EPA Sued for Letting Air Pollution Cross State Lines

An environmental group is accusing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of not safeguarding public health in the West by failing to limit the transmission of air pollution across state lines. The federal agency requires states to have plans aimed at addressing the interstate transport of ozone pollution and fine particles, but WildEarth Guardians said New Mexico and several other states do not have plans. Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians' climate and energy program director, said his group will sue the agency if it fails to enforce the interstate transport requirements of the Clean Air Act. WildEarth Guardians' concerns stem from a 2005 EPA finding that all 50 states had to adopt clean air plans to protect downwind states from ozone pollution and particles such as those found in smoke and haze. EPA gave states a deadline of 2007, but Nichols said California, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Oregon are still without plans...Fox News

EPA re-evaluates 'green club' for companies

The Environmental Protection Agency is closing a program that drew complaints from environmentalists for cutting back on company inspections and regulations as a reward for voluntary controls on pollution. The National Environmental Performance Track Program, established in 2000 but administered mainly during the Bush presidency, enrolled hundreds of corporations in its "green club" if they agreed to undertake initiatives to save energy and reduce pollution. However, investigations of the program questioned its effectiveness. The agency said in a statement Monday that it would evaluate and refine the program's concepts "in order to develop a stronger system to protect human health and the environment." In a report issued in 2007, the EPA's inspector general found that underperforming facilities in Performance Track reduced its integrity and value. The program itself lacked clear plans that connected activities with goals and did not show whether it achieved anticipated results, the report said...AP

Sage grouse concern halts well permits

Permits for some 82 coalbed methane wells are being sent back to the Bureau of Land Management's Buffalo Field Office because of alleged inadequate and inconsistent regard for sage grouse. The Interior Board of Land Appeals decision could have broader implications for the industry in the Powder River Ba-sin, given that ranchers and various environmental groups have filed similar appeals to the board. "It said the BLM was not consistent in analyzing sage grouse impacts," said Jill Morrison, organizer for the Powder River Basin Resource Council. Bruce Hinchey, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said he couldn't comment on the ruling but said the data that Wyoming has generated would suggest that the sage grouse is not endangered in the state. "I think the main thing to do is wait for the (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife (Service) to make a decision," Hinchey said, refer-ring to the agency's ongoing review of whether to list the sage grouse as a threatened or endangered species...Billings Gazette

Conservationists launch effort to restore prairies

Four conservation groups are teaming up to try to restore some of the country's original grasslands and preserve the wildlife that depends on it. The groups announced the partnership Tuesday. Members say only 10 percent of North America's 585 million acres of original native grasslands remain, putting wildlife that live there at peril. The goal is to improve 60 million acres of habitat. Terry Riley, of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said the project's focus will be on grouse because those birds are a bellwether of the prairie's condition. "We have found that prairie grouse are one of the most sensitive (species) to change," said Riley of Albuquerque, N.M., formerly a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Other groups in the new Prairie Grouse Partners are the Mule Deer Foundation, Pheasants Forever and the North American Grouse Partnership. With help from U.S. Department of Agriculture data, the groups identified all the counties with prairie and assessed the condition of the grasslands. The area stretches from the plains in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado, east as far as Ohio and south to the Gulf of Mexico...AP

Ranching enters the satellite era

The Wandering Shepherd ear tag, developed by Edmonton's iFind Systems, will provide the traceability demanded by Alberta beef customers around the world since the BSE crisis, founder Neil Helfrich says. The tag automatically delivers GPS co-ordinates and other information to the satellite, which forwards it to rancher and government databases. It also allows agencies to trace the origin of disease-infected livestock within minutes, and even animals they have been in contact with. The Wandering Shepherd, the first ear tag to use satellite technology, will be paired with the world's first fourth-generation (4G) satellite network provided by Virginia-based partner TerreStar Networks. The satellite is set to launch later this year, and if all goes well the Wandering Shepherd should be up and running by early 2010, Helfrich says. "We believe our system is more effective than any tracking system out there. Other products currently available are bulky and require the battery be replaced after a period of time. While current Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) ear tags depend on the livestock owner reporting the information, the Wandering Shepherd is completely automatic once it's activated, Helfrich says...Edmonton Journal

How long before this or something similar becomes a condition of your grazing permit?

