Schwarzenegger blasts White House over environment It was purely coincidence but the release of a report on how businesses are using technology to reduce their carbon footprint came just as the price of a barrel of crude on the NYMEX topped $129 for the first time. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, flanked by a coterie of CEOs featured in the report, also used the occasion on Tuesday to shine the spotlight on private sector green initiatives. At the same time, he hammered the Bush administration's attentiveness to environmental issues. "Washington is asleep at the wheel," he said in a brief appearance at the San Francisco offices of the Environmental Defense Fund. Schwarzenegger, whose position on environmental questions is far to the left of his colleagues in the Republican Party, also blasted the administration for meddling in a long-running dispute over controlling tailpipe emissions in California....
Google Earth app shows effects of climate change The Met Office Hadely Center, British Antarctic Survey, and the U.K. government on Monday introduced a Google Earth application that visualizes the anticipated temperatures changes from climate change over the next 100 years. The animation uses a color scheme to show the differences in temperatures layed over a Google Earth image. People can also click on icons on the image to get more on how the data was compiled, stories from people affected by climate change, and information on the projected regional impact of climate change. The initiative was launched by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the Google Zeitgeist conference on Monday. vnunet quoted British Environment Secretary Hilary Benn saying that the collaboration was done to help people understand climate change better. "This project shows the reality of climate change using estimates of the change in the average temperature where they live, and the impact it will have on people's lives all over the world, including here in Britain," she said, according to the vnunet report....
Cap McCain's hot air John McCain's proposed "cap-and-trade" program is a disease far worse than the alleged global warming his proposal seeks to cure. His proposed program would not reduce carbon emissions; it would increase the price of energy; it would expand the reach, power and cost of government; and it would push the U.S. another step closer to government control of the sources of production. Simply put, his program would empower government to set an arbitrary limit on the amount of energy every industry could use by setting an arbitrary "cap" on the amount of carbon every industry could emit. Emissions beyond this arbitrary limit, or "cap," would be taxed. The subject industry could avoid the tax only by reducing emission – by reducing the input of fossil fuel – or by purchasing so-called "carbon credits" from other industries that have not used their arbitrary limit. Either way, the additional cost to the industry will be passed on to the consumer as a part of the cost of production. In theory, the industry will not reduce its overall energy input, but will replace a portion of the fossil fuel with non-fossil fuel energy sources such as solar, wind, or whatever. These energy sources, if available, are more expensive than fossil fuels, and the additional costs will be passed on to consumers. These costs pale in comparison to the increase in the cost of government required to implement the program. Government will have to establish a carbon limit for every business within every target industry. Government will design and require a method of reporting carbon use. Government will necessarily expand the bureaucracy needed to review and input this data into another government computer. Government will create a new bureaucracy to monitor the industries to insure that they are not cheating on their reports. And, of course, there will need to be a new enforcement agency....
Critics: Polar bear plan must fight global warming Conservation groups returned to court to challenge Bush administration efforts to help save the polar bear, saying federal officials' refusal to include steps against global warming violates the Endangered Species Act. In court documents filed late Friday, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups asked a federal judge to reject Interior Department actions that were announced last week. Polar bears are threatened with extinction in many areas because of the melting of their sea ice habitat. The groups say greenhouse gas emissions have led to rapid melting in the Arctic. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, facing a court deadline because of the groups' earlier lawsuit, had announced Wednesday that polar bears would be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Among the steps he proposed to help them were increasing research and working with Canada to help the bears survive in the wild. But he rejected the addition of broad steps to reduce greenhouse gases, saying he would not allow the Endangered Species Act to be "misused" to regulate global climate change. Kassie Siegel, climate director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the administration's proposal "violates both logic and the law" because it did not address the primary threat to polar bears. The listing of polar bears under the law is significant, she acknowledged, but the groups want them classified as endangered, a more serious category than threatened....
