NIMBY: Nukes In My Backyard Al Gore says the same fervor that elected Obama president can be used to save the planet. Actually, a new type of nuclear power plant the size of a garden shed might do the trick. In a Sunday New York Times op-ed, Gore called for "an emergency rescue of human civilization from the imminent and rapidly growing threat posed by the climate crisis." To that end, he proposed "a commitment to producing 100% of our electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years." Oddly, Gore does not mention nuclear power, a source from which we already get 20% of our electricity and from which we could get more, thanks in part to the development of a new type of power plant that compares roughly to the evolution from the room-size vacuum-tube computers of the 1950s to today's laptops. Using technology developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and licensed from the U.S. government, New Mexico-based Hyperion Power Generation Inc., has taken its first orders for miniature nuclear power plants that could literally fit in your backyard. The module produces about 70 megawatts of thermal energy or 27 megawatts of electricity via steam turbine, enough to power about 20,000 American-style houses. The units are factory-sealed, can be delivered by truck and are buried underground. Like a car battery, there are no moving parts and no danger of a Chernobyl-type event. The module uses very low enriched materials that remain sealed for the five- to seven-year life of the module. It's also terrorist-proof....

Documentary explores Southwest water issues Los Angeles filmmaker Jim Thebaut has made documentaries about a contract mafia killer, death row and the Cold War. In his most recent project, he took on the Southwest's growing water problems. "We need to change the way we do things, change our culture," Thebaut said. "We waste energy, we waste water. We need to restore an ethic of conservation." Thebaut will talk about Running Dry in the American Southwest on Tuesday at The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Thebaut directed, wrote and produced the film, which is narrated by Jane Seymour. It explores water issues in the dry landscapes of the Navajo and Hopi reservations, in glittering Las Vegas, Nev., and in Washington, D.C. New Mexico's U.S. senators, Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, are featured in the film....

More officials join against JBS purchase of National Beef Four more state attorneys general have joined the Department of Justice lawsuit seeking to block the purchase of National Beef Packing Co. by JBS S.A. Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America — R-CALF USA — said Arizona, Connecticut, New Mexico and Mississippi attorneys general have joined in the lawsuit filed in Chicago by the Justice Department last month. There were 13 attorneys general in the original suit, including Colorado. JBS S.A. is the parent company of JBS Swift & Co. of Greeley. Earlier this year, it announced it intended to buy National Beef, the fourth largest meatpacker in the U.S., along with the Smithfield Foods beef division and Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding. The purchase of Smithfield and Five Rivers was completed soon after the lawsuit was filed Oct. 20....

PETA Wants to Lease Giant Tex Randall Statue for Anti-Leather Campaign This morning, PETA dispatched a letter to Danny Byrd, owner of the 47-foot-tall, 8,000-plus-pound Tex Randall statue in Canyon, Texas, offering to lease the imposing piece of Americana in order to save it from being torn down by the property owners or moved out of Canyon. Although Byrd owns the statue--as well as the nearby Wrong Way Diner--he doesn't own the land that the statue sits on and isn't eager to part with the reported $50,000 needed to move it to his diner. PETA's plans? To hang a sign on Tex reading, "For Cows' Sake, Give Leather the Boot!"--making him the world's most recognizable cow-friendly cowboy. "It's a lofty goal, but we hope that by saving Tex Randall we can help save cows' hides," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "This old icon could have a new purpose--as the world's tallest cow-defending cowboy--and PETA hopes Byrd will take us up on our offer."

Comanche: Legendary War Horse Up until World War II, there was a market for horses in America in the form of U.S. Army remounts. Before mechanized transportation was put into use, which gradually and finally replaced the horse, many western ranchers supplemented or even built their business by supplying the government with cavalry horses. These were of a different type than those needed for draft purposes in the Army, especially in the American West of the 1870’s and 1880’s. In the vase frontline of the “Indian Wars”, the cavalry had need of tough, sturdy, horses that could carry troopers long distanced on poor feed and stand under small arms and artillery fire, among many other hardships and conditions contrary to equine instinct. At the time, the Army was fighting some of the best lightly mounted cavalry the world has ever seen – Apache, Comanche, Kiowa, Sioux, and others. Not since Ghenghis Khan and his troops had the horse been used so effectively in battle. Someone, probably not in the higher levels of brass, realized that horses from the western frontier would be best suited for the troopers on the western frontier. So bands of mustangs were rounded up and sold to the Army as cavalry remounts. Around 1868, a sorrel colt was in with a bunch of mustangs from Texas that were purchased by General Custer’s brother for the cavalry. After being broken and trained, the 6 year old gelding was assigned to Sgt. Keogh of the 7th Cavalry, Troop I. This mustang proved his worth in the western campaigns, even receiving wounds in battle. Somewhere along the way, Keogh named his mount Comanche, perhaps in honor of the enemy’s courage and strength, which Keogh was well acquainted with....

It's All Trew: Pear preserves always worth the work Each year in late September or early October, if Mother Nature allows, the Trews "put up pear preserves." As long as I can remember this annual routine has taken place. This year two sons and wives joined us around the big kitchen table, knives and pans at ready and all peeled and sliced pears for hours. We stayed focused and serious except when we were laughing. Our family "get-togethers" tend to get a little silly after a while, and the monotony of peeling pears doesn't help. Since pears are slick and hard to hold, shrapnel flies in all directions. Basically, to the unlearned, making pear preserves includes peeling the fruit, cutting out all bad places and bruises. Next, slice the meat into small slivers eliminating the core. The slices are then soaked in a pan for six to eight hours with two parts pears to one part sugar. Last, cook until "they look just right" turning a light brown and becoming sort of clear. Then place in sterilized jars with lids. After cooling the pears contract and the lid pops in, signaling the jar is sealed. My wife, Ruth, says, "the most satisfying sound in a country woman's life is when after a hard day's work canning, the lids start to pop and the count comes out right."....

UN Official Hopes for U.S. Role in Climate Change The head of the U.N.'s climate change body said Friday he hopes the United States will take a more active role in fighting global warming once Barack Obama becomes president. "With President-elect Obama, my hope is that the U.S. can take on a leadership role and help to move the negotiations forward," said Yvo de Boer, executive director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. DeBoer spoke in a news conference at a U.N.-sponsored climate change conference in China's capital. The two-day meeting will discuss technology transfers between nations and comes before a U.N. conference set for early December in Poland, where countries will begin negotiations for a climate change accord to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012....

