Utility proposes first US coal-fired plant to capture CO2 US energy company Tenaska announced Tuesday a proposal for a new 600-megawatt, coal-fired power plant in Texas that would be the first to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions underground. The privately held company proposed a site near Sweetwater, Texas, where its plan would capture up to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that would otherwise enter the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide would be sold for use in oil production in the Permian Basin, resulting in geologic storage. Tenaska filed a request for a state permit for the plant, whose cost was estimated at three billion dollars, but said a final decision to proceed would be made in 2009 depending on incentives, costs and prices for electricity and CO2. If built, the plant would be the first commercial coal-fired plant, other than small research projects, to capture and provide for storage of CO2, according to Tenaska....
Challenging Indian Land Trusts Across Indian country, two things are never in short supply: rich natural resources and endemic poverty. That paradox is driving a longstanding battle between indigenous people and the government trust that holds money generated from their lands. The class-action lawsuit, Cobell v. Kempthorne, targets a federal trust fund that handles revenues from activities like oil drilling and logging on land owned by individual Indians and tribes. The trust’s financial operations—covering more than 56 million acres and dating back for more than a century—have left a spectacularly messy paper trail. Many beneficiaries say they are in the dark about how much has been paid out and what is still owed, and charge that the system has drained wealth from Indian communities. “We know that the government collected our money, but it hasn’t been paid to us as individual Indian beneficiaries,” says Elouise Cobell, a Blackfeet Nation member who initiated the suit in 1996 on behalf of several hundred thousand account holders. The battle is finally drawing to a close. On Jan. 30, U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that the trust’s finances are beyond salvaging. Calling for a settlement, he denounced the Interior Department’s “unrepaired, and irreparable, breach of its fiduciary duty over the last century.”....
Climate Change Forecasters on the Hot Seat More than 20 years ago, climate scientists began to sound the alarm over the possibility that global temperatures were rising due to human activities, such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. In 1988, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program created the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in order to study and better understand this potential threat. The IPCC’s mission was to provide a “comprehensive, objective, scientific, technical and socio-economic assessment of human-caused climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.” IPCC reports have predicted that average world temperatures will increase dramatically, leading to the spread of tropical diseases, severe drought, the rapid melting of the world’s glaciers and ice caps, and rising sea levels. Congress is considering proposals to slow rising temperatures by joining international agreements or by implementing policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. However, several assessments have shown that the techniques and methods used to derive and verify the IPCC’s climate predictions are fundamentally flawed. They indicate that the IPCC’s central claims — that the present warming trend is unusual, caused by human activities and will result in serious harm — are not supported by scientific forecasts. Rather, these claims are opinions that are no more likely to be right than wrong....
Study finds human medicines altering marine biology Sewage-treatment plants in Southern California are failing to remove hormones and hormone-altering chemicals from water that gets flushed into coastal ocean waters, according to the results of a study released Saturday. The preliminary findings were part of the most ambitious study to date on the effect of emerging chemical contaminants in coastal oceans. It confirms the findings of smaller pilot studies from 2005 that discovered male fish in the ocean were developing female characteristics, and broadened the scope of the earlier studies by looking at an array of man-made contaminants in widespread tests of seawater, seafloor sediment and hundreds of fish caught off Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. The results, outlined by a Southern California toxicologist at a conference in Boston, reveal that a veritable drugstore of pharmaceuticals and beauty products, flame retardants and plastic additives are ending up in the ocean and appear to be working their way up the marine food chain....
Oil Closes Over $100 for 1st Time The price of crude oil closed over $100 for the first time yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rattling stock markets and marking a milestone in the relentless rise in petroleum prices over the past five years. The high oil price, which rivals the inflation-adjusted peak set during the early days of the Iran-Iraq war nearly three decades ago, has drained cash from the pockets of consumers just when the slowing economy could use a spending boost. And it reinforced fears that oil prices, which have long fluctuated with political and economic cycles, may never again drop to past levels. The price hit a new high of $100.10 a barrel before settling at $100.01 a barrel, up $4.51, when the market closed at 2:30 p.m. The price in late electronic trading dropped only slightly, to $99.99 a barrel....
Western wolf delisting looms The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is poised to make what is certain to be a historic and equally controversial move regarding the management of wolves in the Northern Rockies sometime next week. As early as Thursday, Feb. 28, the FWS will publish a delisting notice for the Western gray wolf in the U.S. Federal Register, Northern Rockies representative of Defenders of Wildlife Suzanne Stone said Sunday. Under the delisting notice, which won't take effect until 30 days after it's published, gray wolves in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming would lose their protected status under the federal Endangered Species Act. The delisting proposal will also extend to the eastern thirds of Washington and Oregon as well as a small portion of north-central Utah. Defenders of Wildlife and other groups plan to sue to stop the delisting. Depending on the success of those appeals, management oversight for gray wolves may be in the hands of state wildlife agencies as soon as this spring, which in turn could mean the beginning of an Idaho wolf hunt as early as this fall....