BLM mulls grazing, drilling limits in northeast Wyoming The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has warned energy companies and ranchers that it's considering restrictions on new grazing and energy development in the Powder River Basin to try to reduce damage to critical sage grouse areas. The BLM's field office in Buffalo sent notice on Monday to the land users warning them that new grazing and energy activities could be halted for a few years while the agency plans how to accommodate sage grouse. Scientific studies have found the grouse population in the Powder River Basin has dropped in recent years. The federal government is studying whether to protect the birds under the Endangered Species Act. Chris Hanson, manager of the BLM's Buffalo Field Office, said the restrictions could affect drilling plans not yet approved as well as grazing lease transfers and renewals. He said coal projects could also be delayed while the agency considers the sage grouse issue. Paul Beels, assistant manager of the BLM's Buffalo Field Office, said the restrictions could limit grazing and drilling on grouse breeding areas, migration corridors and other critical habitat. He said the areas are estimated to cover 19 percent of the BLM lands in the area....
Staffing for fires worries senator Sen. Dianne Feinstein is concerned the U.S. Forest Service has too many firefighter vacancies heading into the fire season. A letter to Feinstein from Mark Rey, the U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary who oversees the Forest Service, shows that there are 363 vacancies in Southern California out of 4,432 positions. Feinstein, D-Calif., said she is concerned that many of the vacancies are among midlevel firefighters. "These are key fire leadership positions. Without them, some fire engines might sit idle just when they're needed most. This is unacceptable. We simply cannot afford anything less than a fully staffed firefighting corps in California," she said in a statement. Casey Judd, business manager for the Federal Wildland Fire Service Association, said that Rey, in his letter, backed off from an April 1 commitment to Feinstein that all positions would be staffed in time for the start of the state's fire season. "I want to reiterate that we feel ... we have the resources to meet our firefighting mission this year," said Jason Kirchner, a spokesman for the Forest Service's California region....
Mining law reform stalls The General Mining Act of 1872 turned 136 this month, despite a hard push by environmental groups and congressional Democrats to replace the measure. Reform supporters had high hopes the Old West-era law would be updated and royalties would be placed on mining operations for the first time. One bill passed by the House would generate about $40 million annually to clean up abandoned mines that pose environmental hazards in the West. “We’re in a period now with exceptionally high metal prices; companies are making billionaire dollars,” said Dusty Horwitt, public lands senior analyst for the Environmental Working Group. “Now is the time for change,” he said. A dispute over how much the royalty should be and who should pay, however, continues to bedevil reform efforts in the Senate. Although a number of Senate Democrats back broad reform, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has opposed efforts to impose royalties on existing mine operations, as the House bill would do. Few issues are as personal for Reid: His father was a gold miner and his state’s economy depends heavily on the industry....
NM judge to consider legality of endangered falcon decision A decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate the northern aplomado falcon as a nonessential, experimental population in two Western states stemmed from "political, top-down pressure," a lawyer for an environmental group argued Tuesday in federal court. WildEarth Guardians, along with a handful of other groups, is suing the Fish and Wildlife Service and The Peregrine Fund, saying the designation violated federal policy and stripped the bird of needed protections under the Endangered Species Act. The environmentalists are asking U.S. District Judge William Johnson to declare the designation illegal and make the agency reconsider the bird's status in New Mexico and Arizona. They also want Johnson to force the agency to respond to a petition seeking critical habitat in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. The falcon was listed as endangered in 1986. It's range once covered much of the Southwest and northern Mexico but experts have said its numbers dwindled due to pesticides, human activities and habitat change. The Fish and Wildlife Service designated the falcons as an experimental population in New Mexico and Arizona in 2006, clearing the way for The Peregrine Fund to begin eleasing captive-bred falcons in the Chihuahuan grasslands of southern New Mexico as part of a reintroduction effort....