The Climate for Change by Al Gore THE inspiring and transformative choice by the American people to elect Barack Obama as our 44th president lays the foundation for another fateful choice that he — and we — must make this January to begin an emergency rescue of human civilization from the imminent and rapidly growing threat posed by the climate crisis. Here’s what we can do — now: we can make an immediate and large strategic investment to put people to work replacing 19th-century energy technologies that depend on dangerous and expensive carbon-based fuels with 21st-century technologies that use fuel that is free forever: the sun, the wind and the natural heat of the earth. What follows is a five-part plan to repower America with a commitment to producing 100 percent of our electricity from carbon-free sources within 10 years. It is a plan that would simultaneously move us toward solutions to the climate crisis and the economic crisis — and create millions of new jobs that cannot be outsourced. First, the new president and the new Congress should offer large-scale investment in incentives for the construction of concentrated solar thermal plants in the Southwestern deserts, wind farms in the corridor stretching from Texas to the Dakotas and advanced plants in geothermal hot spots that could produce large amounts of electricity. Second, we should begin the planning and construction of a unified national smart grid for the transport of renewable electricity from the rural places where it is mostly generated to the cities where it is mostly used....

Over-Hyping of Green I have been studying and teaching weather and climate for more than 50 years and have been making real-time seasonal hurricane forecasts for a quarter-century. I and many of my colleagues with comparable experience do not believe that CO2 gas emissions are anywhere near the threat to global climate as the environmental and liberal media groups have led us to believe. Most people are not aware of how flimsy are the physical arguments behind the human-induced warming scenarios. There has yet to be a really open and honest scientific dialogue on this topic among our country’s most experienced weather and climate experts. Most knowledgeable global warming skeptics have been ignored and/or their motives questioned. Many have been falsely tagged as tools of the fossil fuel industry--reminding me a bit of the McCarthy period. By contrast, those harping the loudest on the dangers of CO2, such as Al Gore, typically have little real understanding or experience in how the atmosphere and ocean really function. The global climate model (GCM) simulations by large U.S. and foreign government laboratories and universities on which so much of the warming science scenarios are based have basic flaws. These global models are not able to correctly model the globe’s small-scale precipitation processes. They have incorrectly parameterized the rain processes in their models to give an unrealistically warming influence from CO2 increases. These GCMs also do not properly model the globe’s deep ocean circulation, which appears to be the primary driving mechanism for most of the global temperature increases that have been observed. Most GCMs indicate that a doubling of atmospheric CO2 towards the end of the twenty-first century will lead to global warming of 2-5ºC. My best estimate of global warming for a doubling of CO2 is about 0.3-0.5ºC, 5-10 times less than the models estimate....

Internet revolution that elected Obama could save Earth: Gore Former US vice president Al Gore said an Internet revolution carrying Barack Obama to the White House should now focus its power on stopping Earth's climate crisis. The one-time presidential contender turned environmental champion told Web 2.0 Summit goers in San Francisco Friday that technology has provided tools to save the planet while creating jobs and stimulating the crippled economy. "The young people who have been inspired by Barack Obama's campaign and the movement that powered Barack Obama's campaign want a purpose," Gore said. "One of the reasons we were all thrilled Tuesday night is it was pretty obvious this was a collectively intelligent decision." The Internet's critical role in Democrat Obama's victory in the presidential race against Republican John McCain was a "great blow for victory" in addressing a "democracy crisis" stifling action against climate change, Gore said....

Corn ethanol, a poor solution More corn can be seen growing in NE Colorado than before the federally funded incentives and mandates for growing, and for making ethanol. This corporate welfare program is a good example of how not to solve the very real problem of achieving energy independence. Analyses of the various issues involved in using corn-derived ethanol fuel for transportation just do not make ecological, financial or logical sense. The amount of coal, oil, and natural gas energy required to make corn ethanol is more than the energy contained in the ethanol. Because most of this additional energy is sourced from fossil fuels, burning ethanol instead of gasoline actually releases 1.7 times more carbon dioxide for a comparable number of vehicle miles traveled. This is a startling finding and so the reader is encouraged to more deeply research the issue. An in-depth corn ethanol paper may be viewed on the Independence Institute Website. The Federal and Colorado taxpayer funded subsidies for making corn ethanol are about $1.05 for the equivalent energy contained in a gallon of gasoline. If tax-paying consumers had a choice, they may well prefer that the dollar of subsidy be directly applied to their price of gasoline at the pump....

Proposed Road in Refuge Raises Fears About Drilling This isolated outpost, where grizzly bears outnumber people and the one-page phone book is dubbed "the yellow page," is fast emerging as a flash point in the nation's debate over drilling. A plan to construct about 20 miles of road, half of which would be in the wilderness of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, has turned into a heated battle between area residents, who say they need better access to the airport here, and environmentalists, who suspect, without concrete evidence, that the oil industry is secretly behind the effort. In a state still recovering from the bruising fight over opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration, all eyes have turned to Congress, which is expected to vote during a lame-duck session this month on a land swap that would open the way for road construction. But residents who live on the other side of the refuge, across an inlet, in the 800-person village of King Cove simply point to the wreckage of small planes that failed to reach their narrow gravel airstrip and now litter Mount Dutton, a dormant volcano. "Go up and look at that graveyard," said Herman "Buddy" Bendixen, 83, an Aleut elder and lifelong resident. "They got sick and couldn't get out."....

Elk droppings may have sickened kids Elk droppings in the Evergreen area contain the same strain of E. coli bacteria that sickened eight children in three mountain counties, state health officials reported today. Lab testing confirmed a genetic match between the bacteria. Health officials suspected elk droppings as a potential source of the exposure. It's not known how the elk were infected. Elk droppings can be found virtually everywhere around Evergreen, including near homes and schools. For that reason, health officials issued warnings to students to not eat on athletic fields and to wash their hands after being outside. The cases began appearing in July, with the last one reported Oct. 22. The children, ages 4 to 12, do not attend the same school, although all live in or have visited the Evergreen area....

Two grizzlies drown; another death under investigation Authorities learned of three additional grizzly bear deaths in 2008 that won't be counted against the mortality quota for the threatened bear in northwestern Montana because they were natural or occurred outside of the official recovery zone. In one case, a young male was shot this past spring on the Milk River six miles south of the Canadian border on the eastern edge of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, more than 10 miles outside of the grizzly recovery zone. n that case, a rancher driving a four-wheeler came up on a bear eating a cow that previously died and told authorities he shot the animal after the bear charged, but the case is under investigation to see if it was a case of self-defense, Carney said. Two other bears drowned. One was a cub crossing the Swan River in the spring. The other bear, a yearling, drowned in May in a high-flowing irrigation ditch near the Teton River....

Public lands management of particular concern to Cowboy State A U.S. president can often have a direct impact on the lives and livelihoods of Cowboy State residents. And a president's cabinet has more direct sway in Wyoming, in some respects, than in most other states. Nearly half of Wyoming -- about 47,000 square miles of it -- is owned and managed by the federal government. Only four states in the nation, all of them in the West, have a higher percentage of their landmasses owned by Uncle Sam. The way that national parks, forests and other public lands are managed here has implications for individual residents, groups and industries. Among those who can be directly affected by a president's land management policies are ranchers, oil and gas drillers, miners, hunters, fishers, outdoors enthusiasts, loggers, sawmill operators and conservationists. So, what does an incoming Barack Obama administration signal about the way Wyoming's public lands will be managed? All interested parties seem to agree there will be a shift -- and perhaps a big one -- from the approach of the Bush administration. But fewer agree on what the ultimate effects of that shift will be....

