Georgia Judge Cites Carbon Dioxide in Denying Coal Plant Permit A judge in Georgia has thrown out an air pollution permit for a new coal-fired power plant because the permit did not set limits on carbon dioxide emissions. Both opponents of coal use and the company that wants to build the plant said it was the first time a court decision had linked carbon dioxide to an air pollution permit. The decision’s broader legal impact was not clear, either for the plant, proposed to be built near Blakely, in Early County, Ga., or for others outside Georgia, but it signaled that builders of coal plants would face continued difficulties in the court system as well as with elected officials in many states. In the ruling released late Monday afternoon, a state judge relied on a decision by the Supreme Court last year that carbon dioxide could be regulated as a pollutant. Carbon dioxide, which is colorless, odorless and not directly harmful to animals or plants, is not now regulated, and the Bush administration has signaled that it would not issue such regulations before the president leaves office. But the judge, Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore in Superior Court in Fulton County, Ga., said that federal air pollution control laws required pollution permits to cover all pollutants that could be regulated under the Clean Air Act, not just those for which there is “a separate, general numerical limitation.” The case had been brought by the Sierra Club and a local environmental group, Friends of the Chattahoochee....
Girl was mauled on popular grizzly trail A 14-year-old girl mauled by a bear as she rode in a 24-hour mountain bike race was on a city trail known to be regularly patrolled by grizzlies. Strong winds made it hard to hear. The early morning hour and salmon in a nearby stream made the location so dangerous even other bears kept their distance. "Even black bears have better sense than to walk that trail," said biologist Rick Sinnott of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. "They're as afraid of brown bears as we are." City officials on Monday asked residents not to use the trail but said it would be impossible to enforce a closure because of its remote location. Warning signs were posted at 20 trailheads that lead to the attack location. The signs urge people to find alternate routes, said Jeff Dillon, Anchorage's parks director. The injured girl suffered head, neck, leg and torso wounds, including damage to a lung. She underwent emergency surgery and was scheduled for more Monday, said Anchorage Fire Department spokeswoman Cleo Hill. Her parents have asked that no further information, including her name, be released....
Deal Is Struck in Montana to Preserve Forest Areas A huge patchwork of privately owned forest in northwest Montana — much of it abutting wilderness, and together almost a third the size of Rhode Island — will be permanently protected from development under an agreement announced Monday by two private conservation groups, the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land. The groups will pay $510 million for about 500 square miles of forest now owned by Plum Creek Timber, a lumber and real estate firm based in Seattle. It is one of the biggest sales of forest land for preservation purposes in United States history, conservation experts said. About half the amount will come from private donations, the conservation buyers said, and about half from the federal government under a new tax-credit bond mechanism that was included in the giant farm bill recently passed by Congress over President Bush’s veto. The bond mechanism was devised by Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana. Mr. Baucus, his spokesman said, was approached about a year ago by representatives of the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land, who argued that development pressures were growing so intense that new tools had to be created to buy the Plum Creek properties if they were to be protected. The lands in this case were considered especially valuable, and vulnerable to the effects of development, because most were in fragments — 640-acre squares interspersed in a checkerboard with public lands mostly owned by the Forest Service. Checkerboard ownership is a legacy of the railroad-building of the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the government offered millions of acres of the West as an incentive to companies laying track through Montana and other Rocky Mountain states. The purchases, which are to be completed in phases over the next two years, with most of the land then conveyed to the Forest Service or other government agencies over the next decade, will essentially fill in the checkerboard, Mr. Ginn said. An outline of the project is on the Nature Conservancy’s Web site, www.nature.org....
$1M to help pronghorn Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne on Monday announced $1 million in funds for the pronghorn migration corridor from Bridger-Teton National Forest to Sublette County. Kempthorne, who made the announcement at the Western Governors’ Conference in Jackson, pledged $1 million from the Jonah Compensation Mitigation Fund to the Green River Valley Land Trust and formally recognized the corridor. The money will go toward examining the impact of and making improvements to fencing — which can also impact species such as mule-deer, elk and white tailed deer — along the 75-mile corridor. Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal said he applauds efforts to protect the corridor. “We hope it is just the beginning,” he said in the release. “This effort is an example of the right way to approach this challenge, by sitting down with landowners and negotiating with them on how best to protect corridors that border or cross their land. An important ingredient here is the recognition of the paramount nature of private property rights as we work with our federal partners.” Lara Ryan, executive director of the Green River Valley Land Trust, said the money will help give landowners “tools to conserve the things they love about their land.”....