Anti-logger school book replaced in Grants Pass

Parents objected to a spread in the book that showed loggers chopping down trees and various bits of litter on the ground. The text on page 6 read: "These people do not take care of the forest. They cut down huge trees. They drop trash on the ground." That was followed by a tearjerker page 7: "The trees are gone. The birds cannot find homes. The animals cannot find food." After news broke that the book had been pulled from classrooms, the publisher sent the district 108 new copies with a different take on loggers: "These people take care of huge forests. They put out fires. They cut down sick trees. Then new trees can be planted. Animals will still have homes. They will still find food." The illustrations, too, have changed. Rather than a trash-littered forest floor, the new edition shows a firefighter and a tree planter, and in a tree there's a bear. A top official for Pearson-Scott Foresman, the publishing house, sent a letter along with the books. "The publication of this edition was an egregious error on our part, and I will not attempt to offer an explanation," wrote Paul McFall, senior vice president...AP

Mexico & New Mexico: Wildlife Exchange

An international wildlife exchange program taking place between New Mexico and Mexico had the first leg completed recently, when 125 pronghorn antelope were moved to the state of Coahuila in Mexico. New Mexico Department of Game and Fish employees used a helicopter to herd the antelope into a fenced trapping area, where they were examined by veterinarians and had ear tags attached before being shipped. An additional 27 animals were relocated to Santa Ana Pueblo lands near Bernalillo, N.M., to help repopulate the species there. The antelope were taken from cooperating private ranches in northeastern New Mexico, reducing the existing population by about 10%. Four animals are known to have died during the process. This is the third transplant of pronghorn to captive breeding facilities in Mexico, with the hope that the animals will reproduce enough so that they can be released to multiple locations in the country...LA Times

Bill would let landowners lease rights to chopper assaults on feral hogs

Lawmakers seemed open Tuesday to launching an aerial assault against the feral hog menace in Texas, but it's just not as easy as shooting a pig in a poke. Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, has written the pork-chopper bill, which would allow landowners to lease their property to hunters using helicopters to thin the estimated 2 million feral hogs causing havoc in virtually every county. Currently, landowners can only rent helicopters and do their own shooting, but this would let them sell the rights and recoup some of their losses, said Miller, speaking before the House Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee. But lawmakers had concerns that this could turn into a slippery sty and left the bill pending. Would feral pigs become a game animal, where hunters would have to dispose of the carcasses, abide by a season and other hunting rules, lawmakers wondered? And let's just say chasing a pig at 100 mph doesn't make it easy to stop at a property boundary...Dallas Morning News

NM legislature passes feral hog bill

The Legislature Tuesday morning passed a bill prohibiting “importing, transporting, breeding, or selling a live feral hog or operating a commercial feral hog hunting enterprise.” A feral hog is defined, basically, as one that is wild. Captive-bred hogs very quickly go feral. They can grow quite large and become dangerous. The bill imposes misdemeanor sanctions for violations, including a fine of $1,000, imprisonment for less than a year or both. How many feral hogs are in New Mexico? The general consensus was that not too many are here now, but that it could become a serious problem. Some outfitters lead hunts for feral hogs...NM Independent

Source: More feds to combat border violence

The Obama administration plans to send reinforcements to the Southwest border to help contain the rampant violence of the Mexican drug cartel wars. Thirty-seven agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are being deployed to the region. An official familiar with the plan said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency is considering reassignment of at least 90 officers to the border. The official requested anonymity because the plan has not yet been announced. The deployments are part of President Barack Obama's first moves to boost federal security sources on the U.S. side of the border. The additional immigration agents would double the size of an ongoing ICE task force that has been working with other federal agencies to fight the criminal organizations contributing to the border violence. The ATF agents will be added to anti-gunrunning teams in McAllen, Texas, El Centro, Calif., and Las Cruces, N.M., as well as to U.S. consulates in Juarez and Tijuana. Some of the reinforcement costs will be covered with economic recovery money recently approved by Congress...AP

PETA's action creates havoc at elementary school

The first call came shortly after 11 a.m. one day last week. Protesters were on their way to the Fulton Elementary School in Hempstead. That call, and a second one a short time later, came from reporters who had received news releases from the animal rights advocacy group PETA - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The news sent the school district scrambling to the Internet for information. And later, after seeing the news release, they found out more. "There was my school's name, my school's address and my school's exact dismissal time," Regina Armstrong-Robinson, the school's principal, said yesterday, "and I'm asking myself who are these people and why are they coming here?" PETA's intention was to let children know that circuses are cruel to animals. No doubt, the protest was timed to coincide with the coming of the Ringling Bros. Circus, which is slated to open this week at Nassau Coliseum in the neighboring community of Uniondale. Some parents and children stopped to take buttons or an activity book protesters handed out, which, on one page, asks kids to color an elephant wearing "circus chains." "The material is disturbing and inappropriate for small children, who are visual learners," said Rodney Gilmore, the district's interim assistant superintendent. "Kids love the idea of a circus. This would be upsetting to them."...Newsday