Landowner tackles game law If wildlife destroys your property, who is responsible? Richard Murray thinks the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife should pay, and he’s enlisted the Oregonians in Action legal center to file a tort claim notice with the state. “You have to give [the state] notice within 180 days of when the game damage happens,” Murray said. “So I’ve done that. I have another year and a half to file the claim.” Beyond that, Murray hopes to gather funds to support an initiative petition to change Oregon law. Murray notes ODFW claims regulatory jurisdiction over the wild animal population, and that the states of Washington, Idaho and Montana provide partial payment for game damage to private property, while Oregon and California do not. Ross Day and Dave Hunnicut of Oregonians In Action were in The Dalles recently consulting with Murray about the case. “There’s a Clean Water Act case in, I think, in Grant County where an environmental group has sued a rancher, claiming that the rancher’s cattle are destroying the beds and banks of the river there,” Dave Hunnicut said. “Well, the rancher has photos showing it’s the wild horses and elk that are in there, tromping around through the water. What’s the real source of the problem, and who’s going to ultimately end up dealing with it? This is just an extension of a much larger problem that affects states throughout the west.”....

Biologists say wolves are spreading into Oregon but without conflict As more and more gray wolves arrive in the state, Oregonians are gradually recognizing that the once-native predators may find ways to live in Oregon without stirring up the conflict or trouble some had feared, a state biologist says. "People are beginning to understand that if there are wolves around, even multiple wolves or a breeding pair like we have now, bad things aren't automatically happening," said Russ Morgan, the state biologist handling wolf issues for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. He was one of several speakers at a weekend conference at Portland's Concordia University that sought to bring rural and urban interests together to discuss a future for wolves in Oregon. Agricultural leaders also spoke about the restrictions they face under the Endangered Species Act, which now protects wolves....

U.S. to Open Public Land Near Parks for Drilling The Bureau of Land Management has expanded its oil and gas lease program in eastern Utah to include tens of thousands of acres on or near the boundaries of three national parks, according to revised maps published this week. National Park Service officials say that the decision to open lands close to Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument and within eyeshot of Canyonlands National Park was made without the kind of consultation that had previously been routine.The inclusion of the new lease tracts angered environmental groups, which were already critical of the bureau’s original lease proposal, made public this fall, because they said it could lead to industrial activity in empty areas of the state, some prized for their sweeping vistas, like Desolation Canyon, and others for their ancient petroglyphs, like Nine Mile Canyon. The bureau’s new maps, made public on Election Day, show not just those empty areas but 40 to 45 new areas where leasing will also be allowed. The tracts will be sold at auction on Dec. 19, the last lease sale before President Bush leaves office a month later....

Restitution tops $4M in eco-terrorism case A federal judge has raised restitution to $4.14 million in the case of an environmental activist who committed arson at Michigan State University and 12 other acts of destruction. This week was the deadline for Frank Ambrose or prosecutors to object to a new tally. Nothing was filed. Ambrose, 33, of Detroit recently was sentenced to nine years in federal prison. He and Marie Mason committed arson at MSU’s Agriculture Hall on New Year’s Eve 1999 to protest genetic-crop research. They admitted to many other acts, including tree spikings in Indiana and fires at four homes under construction in the Detroit area. U.S. Chief District Judge Paul Maloney had ordered $3.7 million in restitution Oct. 20 but raised it to $4.14 million after a “discrepancy.”....

Obama outlines views on agriculture Now that Obama has been elected, here’s a look at his views on agriculture as stated during the presidential campaign. Obama wants to make a disaster assistance program permanent so farmers would not have to wait for Congress to decide whether aid is needed in the wake of individual natural disasters. The Democrat supports country-of-origin labeling, which requires meat and perishable farm products to indicate from where they came. The Farm Bill expanded the list of products covered by the law effective Sept. 30. Obama would increase funding for a cost-sharing program for organic certification to help farmers afford the costs of complying with national standards for organic food, a fast-growing sector of the American food market. There are not enough young people entering farming, according to Obama, so he would help the public university system and farm extension service work with youth groups to identify and prepare future farmers. He also favors tax breaks for landowners selling to beginning family farmers and for people going into farming....

Ranchers cut herd size to survive drought California's worst drought in decades is forcing the state's cattle ranchers to downsize their herds because two years of poor rainfall has ravaged millions of acres of rangeland used to feed their cows and calves. The parched, yellow pastures on Joe Gonzales' cattle ranch attest to the severity of a dry spell that is devastating the economic fortunes of many of the state's beef producers. Gonzales, who normally runs 500 cows on his 2,000-acre spread about 30 miles south of San Jose, cut his herd by half over the past year and may have to sell more if the drought persists. "When there's no rain, there's no grass," said Gonzales, 65. "As the drought continues, you have to either continue to feed your cattle or sell them. ... It's the worst I've seen it in more than 30 years." During most dry years, California cattlemen send their herds to places with healthier pastures or buy supplemental feed to sustain their animals until the rainy season. But high fuel prices, a lack of green pastures in California and neighboring states, and the soaring cost of livestock feed have left ranchers little choice but to sell off their mother cows because they can ill afford to feed them....

Montague Stevens And Grizzly Bears In Catron County Montague Stevens, an Englishman, was one of the first and the last to hunt grizzly bears in Catron County. Stevens moved to New Mexico Territory in the 1800s and went into the cattle business establishing ranches near Alma, Reserve and Datil with his headquarters at Horse Springs. He published a book in 1942 titled Meet Mr. Grizzly and wrote about his move to New Mexico: “It was in the fall of 1882 that I bought my first ranches from early settlers and so little was known of New Mexico in the East that I was several times asked if we had monkeys and parrots here … I have ranches scattered over an area of some 80 by 30 miles, generally known as the SU Ranches and range, the SU being my cattle brand.” Grizzly bears were a major problem for Stevens and early settlers. They often attacked without warning, taking livestock and supplies. Stevens and his ranch foreman, Dan Gatlin, started training hounds to hunt grizzlies in 1889. By trial and error, Stevens and Gatlin raised an exceptional group of hunting dogs, which consistently tracked down grizzly bears when other hounds failed. Bounties were offered on troublesome grizzlies. Stevens described two grizzly bears and the naming of Bear-Trap-Canyon in the San Mateo Mountains. He wrote, “On a mountain 30 miles southwest of Magdalena, two grizzlies had been killing a good many cattle and a generous bounty was offered to anyone who would kill them. Two trappers, therefore, decided to try to catch a big grizzly in a bear-trap, so they camped near the place where the tracks of these bears seemed to show up the most and set their trap.” They waited outside the trap for longer than a week, but did not see the grizzlies. Next, they built a log cabin, about 8 feet by 10 feet with sturdy log walls. A trap door was placed at one end and a deer carcass at the other. When the trappers returned the next morning, the trap had been sprung and was empty. They found another grizzly had dug under the trap from the outside and helped free the one inside. They both escaped, and since the area has been referred to as Bear-Trap-Canyon....

