Report: EPA head reversed stand on greenhouse gas The head of the Environmental Protection Agency initially supported giving California and other states full or partial permission to limit tailpipe emissions — but reversed himself after hearing from the White House, a report said Monday. The report by the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee cites interviews and depositions with high-level EPA officials. It amounts to the first solid evidence of the political interference alleged by Democrats and environmentalists since Administrator Stephen Johnson denied California's waiver request in December. Johnson's decision also blocked more than a dozen other states that wanted to follow California's lead and regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. It was applauded by the auto industry and supported by the White House, which has opposed mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Johnson, a 27-year career veteran of the EPA, frequently has denied that his decisions are being directed by the White House. "I am the decision maker," Johnson said Monday, meeting with reporters at Platt's Energy Podium newsmaker session, before the California waiver report surfaced. A White House spokeswoman denied interference. "No," said Kristen Hellmer, spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, when asked whether the White House sought to influence Johnson on the California waiver. "He made an independent decision."....
Global Warming to Decrease Hurricanes, Study Says Global warming may reduce the number of hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Basin by 2060, a new study says. But it adds that the storms that do form may be slightly stronger and wetter. The study, conducted by scientists at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is the latest development in a contentious debate about whether global warming is influencing hurricanes. The new research suggests that the number of hurricanes each summer could decrease by about 18 percent. Major hurricanes—those with winds in excess of 110 miles (177 kilometers) an hour—could decline by about 8 percent. Currently about ten Atlantic hurricanes form—two to three of them major—during an average season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. One of the ways that global warming could reduce hurricanes is by increasing upper-level winds—known as wind shear—that can inhibit hurricane formation, said lead author Thomas Knutson....
Cooler Heads Nearly 32,000 scientists sign a petition that says they reject the claim that humanity is causing global warming. The media, who are heavily invested in the Gore Consensus, yawn. But a British royal, no scientist he, says we have 18 months to save the rain forests or we will face a climate disaster, and the media are fascinated. That same royal, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, has also said that the fight against global warming is much like the war his predecessors fought against the Nazis. He noted in a cleverly timed May 1 speech at a climate summit that when he served "in the Royal Navy . . . 'mayday, mayday, mayday' was the distress call used in cases of emergencies. "And this (human-caused global warming) is an emergency that we face." Meanwhile, Arthur Robinson of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine released Monday at the Press Club in Washington a petition signed by 31,072 Americans with university degrees in science, including 9,021 with doctorates, who reject the notion that greenhouse gas emissions will cause catastrophic heating of the planet. Didn't hear about it? Oh, that's right — the media can't be bothered to report on something that challenges their narrative....
Rey: Better management lowers costs of firefighting In a broad-ranging address Saturday to the Montana Logging Association stretching from the farm bill to the next president, U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey said better forestry management is helping slow the escalating costs of suppressing wildfires. He said firefighting accounted for about 14 percent of the U.S. Forest Service budget in the 1970s, and accelerated to about 50 percent today. “We're not going to stop fighting fires,” he said. “But the rate of the increase is slowing because we're fighting fires that were treated with forest-reduction measures.” He said the fuels reduction, thinning and other actions will continue to help as Congress also seeks alternatives for funding the costs of fighting fires in the nation and ways to alleviate the pressure on the U.S. Forest Service. Rey addressed a group of about 120 people, representing an industry particularly hard hit in recent years. Ken Swanstrom, president of the 580-member Montana Logging Association, said these have been “desperate times” for loggers and sawmills, given the sluggish housing market and low timber prices. “Three months without work is a long time. This is pretty severe economically,” he said....
Controversy continues over use of slurry drops It's a scene repeated time and again during fire season: As flames crackle and smoke billows into the sky, an airplane dips low and releases a plume of bright orange. Chemical fire retardant, or slurry, is one of the more important tools for fighting fire from the air. It's also the focus of an ongoing legal tussle between the U.S. Forest Service and a watchdog group that describes the substance as an unnecessary poison. "It's toxic," said Andy Stahl, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics. "Don't drop it into your neighborhood stream or on top of your threatened plant or animal species." Last month, the group alleged in a federal lawsuit that the use of slurry violates the Endangered Species Act and other laws. It's the second lawsuit over retardant filed by the Eugene, Ore.-based group. In the first case, a federal judge came close to finding Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey in contempt regarding delays on an environmental review of fire retardant. Stahl's group contends Forest Service policy runs counter to research from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal scientists that retardant poses serious risk to threatened and endangered species, particularly fish....
