Bush to Endorse 'Intermediate' Emissions Goal President Bush will endorse an "intermediate goal" today for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but he will not put forward any specific legislation or proposal on how the goal should be met, White House officials said. In an afternoon address in the Rose Garden, Bush will also reiterate his long-standing opposition to mandatory emissions regulations without simultaneous agreements from large developing nations such as India and China, officials said. "The president will announce tomorrow an intermediate goal that will lead to a long-term goal" through ongoing negotiations on global climate change, said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. White House officials declined to release more details yesterday. But Bush's announcement appears unlikely to contain much in the way of new proposals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, according to environmental advocates and industry representatives. Bush has long made clear that he does not support mandatory reductions without similar cuts in developing nations, and he objects to proposals on Capitol Hill to create a mandatory system for reducing the greenhouse gases that are a major cause of climate change....
Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels. But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. Biofuels are fast becoming a new flash point in global diplomacy, putting pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies, even as they argue that biofuels are only one factor in the seemingly inexorable rise in food prices. In some countries, the higher prices are leading to riots, political instability and growing worries about feeding the poorest people. Food riots contributed to the dismissal of Haiti’s prime minister last week, and leaders in some other countries are nervously trying to calm anxious consumers. At a weekend conference in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers of seven leading industrial nations called for urgent action to deal with the price spikes, and several of them demanded a reconsideration of biofuel policies adopted recently in the West....
Global warming rage lets global hunger grow We drive, they starve. The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits. "The reality is that people are dying already," said Jacques Diouf, of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). "Naturally people won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react," he said. The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted "massacres" unless the biofuel policy is halted. Mr Diouf says world grain stocks have fallen to a quarter-century low of 5m tonnes, rations for eight to 12 weeks. America - the world's food superpower - will divert 18pc of its grain output for ethanol this year, chiefly to break dependency on oil imports. It has a 45pc biofuel target for corn by 2015. Argentina, Canada, and Eastern Europe are joining the race....
Settlement reached in rare butterfly case A settlement reached by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmentalists requires the agency to take the first step in determining whether a rare butterfly found only in southern New Mexico deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act. WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity sued the federal government in January in federal court in Washington, D.C., to force the agency to make a decision on the Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly—which the federal government previously proposed as an endangered species. The 2-inch butterfly exists only on about 2,000 acres in high-elevation meadows in the mountains near the Sacramento Mountain village of Cloudcroft. The groups contend the butterfly is being threatened by climate change, insecticides, development, off-roading and livestock grazing. Under the settlement, the Fish and Wildlife Service has until late November to review a petition filed by the groups that seeks listing of the subspecies as either endangered or threatened, said Elizabeth Slown, a spokeswoman for the agency's regional office in Albuquerque. If the agency determines the petition is valid, it will have until August 2009 to study the butterfly and decide whether it should be protected....
Americans Reject Proposed Expansion of Clean Water Act, Poll Shows A majority of Americans oppose the Oberstar/Feingold Clean Water Restoration Act (CWRA), according to a nationwide survey by Wilson Research Strategies for the National Center for Public Policy Research. CWRA will receive a hearing of the full House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee at 11 AM today. In the survey, voters were informed the Congress is considering a measure that would expand the areas covered under the Clean Water Act, including to areas that are only intermittently wet. They were then provided brief arguments both for and against the measure and asked if they favored or opposed the proposal. 54% of those with an opinion opposed the measure, while 46% favor it. Among political independents, opposition was higher -- 56% opposed, 44% in support. "The Clean Water Restoration Act would submit nearly every drop of water in the United States to federal regulation," said David Ridenour, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy Research. "It's not surprising that the American people have great reservations about such a massive increase in federal power." The poll found a majority of Americans from all regions oppose the Clean Water Restoration Act, led by the Mountain States (62%), the Farm Belt (59%), and New England (58%)....
