Alternative Energy Still Facing Headwinds

The Washington Post reports:

The three-year fight over the Sunrise Powerlink, which is designed to carry solar, wind and geothermal energy, typifies the serious challenges facing President Obama and many of the nation's governors as they tout the power of renewable energy to put people to work and rescue the planet from the effects of climate change. The nation's richest resources of renewable fuel -- primarily wind and solar -- lie in distant deserts, vast plains, and remote valleys and hilltops like this one, far from the populous cities where energy is most needed. Thousands of miles of new power lines will be required to bring renewable energy to cities and suburbs, a vast undertaking that will cost untold billions of dollars in public and private money and will require compromise by dueling interest groups and people such as Tisdale...Yet the $2 billion in the stimulus package devoted to transmission lines is a tiny part of what's needed. "I see it as seed money," said Jon Wellinghoff, acting chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. "We need $100 billion to $200 billion worth of investment, and I believe we'll see that money coming from the private sector," he said, though current credit conditions make that difficult. There are other hurdles besides financing, including multiple steps of permitting, as well as logistics and opposition to the transmission lines that would crisscross slabs of unspoiled landscape...

Is environmental journalism endangered?

As news organizations across the country suffer layoffs and pay cuts, and their corporate stock prices sink, industry insiders fear that environmental journalism is becoming an endangered species. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted a panel on the future of science and environmental journalism last week, featuring four speakers: Mother Nature Network columnist Peter Dykstra, Associated Press reporter Seth Borenstein, J-Lab Director Jan Schaffer and National Public Radio correspondent Elizabeth Shogren. About a year ago, Borenstein told a reporter at the Columbia Journalism Review that, despite a Harvard report stating otherwise, he did not think environmental journalism was in trouble. The story never ran, and Borenstein is glad - about three months ago, he talked to the reporter and rescinded his statements. In one week, three of his science and environmental reporting friends were laid off. For many of his colleagues, the situation is just as real: the Los Angeles Times' Washington Bureau, where Shogren began her environmental work, lost reporters and was merged into parent Tribune Co.'s Washington bureau. Dykstra was laid off in December, after 17 years with CNN. He is a consultant at the Wilson Center. "It's just a little sign of what's happening across the industry," Shogren said...Scripps-Howard

Obama CEQ head is a seasoned California voice

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

Californian Nancy Sutley expects to have the ear of President Obama as his chief environmental adviser, reviving a White House office that lay virtually dormant during the Bush years. The 46-year-old, Harvard-educated Sutley expects to meet regularly with Obama, who has moved to improve vehicle fuel efficiency, supported greenhouse-gas reductions in California and shelved plans to open much of the state's coast to offshore oil drilling. Before her appointment, Sutley, a prominent member of Los Angeles' gay and lesbian community, served as deputy mayor of energy and environment and was Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's representative on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's Board of Directors. Over the past decade, she worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the West Coast region and as a special assistant to the administrator in Washington under former President Bill Clinton. Prior to that, she was deputy secretary for the California EPA, where she supported the state's landmark policy on climate change and advised former Gov. Gray Davis on energy, water and air-pollution issues...

Biofuels boom could fuel rainforest destruction

From Stanford University:

Farmers across the tropics might raze forests to plant biofuel crops, according to new research by Holly Gibbs, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. 'If we run our cars on biofuels produced in the tropics, chances will be good that we are effectively burning rainforests in our gas tanks,' she warned. Policies favouring biofuel crop production may inadvertently contribute to, not slow, the process of climate change, Gibbs said. Such an environmental disaster could be 'just around the corner without more thoughtful energy policies that consider potential ripple effects on tropical forests,' she added. Gibbs' predictions are based on her new study, in which she analysed detailed satellite images collected between 1980 and 2000. The study is the first to do such a detailed characterisation of the pathways of agricultural expansion throughout the entire tropical region. Gibbs hopes that this new knowledge will contribute to making prudent decisions about future biofuel policies and subsidies...

8 bald eagles that fed on carcass sick, dead

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports:

At least eight bald eagles became sick or died after feeding on a horse that was euthanized near Enumclaw earlier this month, and the State Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating. Fish and Wildlife Officer Bruce Richards said it's unclear who owns the horse, but about a week and a half ago, a renter on the property north of Enumclaw had a veterinarian euthanize the animal. "Anything that's euthanized with a drug needs to be buried or rendered," Richards said. "Even burying them -- unless you went really deep, birds and coyotes can dig them up." A vet told the man how to dispose of the animal, and he tried burying it, Richards said. But apparently the equipment used in the attempt to bury it broke and the eagles began feeding on the dead horse, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife...