Indian Trial Two Young County lawyers ably defended the arch villains of the frontier — Satanta and Big Tree — after the Warren Wagon Massacre. The trial was unusual and sensational in many ways.Indians had never been tried in the civil courts for their crimes on the frontier. The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Army tried to keep the keep the Indians from raiding and attacking settlers. But both sides broke treaties and crossed boundaries. At that time, if Indians raided, they crossed the Red River into the safety of Indian Territory where soldiers were forbidden to go. Three Kiowa chiefs — Satank, Satanta and Big Tree — led an attack in Young County in retaliation for the earlier death of Satanta’s son. They attacked a group of teamsters carrying loads of corn and killed seven men. Since Gen. Sherman was there to see the aftermath, the Indian chiefs faced severe punishment. They were arrested and Satank committed suicide — only Satanta and Big Tree would face a jury. Neither the townspeople of Jacksboro or the army thought that the Indians would get a trial much less a real defense team....

Ex-FBI agent John Connelly found guilty of murder Jurors have found ex-FBI agent John Connolly guilty of second-degree murder for his role in helping Boston mobsters assassinate an accountant in South Florida in 1982. He was found not guilty of a second charge of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. In the 1970s and '80s, Connolly was a star agent in the FBI's Boston office, developing criminal informants and helping dismantle the New England Mafia. But in a closely followed saga in Boston and one the FBI's most embarrassing scandals, Connolly's two star informants corrupted him, prosecutors said. The allegation: James ''Whitey'' Bulger and Stephen ''The Rifleman'' Flemmi ordered the murder of John Callahan based on a tip from Connolly. The agent is accused of telling the gang Callahan would likely cooperate with agents probing the gang's 1981 murder of Oklahoma businessman Roger Wheeler, who owned World Jai-Alai and had resisted Callahan's overtures to buy the gambling company....

Mistrial ends murder case against Ariz. border agent A judge in Tucson declared a second mistrial in the high-profile murder prosecution of a Border Patrol agent. A defense attorney said he was told that prosecutors will not seek a third trial. The mistrial on Tuesday left Border Patrol agents feeling vindicated and human-rights groups worried that violence against illegal immigrants on the border could increase. The jury in the two-week-long retrial of agent Nicholas Corbett reached deadlock after deliberating three days. The reason for the impasse was unknown because the jury foreman's note to the judge was sealed....

Older? Female? No gun for you! Delaware State Police stopped Alvina Vansickle from purchasing a .22-caliber pistol for self-defense because she was too old and a woman, said Superintendent Col. Thomas MacLeish. The outrage that followed led to the revelation that Delaware State Police had been keeping lists of gun buyers for years; state law requires them to destroy these records after 60 days. Without so much as a traffic ticket, the 81-year-old Lewes resident should have sailed through the mandatory state police background check when she tried to buy a Taurus revolver from Charlie Steele's Lewes gun shop last August. Problems started after Steele made the required phone call to state police for approval of the firearms transaction....

Lawsuit aims to test Iowa's concealed weapons law An Ocheyedan man has filed a federal class-action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of an Iowa law that requires individuals obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon.Paul Dorr, 52, said Thursday that Osceola County Sheriff Douglas Weber wrongly denied on a political whim his and his 18-year-old son's requests for permits to carry concealed weapons. Dorr filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Sioux City against Weber and Osceola County because Weber turned down the permit applications of both Dorr and his son in 2007. Dorr alleges that the sheriff denied his Second Amendment right to bear arms and 14th Amendment right to due process. "He just denied my permit to carry without foundation," said Dorr, a consultant for taxpayer and political groups. "That denial just brought to mind the lack of objective process that Iowa code allows for sheriffs." Dorr is bringing the lawsuit on behalf of anyone who has been denied a permit to carry in Iowa. The case is believed to be the first of its kind challenging part of a state code that gives sheriffs discretion in deciding who should receive permits to carry concealed weapons, according to the Iowa attorney general's office....

ACORN uses public funds to steal elections, now your gun rights ACORN, the publicly-funded national organization linked to voter fraud in several states is now actively interfering with the exercise of firearm civil rights in New Jersey, and the Second Amendment Foundation is calling for an immediate federal investigation. “ACORN has, since 1998, received an estimated $31 million in government funding,” said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. “Now they have intervened in a New Jersey gun rights case in defense of an illegal Jersey City one-gun-a-month ordinance that violates the state preemption statute. “The organization is currently under FBI investigation over allegations of voter fraud in several states,” he added. “Bad enough that ACORN is implicated in fraudulent activities in several states, but now an ACORN chapter in the Garden State is working against the ability of New Jersey gun owners to exercise a constitutionally-protected individual civil right to own a handgun....

Pot Wins in a Landslide On Tuesday, largely under the radar of the pundits and political chattering classes, voters dealt what may be a fatal blow to America's longest-running and least-discussed war -- the war on marijuana. Michigan voters made their state the 13th to allow the medical use of marijuana by a whopping 63 percent to 37 percent, the largest margin ever for a medical marijuana initiative. And by 65 percent to 35 percent, Massachusetts voters decriminalized the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, replacing arrests, legal fees, court appearances, the possibility of jail and a lifelong criminal record with a $100 fine, much like a traffic ticket, that can be paid through the mail. What makes these results so amazing is that they followed the most intensive anti-marijuana campaign by federal officials since the days of "Reefer Madness." Marijuana arrests have been setting all-time records year after year, reaching the point where one American is arrested on marijuana charges every 36 seconds. More Americans are arrested each year for marijuana possession -- not sales or trafficking, just possession -- than for all violent crimes combined....

U.S. border agents detain Mexican troops Seven members of the Mexican military were found inside the United States on Friday, telling border agents they had become disoriented while on patrol and accidentally crossed into the country, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said. The incident began about 8 a.m. Friday, when the Border Patrol's Yuma, Arizona, sector was notified that a military-style Hummer was broken down, Customs and Border Patrol said in a written statement. Agents said they found the vehicle about 200 yards from the Colorado River, and the seven individuals were dressed in military-style clothing. Customs and Border Patrol later determined that the troops' entry was unauthorized. U.S. agents told the Mexican troops they were inside the United States and "peaceably" took them into custody, the statement said. "At no time were any hostilities exchanged between the agents and military officials."....

Roping on a reputation
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

There was a really big roping coming up where trucks, trailers, saddles, buckles and a pile of cash were to be awarded.

It had been advertised for months and Dan, Jess, Tim and the rest of the gang had decided to enter up. The only problem was that they all lived in the middle of Texas and the roping was down in Louisiana, fairly close to New Orleans.

Being cowboys, they were also experiencing a bit of a cash flow problem. The only solution was to win enough to pay for the fuel, and maybe even enough to fill up the new truck they hoped to win.