Feds, state reach agreement to conserve tiny Arizona snail State and federal wildlife officials have drafted an agreement to conserve a tiny snail that lives primarily in springs within a small area along Oak Creek. The Page springsnail - a candidate for Endangered Species Act protection - is vulnerable because its available habitats are small and isolated, the introduction of nonnative species such as crayfish, and spring flow changes resulting from groundwater pumping. Officials don't know exactly how many of these snails still exist, but in a free-flowing spring, they have found as many as 3,000 per square meter. The draft agreement identifies ways to ensure that the Game and Fish Department's management of its Page Springs and Bubbling Springs fish hatcheries will minimize the loss of resident Page springsnails and the impacts on their habitat....So, if the snail does eventually get listed, will it shut down the two state-run fish hatcheries? Just wondering.
Rally protests abuse of eminent domain About 90 people, several of whom have been on the blunt end of condemnation proceedings, rallied under snowy skies in Civic Center on Sunday to hold a tailgate party against what they see as government abuse of eminent domain. They spoke about cases in Commerce City, Boulder, Lakewood and Denver, but the thread that ran through their talk was concern over the way in which cities and agencies such as RTD acquire property by condemning it. The rally - which featured a pig roast - was sponsored by the Colorado Property Rights Coalition. Several people spoke in favor of House Bill 1178, a proposal that would prohibit RTD from condemning homes and businesses for commercial development....
Rainbow People forced to move from Ocala National Forest Dirty Momma just wants to protect the land. That's why the 31-year-old Florida woman, known outside Rainbow gatherings as April Hendry, didn't resist the U.S. Forest Service's effort to force her and hundreds of other free spirits from Duck Pond, though many did. "We love the Earth," Hendry said, surrounded by other barefoot and bedraggled campers in tie-dye. Forest officials estimate the annual gathering will draw 600 Rainbow Family members this year but could swell to 1,500 if the weekend weather is good. The federal agency, in charge of managing and protecting the 383,000-acre forest, has increased its law-enforcement presence to 11 officers, more than twice as many as usual....
Foresters to redo impact statement of Wolf Creek plan Developers of the proposed 10,000-person Village at Wolf Creek, project opponents and the U.S. Forest Service agreed Tuesday that foresters will redo their environmental impact statement. Environmental groups sued the agency in April 2006 over its authorization of two access roads across public lands to billionaire Red McCombs' acreage adjoining the small ski area atop Wolf Creek Pass in southwestern Colorado. U.S. District Judge John Kane issued a preliminary injunction Oct. 4, 2007, to halt the development until he ruled on the adequacy of the EIS. Rather than wait, the parties agreed Tuesday to a new EIS. Ryan Bidwell of Colorado Wild called it "a tremendous victory for the environment."
Forest Service wants information on Ojo Peak Fire U.S. Forest Service investigators have formally ruled that last November’s Ojo Peak Fire in the Manzano Mountains was human-caused. The Albuquerque zone dispatch office is asking for help from anyone who might have seen people or vehicles at the Pine Shadow Trail area or the south end of the Crest Trail the weekend of Nov. 17-18. The 6,969-acre blaze destroyed three homes and some outbuildings and forced the evacuations of some ranches and 75 to 100 homes in the villages of Manzano and Punta del Agua. The Forest Service says it eventually could have threatened a popular attraction at the head of Tajique Canyon, the largest stand of Rocky Mountain large tooth maples in New Mexico.
EPA slams new plan for Sublette gas field The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency excoriated a plan for more wells on the Pinedale Anticline last week, citing deficiencies in the analysis of the effects of development on air quality and ground water. In a letter Feb. 14, EPA regional administrator Robert E. Roberts gave a revised draft EIS a rating of “3,” which means the study has a label of “environmentally unsatisfactory-inadequate information.” He said the rating “indicates EPA’s belief that the [draft environmental impact statement] is not adequate for purposes of our ... review, and thus, should be formally revised and made available for public comment in a supplemental or revised Draft EIS.” “The impacts are of sufficient magnitude that the proposed action should not proceed as proposed,” Roberts said. Further, the rating makes the project a candidate for referral to the Council for Environmental Quality, which is a White House watchdog on compliance with environmental laws. The EPA letter comes in respsonse to the Bureau of Land Management’s proposal for two options to develop 4,399 new wells on 12,278 acres of the Pinedale Anticline, late last year....