Hoeven denies Ducks Unlimited land buy

Gov. John Hoeven has denied a proposed 598-acre Ducks Unlimited land buy in Kidder County, a decision the conservation group said does not respect private property rights. Hoeven’s decision, announced Monday, follows the recommendation of the Kidder County Commission and the Natural Areas Acquisition Advisory Committee, which advises the governor on land purchases by nonprofits. Ducks Unlimited wanted to buy the land from Bismarck resident Judith Hetletved in Kidder County, east of Bismarck. The property includes idle grassland, pasture, wetlands and a 5-acre site with buildings. Members of the Natural Areas Acquisition Advisory Committee had said they had reservations about long-term easements and would rather see land sold back to farmers and ranchers than to wildlife interests...Grand Forks Herald

Renewed tribal consultation undertaken by federal agency to avoid discord

Indian Country Today reports:

In the wake of criticism over tribal consultation policies, the Fish and Wildlife Service said it has asked tribes to become involved in carrying out new permit regulations concerning bald and golden eagles. Because some tribal nations felt government-to-government consultation regarding changes in eagle rules was inadequate, FWS officials hope this round of review and implementation will be more acceptable. At issue are new rules that allow non-Indians to apply for permits that would allow the incidental take – primarily the disturbing, but in some cases, the unavoidable killing – of eagles under unavoidable circumstances that are, nevertheless, secondary to the need to maintain eagle populations at a survival level, according to the FWS. The new regulations would not change the way in which Natives obtain eagles and eagle parts from the National Eagle Repository, nor would they change the way, rarely implemented, that tribes obtain take permits for religious purposes, the FWS said. Those purposes would be given priority except for emergencies involving human safety...

Call for end to USDA's wildlife killing agency

Conservationists argue in a new report that U.S. taxpayers should stop subsidizing a $100 million program that kills more than 1 million wild animals annually, a program ranchers and farmers have defended for nearly a century as critical to protecting their livestock from predators. Citing concerns about the economy and the potential for a fresh look at the decades-old controversy in the new Obama administration, 115 environmental groups signed onto a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urging him to abolish the U.S. Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services. The American Sheep Industry Association, National Cattlemen's Beef Association and more than 70 other livestock production and state agriculture offices in 35 states countered with a letter citing more than $125 million in annual losses to the sheep, goat and cattle industry as a result of predation. A report by conservationists released Tuesday documents significant increases in recent years in both the number of carnivores killed and the size of the agency's budget — $117 million in 2007, up 14 percent from the average from 2004-06. More than 90,000 of the 121,524 carnivores killed in 2007 were coyotes. But the trapping, poisoning and aerial gunning of the predators also is taking an increasing, unintended toll on other creatures, including 511 black bears and 340 endangered gray wolves in 2007, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Associated Press...AP

Oregon AG asks FERC to halt LNG action

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to stay its September ruling in favor of a liquefied natural gas project until the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rules on the state's challenge. Kroger is leading a state appeal of FERC's decision to approve a proposed LNG terminal on the Columbia River near Astoria. In his motion filed Friday, Kroger wrote FERC must stay its approval because the board didn't comply with the Endangered Species Act and neglected to wait for state approvals before granting the developer a license. The LNG terminal would import, store and process supercooled liquefied natural gas for movement through pipelines. Kroger has said it's a mistake for Oregon to rely on imported natural gas as it seeks energy independence...AP

Salazar shares stimulus impact

New Secretary of the Interior and native San Luis Valley son Ken Salazar told Valley residents on Sunday what the economic recovery package would mean to the Valley, specifically the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve. Salazar traveled to the sand dunes on Sunday to outline local improvements that will likely be funded by the stimulus approved by Salazar’s former senate colleagues and expected to be signed by President Barack Obama in Denver today. Salazar described the recovery package as “something good for this Valley and something good for this country.” He said the Great Sand Dunes National Park and the Valley’s wildlife refuges will receive about $4 million for “shovel ready” projects, in other words projects that are ready to go when the money is there to fund them. “This is a real deal,” he said...Valley Courier

Stimulus Stirs Debate Over Rural Broadband Access

From NPR:

Former FCC economist Michael Katz didn't hesitate to bash rural life last week when he addressed an American Enterprise Institute panel discussion on the broadband elements of President Obama's economic stimulus bill. "Other people don't like to say bad things about rural areas," Katz began. "So I will." The stimulus package includes $7.2 billion to expand broadband Internet access into "underserved" and rural areas. Katz listed ways that the $7.2 billion could be put to better use, including an effort to combat infant deaths. But he also spoke of rural places as environmentally hostile, energy inefficient and even weak in innovation, simply because rural people are spread out across the landscape...Actually, we're strong enough that we don't need your damned old stimulus. You can waste the money elsewhere.