The plan would work. All they had to do was practice as much as possible and since they all had arena dust in their veins, this would not be a problem. They vowed that rain, sleet, snow or the necessity of making a living wouldn't get in their way.

Jess and Dan worked hard at perfecting their runs down the arena behind a spotted steer. There had been some discussion of changing ropes, changing loops or other possible improvements, but in the end, they stayed with what had worked before, most of the time anyway.

Blaine and Tim had made a few changes to their style. Tim had a new rope. It might catch the steer or it might catch the header. Sometimes he threw one of those soil sampler loops and the steer remained quite safe from capture.

Tim was hauling his old, experienced horse. Strychnine could get him into position most of the time, and didn't need to be scored any more.

The theory was that the horse was almost old enough to vote, and Tim had spent lots of time scoring cattle the first 15 years he owned him. Strychnine likely didn't have that many more runs left in him, and there was no point in wasting them.

Besides his regular partner Dan, Jess had picked up a new heeler for an extra entry at the big roping. There hadn't been much time to practice with this new guy, but everybody had heard the story that he had won $32,000 one time when he went to a big USTRC roping. That was a good enough resume for Jess.

When they got to the roping, everybody was wound pretty tight. Word in the warm-up arena was that these cattle would be Nascar fast. With the usual cautious optimism, each team in the crew figured they would probably draw the only dirty one in the bunch.

They had their hearts set on winning big cash and so they patiently waited their turn to rope with all the confidence they could muster through their nervous sweat. They knew they were good at what they did and held onto that thought.

As it turned out, there were hundreds of other "good-at-what-they-did" ropers entered and some of them were just a tick better than this bunch.

Jess and Dan had caught all their steers but were just a little long on time and out of the money. The new man caught one leg the first round and missed completely the second round.

They were all giving him a hard time about not using his skill that won him the reputation $32,000.

He grinned, "Well, I never said I won it roping. I was just at a roping. I won the money playing blackjack."

Julie’s new book, Cowboys You Gotta Love ’em is come of the presses the end of Nov. Order now at a sale price and/or bundle both books together for a deal. Think Christmas! www.julie-carter.com

Gone With The Wind

From California to Missouri, four of five environmental initiatives lost at the ballot box. Voters are clearly still not ready for exorbitant costs and excessive regulation without clear benefits.

President-elect Obama may have felt "a righteous wind" at his back during the campaign, but it did not translate into environmental victories at the ballot box, where one green initiative after another failed for a variety of reasons.

California voters shot down both clean-energy propositions on the ballot. Proposition 7 would have required utilities to generate 40% of their power from renewable energy by 2020 and 50% by 2025. It lost 65% to 35%.

Proposition 10 would have created $5 billion in general obligation bonds to help consumers and others purchase certain high-fuel-economy or alternative-fuel vehicles, and to fund research into alternative fuel technology. It failed 60% to 40%.

Even in San Francisco, the capital of liberalism and greenie fervor, voters rejected Proposition H, which would have mandated a rapid increase in the city's use of clean energy to achieve its goal of being 100% renewable by 2040. It would also have meant taking over the city's private electric company.

Obama took the former red state of Colorado, which also elected environmentalist Senate candidate Mark Udall over oil executive Bob Shaffer. Yet Coloradans struck down a measure to pay for conservation and clean energy by increasing taxes on oil companies.

Only in Missouri did green energy score a victory. There, Proposition C mandated a 15% increase in renewable energy by 2021 with slow and steady yearly increases that energy companies felt they could phase in without disruption and with which voters felt more comfortable.

The mantra is that oil and car companies are blocking the increased use of renewable energy. The truth is that consumers, through their choices and their votes, are slowing the stampede. They worry about the cost in tough economic times and whether such efforts are worth it based on dubious evidence of global warming. Energy independence is one thing, but going bankrupt to achieve it is quite another.

When gasoline prices were over $4 a gallon, the chant "drill baby drill" grew loud enough that Democrats were forced to back off renewing a ban on offshore drilling. Now in complete control, they can block offshore drilling, nuclear power and shale oil in their Ahab-like pursuit of alternative energy.

Texas consumers are finding out how expensive the pursuit of alternative energy can be. Their state generates more electricity from wind than any other, and people like oil legend T. Boone Pickens want to generate more.

A just published study by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, "Texas Wind Energy: Past, Present and Future," says that to achieve even modest amounts of wind energy would cost rate payers and taxpayers at least $60 billion through 2025. That includes transmission costs, production costs, subsidies, tax breaks, economic disruption costs and grid-management costs.

Because of the intermittent nature of wind, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas uses a figure of only 8.7% of wind power's installed capacity when determining available power during peak periods.

On cloudy and windless days, solar and wind are useless and require conventional power sources as backup. Output is not steady and cannot be increased on demand. You can't make the sun shine brighter or the wind blow harder during peak periods.

A Feb. 27 Reuters story illustrated the point. Headlined "Loss Of Wind Causes Texas Power Grid Emergency," it told of an electric grid operator forced to curtail 1,100 megawatts of power to customers on just 10 minutes' notice. The wind simply stopped blowing.

Wind turbines generally operate at only 20% efficiency compared with 85% for coal, gas and nuclear plants. A single 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plant would generate more dependable power than 2,800 1.5-megawatt, occasionally operating wind turbines sitting on 175,000 acres.

Nuclear power is clean energy, and you wouldn't have to wait for a sunny or windy day to plug in your electric car.

Obama's Washington: The O-List

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The New Republic has prepared a list of "The 30 people who matter most--in order."

The only eviro listed is Al Gore, who comes in at number twenty-two.

Obama, Kennedy & EPA

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The Huffington Post has interviewed Robert Kennedy Jr. on his being cosidered for the EPA position:

"You know what, I would be of service in any way that the administration asked me to be," Kennedy told the Huffington Post. "But I am also very happy and I believe I am being effective doing the stuff I am doing currently."...The appointment would represent a major and early victory for environmentalists and would undoubtedly please Kennedy's cousin, Caroline Kennedy and uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy - who was an instrumental Obama backer during the primary and is in poor health.

David Roberts at Grist Mill doesn't seem to be sold on Kennedy at EPA:

It might please Clinton and Kennedy, but by my count it will piss off just about everyone else. Enviros are still pissed about his opposition to Cape Wind. Sensible people are pissed about his naive acceptance of the phantom vaccine-autism connection. Many journalists are pissed that his overheated work on Republican vote theft in 2004 served to discredit more modest but verifiable theories. He's also, to put it bluntly, widely considered considered kind of an arrogant jerk -- which makes me like him more, but I don't know how it will play in a delicate and highly constrained bureaucratic position.

Two reporters at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer write:

He strikes us as a strange choice. Yes, he's unquestionably green and a magnificent orator... but he's not so much known for his administrative abilities. (He's a fascinating character in so many ways. Example: He got involved with the Riverkeeper organization after he was busted with a lot of heroin and sentenced to community service, which he served at Riverkeeper. He's been clean for years now and is said to not like to discuss this part of his life....