Kane County should remove signs as fed court orders What part of "no" doesn't Kane County understand? Last year, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins told the county: No, you cannot lay claim to any trail or roadway through federal land simply by telling the Bureau of Land Management you have a right of way. Still, Kane County refused to remove its road signs encouraging off-highway vehicle use on trails in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument and other public land where the BLM had prohibited OHVs in order to protect fragile areas. The county claimed to own the "roads," some of which are little more than cowpaths, but had failed to prove those claims. Last week, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell said "no" again to Kane County's illegal signs. She ruled that the 39 signs violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution which states that federal law supercedes local law. The signs must come down in 20 days. It's time for Kane County Commission Chairman Mark Habbeshaw and his fellow commissioners to comply. After years of quixotic legal challenges, funded by all Utah taxpayers, enough is enough. The county disputed the authority of the BLM and said it owned the roads by virtue of a 2005 federal judge's ruling that made state law the standard for deciding ownership of roads on federal land. But state law dictates that each and every road claim under RS2477, the Civil War-era mining law that gave local governments the right to build roads over federal lands, must be proven in court....
Panic in the Parks: Why the Public Lands Will Change Memorial Weekend is a time for remembrance and a time when American families gather for picnics in many of America’s public parks. But what many Americans do not know is that our public parks and other protected areas are in trouble – and the trouble goes far deeper than the usual business of too many cars and careless campers. It’s a problem compounded by climate change and a curious policy straitjacket that hampers efforts to respond to it. So far the climate-change impacts are fairly modest – the bears haven’t started migrating north in search of cooler neighborhoods and the redwoods haven’t perished from drought – but they are serious enough. One of the most endangered parks is Glacier in northern Montana, where the glaciers have been disappearing at an alarming rate. In 1850 the park contained 150 glaciers; now it has 27, and there is talk about finding another name for it. Glacier and its neighboring Canadian park, Waterton, are also losing trees to a beetle that is rapidly munching its way northward. The mountain pine beetle loves warmer winters and lodgepole pines, and its advance threatens millions of acres; the Canadian Ministry of Forests has projected that if the infestation continues the hungry beetles will have destroyed more than one billion cubic meters of pine by 2015. That’s the equivalent in volume to about 400 Great Pyramids....
Investigators dig for bodies at Manson refuge Investigators delicately dug with shovels in the desert heat Tuesday in a painstaking hunt for possible victims of Charles Manson and his followers at a ranch where they hid after a 1969 killing spree. The scientists and crime scene investigators working at Barker Ranch started by slicing thin layers of dirt off the top of a 3-by-6-foot area — trying not to disturb any evidence of human remains. The spot was chosen for the exploratory excavation after forensic technology and a cadaver-seeking police dog indicated disturbed soil and evidence of decomposition, said Sgt. Jeff Hollowell of the Inyo County Sheriff's Department, which was overseeing the investigation. The nearly 20 scientists, law enforcement officials and National Park rangers are camping in the high desert mountains bordering Death Valley for the duration of the dig. The National Park Service has closed the ranch to the public for the duration of the dig....
COLORADO STATE RESEARCHER STUDIES IMPACTS OF HIKING AND MOUNTAINEERING ON LONGS PEAK The history of hiking, mountaineering and technical climbing on Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park and the impact of these recreational activities on the mountain's natural and cultural resources are part of a new study by a Colorado State University researcher. Beginning this summer, Ruth M. Alexander, a CSU history professor, will work with graduate research assistants and staff at Rocky Mountain National Park to determine how hiking, mountaineering and climbing have changed since 1925 and how they have impacted cultural and natural resources on 14,259-foot Longs Peak. This includes studying the damage caused to geological resources from technical climbing, litter and soil erosion. "We will be looking at how and why people have engaged in recreation on the peak and affected its cultural and natural resources since 1925. Our goal is to offer information that will help park staff develop management plans that protect Longs Peak and simultaneously allow people to enjoy the beauty and recreational challenges it offers," Alexander said. The modern history of recreation and its impact on Longs Peak have never been systematically explored....