Man finds 41 bull snakes under Colo. home

Jeff Stafford's buddy owes him a few beers — and 41 brews would still be a bargain for the colony of bull snakes Stafford found slithering in the crawl space of friend's townhome in Westminster Sunday. The 25-year-old banker had stopped by his friend's place near Federal Boulevard and West 112th Avenue to say "hi." He was wearing flip flops. His friend, who asked to remain anonymous, was tending to a leaky pipe beneath the home, while Stafford chatted with his friend's wife. "Thirty seconds later I heard what sounded like the yelp of a small, frightened child," Stafford said Monday. His friend had spotted a snake in the muddy crawl space. "Dude, you've got to go get it," Stafford recalled him saying Monday. With a flashlight and a stick of firewood, Stafford climbed into the crawl space and onto the blue tarp that covered the muddy surface. The tarp moved beneath him; the floor writhed in bull snakes — 41 of them by the time Stafford got through stuffing them into a trash bag...Denver Post

European Farmers Protest Proposals to Tax Cow Flatulence

Proposals to tax the flatulence of cows and other livestock have been denounced by farming groups in the Irish Republic and Denmark. A cow tax of $18 per animal has been mooted in Ireland, while Denmark is discussing a levy as high as $110 per cow to offset the potential penalties each country faces from European Union legislation aimed at combating global warming. The proposed levies are opposed vigorously by farming groups. The Irish Farmers' Association said that the cattle industry would move to South America to avoid EU taxes. The cow tax proposals would raise funds to buy allowances from other member states or to invest in technology that might reduce emissions. Denmark is believed to be further advanced with housing for pigs that captures and stores methane emitted from the animals. The gas can be used as a fuel for power generation. A spokesman for the European Commission said that a cow tax was not its preferred option. “We would rather have solutions that reduce emissions by capturing methane from manure and new animal feeds that reduce methane.”...London Times

EU offers US bigger beef quota in hormone row

The European Commission is offering to double the preferential quota for beef imports from the United States as part of a deal to end a long-standing dispute over beef trade, EU sources familiar with the plan said. Last week, Washington said it would hold off on applying new retaliatory duties to EU products while it negotiates with Brussels on a solution to the trans-Atlantic row, sparked by an EU ban on U.S. imports of hormone-treated meat in 1988. But the sources told Reuters the plan by the EU executive -- which oversees trade and food safety policy for the 27-nation bloc -- did not include lifting the embargo which Brussels says is based on scientific advice and is not protectionist. "The proposal is aimed at giving a bigger incentive to U.S. beef farmers to export normal-treated beef in return for the U.S. ending its sanctions," one EU source with knowledge of the proposal said. "The ban on hormone-treated beef stays. The Commission was quite clear on that," another EU source said, adding the proposal was discussed at a regular closed-door meeting of EU trade officials on Friday...Reuters

8 Dems oppose quick debate on global warming bill

Eight Senate Democrats are opposing speedy action on President Barack Obama's bill to combat global warming, complicating prospects for the legislation and creating problems for their party's leaders. The eight Democrats disapprove of using the annual budget debate to pass Obama's "cap and trade" bill to fight greenhouse gas emissions, a measure that divides lawmakers, environmentalists and businesses. The lawmakers' opposition makes it more difficult for Democratic leaders to move the bill without a threat of a Republican filibuster. The budget debate is the only way to circumvent Senate rules that allow a unified GOP to stop a bill through filibusters. "Enactment of a cap-and-trade regime is likely to influence nearly every feature of the U.S. economy," wrote the Democratic senators, mostly moderates. They were joined by 25 Republicans. "Legislation so far-reaching should be fully vetted and given appropriate time for debate."...AP

Scientists Claim Earth Is Undergoing Natural Climate Shift

The bitter cold and record snowfalls from two wicked winters are causing people to ask if the global climate is truly changing. The climate is known to be variable and, in recent years, more scientific thought and research has been focused on the global temperature and how humanity might be influencing it. However, a new study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee could turn the climate change world upside down. Scientists at the university used a math application known as synchronized chaos and applied it to climate data taken over the past 100 years. "Imagine that you have four synchronized swimmers and they are not holding hands and they do their program and everything is fine; now, if they begin to hold hands and hold hands tightly, most likely a slight error will destroy the synchronization. Well, we applied the same analogy to climate," researcher Dr. Anastasios Tsonis said. Scientists said that the air and ocean systems of the earth are now showing signs of synchronizing with each other. Eventually, the systems begin to couple and the synchronous state is destroyed, leading to a climate shift. "In climate, when this happens, the climate state changes. You go from a cooling regime to a warming regime or a warming regime to a cooling regime. This way we were able to explain all the fluctuations in the global temperature trend in the past century," Tsonis said. "The research team has found the warming trend of the past 30 years has stopped and in fact global temperatures have leveled off since 2001." The most recent climate shift probably occurred at about the year 2000...ABC