Judge rejects forest plan lawsuit A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit filed by Montanans for Multiple Use over amendments made to the Flathead National Forest plan, saying the group did not appeal each amendment as it was made. The lawsuit, filed five years ago, was largely aimed at the forest's adoption of 23 amendments to its forest plan since 1986. The suit claimed the amendments amounted to a "piecemeal" de facto revision of the forest plan - a major policy change that did not involve adequate review. A March 31 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan of Washington, D.C., found that Montanans for Multiple Use did not adequately pursue administrative appeals as the amendments were proposed and adopted. Hogan wrote that the plaintiffs "had either 45 or 90 days to file a notice of appeal from the date specified in the public legal notice, depending on whether they chose to challenge the amendments as advertised ... or as they alleged them to be - de facto revision masquerading as a mere series of non-significant amendments. They did neither."....
Off-roader vows fight for 'rights' He's been found guilty of driving an off-highway vehicle on a government-closed road. Now, he's been fined $300 and placed on six months' probation. But Dan M. Jessop hasn't coughed up a cent - doesn't intend to, either. "I don't think the sentence was fair, based on the merits of the case and the law," Jessop said Monday after being sentenced by federal Magistrate Robert Braithwaite. So the Washington County resident is fighting the fine and has more than $30,000 in donations from sympathetic off-roaders throughout the West to fund his legal battle against the misdemeanor. "I appreciate the support," said Jessop, who has become a symbol in the ATV crowd's fight against off-road restrictions. Jessop's St. George attorney, Michael Shaw, said his client plans to appeal to U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City. And Braithwaite indicated he will stay the sentence once those papers are filed. In May 2006, Jessop was cited for driving an OHV on Sawmill Road in Washington County south of Zion National Park. He argues the road is a county one and that the Bureau of Land Management had no authority to close it. The BLM counters that the closure is valid because the road winds through a wilderness study area on agency property....
Wisconsin sportsmen want to hunt wolves Outdoor enthusiasts at Wisconsin's annual statewide conservation hearings voted to allow hunting wolves now that they have been re-established in the state. And they like the idea in a big way. Hunters, anglers and others who attended the Conservation Congress hearings in all 72 counties voted 4,848 to 772 to develop a hunting season on wolves "to keep the population within management objectives," the state Department of Natural Resources reported Tuesday. Conservation Congress Chairman Ed Harvey said the message is that the state should at least begin planning to allow hunting and trapping of wolves....
Country Legend Teams Up with Mint for Endangered Species What do bald eagles, Dolly Parton and the U.S. Mint have in common? They all came together for a good cause last Thursday, April 10. The Mint and the American Eagle Foundation were met with a little country music flair as legendary singer Dolly Parton joined Gloria C. Eskridge, the mint's associate director for sales and marketing, and Al Cecere, founder and president of the foundation, to release a rescued young eaglet back into the wild. The ceremony took place at Douglas Lake, located in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains. The site is not far from Parton's theme park "Dollywood" in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., where the American Eagle Foundation keeps Eagle Mountain Sanctuary. According to Dollywood's Web site, the 30,000-square-foot sanctuary houses the country's largest presentation of non-releasable bald eagles. On January 15, the Mint began selling coins commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The coin designs feature the bald eagle at various stages of life. Surcharges from the Bald Eagle sales benefit the American Eagle Foundation of Tennessee....
Exhibit gets to the heart of fences Whether they are built with barbed wire, split rails or simple piles of stones, fences are a defining characteristic of the Western landscape that are usually taken for granted. But they take center stage in "Between Fences," a new exhibition on display through May 10 at the Meeteetse Museum. Developed by the Smithsonian Institution as part of its traveling exhibitions program, the display has been seen in Pinedale, Evanston and Sheridan and will end its run this summer in Sundance. " 'Between Fences' looks at the relationship between Americans and the land around them, and how fences have been that element of the built environment that we use to demarcate our own land and claim control over it," said Robbie Davis, a project manager with the Smithsonian. While "Between Fences" includes a look at fences on a small scale, such as between neighbors' backyards, it also looks at fences along the American borders with Canada and Mexico. Some elements of the exhibition deal with issues likely to be familiar to Wyoming residents. "It looks at barbed wire and the range wars in the West, and some of the laws that grew out of that," Davis said. "It also examines what it means to have cattle and other livestock moving back and forth and what impact that has on land and relationships. "It also covers mineral rights, and how you may own the land itself, but you may not own what's underneath it. It specifically looks at methane deposits, and includes an image from Gillette" showing coalbed methane work. "We talk about Wyoming and New Mexico specifically, and how ranchers often own the land, but the federal government owns the minerals beneath," Davis said....