It's All Trew: Modern red tape outgrew family Bibles, tin boxes

Once upon a time, family records of births, deaths and marriages were kept on a page in the family Bible. Expenditures and income were kept written on the back of a feed store calendar hanging on the wall or in the Farmer's Almanac. None of these entries required more than a few lines of space to be clear and precise. If you were fortunate enough to own land, you might have a few pages of abstracts or deeds denoting your ownership. Since most bills were paid by cash or barter with few receipts involved, most people had few "important papers" to protect and secure. This usually involved placing all in a big manila envelope and storing in a closet. The Crash of '29 came along with the Depression, the Dust Bowl and the New Deal programs of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which required all types of forms to fill out and keep in order to participate. The New Deal forever changed the way America did business. The "dole" was not free. Most government checks, loans and assistance had to be paid back or at least accounted for. Almost overnight, important papers multiplied. Taxes due were based on the amounts of income and operational expenditures which required good bookkeeping and receipts. These papers were best kept for years in case of audit. Social Security arrived, making more papers. Banks began requiring financial statements before making loans. Suddenly, the storage of important papers grew. Penalties and laws put teeth into the need for secure storage...Amarillo Globe-News

Robert E. Cowan 1934-2009

Life-long Cochise County rancher Robert E. (Bobby) Cowan passed away on February 14, 2009 in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Born on April 5, 1934 in Douglas, as Ralph and Mattie Cowan’s youngest son, Bobby called the Cowan Ranch and Cochise County his home for his entire life; first at the 4 Bars near McNeal and then at the JO Bar near Tombstone. In addition to the ranching operation he established Frontier Equipment and Holiday Water Company.

Cowan was a member of the King Solomon Masonic Lodge #5 for more than 50 years serving as Master more than once. He was a member of the York and Scottish Rites and a 50 year member of the Pearl of Venus #6 Chapter of the Eastern Star. He was a member of the Sabbar Shriners where he participated in the Fliver and Mounted Patrols raising funds for the Shriners Hospitals for Children.

He served on the Tombstone Unified School District School Board for 32 years, receiving a commendation from President George H.W. Bush, and overseeing the relocation of the new High School. He also participated in the Los Charros Trail Ride for many years.

He was a long-time member of the Cochise Graham Cattle Growers, serving as its president in 2000-2002. He was a member of the Arizona Cattle Growers’ Association, serving on its Board of Directors. He was also a member of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Bureau of Land Management Grazing Advisory Board.

He is survived by his daughters, Caren Cowan (Albuquerque, NM), Connie Cowan (LaJolla, California), and Carol Cowan (Tombstone), one grandson, R.W. Cowan Wood, numerous nieces and his wife of more than 35 years, Merle, her daughter and granddaughter Patti and Jenna Bright (Tombstone), and her son Rick O’Steen and his family in Florida.

He was preceded in death by his grandson Jeremy Bright, his parents, his brothers Jim and Bill, and his Aunt Florence Cowan Snure.

Arrangements are being handled by the Hatfield Funeral Home, Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Services for Bobby Cowan will be held in the Tombstone High School Gym located at 1211 Yellowjacket Way, Tombstone, at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 18, 2009.

In lieu of flowers, the families suggests donations be made in Bobby’s name to the:
Mattie Cowan Scholarship Fund, Arizona State Cowbelles Treasurer, Mary Jo Rideout - PO Box 1033, Red Rock AZ 85245; the
Pat Nowlin Memorial Scholarship Fund, Anne Ferguson, PO Box 578 Carrizozo NM 88301; or the
Cattlegrowers Foundation, Inc., POB 7517 Albuquerque NM 87194

Scientists: Pace of Climate Change Exceeds Estimates

The Washington Post reports:

The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said Saturday. "We are basically looking now at a future climate that's beyond anything we've considered seriously in climate model simulations," Christopher Field, founding director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Field, a member of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said emissions from burning fossil fuels since 2000 have largely outpaced the estimates used in the U.N. panel's 2007 reports. The higher emissions are largely the result of the increased burning of coal in developing countries, he said. Unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide are being released into the atmosphere as the result of "feedback loops" that are speeding up natural processes. Prominent among these, evidence indicates, is a cycle in which higher temperatures are beginning to melt the arctic permafrost, which could release hundreds of billions of tons of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, said several scientists on a panel at the meeting...