Endangered Wolves Decision Symbolizes Green Costs of Democrats' Western Support

In Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar's decision to stick with a controversial Bush administration policy, and take wolves off the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho and other Rocky Mountain states, some of Audacity's supporters won, and others lost. The overarching theme of this particular tale is the Democratic Party's avowed intent and considerable efforts to be competitive in the West. It earned the Democrats a passel of Electoral College votes last fall, cheering liberals across the land. But it comes with some costs, as environmentalists discovered with the wolf decision. Though pretty green by regional standards, Western Democrats like Salazar are not extremists. They know how to weigh the competing interests of energy firms, ski resorts, environmental groups, animal lovers, ranchers and the outdoors industry. You can't cheer, as a lefty blogger, when Democrats are competitive in the northern Rockies, without acknowledging there will be trade-offs in environmental policy. And so the enviro groups and wildlife folks got stiffed by Salazar's decision to stick with the recommendations of the Interior Department scientists, and consign the fate of the (choose one: a) cute, b) livestock killing) wolves to state officials...US News & World Report

The Fall and Rise of the Right Whale

Actually, it’s one of so many good signs that researchers are beginning to hope that for the first time in centuries things are looking up for the right whale. They say the species offers proof that simple conservation steps can have a big impact, even for species driven to the edge of oblivion. North Atlantic right whales, which can grow up to 55 feet long and weigh up to 70 tons, were the “right” whales for 18th- and 19th-century whalers because they are rich in oil and baleen, move slowly, keep close to shore and float when they die. They were long ago hunted to extinction in European waters, and by 1900 perhaps only 100 or so remained in their North American range, from feeding grounds off Maritime Canada and New England to winter calving grounds off the Southeastern coast. Since then, the species’ numbers have crept up, but very slowly. NOAA estimates that there are about 325, though scientists in and out of the agency suspect there may be more, perhaps as many as 400. It has been illegal to hunt the right whale since 1935, when the League of Nations put them under protection. Even so, researchers despaired of ever seeing a healthy right whale population here as long as ship strikes still maimed and killed them and fishing gear strangled them...NY Times

As Oil and Gas Prices Plunge, Drilling Frenzy Ends

The great American drilling boom is over. The number of oil and gas rigs deployed to tap new energy supplies across the country has plunged to less than 1,200 from 2,400 last summer, and energy executives say the drop is accelerating further. Lower prices are bringing to an end an ambitious effort to squeeze more oil from aging fields and to tap new sources of natural gas. For the last four years, companies here drilled below airports, golf courses, churches and playgrounds in a frantic search for energy. They scoured the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, the Gulf of Mexico and Appalachia. But the economic downturn has cut into demand. Global oil prices and American natural gas prices have plummeted two-thirds since last summer. Not even an unseasonably cold winter drove down unusually high inventories of natural gas. The drop has been good news for American consumers, with gasoline now selling for $1.92 a gallon, on average, down from a high of $4.11 in July. But the result for companies is that it is becoming unprofitable to drill...NY Times

One of Those Earmarks That Bug People

Big bugs with bulging goggle eyes swarmed the remote Utah ranching outpost of Grouse Creek like a biblical plague. Each of the past four summers, the hungry critters known as Mormon crickets have marched by the tens of thousands over grassy hillsides, past juniper trees, across dirt roads and through ranch houses. The noisy insects have devoured crops, frightened children and threatened families' livelihoods in the tranquil high desert. "It's almost like an Alfred Hitchcock movie," said Brent Tanner, who helps run a large cattle ranch in Grouse Creek that has been in his family since the 1870s. "You just see swarms of these large crickets that move in and can be devastating to crops, and certainly are very irritating. They'll just crawl right into your house, get up on your walls. It's enough to drive a person totally insane." And this summer, scientists say, it's a sure bet Mormon crickets will be back. So to the 80-odd folks who live in Grouse Creek, the $1 million congressional earmark secured by their state's junior senator to kill the insects is hardly wasteful pork, as it has been demonized. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and television comedian Jon Stewart may lampoon it as an egregious example of government spending, but to Grouse Creek, the earmark is salvation. "Everything that's green is just gone," said Tanner's older brother, Jay, who described what happens after Mormon crickets hatch on federal land, migrate onto his family's Della Ranches and eat up acres of grass, alfalfa and cattle feed. "When the crickets come and devastate the area, then I'm done. There's really nothing I can do. It's just like coming in and stealing money out of my wallet."...Washington Post

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