,000 to make, features the opponents of 11 coal units planned by TXU Corp., now Energy Future Holdings Corp., the largest power producer in Texas. While eight of those generators were scrapped, Energy Future is moving ahead with three, and others including NRG Energy Inc. are planning at least five more. ``We have all our retirement in our land,'' Robert Cervenka, a 77-year-old rancher near Waco who appears in the film, said in an interview. ``I can sell off a piece of it, but I damn sure can't do it with a coal plant next door.''....
The Sonoran Institute: Conserving and Enhancing the Western Landscape With unprecedented population growth throughout the West, both its demographic and economic landscape have witnessed major changes. Committed to promoting community decisions that respect the environment and the people who live here, The Sonoran Institute strives to create a collaborative approach to protecting both the culture and the land of the West. The Sonoran Institute, Northern Rockies Office, founded in 1990, has a staff of 11 people, including land use planners, community organizers, rural development specialists, a landscape ecologist, conservationists, a communications expert and a GIS specialist, all committed to the organization’s mission of inspiring and enabling community decisions and public policies that respect the land and the people of the West. Dennis Glick, director of the Sonoran Institute’s Northern Rockies office, expands on the organization and its efforts. NewWest.Net: Why and how did your organization come into being? SI: The Sonoran Institute was created to fill the niche of a community-based conservation organization working collaboratively with citizens to address the impacts of growth and change in the West. The Institute strives to not only help communities achieve their conservation and development goals, but also to build their capacity to sustain these efforts into the future.....
GF&P preparing plan when wolves return to S.D. The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department is preparing for wolves to venture into South Dakota. Some have already passed through the state in recent years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife reported in 2006 that wolves were in Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains, and local officials are expecting them to wander east, at least in small numbers. "We are going to start thinking about wolves in South Dakota because we are quite certain that they are coming, and we need to be prepared to manage them when they do get here," said John Kanta, a regional wildlife manager with the GF&P. Currently the state operates under an August 1994 U.S. Fish and Wildlife contingency plan. "It's more or less to address depredations with wolves," Kanta said. "What we would like to do is put together a full-blown management plan. In other words, 'Do we want to sustain a population of wolves, and if so how are we going to do that? How are we going to respond to the problems that come with wolves considering that we have a number of ranchers out there who are raising sheep, which can certainly be an issue with wolves.'"....
We face a dilemma: too many bison, too little room Keep an eye on the margins of Yellowstone National Park this winter. Yet again, the bison-management system for the sprawling wonderland and its surroundings is setting up for a wholesale slaughter of the wooly creatures. Depending on weather conditions in the park, potential exists for an exodus well into the four-digit range, which will set off a variety of limitation techniques around Gardiner and West Yellowstone. Underlying that likelihood is the fact that the park's bison population is estimated to be about 4,700, down only slightly from the record 4,900 of just two years ago when more than a thousand bison were killed by hunters and wildlife managers. Considering that earlier estimates of the optimum sustainable bison population for the park ran closer to 2,000, we once again find ourselves faced with a quart of bison stuffed into a pint jar of range. And considering that surrounding ranchers fear the possible spread of brucellosis from bison to their cattle, we're also faced with inevitable conflicts of interest....
Grazing permits to be reconsidered The U.S. Forest Service has agreed to reconsider a new grazing management plan for a large swath of public lands along the Nevada-California line after two environmental groups complained about its impact on certain bird species, officials said Thursday. Western Watersheds Project and Forest Guardians in November appealed the grazing plan for the 641 square-mile area near the eastern Sierra that was contained in an environmental impact statement approved by the Forest Service's district ranger in Bridgeport, Calif. The area includes parts of Mineral and Lyon counties in Nevada and Mono County in California. Ed Monnig, supervisor of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, said he agreed to reconsider the plan to ensure it meets standards set by federal courts in recent rulings concerning grazing lawsuits. Monnig said he believes the plan implemented by the district ranger is sound, and took into consideration the impacts of grazing on a variety of environmental resources, including fish and wildlife. "However, we are committed to doing what we need to do to prove our case." Monnig agreed with the groups' argument that the grazing plan didn't adequately consider effects on the yellow warbler, a migratory bird. But the conservation groups maintain that concerns about the bird are only part of the plan's failure....