Former NM astronaut speaks out on global warming

Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon and once served New Mexico in the U.S. Senate, doesn’t believe that humans are causing global warming. "I don’t think the human effect is significant compared to the natural effect," said Schmitt, who is among 70 skeptics scheduled to speak next month at the International Conference on Climate Change in New York. Schmitt contends that scientists "are being intimidated" if they disagree with the idea that burning fossil fuels has increased carbon dioxide levels, temperatures and sea levels. In his resignation letter, the 74-year-old geologist argued that the "global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making." Schmitt said historical documents indicate average temperatures have risen by 1 degree per century since around 1400 A.D., and the rise in carbon dioxide is because of the temperature rise. Schmitt also said geological evidence indicates changes in sea level have been going on for thousands of years. He said smaller changes are related to changes in the elevation of land masses — for example, the Great Lakes are rising because the earth’s crust is rebounding from being depressed by glaciers. Schmitt, who grew up in Silver City and now lives in Albuquerque, has a science degree from the California Institute of Technology. He also studied geology at the University of Oslo in Norway and took a doctorate in geology from Harvard University in 1964...From the Boston Herald

Endangered or threatened? Feds review pocket gopher protection request

From the Casper Star-Tribune:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to conduct a year-long status review of the Wyoming pocket gopher to see if the animal requires federal endangered species protections. The small, rare burrowing rodent is known to exist only from Adobe Town through the Atlantic Rim area south of Interstate Highway 80. Agency officials have completed an initial 90-day review of a petition to list the Wyoming pocket gopher as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. Pat Deibert, acting director of the USFWS Cheyenne office, said this week that the agency will now undertake a more thorough study of the Wyoming pocket gopher to determine whether the USFWS will propose adding the species to the endangered list at a later date...

Conservation areas lauded to protect land

From the Grand Junction Sentinel:

When it comes to protecting Colorado’s public lands and still allowing the public to recreate there, arguably no one has accomplished that goal better than the Western Slope. For that reason alone, Colorado leaders and conservationists said, other communities likely will look to Mesa County and its regional peers when they try to negotiate ways to protect other parts of the state. Former Congressman Scott McInnis said the Western Slope has succeeded in balancing the use of public lands, particularly mountain biking and horseback riding, with land protections through the establishment of national conservation areas. “It’s a model that’s worked very well,” he said. The Western Slope, according to the Bureau of Land Management, is home to the 122,300-acre McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area and the 62,844-acre Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area. To set up these areas, McInnis said local leaders and stakeholders negotiated for months how best to protect the areas while letting the public use the land...

Wyoming's $8.8 million cloud-seeding experiment is drawing big-time attention

The Casper Star-Tribune reports:

The Wyoming project isn't the biggest cloud-seeding operation in the world. But, scientifically, it just may be the most important. Boe is one of several scientists working on the five-year Wyoming Weather Modification Pilot Project, an $8.8 million research program funded by the state of Wyoming. The project's scientists, along with state water managers, hope to find proof of whether the decades-old practice of seeding clouds -- trying to squeeze more precipitation out of passing storms -- actually works and that it's a practical option for increasing the state's water supply. Members of the world's science community -- cloud-seeing advocates and skeptics alike -- are watching the project closely. "For a scientist doing research, this is it. As far as in terms of the research, it is the biggest in the United States by far," Boe said. The Wyoming project is in its fourth year, only the second winter in which cloud seeding in earnest has actually been performed. The first two years involved mostly taking measurements and weather readings, obtaining permits from the U.S. Forest Service, gathering other statistical data and getting equipment in place. Cloud-seeding scientists estimate that, if done properly, pumping silver iodide into a cloud will increase snowfall in most cases by about 10 to 15 percent. That's roughly the same percentage of natural variability possible in normal weather patterns....

'Water wolf' could cost Texas billions

The Houston Chronicle reports:

Reliable sources of clean water are the key to a successful economic future for Texas and without them the state and businesses could suffer billions in losses. That was the dire message in a recent report from the office of state comptroller Susan Combs, a longtime West Texas rancher familiar with the agricultural difficulties that come from too little water. "The water wolf is lurking right outside the door," Combs told The Associated Press. "This could actually cost the state a whole lot of money." In the report, Liquid Assets: The State of Texas' Water Resources, Combs' office projected that insufficient water supplies could cost Texans about $9 billion next year and more than $98 billion by 2060. The state also stands to lose tax revenues — about $466 million next year and more than $5 billion by 2060 — if its water needs are not met, according to the report. Among the reasons cited were Texas' rapidly growing population and ongoing drought across much of the state...

Robot ranchers will ride herd on wind farms in future

The Earth Times reports:

Robot ranchers will tend the windswept ranges of sprawling wind farms in the future, according to a team of German robotic scientists. Wind turbine generators already dot the horizon for miles in any direction in many parts of the world. Tending the mighty windmills has been an arduous task for human technicians. Rotor blade damage is a routine, but annoying problem which entails many man-hours of maintenance. But now, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation (IFF) in Germany say they are perfecting a generation of robots which will be able to monitor and maintain wind turbine generators on a round-the-clock basis. Their latest helper is RIWEA, a robot that inspects the rotor blades of wind energy converters. Primarily made of glass fibre reinforced plastics, rotor blades have to withstand a great deal: wind, inertial forces, erosion, etc. Until now, humans have inspected wind energy converters at regular intervals - not an easy job. After all, the technicians must closely examine large surfaces - a rotor blade can be up to 60 meters in length - in airy heights...