ABC 4 Investigation: When bears attack They're among the most powerful creatures on earth and among the most feared. Powerful predators with amazing strength and ferocity, they are as magnificent as they are maligned. Hunted to the verge of extinction for the better part of a century grizzlies and black bears now roam in growing numbers across North America's outback and as their numbers grow so too do their run-ins with people. In the course of the last decade, incidents involving bears have spiked dramatically, a trend reflected in here in Utah and all across the West. In the summer of 2003, campers are attacked along the Green River. An 18 year old Oregon man is pulled from his sleeping bag with bite marks to his head and neck. A few days later a St. George man is mauled at a river campsite; scratched and bitten he travels by raft for hours in order to get medical help. The next day rangers move in and the bear, driven mad by drought, is captured and killed. In the summer of 2005, two Utah County brothers spend a terrifying night in the Utah wilderness when a black bear makes short work of their tent. While the brothers escaped serious injury, not every Utahn has been so lucky. Then in the spring of 2007, Sam Ives, an 11-year-old Utah County boy was dragged from his tent in the middle of the night and mauled to death by a black bear as his family searched for him in the darkness at an American fork Canyon camp site. Utah DWR officials say that perhaps the same bear attacked another camper just hours before, and that they posted bear warnings at the site. Ives’ death has prompted state and federal wildlife officials to re-examine the areas where humans come in contact with bears in order to prevent any more killings. A lawsuit has been filed by Sam's family against the U.S. Forrest Service and the Utah DWR. That case is still pending....
Firefighting aircraft won't be ready in '08 Cal Fire officials may lift their ban on night flying this year, but powerful firefighting aircraft promised by the federal government won't be available. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein recently learned that two California Air National Guard C-130 aircraft won't be ready this year because of lingering equipment issues. U.S. Forest Service officials had promised the planes would be outfitted with the new equipment in July. “This is unacceptable,” Feinstein, D-Calif., wrote in a letter sent Thursday to President Bush. Other steps have been taken to strengthen air operations in San Diego County. A new helicopter was ordered, leases are being negotiated for three planes and more firefighters are learning how to battle fires from the sky. Yet without more changes, some aerial assaults won't be as effective as they could be, leaving the region open to the type of firestorms that blew through the county in October 2003 and October 2007, politicians and fire officials said. Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, said he has been told that Cal Fire plans to allow nighttime aerial firefighting “in the very near future.”....
$1.4 million embezzled, Feds say A former accountant for the U.S. Forest Service was arrested and charged with embezzling more than $1.4 million from the agency, prosecutors said Friday. Agents from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General arrested Kathy Stamps, 36, of Rancho Cucamonga, on three charges of mail fraud. A federal grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday that alleges Stamps used her job as an accountant at the Angeles National Forest offices in Arcadia to steal $1,421,390, which was later deposited into her personal bank accounts. When Stamps left her job in September 2004, her colleagues noticed that she had redirected the same amount from Forest Service accounts to the DKLD Corporation, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office. Investigators later discovered that Stamps and her husband owned DKLD....
Treehuggers against trees With wildfires burning, it is useful to turn to the wisdom of the ancients. When the pioneers first entered the great forests of America, they found that the Native Americans had managed the forests for centuries. Their woodlands contained very few big trees—maybe fifty such trees per acre. Apparently the Indians had set regular, low intensity fires which burned away accumulations of undergrowth, deadwood, dying trees and particularly small trees growing between the big trees. The larger trees were unharmed, because of their thick fire-resistant bark. These fires kept the forest healthy by providing a barrier to disease. The pioneers, however, used much more wood in their civilization than the Native Americans. They needed it for housing, for boats and river ships, for railroad sleepers, for carriages, and for town infrastructure. To them, fire was an enemy. Quick growth of new trees was important. Policies were put in place that suppressed all fire. This culminated in the creation of Smokey Bear in 1945. Three years later, his catchphrase was born: "Remember — only you can prevent forest fires." The price was a degradation of the health of American forests. Private logging firms continued to keep forests healthy where they operated, by clearing out the underbrush and deadwood and harvesting trees to clear spaces between other trees. Where loggers did not operate, undergrowth and deadwood began to accumulate....