The Basics Of Wildland Firefighting Using chainsaws, shovels, and Pulaskis, firefighters generally work shifts of 12 to a maximum of 16 hours constructing breaks in the fire’s fuel, or "fireline". A fireline is cleared of vegetation down to the mineral soil. Pulaskis were developed by a Forest Service Ranger Ed Pulaski that saved 30 men at the risk of his personal safety in the fires of 1910. The tool named for Ranger Pulaski is an ax on one side and digging hoe on the other. In some suitable areas, bulldozers are used to build fireline with the same purpose of eliminating burnable fuels from the path of the fire. All fireline must be rehabilitated to allow for future vegetation growth. Firefighters also slow the spread of fires using portable pumps leading from water bodies such as streams and lakes to wet down fuels, helicopters to pinpoint drop water on hot spots, airtankers to lay down a line of retardant that slows the fire allowing firefighters to proceed more effectively. Watertenders are tanker trucks that transport water to various parts of the fire. They will water down dusty roads to improve travel safety, refill engines, and add water to portable holding bags called ’pumpkins’ because of their orange color that serve as dipping facilities for helicopters....
Drilling limits Two conservation groups have asked the federal government to impose new restrictions on oil and gas development in the West to protect the greater sage grouse, a popular game bird on the decline. Scientists contend sage-grouse breeding areas are suffering in the face of accelerating oil and gas exploration in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah and other Western states. West Nile virus, drought and residential development also have taken a toll on the bird, which is being considered for the endangered species list. Federal rules now say oil and gas companies cannot drill within a quarter mile of sage-grouse breeding areas, or leks. Last week, Idaho-based North American Grouse Partnership and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership of Washington, D.C., filed a legal petition asking for the rule be extended to 2 miles. "The birds aren't doing too well, and biologists have known for quite some time that a quarter-mile buffer was not effective," said Steve Belinda, a former Bureau of Land Management biologist now with the Theodore Roosevelt group. "The BLM has the authority to do better. Nobody has said they can't go beyond that if it's warranted." An attorney for the groups said Washington was obligated to consider the petition but not adopt it. A decision could take several months....
Mining boom, gloom From the South Dakota and Colorado plains to the Rocky Mountains, uranium exploration is surging as local communities struggle to control it. In 12 Western states, the number of uranium mining claims has doubled since 2003 to 414,228, according to an analysis of federal data by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group. In Colorado, uranium-mining claims filed on federal land have gone from 120 in 2003 to almost 11,000 last year, according to the federal Bureau of Land Management. "We are surely in a boom," said Ronald Cattany, director of the state Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety. A more telling measure — for the claims are often speculative — is exploration permits from the state and the BLM. State permits doubled over the past year to 90, Cattany said, and in the past six months, the number of federal exploration permits jumped almost 50 percent to 67. Across Colorado, communities are fighting to control the uranium rush. In Weld County, a grassroots campaign against a plan by Powertech Uranium Corp. has led to new state laws requiring greater public disclosure of mining activity and tougher rules on so-called in-situ mining, in which ore is flushed from the ground through wells....
Connecting the dots in the forest debate While Oregon's forest products industry and affected rural communities applaud Sen. Ron Wyden for trying to show leadership in the never-ending battle over forest management on our federal lands, a great deal of work remains to be done, not only to forge a successful forest management plan but to find a way to fund our counties facing a loss of federal timber payments. But both can be achieved. While contentious, the issues involving federal forest management are fairly simple: The federal government owns about half the land in Oregon, much of it forested, and for the past two decades it's done very little management on the ground, leaving these forests diseased and in poor health. That's led to a rise in catastrophic wildfires that devastate habitat, property and local communities, while emitting tons of dangerous pollutants into the atmosphere. The Clinton administration (with the support of then-Rep. Ron Wyden) proposed the Northwest Forest Plan, promising the state of Oregon 615 million board-feet of timber per year to help protect rural Oregon economies and jobs. Since the plan's enactment, Oregon has received about 30 percent of the timber that was promised. This has devastated local governments, school districts, public safety and other programs, to say nothing about the forest products industries and the communities in which they are -- or were -- located....