Group plans to sue feds over elk-killing plan A wolf-advocacy group said it will sue Rocky Mountain National Park over its decision to hire sharpshooters to kill up to 200 elk a year at the park as a way to handle overpopulation. A WildEarth Guardians officer said Monday that federal officials didn't take a fair look at introducing wolves to the park as an alternate way to keep the elk population down. Elk -- there are an estimated 2,000 in the park -- are destroying aspen and willows in large stretches on the eastern part of the Continental Divide, threatening to decimate large areas of the riverbank ecosystem. The Park Service says shooting elk will be part of a plan that also includes fences, restoring trees and redistributing the elk. But Rob Edward, director for carnivore recovery for the Santa Fe, N.M.-based WildEarth Guardians, said 30 or 40 wolves could accomplish the same goals in a more natural way....
Mysterious Creatures Found in Antarctica Scientists investigating the icy waters of Antarctica said Tuesday they have collected mysterious creatures including giant sea spiders and huge worms in the murky depths. Australian experts taking part in an international program to take a census of marine life in the ocean at the far south of the world collected specimens from up to 6,500 feet beneath the surface, and said many may never have been seen before. Some of the animals far under the sea grow to unusually large sizes, a phenomenon called gigantism that scientists still do not fully understand. "Gigantism is very common in Antarctic waters," Martin Riddle, the Australian Antarctic Division scientist who led the expedition, said in a statement. "We have collected huge worms, giant crustaceans and sea spiders the size of dinner plates." The specimens were being sent to universities and museums around the world for identification, tissue sampling and DNA studies....
Judge asked to stop older Canadian cattle imports Lawyers representing cattle, consumer and health interests urged a federal judge Tuesday to stop imports of older Canadian cattle because of the potential threat of mad cow disease. An attorney for the government countered that U.S. District Judge Lawrence Piersol should not grant the preliminary injunction, saying rules and changes in the industry adequately protect American animals, people and markets. The lawsuit, filed last fall in federal court in South Dakota, seeks to suspend a U.S. Department of Agriculture rule that went into effect Nov. 19 allowing Canadian cattle more than 30 months old into the U.S. market. The change exposes consumers to a fatal disease linked to eating meat contaminated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, increases the risk that U.S. cattle would be infected with the disease, and could harm the U.S. cattle market, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, or R-CALF; United Stockgrowers of America, based in Billings, Mont.; South Dakota Stockgrowers Association; four South Dakota cattle ranchers; the Center for Food Safety; the Consumer Federation of America; the Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Foundation; and Food & Water Watch....
Warehouses Nibble on Edge of Giant California Ranch Anyone who has traveled between Los Angeles and San Francisco along Interstate 5 has driven along the western flank of Tejon Ranch, a vast expanse of luminous oak-studded hills that divides the southern and central portions of the state. Occupying about 270,000 acres, or 426 square miles, Tejon Ranch, named for the Spanish word for badger, is the largest contiguous parcel of privately owned land in California. More than a century and a half after it was consolidated from four ranches created through Mexican land grants, Tejon is still a working farm and ranch, where cattle graze and wine grapes, almonds, pistachios and walnuts are grown. In recent years, however, as executives of the publicly held Tejon Ranch Company have sought to diversify the ranch’s economic activity, three giant warehouses have sprouted near the freeway. The largest, with 1.7 million square feet, serves all of Ikea’s furniture stores from San Diego to Vancouver....
Acclaimed cowboy film comes to town The cowboys are coming to town. "Cracker, the Last Cowboys of Florida," a film created by acclaimed filmmaker Victor Milt, will have three public showings Saturday at the Arbor Reception and Banquet Hall at 111 West Oak St., Arcadia. "Cracker" is an enlarged sequel to Milt's film "The Cowboys of Florida," which is a 36-minute film that won three national awards and was a finalist at the Palm Beach Film Festival. It was chosen as one of the 10 best films at the festival. But Milt said he did not feel "The Cowboys of Florida" told the whole story about Florida cowboys and their struggle to avoid extinction as development closes in. He had researched Florida cowboys and Florida cow culture for four years and had accumulated more film footage than he could use in that first short film about Florida cowboys. Milt said he was approached by a group of ranchers in the area who asked him to expand the film and tell the whole story of the cowboys in Southwest Florida. He added that they offered to help with the financing. So "Cracker" was born. "It is still a film about Florida cowboys and what is happening to them," said Mack Martin, an Arcadia Realtor and one of Milt's longtime promoters. "But it's more of a message film. It has a message for the entire world about the plight of Florida cowboys and how they are in danger of being swept away by development and loss of rural land. Cowboy work habits and their lifestyles date back to the time the Spaniards landed in Florida. Victor Milt has captured those forces and those pressures that are impacting the Florida cowboys. That is what 'Cracker' is all about."....