Ethanol test for Obama on climate change, science

President Barack Obama's commitment to take on climate change and put science over politics is about to be tested as his administration faces a politically sensitive question about the widespread use of ethanol: Does it help or hurt the fight against global warming? The Environmental Protection Agency is close to proposing ethanol standards. But two years ago, when Congress ordered a huge increase in ethanol use, lawmakers also told the agency to show that ethanol would produce less pollution linked to global warming than would gasoline. So how will the EPA define greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol production and use? Given the political clout of farm interests, will the science conflict with the politics? Environmentalists, citing various studies and scientific papers, say the agency must factor in more than just the direct, heat-trapping pollution from ethanol and its production. They also point to "indirect" impacts on global warming from worldwide changes in land use, including climate-threatening deforestation, as land is cleared to plant corn or other ethanol crops. Ethanol manufacturers and agriculture interests contend the fallout from potential land use changes in the future, especially those outside the United States, have not been adequately proven or even quantified, and should not count when the EPA calculates ethanol's climate impact...WPost

Dueling Ads: Gore Group v. Conservatives on Clean-Energy

The battleground for America’s clean-energy future has a face. More importantly, he has a weather-beaten face, a hat, a plaid workshirt, worn jeans, and drinks his coffee in a diner, not some frapuccino bar. Repower America, the clean-energy advocacy group launched to promote Al Gore’s plan to power the U.S. with renewable energy, is aiming its advertising salvoes mainly at the heartland. The new national ad, “Bellyaching,” comes a week after conservative groups started running radio ads in swing states away from the coasts, arguing that looming energy and climate legislation in Washington will be a back-breaker for many families. Especially in the Midwest, which stands to suffer disproportionately from any cap-and-trade plan that raises the cost of coal-fired electricity and gasoline...WSJ

Preventing a 2-degree C temperature rise = almost no fossil fuel use

As nations look ahead to the December global climate meet in Copenhagen, many have been considering goals to slow global warming/climate change. Now, their deliberations may take on more of a sense of urgency: “Less than a quarter of the proven fossil fuel reserves can be burnt and emitted between now and 2050, if global warming is to be limited to 2 degrees C [3.6 degrees F.],” says a study published in the journal Nature yesterday, which was conducted by researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Also published in Nature was another study by scientists at England’s Oxford University. Most of the climate goals currently being considered by various countries include slowing carbon dioxide emissions by a certain amount during the next five or six years and a larger amount by 2050. But that isn’t good enough, warns Oxford scientists, who say: “Emitting carbon dioxide slower will not prevent dangerous climate change unless it involves phasing out carbon dioxide emissions altogether. …” “To avoid dangerous climate change, we will have to limit the total amount of carbon we inject into the atmosphere, not just the emission rate in any given year,” explains Dr. Myles Allen of the Oxford physics department. “Climate policy needs an exit strategy: as well as reducing carbon emissions now, we need a plan for phasing out net emissions entirely.”...Christian Science Monitor

'Green' lightbulbs poison workers

WHEN British consumers are compelled to buy energy-efficient lightbulbs from 2012, they will save up to 5m tons of carbon dioxide a year from being pumped into the atmosphere. In China, however, a heavy environmental price is being paid for the production of “green” lightbulbs in cost-cutting factories. Large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent lightbulbs. A surge in foreign demand, set off by a European Union directive making these bulbs compulsory within three years, has also led to the reopening of mercury mines that have ruined the environment. Doctors, regulators, lawyers and courts in China - which supplies two thirds of the compact fluorescent bulbs sold in Britain - are increasingly alert to the potential impacts on public health of an industry that promotes itself as a friend of the earth but depends on highly toxic mercury. Making the bulbs requires workers to handle mercury in either solid or liquid form because a small amount of the metal is put into each bulb to start the chemical reaction that creates light...London Times

All we do now to save salmon could mean nothing

The Pacific Northwest has spent two decades retooling dams, rebuilding damaged watersheds and restoring stream flows to keep salmon from disappearing. The United States has invested billions in the effort - $350 million in 2004 alone - by far the most money spent on any endangered species. But a new threat is more devastating than the gill nets that sent dozens of salmon runs into extinction. It is more deadly than the hydroelectric turbines that still kill millions of migrating smolts. In fact, it raises doubts about whether salmon will survive in the Northern Pacific at all. Climate change already has made rivers warmer and spring runoff earlier, disrupting the life cycle of the fish that are an icon of the region. No matter what actions the world takes to reduce greenhouse gases, river temperatures in more than half of the lower-elevation watersheds may exceed 70 degrees by 2040 - too hot for salmon...Idaho Statesman