Federal Court Denies County's Right to Build Roads Through National Monument U.S. District Court Judge Tena Campbell has ruled against claims by Kane County, Utah for county ownership of 39 roads in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. This monumental decision is critical for the protection of federal public lands from excessive use by off-road vehicle recreationists, cattle operators, and miners. The decision set the stage for the protection of environmentally sensitive lands, imperiled species, and vulnerable archaeological resources. “The Center for Biological Diversity applauds this ruling and the positive precedent it establishes,” said Rob Mrowka, conservation advocate for the Center. “It sets the stage to end abuses of our heritage lands and provides the federal land-management agencies with a firm basis for formulating wise stewardship decisions.” Kane County had based its claims for ownership of the roads on an archaic provision of the Mining Act of 1866, know as Revised Statute 2477, which provided for “…the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses....” In 1976 Congress repealed the old law, while providing for the continued use of legitimate highways. Unfortunately, dozens of western counties with a “sagebrush rebellion” state of mind abused the door left open by Congress, bulldozing countless trails and foot paths and then claiming them as legitimate RS 2477 roads. Significant damage to public natural resources occurred as a result. Judge Campbell’s decision found that Kane County’s assertion for jurisdiction over the contested roads violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution; she ordered the county to remove its signs from the roads within 20 days. “By placing signs within the monument, the county has encouraged, sanctioned and facilitated public motor vehicle use of federal lands that the Bureau of Land Management officially closed to protect the Monument’s values,” Campbell wrote in her decision.
Oil shale debate becomes a 'chicken-or-the-egg' question The question of "which comes first?" was dominant as oil shale development proponents told a US Senate committee May 15 that regulations need to be developed, and opponents said impacts need to be quantified. "It seems to me that there should be a way forward that does not involve premature commercial leasing, that protects the interests of the American people and gives them a fair return on their resources, and that addresses concerns of local citizens but still provides industry with the certainty it needs," Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said in his opening statement. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM), the committee's ranking minority member, noted that the 2005 Energy Policy Act (EPACT) contained a provision to facilitate oil shale development. "Unfortunately, last year, without the benefit of full debate and conference as we had in the 2005 energy bill, Congress placed a 1-year moratorium on preparing and publishing the final regulations for a commercial leasing program," he said. Committee member Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) said he sought the delay because important provisions dealing with oil shale development, which were part of the 2005 energy bill that the Senate initially approved, were stripped out when the measure went to conference with the House. "I believe it was someone named Pombo," he said, referring to then-House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.)....
Clean-Air Rules Protecting Parks Set to Be Eased The Bush administration is on the verge of implementing new air quality rules that will make it easier to build power plants near national parks and wilderness areas, according to rank-and-file agency scientists and park managers who oppose the plan. The new regulations, which are likely to be finalized this summer, rewrite a provision of the Clean Air Act that applies to "Class 1 areas," federal lands that currently have the highest level of protection under the law. Opponents predict the changes will worsen visibility at many of the nation's most prized tourist destinations, including Virginia's Shenandoah, Colorado's Mesa Verde and North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt national parks. Nearly a year ago, with little fanfare, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed changing the way the government measures air pollution near Class 1 areas on the grounds that the nation needed a more uniform way of regulating emissions near protected areas. The agency closed the comment period in April and has indicated it is not making significant changes to the draft rule, despite objections by EPA staff members....
Spotted owl plan released In its final northern spotted owl recovery plan released Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the $489 million effort could recover the threatened bird's population in 30 years. The plan cites habitat loss because of logging and catastrophic wildfires along with competition from the barred owl as the primary threats. It identifies 34 actions to counter the threats, including establishing nearly 6.5 million acres of owl conservation areas. "This plan aggressively addresses each of the key threats with sound and, in some cases, pioneering recommendations," Ren Lohoefener, head of the service's Pacific region, said in a prepared statement. "There are always uncertainties involved with such a wide-ranging species facing complex threats," he added. "Given the species' continued decline, in some areas at a faster rate than was predicted, we need to ensure we are truly on a path to recovery as we implement the plan." Talent resident Dominick DellaSala, a forest ecologist who was a member of the Spotted Owl Recovery Team and a vocal critic of the agency's earlier draft plan, isn't impressed with the final outcome. "They definitely made changes from the draft but the final plan still doesn't protect the old-growth forests the owl, salmon and hundreds of other species rely on," said DellaSala, executive director of the National Center for Conservation Science & Policy in Ashland....
