McCain calls for end to offshore drilling ban Republican presidential candidate John McCain, seeking to make amends with Texas energy producers who did not support him during the 2008 GOP primary season, said Monday that he wants to end a federal moratorium on offshore drilling and create "additional incentives" for states to approve new exploration ventures. "We must embark on a national mission to end our dependence on foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gases through the development of alternate energy sources," the Arizona senator said in Arlington, Va., before departing for Texas. McCain will provide details of his proposal in a major energy-policy address today at the Hilton Americas Hotel in downtown Houston. The Houston Chronicle has learned that his speech will describe a goal of energy self-sufficiency through a combination of aggressive domestic production and increased use of alternative energy sources. The presumed GOP presidential nominee will try to appeal to oil-state interests by pushing for more offshore drilling in states that approve such production. But he also will portray himself as an environmentally friendly Republican favoring significant increases in the development of such alternative energy sources as wind and nuclear power....
Federal officials prep for Rainbow Family gathering Federal officials are gearing up for this year's Rainbow Family gathering in Wyoming. U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management personnel began arriving in Riverton on Monday to prepare for this year's event, which takes place the first week of July. A Forest Service spokeswoman says the national incident management team includes officials who will work with Rainbow participants on logistical issues, as well as law enforcement officers. The team also includes resource officers who will work with festival-goers to ensure public lands aren't damaged. The spokeswoman says 300 to 500 participants have already set up camp in the Bridger-Teton National Forest near Pinedale. The "Rainbow Gathering of Living Light" is a weeklong camp-out that's been held on federal lands around the country each year since the early 1970s....
Forest Service plays with fire Wildfire season has begun in California, but Forest Service firefighters appear to be leaving for greener pastures. The attrition rate among the agency’s firefighters in Southern California is nearly 47 percent (compared to about 24 percent nationwide), according to a report presented by the agency to the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Agriculture Subcommittee in April. As of late May, there were 380 firefighter vacancies statewide. The Forest Service maintains that recent attrition rates are no great departure from previous years and have no effect on the agency’s ability to fight fires, but not everyone is convinced. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has written several incendiary letters to the USDA and the Forest Service on the matter. Her most recent missive came the same week California was hit by 13 wildfires in a 72-hour period. Many of the firefighters are leaving for better paying jobs at the state and local level, according to firefighter advocates and the Forest Service itself. While the hourly rate is greater at the Forest Service than some state and local departments, at issue is so-called “portal to portal pay.” Firefighters for CAL Fire, California’s state fire department, are paid for the entire time they are out on a fire. Forest Service firefighters are taken off the clock even if they are still out in the field. As a result of these extra hours, a rank-and-file firefighter at the state agency earns $64,760 annually while the same employee in the Forest Service earns only $56,096....
Leasing atop Roan facing court battle Environmentalists said Monday they plan to sue the federal government to halt leasing of public land on the Roan Plateau for natural gas drilling. The move could upend plans by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to hold a lease sale of 55,186 acres of public land atop the Roan on Aug. 14, an auction expected to draw significant interest from energy companies. The action is the latest in a long series of moves and countermoves by those anxious to open up the towering landscape near Rifle for its enormous energy stores and those who want to preserve most of the plateau for its scenic grandeur and rich wildlife. Should environmentalists succeed in persuading a judge to put off any leasing, the lawsuit could push the debate into a new presidential administration, throwing fresh doubt on the Roan's future....
Utah announces 'major' dinosaur find by Illinois scientists A newly discovered batch of well-preserved dinosaur bones, petrified trees and even freshwater clams in southeastern Utah may provide fresh clues about life in the region some 150 million years ago. The Bureau of Land Management announced the find Monday, calling the quarry near Hanksville "a major dinosaur fossil discovery." Several weeks of excavation by a team from the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford, Ill., have revealed at least four long-necked sauropods, two carnivorous dinosaurs and possibly a stegosaurus, according to the BLM. Nearby, there are also animal burrows and petrified tree trunks six feet in diameter. It doesn't contain any new species -- at least not yet -- but offers the chance to learn more about the ecology of that time, said Scott Foss, a BLM paleontologist. The fossilized dinosaurs are from the same late Jurassic period of those at Dinosaur National Monument and the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry near Price....
Bush prepares parting shots The Bush administration is pressing in its waning months in office to implement a spate of rule and policy changes that could reshape the face of the West. The changes at the federal Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would open tracts to development while removing protections for land and species. "The Bush administration is trying to set the rules of the game in stone," said Sharon Bucci, public-lands director for the Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council. "They are trying to put their stamp and their management on public lands," Bucci said. Bush administration officials say that many of the initiatives have taken years to develop and have been scrutinized by the public. "The only thing the BLM is guilty of here is being late," said Celia Boddington, an agency spokeswoman. "Many of these changes were updates that are long overdue." Among other actions are: • The issuance of a new BLM handbook on implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which exempts some drilling, logging and mining activities from environmental review. • Revisions of the BLM's manual on threatened and endangered species that would remove state-designated species from protection on BLM land. Among the species losing protection in Colorado would be the kit fox and boreal toad. • An effort by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue by December its final rule on whether to protect the greater sage grouse — even though in a court settlement the agency had agreed to issue it in 2009. • The granting by the BLM of "categorical exemptions" created under the 2005 Energy Policy Act to spare drilling operations from environmental reviews in areas where drilling has already taken place....