Government considering euthanizing wild horses Faced with too many wild horses on the range and in holding facilities, federal officials are considering drastic policy changes that include ending roundups and euthanizing animals. U.S. Bureau of Land Management Deputy Director Henri Bisson said Monday there is an overpopulation of wild horses on public lands and the agency can no longer afford to care for the numbers of mustangs that have been rounded up. The number of horses adopted by the public has dropped off, leaving the BLM with more animals than it can care for, he said. One option would be to stop all roundups — something the agency said would lead to "ecological disaster." "The other option is to use some combination of the (adoption program) and euthanasia, which would be really difficult to do," Bisson told The Associated Press. "Our goal is supposed to be about healthy horses on healthy ranges. But we are at the point we need to have a conversation with people about pragmatically what can we do given the financial constraints of our program to meet the goals we have," he said before meeting with area horse advocates. Bisson was in Reno to brief the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board. He said there are 32,000 wild horses on the range in 10 Western states. About half of those are in Nevada. BLM has set a target "appropriate management level" of horses at 27,000....Bush and Congressional policies on horse slaughter have driven down the value of horses. Bush and Congressional energy policy have driven up the cost of grain, leading to fewer people who can afford to adopt horses. One of the unintended consequences of this foolish energy policy will be either starving or euthanized wild horses. It's a shame these animals will pay the price for federal distortion of the marketplace.
U.S. solar energy industry blasts government move Leaders in the U.S. solar energy industry blasted the U.S. government on Monday for a freeze on applications for new solar projects on public land in six Western states. The Bureau of Land Management announced the freeze a month ago, saying it would conduct an extensive study looking at the environmental, social and economic impacts of solar energy development. During the 22-month study, the agency will not consider any new proposals for solar energy developments on public land in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico or Utah. Fred Morse, senior advisor for U.S. operations at Abengoa Solar, a Spanish company (ABG.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) with a solar plant in development in Arizona, said the moratorium could hurt many companies in the burgeoning U.S. industry. Companies could face hefty fines if they don't deliver on previously signed agreements to supply power, and a blanket freeze on the industry is a mistake, he said....Someone should tell these solar industry folks about private property. Or could it be their economics don't pan out if they have to pay the market price for a lease?
No Sun Intended The Bureau of Land Management quietly decided in May that the development of solar plants in 119 million sun-soaked, federally owned acres in the western states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah would have to wait at least two years while bureaucrats sorted out their environmental impact. For decades environmental groups have been pushing the government and private sector to develop more alternative sources of energy. But that campaign is beginning to look like a sham to cover the groups' BANANA — Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything — activism. To be fair, it appears the BLM acted without being forced by an environmentalist-filed lawsuit or activist pressure. And so far, the media are reporting that only a single group — the Wilderness Society — has expressed support for the moratorium. Make no mistake, though. The environmental groups are the reason the BLM made its decision. Had they not spent the past 30 years rabidly crusading against development, reflexively defending wildlife habitats from minor and imaginary threats and demonizing economic progress, the solar projects would not have been interrupted....
Governors seek new tools to protect wildlife from development Three-dimensional computer programs similar to Google Earth could help humans better "co-evolve" with wildlife, and could assist state and federal officials in protecting critical habitat and migration routes while still developing vital energy resources, speakers said Sunday at the Western Governors’ Association meeting. The annual meeting kicked off with speeches and discussions about how Western states can better protect crucial migration corridors for animals such as antelope, moose and elk, while still extracting energy resources such as oil and natural gas. The meeting at Teton Village opened with speeches by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, among others. Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, chairman of the Western Governors' Association, recommended that the governors from Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska and other Western states create a collaborative planning system for new development, with a common vocabulary and based on shared interests. The purpose would be to protect wildlife migration routes and corridors, many of which cross state lines and include federal, state, public and private lands. Jack Dangermond, CEO of Environmental Systems Research Institute, in a presentation to the governors, said technologies similar to those used in the popular geographic program Google Earth could help authorities and residents of states such as Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming better understand “the expanding human footprint” and actually see, with computer modeling, how the footprint interacts with known wildlife movements....