Bush administration defends food-based biofuels The Bush administration is defending its decision to push food-based biofuels as food costs rise at home and abroad, saying the renewable fuels are only a small part of the problem. Some have blamed the food crisis in part on policies backed by the White House and Congress that divert corn, soybeans and other crops to fuel. The governor of Texas and a quarter of the Senate, including the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee John McCain, asked the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month to cut this year's requirement for 9 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol in half to ease food costs. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said Monday that the increased use of biofuels may have some small, short-term costs, but those do not outweigh the ultimate benefits of reducing the country's dependence on oil. "It's clear that while bioenergy generation does have some effect on prices, it's not a major effect, it's not even a big effect," Schafer said....
Author Zane Grey's cabin to remain open to all One of the most popular sites on the Rogue River is a rude one-room cabin of peeled logs and hand-split shingles. The cabin was once owned by Zane Grey, best known for his Western novels including "Riders of the Purple Sage." But now the 32 acres and the buildings on it belong to everyone. This month, the cabin was bought by the Trust for Public Lands and sold to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is nominating it for the National Register of Historic places. The purchase means that the site will remain open to visitors. "I think it's fantastic that they are preserving it," Eric Grey, the late author's great-grandson, told The Associated Press from his home in New Jersey. Nelson Mathews, Northwest program director for The Trust for Public Land, said the property was assessed at $840,000. The actual sale price was not disclosed. It includes the original cabin, two modern cabins, a compound of outbuildings, one of the original boats Zane Grey used to descend the Rogue, a grass air strip, and a garden....
‘Water witch’ finds more work during drought Brenda Beeson sideline work has been busier than usual lately, but for a reason that she can’t be happy about. Beeson, who ranches with her husband Jock in the Crawford area, said last week that she has seen increased need for her services as a ‘water witch’ because shallow wells have dried up and stock watering dams are empty due to the area’s prolonged drought. “I’ve stayed kind of busy because of the drought,” said Beeson. “More so than I’d like to...People are having to drill wells in their pastures because of the drought. Dams are going dry.” ‘Dowsing’ is the more formal term for what Beeson calls ‘witching;’ the process of using a forked branch of chokecherry or willow (some practicioners use other woods, or metal rods) to locate underground water veins which can be tapped by wells. A traditional practice with a long history, witching for water is viewed with skepticism by many people. Beeson said she was skeptical herself, until she “kind of figured out I could do it,” after watching a neighbor of her father’s who had the skill. The neighbor, Ed Ostemeier, was witching a well for her father when she “happened to pick up the stick,” and was able to feel the force that indicates the presence of water. “He said “Let’s try it and see,’” she said. “I was pretty skeptical, but that makes you a believer when it happens.”....
Paradox: Stories of the Wild West Stories of the Wild West are plentiful in the history of the Paradox Valley, which is situated in the extreme west end of Montrose County. The valley was named in the 1870s by A.C. Peale, who worked with the Hayden Survey. The Dolores River runs across the valley, rather than parallel like most rivers do, creating what Peale felt was a true paradox. Few settled in the eastern two-thirds of the valley because it is desert, but the western one-third is fed by numerous springs from Paradox Creek, which flows into the valley from Utah’s La Sal Mountains. Although the valley was part of the Ute Indian Reservation, white squatters were there as early as the 1870s. Due to its rugged terrain, being so remote and close to the Utah border, it became a haven for outlaws in addition to ranchers who were struggling to make a living. The lack of plentiful water and good land prompted violence that continued for several decades, causing some to call it the “Slaughterhouse of the West.” Thomas Goshorn and Riley Watson were the first known settlers to arrive in the valley in the fall of 1877, coming from the Blue Mountains of Utah. Goshorn left after two years, but Watson and his family remained. Watson’s wife was appointed the first postmistress of the little settlement of Paradox in 1879. Mail arrived by pack mules from Ouray until the settlement of Montrose in 1881....