Forest Service cancels meeting on Bitterroot The Bitterroot National Forest abruptly canceled a public meeting in Stevensville on updating its travel management plan following a crowded and sometimes unruly meeting on the same topic the night before in Darby. People cursed during the Darby meeting, and the U.S. Forest Service is following up on reports that a man suggested someone “put a bullet in her head” as a woman spoke. The Stevensville meeting was scheduled for Thursday night at the Stevensville United Methodist Church. After more than 200 people packed into a meeting room in Darby the night before, the agency decided the proposed Stevensville venue was too small to host the expected crowd. Stevensville District Ranger Dan Ritter said the church couldn't hold many more than 50 people. Many at the Darby meeting indicated they'd be attending all the scheduled public meetings on the travel management plan update. At one point, as a woman spoke about wilderness, a man in the crowd allegedly said, “Put a bullet in her head.” His words were loud enough for a number of people to hear, including a Forest Service official. The Forest Service was able to get the man's name....Also see Heated Forest Use Meeting Results in Investigation Into Threat
Wild and scenic: Utah should start with the Green River In 1968, Congress created the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to preserve free-flowing waterways that have outstanding scenic, wildlife and cultural values. You might think that in the 40 years since, some of Utah's magnificent rivers, particularly the Green and the Colorado, would have been protected under this special designation. Alas, that is not the case. In fact, no Utah river is protected in this way. However, several federal land management agencies, particularly the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, currently are involved in planning processes that could lead to Congress designating eligible Utah rivers as wild, scenic or recreational under the Act. It is high time, especially for the Green River. Utah counties and the state have looked with some suspicion on Wild and Scenic River designation, worrying that they could lose water rights or other economic values. They have been particularly concerned about intermittent streams. But there should be no arguments about certain sections of the Green. The 30-mile segment below Flaming Gorge Dam in northeast Utah is world-renowned as one of the great scenic trout fisheries in the nation....
Senators Push for Guns in National Parks Nearly half the Senate is pushing the Bush administration to let gun owners carry handguns and other firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges. Forty-seven lawmakers have signed a letter asking Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to lift Reagan-era restrictions that prevent citizens from carrying readily accessible firearms onto lands managed by the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Current regulations, developed in the early 1980s, "infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners who wish to transport and carry firearms on or across these lands," the senators wrote. The policies also differ from those of some other federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service. "These inconsistencies in firearms regulations for public lands are confusing, burdensome and unnecessary," said the letter, drafted by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. Thirty-nine Republicans and eight Democrats signed the letter, including both senators from 17 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming....
Support Senate Bill S. 2283, to Reserve the Right to Ride on Public Land Okay trail advocates—here's your opportunity to show support for the new bill that is going through the Senate and will replace the Right to Ride bill. At this time, it has been referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. This bill aims to preserve the use and access of pack and saddle stock animals on public land administered by the National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, or the Forest Service on which there is a historical tradition of the use of pack and saddle stock animals. Sometimes other groups (hiking and biking enthusiasts for instance) who also use the these public lands want to ban the use of horses. This bill will prevent that from happening....
New Mexico Mining Claims Jump 50 Percent Since 2003 In the face of a dramatic increases in new mining claims in New Mexico, state and county officials called on Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, leaders of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to reform the 135-year-old law that governs the mining of gold, uranium and other hardrock minerals on federal lands in New Mexico and other western states. A comprehensive bipartisan package that would modernize the Civil War era statute was passed by the House of Representatives in November. The Senate will host its first mining reform hearing this month. The need for reform has also been made more urgent by the dramatic increase in new mining claims in western states, including New Mexico. According to Bureau of Land Management data analyzed by the Environmental Working Group, the total number of hardrock mining claims in New Mexico is 50 percent higher in mid-2007 than in 2003. Claims totaled 11,348 in July of 2007....
Conservation Group Files Lawsuit Against Department of Energy Over Southwest Energy Corridor On behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Environmental Law Center today filed suit in federal court in the central district of California to challenge the Department of Energy's October 2007 designation of the Southwest National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor - a sweeping, 45-million-acre area that includes seven southern California and three Arizona counties - for failing to analyze the environmental impacts of the corridor. "The Energy Department cannot turn southern California and western Arizona into an energy farm for Los Angeles and San Diego without taking a hard look at the environmental impacts of doing so," said Amy Atwood, staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The Southwest Energy Corridor will have far-reaching environmental impacts that must be considered before moving forward." The Department of Energy designated the Southwest Corridor pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, allowing for "fast-track" approval of utility and power line projects within the corridor, nullifying state and federal environmental laws, and enabling energy companies to condemn private land for new high-voltage transmission lines....