Finally, this Reuters article mentions:

These include Democratic Governors Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Kathleen Sibelius of Kansas, both of whom have pushed to limit greenhouse emissions...Mary Nichols, now head of California's Air Resources Board, has been active in opposing a state ballot proposition that she maintains would increase greenhouse emissions. As a member of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration, she is seen as having the ability to work across party lines...Kathleen McGinty, Pennsylvania's former Environment Secretary, has also been mentioned as a possible EPA chief...Jonathan Lash, president of the World Resources Institute, which does policy research on environment and sustainability, is also considered a potential candidate.

The speculation is all over the place.

Stay tuned.

Al Gore group urges Obama to create U.S. power grid Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection has some environmental advice for the incoming Obama administration: focus on energy efficiency and renewable resources, and create a unified U.S. power grid. On Thursday, the group Gore founded rolled out a new media campaign to push for immediate investments in three energy areas it maintains would help meet Gore's previously announced challenge to produce 100 percent clean electricity in the United States in a decade. Pegged to Obama's election victory on Tuesday, the Gore group's ads on television, in newspapers and online, pose the question, "Now what?" Gore -- former vice president, Nobel Peace laureate and star of the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" -- has said repeatedly he wants to play no official government role in the fight against climate change. But with environmental activists talking about a possible "climate czar" in President-elect Barack Obama's White House, Gore's name inevitably gets mentioned. The plan advocates immediate investment in energy efficiency, renewable power generation -- including public investment in wind, solar and geothermal technology -- and the creation of a unified national smart grid....

Ottawa swoops in with climate-change offer Prime Minister Stephen Harper is proposing to strike a joint climate-change pact with president-elect Barack Obama, an initiative that would seek to protect Alberta's oil sands projects from potentially tough new U.S. climate-change rules by offering a secure North American energy supply. Key federal ministers issued the call for a climate-change pact yesterday, less than 24 hours after Mr. Obama won his historic election victory, in a clear bid by Ottawa to carve out a key place for Canada on the new administration's agenda. Energy security has been a major issue in the U.S. election, and Mr. Obama campaigned heavily on eliminating dependence on Middle East and Venezuelan oil. But he has also condemned the United States's reliance on "dirty oil" - his advisers have specifically criticized the oil sands - and has promised tougher climate-change action. A Canada-U.S. climate-change pact could tie those issues together by adopting common standards and mechanisms such as a market-based emission trading system, while acknowledging the important contribution the oil sands make to North American supplies and the need to adopt technologies that would reduce oil sands emissions....

Scientists say a rock can soak up carbon dioxide A rock found mostly in Oman can be harnessed to soak up the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide at a rate that could help slow global warming, scientists say. When carbon dioxide comes in contact with the rock, peridotite, the gas is converted into solid minerals such as calcite. Geologist Peter Kelemen and geochemist Juerg Matter said the naturally occurring process can be supercharged 1 million times to grow underground minerals that can permanently store 2 billion or more of the 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted by human activity every year. Their study will appear in the November 11 edition of the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences. Peridotite is the most common rock found in the Earth's mantle, or the layer directly below the crust. It also appears on the surface, particularly in Oman, which is conveniently close to a region that produces substantial amounts of carbon dioxide in the production of fossil fuels....

Cody comments on new wolf plan A group of about two dozen sportsmen, ranchers, environmentalists and others made comments Wednesday night on Wyoming's latest plan for managing gray wolves in the Rocky Mountain region. Among questions asked were why the public comment process was being rushed, whether the state and ranchers would have adequate options to control wolf depredation and whether the plan would guarantee genetic diversity among wolves. Gov. Dave Freudenthal approved emergency rule changes that clarify a commitment to maintaining 15 breeding pairs and 150 individual wolves in the state's northwest corner, including in Yellowstone National Park. The changes also more clearly define "damage to private property" and "chronic wolf depredation." Unchanged are the boundaries defining where wolves may be shot any time as predators, a provision in the plan defined by law, and which cannot be altered until the state Legislature convenes in January. In the northwest corner of the state, they are classified as trophy game. The animal's status as a predator across most of the state is a key sticking point with opponents of Wyoming's plan, who say it exposes wolves to potentially devastating losses that could threaten their long-term recovery....

Firearms Industry Statement on Results of CDC Blood Lead Levels in Hunters Study The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry -- issued the following statement in response to study results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released by the North Dakota Department of Health, showing no evidence that lead or "traditional" ammunition pose any health risk to those who consume game harvested meat. The CDC report on human lead levels of hunters in North Dakota has confirmed what hunters throughout the world have known for hundreds of years, that traditional ammunition poses no health risk to people and that the call to ban lead ammunition was nothing more than a scare tactic being pushed by anti-hunting groups. In looking at the study results, the average lead level of the hunters tested was lower than that of the average American. In other words, if you were to randomly pick someone on the street, chances are they would have a higher blood lead level than the hunters in this study. Also of note, the lead levels of children under 6 in the study had a mean of just 0.88, less than half the national average. Children over 6 had even lower lead levels. The CDC's level of concern for lead in children is 10....

Agencies to let more bison outside Yellowstone State and federal officials say they've tentatively agreed to allow more bison to roam outside Yellowstone National Park without being captured and slaughtered to protect cattle against disease. The plan, which remains in draft form, would allow an unlimited number of bison to stay during winter in an area west of Yellowstone known as Horse Butte. The animals would not have to be tested for brucellosis, a disease carried by bison and feared by ranchers because it causes cattle to abort their calves. Last year, more than 1,600 bison leaving the park were killed to guard against the disease. Final adoption of the plan is expected next month in Helena, when five federal and state agencies wrap up a series of meetings they've held on the issue over the last several months.

Can the Forest Service reclaim its image? It's been a dismal eight years for the U.S. Forest Service. When the Bush administration took office, it immediately suspended a popular measure to protect 58 million acres of backcountry public forests from new roads. Instead, the agency became consumed by firefighting. Since 2001, stopping fire has grown from about 15 percent of the agency's budget to nearly 50 percent today. Without forward-thinking leadership, the Forest Service agenda will continue to focus primarily on this one reactionary activity. Yet there is enormous potential for the agency and its 35,000 employees who manage public lands that exceed the size of Texas. Agency staffers could be turned loose to do good work on the ground. The future of the agency -- and the rural communities that depend on it -- lies in its recognizing that more frequent fires are a symptom of a warming climate and an already stressed environment. And while fire fighting is essential, it is only one part of a long-term agenda. Scrape away eight years of languor perpetuated by the Bush administration, and the clear challenge of climate changes stands out. Here's what the Forest Service could do to lead the way....