The life and death of a wolf A wolf died the other day in Wyoming. Along with three others, it was shot and killed on the first day that wolves in most of the state lost the protection of the Endangered Species Act. These were legal kills made by people simply because they could. Nothing more was required of them but to report the kills to state officials -- no license, no fees, no restrictions. For sportsmen, one of the proudly held rules is: "Know Your Target." What did these hunters know about their targets? One of the four dead wolves was a female that may have been pregnant. Two of the males were unknown and will be remembered simply as body count numbers in the West's war on wolves. But one wolf has a history known to many throughout the region. To some he was "Limpy," to others he was "The Wanderer." Officially, he was 253M, the 253rd wolf to be radio-collared in the Greater Yellowstone area since wolves were reintroduced in the mid-90s. 253M was born in April 2000 into the Druid Peak Pack, whose territory encompasses Yellowstone National Park's Lamar Valley. His father was likely 21M, a leader of renown and a story unto himself. 21M was one of the first generation of wolves born in Yellowstone in more than 60 years....
Congressional Committee to Hear About Mexican Wolf Mismanagement Retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Mexican Wolf Recovery Coordinator David Parsons will testify tomorrow in an oversight hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee on the mismanagement of the Mexican wolf recovery program. The hearing will begin Wednesday, May 21, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, and will take place in Room 1324 of the Longworth House Office Building. It will also be webcast live on the House Natural Resource Committee's Web site at: http://resourcescommittee.house.gov. The hearing, titled The Danger of Deception: Do Endangered Species Have a Chance? will include, in addition to Parsons, other witnesses speaking on the plight of endangered right whales, spotted owls, and imperiled invertebrates. It will also include new findings from an ongoing investigation by the Government Accountability Office into political interference in endangered species recovery programs. According to Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, the Mexican gray wolf has been subject to shameless political mismanagement, and that has resulted in the suppression of the sole wild population. “The federal government shoots and traps wolves despite scientists’ urgent recommendations to let the wolves alone,” said Robinson. “The wolves need to be able to raise their pups in peace and contribute to the balance of nature.”....
Recovery plan needed for endangered jaguar In an effort to dampen controversy over construction of a wall along the United States border with Mexico, the Bush administration has officially decided not to develop a recovery plan for an endangered species that crosses the border — the American jaguar. Recovery plans, written by teams of scientists and interested citizens, enumerate how many animals or plants and in what distribution would constitute recovery — the point at which a creature has moved away from the brink of extinction and is secure enough to be taken off the endangered species list. Recovery plans also specify actions to achieve recovery. When jaguars were placed on the endangered species list in the United States in 1997, the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to develop a recovery plan or designate critical habitat for them, both required by the Endangered Species Act. Its rationale for not protecting habitat? "Identification of this species' habitat preferences will be addressed through the recovery process," the service promised. Yet there has been no recovery process. Instead, the interagency Jaguar Conservation Team, which in 1997 pledged to "coordinate protection of jaguar habitat," has not opposed construction of the border wall, much less addressed the accelerating loss of jaguar habitat due to urban sprawl, livestock grazing, strip mining and other developments....
Judge nixes part of water law allowing property taxes As Nebraska tries to avoid paying millions of dollars in damages to Kansas and curbing irrigation along the Republican River, a judge on Tuesday struck down part of a state law designed to help Nebraska comply with a three-state water compact. Lancaster County District Judge Paul Merritt ruled that the Legislature was wrong last year when it gave natural resources districts in the heavily irrigated river basin the authority to set property taxes. The money was to be spent on measures to help the state comply with the water agreement, including buying water from farmers to send to Kansas via the Republican River. Merritt ruled that the property taxes authorized by lawmakers violate a portion of the state constitution that bars the Legislature from passing laws that give certain people or groups special privileges. One of the arguments posed by the property owners was that the law created a "closed class" of natural resources districts in the basin that were the only ones entitled to use the taxing authority granted by the Legislature. Merritt said it's not "reasonably probable" that the state would enter into other, multistate water compacts that would qualify for the type of taxing authority that was granted by the Legislature in 2007. He used remarks by an assistant attorney general and a state senator as evidence, quoting them near the time the law was considered that it was unlikely Nebraska would ever enter into another compact of that nature....