Energy organization to be proposed Japan, the United States and European countries will jointly propose at this year's Group of Eight summit meeting that an international organization be established to study and evaluate the energy-saving measures of countries including China and India. The launch of the organization is part of international efforts to provide emerging large consumers of energy with the advanced energy-saving know-how of developed countries, and to study the effectiveness of such measures. The new organization would be funded by Japan, the United States and European countries, with the International Energy Agency in Paris being considered as a possible location for the new body's headquarters. Discussions on the new confederation will get under way during a preparatory meeting for the energy ministers of the G-8 countries, set to be held on Jan. 22 and 23....
Scientists: Biting Insects May Have Killed Off Dinosaurs Some of the smallest animals on Earth may have been responsible for the extinction of some of the biggest. A new book argues that the demise of the dinosaurs was due not to an asteroid impact, nor massive volcanic eruptions in India, but instead to tiny biting disease-spreading insects and arachnids — mosquitoes, mites, ticks and biting flies. "There are serious problems with the sudden-impact theories of dinosaur extinction, not the least of which is that dinosaurs declined and disappeared over a period of hundreds of thousands, or even millions of years," entomologist George O. Poinar, Jr., said in a press release from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., last week. Poinar's new book, "What Bugged the Dinosaurs?: Insects, Disease, and Death in the Cretaceous," co-written with his wife Roberta Poinar, explains how DNA from leishmania, a single-celled organism that causes a debilitating disease in humans and other vertebrates, was found in the gut of a biting insect trapped in amber from the Late Cretaceous. "In another biting insect, we discovered organisms that cause malaria, a type that infects birds and lizards today," Poinar explained, adding that dinosaur feces also showed evidence of infection by parasitic worms and single-celled organisms....
Homeland Security defers new chemical rules for farmers The federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reconsidered and deferred immediate application of new reporting rules for farms storing certain amounts of anhydrous ammonia or propane. “It appears that until further notice, the department is extending the deadline for farms to submit required reports,” said Nancy Erickson, Illinois Farm Bureau natural and environmental resources director. Previously, farmers had until mid-January to comply with new rules if their farms had 60,000 pounds or more of propane and 10,000 pounds or more of anhydrous ammonia stored on the premises. Farmers who had to comply based on the quantity of chemicals at a minimum had to submit an online questionnaire with information about their operation to DHS. However, DHS has not exempted farmers, ranchers, and agricultural end-users from the requirement, according to Rebeckah Adcock, congressional relations director with the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF)....
Strikeout king Ryan now does pitching for beef industry Nolan Ryan has played the role of ambassador many times before. He is baseball's strikeouts and longevity king, a down-home icon of a sport rooted in Americana. But baseball, as Ryan readily will attest, has been one of the two great passions in his amazing life. Cattle ranching and helping the U.S. beef industry thrive have been as much a part of Ryan's life as blazing fastballs and knee-bending curveballs. So when Ryan - who, among his many business interests, has overseen the rise of Nolan Ryan's Guaranteed Tender in the 14 years since his retirement from baseball - has been asked to make a pitch on behalf of the beef industry, he usually takes the ball. Last summer, that role as an ambassador for U.S. cattlemen took Ryan to Japan, where he helped make an appeal for that country to loosen the restrictions it imposed on imported beef after Mad Cow disease made international headlines in 2003. On Tuesday, that role as ambassador will bring Ryan to Denver, where he will serve as the grand marshal for the National Western Stock Show Parade....
Helicopters As Well As Horses Carried Borden County Cowboy In his 67 years, Frank Menix has punched cows across Texas as well as several other states, though he went about it in a different sort of way. He used a horse for many years, but in the late Seventies decided gathering from a helicopter was the way to go. Menix grew up in Gaines County, where his father was a farmer. His mother died when he was 10 years old, and there wasn’t enough work for him and all his brothers, though he says he wasn’t interested in farming anyway. He went to work for wages for his uncle when he was 10 and stayed for two years. He left there and went to work for the Spade Ranch on their leased Indian Canyon Ranch. During his time there, Menix met some of the oldtime Spade hands like Pink Russell and Otto Jones. Russell, though in his mid-eighties, would come to the chuckwagon and tell stories to young Menix and others. Russell told Menix of the time they were trailing pairs from Renderbrook to Colorado City to weigh and ship the calves. W.L. Elwood, the Spade owner, drove up and said to Russell, “Pink, hold these old cows up. A quart of milk doesn’t weigh much, but 500 does.”....