Economy Shifts, and the Ethanol Industry Reels As producers of ethanol navigate a triple whammy of falling prices for their product, credit woes and volatile costs for the corn from which ethanol is made, an economic version of “Survivor” is playing out in the industry. Last week, VeraSun, one of the nation’s largest ethanol producers, announced that it had filed for bankruptcy protection after its bets on the price of corn turned out to be wrong — and costly. Several other small producers have filed for bankruptcy this year, and construction plans for several Midwestern ethanol plants have been postponed or shelved. Shares in the handful of publicly owned ethanol companies have mostly been slumping all year. Aventine Renewable Energy and Pacific Ethanol, for instance, have both lost more than 80 percent of their value since the beginning of the year. While producers pin their hopes on rising government mandates for the use of ethanol, analysts who follow the industry voice concerns that more companies could go under. They expect a wave of consolidation to sweep the ethanol business once the credit crisis eases....

Election results for Proposition 2 and greyhound racing Proposition 2, the California ballot initiative on farm animal housing backed by the Humane Society of the United States, passed on Tuesday with more than 60 percent of the vote, and the result will essentially end current management practices for California egg producers, forcing the industry out-of-state. In Massachusetts, voters approved a ballot question to end greyhound racing in the state, rejecting track owners’ arguments that the ban would cost jobs at a time of economic hardship in favor of protecting dogs from harm. A similar ballot question was defeated in 2000. The ban, which takes effect in 2010, passed by a vote of 56 percent to 44 percent....

Asbill wants to fence 'Dead Cow Road' A 2007 legislative appropriation of $125,000 for 26 miles of fencing along a county road is not enough to get the job done. But further delaying the project could put the money at risk of being taken back by the governor, county leaders said. The funds were obtained by Sen. Vernon Asbill, R- Eddy, for fencing along County Road 605, also shown on county maps as Potash Mine Road. But the highway has been dubbed by locals as Dead Cow Road because of cattle wandering onto the road and occasionally being plowed down by motorists. Over the years, collisions between cow and car have caused some serious and fatal injuries. The dilemma for the county is two-fold. The first is the issue of liability should the fence be nstalled. The commission said New Mexico is open range, and by fencing off cattle to keep them from wandering onto the road, the liability shifts to the county for any accident caused by cattle on the road. The second issue for the county is that the $125,000 is not enough to fence the 26 miles and the county would have to dip into its coffers to make up the difference. Frank Weldon, county road department superintendent, said although the county has not yet called for bids, the current price for fencing material is about $5 per linear foot. That would work out to more than $26,000 for a single mile of fence. Commissioner Lewis Derrick, a rancher from Artesia, said based on his experience in the ranching business, $125,000 would not cover the cost of fencing materials, cattle guards and labor. "Not only won't it be enough, it won't work," Derrick said. "Cattle will always find a way to get around or through the fence."....

Interview with actor Robert Fuller Some excerpts from a recent interview I did with Robert Fuller, star of “Wagon Train,” and “Emergency.” The only color season of “Wagon Train,” one of the great TV westerns, has just been released on DVD, along with a selection of 16 of the best black and white episodes. “When I was doing ‘Laramie,’ all our dressing rooms at Universal were called Whiskey Row, across the street from two bungalows that belonged to Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson. We had dressing rooms that had a bedroom and a kitchen, but nothing like the bungalows across the street for Tony and Rock. There were five or six in a row. The first one was Ward Bond’s, the next was Frank McGrath’s, the next was Terry Wilson’s, the next was John Smith’s, and the last was Lee Marvin’s. “That’s why they called it Whiskey Row. “Right now I live in Gainesville Texas, 65 miles north of Dallas. Got a ranch just south of the Red River. Horse country. I’ve got quarter horses and miniature donkeys and 28 acres of coastal Bermuda hay which I inherited when I bought the place four and a half years ago. I sell it to the ranchers for their horses. “I don’t do any work. I don’t have an agent and I don’t want to. To tell you the truth, I left Hollywood because I got tired of living in the same town with Rosie O’ Donnell and Sean Penn.”

Obama - Ag Position

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The Fresno Bee is reporting that Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Ca) is pushing Bill Lyons for a position at the Ag Dept:

"It's critically important that we have someone from California high up at the Department of Agriculture," said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced. Cardoza is suggesting the name of Bill Lyons Jr., a Modesto-area rancher who headed California's Department of Food and Agriculture. Cardoza further acknowledged he is "concerned" that an Obama administration might clash with Valley farmers and ranchers on endangered species and other environmental protection issues.

I worked with Lyons when he was Sec. of Ag in California, and we would be lucky to get him in this administration. However, Cardoza worked with Pombo on endangered species legislation, and his recommendation may be the kiss of death.

Obama Transition - Interior

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The Washington Post is reporting that David Hayes, a deputy secretary at the Interior Department under President Bill Clinton, has been tapped to oversee Obama's transition at the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department.

The WP report is based on a source "close to the transition." There is no confirmation on the transition website. In fact, there are no press releases at all posted there.

This WP report adds:

Other former Clinton officials said to be helping Obama's transition at environmental and energy agencies include: John Leshy, former solicitor at Interior; Donald J. Barry, former assistant secretary of fish, wildlife and parks at Interior; David B. Sandalow, former assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment and science; and Frank E. Loy, former under secretary of state for global affairs.

Most westerners will remember John Leshy. This us from his Hastings College of Law website:

John Leshy was born and raised in a village in southern Ohio. He received an A.B. cum laude from Harvard College in 1966 and a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School three years later. Upon graduation he litigated civil rights cases for the U.S. Department of Justice out of Washington, D.C. for three years, then moved to the Bay Area and worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council (a national nonprofit environmental group) for five years. In 1977 Professor Leshy returned to Washington to join the Carter Administration as Associate Solicitor for Energy & Resources. In 1980 he became Professor of Law at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe. After twelve years in the classroom, Leshy took leave to serve as Special Counsel to Chairman George Miller of the House Natural Resources Committee in Washington, D.C., and then became leader of the Clinton-Gore transition team for the Interior Department. In early 1993 President Clinton appointed him to be Solicitor (General Counsel) of Interior where, following Senate confirmation, he served under Secretary Bruce Babbitt until the end of the Administration, the second-longest tenure of any Solicitor in the Department's 159 year history.

On Donald Barry, this is from his 1998 statement to a senate committee:

To begin with, I offer you my experience. I believe that my years in Washington, D.C. have provided me with a clear understanding of the varying roles and responsibilities of the office of Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks. I have either worked in, or worked with, this particular office for almost a quarter of a century. From 1975 to 1986, I provided legal advice to the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks through various positions in the Office of the Solicitor at the Department of the Interior. Since my return to the Department as a political appointee in May of 1993, I have alternately served as the Counselor to the Assistant Secretary, the Deputy Assistant Secretary, and the Acting Assistant Secretary. Moreover, during the six years that I worked for the House of Representatives, I was responsible for the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee's Congressional oversight of the Assistant Secretary's office. It, thus, could be said that I have interacted with past Assistant Secretaries for Fish and Wildlife and Parks from a variety of angles. I, believe therefore, that I have the practical experience and insight that one would want in an Assistant Secretary. In addition to my familiarity with the office of Assistant Secretary, I have also worked for over 20 years with the two agencies that this office oversees: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service. I served for 12 years as an attorney for the Fish and Wildlife Service, including 6 years as that agency's Chief Counsel. As a result of this prior professional relationship, I have long-standing personal ties with every Regional Director in the Service, and most of the agency's Field Supervisors as well. Moreover, I have worked closely with the Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Jamie Clark, for many years, and believe that we have established a solid record of solving problems together.