Farm Bill's Subsidy Costs May Rise A major new program in the recently enacted farm bill could increase taxpayer-financed payments to farmers by billions of dollars if high commodity prices decline to more typical levels, administration and congressional budget officials said yesterday. Since the amount of the subsidy for 2009 is tied to recent record prices, farmers could reap a windfall if prices drop suddenly. "I don't think many people on the House side who voted for the farm bill realized there were $16 billion in potential higher costs in there," said Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Conner. "The budget exposure is tremendous." A blog item posted Monday by the agricultural magazine Pro Farmer described the new program, known as Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE), as "lucrative beyond expectations," and said it is a "no brainer" for farmers to sign up for it. The Agriculture Department estimates that subsidy payments to corn farmers alone could reach $10 billion a year if prices -- which have been $5 to $6 a bushel -- were to drop to $3.25 a bushel, a level seen as recently as last year. The $10 billion figure assumes most farmers would participate in the program, a view disputed by key lawmakers....
Flying the coop? From inside the trailer-size office at Sunrise Farms, one can hear the incessant squawking of 160,000 chickens housed nearby. The Petaluma-based egg producer generates the vast majority of eggs sold in the Bay Area with its seven properties and 1 million hens, one of two large egg operations in a region that used to have thousands of smaller chicken farms. On one wall of the office a framed aerial black-and-white photograph shows the same property as it appeared more than 70 years ago. The layout of buildings hasn't changed much over time, still retaining the long, thin structures aligned side-by-side. But in the photograph, little white specks populate the space between buildings — they're chickens, and all 10,000 were free to wander. Today the birds are kept indoors and, to save space and increase production, are typically confined in small cages. These "battery" cages are stacked in rows four cages high, allowing each bird 67 square inches of room — about the size of a large shoebox. Although the egg industry says the cage systems are science-based and humane, animal welfare activists say they are cruel and restrict natural behaviors. In November, voters will decide whether to ban the cages in California, thanks to a six-month signature-gathering effort sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States along with other animal welfare groups. If voters approve the law, California's egg farmers would be required to move the state's 19 million caged birds into cage-free facilities by 2015....
Bingaman sponsors 'Cowboy' bill; passes in Senate A resolution co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman designating July 26 to recognize the "American Cowboy" passed the Senate Tuesday. The Senate resolution acknowledges the role of ranchers in the development of the West, stating that ranchers embody the nation's strong work ethic, are good stewards of the environment and play a major role in the nation's economy. This is the third year the Senate has designated a special day for commemorative purposes. According to Bingaman, approximately 800,000 ranchers are in business across the country, with New Mexico ranchers having generated about $900 million in sales in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available. In terms of production, only dairies are a larger industry than ranching. "Ranching plays an important role in New Mexico's economy and is an important part of the state's history," Bingaman said Tuesday. "This resolution pays tribute to the hard working men and women of the American West." The resolution encourages communities across the nation to observe July 26 as the National Day of the American Cowboy....
Cow dogs: Rancher’s best friends Well-trained cow dogs are probably the most valuable “hands” on a ranch. When I was young, our family had a black English Shepherd called Oso (bear in Spanish). If a cantankerous cow decided to quit the herd, my dad would say, “Get her, Oso,” and he’d chase her down. Before long she’d decide the herd looked like a really nice place to be after all. Oso was a wonderful cow dog, but he had one personality quirk we had to admire even though it caused us trouble. Always, it seems, when you get to the gate between pastures with a bunch of cows and calves, after everybody has gone through the gate, at least one calf will manage to crawl through the fence and head back where he came from. The baby can’t figure out how he did it, so he runs up and down the fence bawling. Mama, of course, runs up and down the fence on her side, also bawling. When this happened with Oso along, if Dad told him to get the calf, the dog would run up to the baby, bump him with his nose, then look back at Dad. The message was, “He’s too little. I might hurt him.” A cowboy can’t argue with that logic....