For David Sandalow, here is some info from the Brookings Institution website:

Sandalow is currently executive vice president of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), where he helps manage field-based conservation, advocacy, and research programs around the world. Prior to joining WWF, Sandalow served as assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment, and science in the Clinton administration, where he helped shape and implement U.S. diplomacy on a wide range of environment, science, and technology topics, including global warming, biotechnology, and the environmental standards of export credit agencies. Before joining the State Department, Sandalow served jointly as senior director for environmental affairs at the National Security Council and associate director for the global environment at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. In those roles, he helped advise the president and vice president on global environment issues. Sandalow has been a member of the Sustainable Development Roundtable at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France, a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Standing Committee on Environmental Law, and co-chair of the ABA's Annual Conference on Environmental Law.

On Frank Loy, this is from a 2006 press release by the Nature Conservancy:

The Nature Conservancy today announced the addition of a new member, Frank E. Loy, to its board of directors. As the former under secretary of state for global affairs from 1998 to 2001, Loy coordinated U.S. foreign relations on issues such as the environment, the promotion of democracy, human rights, refugees and humanitarian affairs and counter-narcotics. In this position he served as the chief U.S. negotiator for climate change, as well as for treaties on trade in genetically-modified agricultural products...Loy joins the board with in-depth knowledge of the environmental community, having served as board chairman of Environmental Defense, the League of Conservation Voters, and Resources For the Future. He currently serves on the boards of Environmental Defense, the Pew Center for Global Climate Change, Resources for the Future, ecoAmerica and Population Services International.

As we learn more about this wing of the transition team, we'll post it here.

Obama Administration, New Congress Should Mean Aggressive Approach to Global Warming, Science Group Says The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is looking forward to quick and decisive action to combat climate change by the new Obama administration and Congress after eight long years of obstruction by the outgoing administration. "The past eight years of denial and delay are over. Voters largely embraced candidates who support clean energy, green jobs, and a safer climate for our children and grandchildren." Next year the new administration and Congress can do much to jumpstart a "Green Deal" that would help pull the country out of our economic downturn by investing in clean energy and modernizing the national electricity grid, Knobloch said. "A critical step for Congress is to pass a strong federal climate bill with a declining cap on global warming emissions," Knobloch said. "Such a cap-and-trade system would generate needed revenues to finance new energy sources and help Americans manage and reduce their energy costs." President-elect Obama also has pledged to ensure that 10 percent of the nation's electricity comes from renewable energy sources by 2012 and 25 percent by 2025. Such a national renewable electricity standard would cut global warming emissions, create jobs, save ratepayers money, and encourage private investment in clean technology....

Obama will protect public lands, pursue green energy Western Democrats and environmentalists will have more influence on federal land decisions in Idaho and the West under President Barack Obama. Decision-makers will defer more to scientists on resource issues and spending priorities will shift toward protecting land, fish and wildlife, Democrats said Tuesday night. But there is a tension between environmentalists who want him to reverse decisions made by the Bush administration and Western Democrats who hope Obama's pledge to govern in a "post-partisan" manner means he will bring a collaborative approach to public land issues. "He's not going to make some of the mistakes of the past," said Cecil Andrus, former Idaho governor and Jimmy Carter's interior secretary. "He knows his history." Issues like climate change and alternative energy - along with the economy - are going to get more attention in the new administration than public lands grazing, logging and motorized recreation. And the skyrocketing federal deficit could force a reorganization of land, water and wildlife agencies now spread out under three different Cabinet departments....

5 ideas for Barack Obama on the environment 1. Establish a strong cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the economy, auctioning, rather than giving away, emissions allowances to provide resources that can be put to work increasing energy efficiency, promoting renewable and clean energy technologies, and creating the green jobs of the future. 2. While Congress develops this legislation, use existing regulatory authority to begin regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, as required by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, and pushing U.S. automakers to develop a super-efficiency fleet of new cars by approving a waiver, denied by the Bush Administration, that will allow 11 states, including Massachusetts, to adopt stricter emissions standards. 3. Rejoin global climate change treaty talks and offer an affirmative American leadership proposal that will move developed and developing countries alike toward clean energy technologies and steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions....

Sen. Salazar says BLM may see significant changes under Obama Coloradans may expect to see significant changes in how the Bureau of Land Management oversees drilling on federal lands in a future Barack Obama presidential administration, Sen. Ken Salazar said Wednesday. The senator, in comments to reporters Wednesday, also seemed to dismiss speculation that he might accept a position as head of the U.S. Department of the Interior, calling the possibility “highly doubtful.” Less than a day after Americans handed President-elect Obama a landslide 349-162 electoral vote victory, Salazar said the incoming Obama administration would seek a balanced approach for a “comprehensive energy program.” That program would seek to protect the resources that are needed for the “long-term sustainability” of communities impacted by energy development. “I think what you are going to see is a greater sensitivity from an Obama administration with respect to the protection of land and water, and I think a deference to what it is that state governors, state officials and local elected leaders want in respect to their lands,” Salazar said. “I have often said that Bush-Cheney ethic of development of our natural resources is ‘go everywhere and anywhere’ without any significant limitations. I don’t think that will be the case with an Obama administration.”....

Privatizing the Public Estate There is nothing as priceless in a physical sense that Americans can bequeath their descendents than the public domain – national parks, national forests, bureau of land management (BLM) lands and wildlife refuges that, collectively, make up a third of the nation. These, at least for now, belong equally to all 300 million U.S. citizens, billionaire and pauper alike. But a “private sector” that has bought everything from networks to congressmen has our lands in its crosshairs, and in recent decades right wing economists and legal advisors have devised strategies aimed at their privatization, a goal furthered by repeated reductions of the budgets of land management agencies, allegedly in the interest of “streamlining” government. What puts this issue on front burner now is a skyrocketing national debt of well beyond ten trillion dollars, nearly the size of the entire U.S economy and requiring the National Debt Clock to drop its $ sign in order to make room for the additional digit. Efforts by private interests to gain control of public lands have evolved from the “Sagebrush Rebellion” of the 1970s, through the “Wise Use Movement”, and into so-called “free-market environmentalism” consisting of a politically powerful and massively funded network of industrial interests and conservative foundations and think tanks pushing privatization via such means as “competitive outsourcing” and “public-private partnerships”....