Finding Space for All in Our Crowded Seas

The ocean is getting crowded: Fishermen are competing with offshore wind projects, oil rigs along with sand miners, recreational boaters, liquefied gas tankers and fish farmers. So a growing number of groups -- including policymakers, academics, activists and industry officials -- now say it's time to divvy up space in the sea. "We've got competition for space in the ocean, just like we have competition for space on land," said Andrew Rosenberg, a natural resources and environment professor at the University of New Hampshire who has advised Massachusetts on the issue. "How are you going to manage it? Is it the people with the most power win? Is it whoever got there first? Is it a free-for-all?" To resolve these conflicts, a handful of states -- including Massachusetts, California and Rhode Island -- have begun essentially zoning the ocean, drawing up rules and procedures to determine which activities can take place and where. The federal government is considering adopting a similar approach, though any coherent effort would involve sorting out the role of 20 agencies that administer roughly 140 ocean-related laws...WPost

Justices Limit Liability Over Toxic Spill Cases

The Supreme Court made it harder on Monday for the government to recover the often enormous costs of environmental cleanups from companies with only minor or limited responsibility for toxic spills. The decision tightened the reach of the Superfund law, known formally as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, by limiting both the kinds of companies subject to liability and the situations in which partly culpable companies can be made to bear the entire cost of cleanups. The case arose from environmental contamination from a chemical distribution business in Arvin, Calif. The federal government had sought to hold the Shell Oil Company responsible for selling pesticides to the business, where the chemicals routinely leaked and spilled. The distribution business, Brown & Bryant, later became insolvent and ceased operations...NYTimes

Wolves no longer protected in northern Rockies

Wolves in parts of the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the endangered species list on Monday, opening them to public hunts in some states for the first time in decades. Federal officials say the population of gray wolves in those areas has recovered and is large enough to survive on its own. The animals were listed as endangered in 1974, after they had been wiped out across the lower 48 states by hunting and government-sponsored poisoning. "We've exceeded our recovery goals for nine consecutive years, and we fully expect those trends will continue," said Seth Willey, regional recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver. With the delisting, state wildlife agencies will have full control over the animals. States such as Idaho and Montana plan to resume hunting the animals this fall, but no hunting has been proposed in the Great Lakes region. Ranchers and livestock groups, particularly in the Rockies, have pushed to strip the endangered status in hopes that hunting will keep the population in check. About 300 wolves in Wyoming will remain on the list because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the state's plan for a "predator zone" where wolves could be shot on sight. Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal and a coalition of livestock and hunting groups have announced a lawsuit against the federal government over the decision. Freudenthal, a Democrat, claimed "political expediency" was behind the rejection of his state's wolf plan...AP

Wolf blamed for livestock attack radio-collared

A young wolf blamed for the first documented attack on livestock since the predators started moving back into Eastern Oregon has been trapped and released with a radio collar, so that wildlife officials can keep track of it. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife trapped the wolf Sunday in the Keating Valley area of Baker County, a few miles from a ranch where a motion-detector camera captured a photo of two wolves with dead lambs at their feet last month. When biologists drove up to the trapped wolf, a second smaller wolf ran off. Department spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said Monday in these early stages of wolves moving back into Oregon, the department will not be killing those that attack livestock, though that option remains if attacks persist. Besides allowing biologists to warn ranchers when the wolf gets near livestock, the radio collar will trigger special alarms that can be set up around herds to scare off the wolf, she said. Though two other wolves with radio collars have crossed into Oregon from Idaho, this is the first time a wolf has been trapped in Oregon and fitted with the tracking device...The Olympian

Song Of The Day #034

In my post starting this series I mentioned that in addition to country and bluegrass, I also liked dixieland jazz, which is the type of music for today's selection. To try to ease some of you die-hard country fans into this music, my first dixieland jazz piece will be San Antonio Rose by The Firehouse Five Plus 2. It's available on their 3 CD Story, or you can download the single here.

Swine flu, the lessons of 1918 and your civil liberties

In 1918, when the Spanish flu raged across the word, frightened officials in many communities responded with tough restrictions on public assembly and even personal interactions. Newspapers were censored, whole towns quarantined and beloved pets slaughtered in a pointless effort to stop the spread of illness. As the words "swine flu" begin to dominate headlines, it's worth remembering that nothing fuels restrictions on liberty like fear, and few things are scarier than mass outbreaks of deadly disease. But restrictions went well beyond censorship. In my state of Arizona, the city of Prescott early on closed theaters, saloons and pool halls, with all public gatherings soon forbidden. Nearby Jerome, a mining town which was especially badly hit, was quarantined by armed guards placed along all the roads leading into town. And in Phoenix, police shot dogs and arrested people who ventured outside without wearing gauze masks. Both measures were ineffective (dogs didn't carry the disease and viruses pass right through gauze), rendering the results unjust for the unmasked and tragic for the city's canine population...Examiner

Conservation Refugees: No natives allowed

LAFAYETTE BUNNELL, AMERICAN explorer and wilderness romantic, first rode into the bucolic stillness of Yosemite on March 21, 1851. He was on a voyage of discovery. Once in the valley he thought he had arrived, if not in heaven, in Eden. "I have seen the power and glory of a supreme being," he wrote in his journal, and "the majesty of his handiwork." Bunnell's attitude toward the people who actually lived in the valley was decidedly more ambiguous. At times he romanticized the lifeways of the Miwoks who had settled there some 4,000 years earlier. But he also said there was no room for them in the West, calling them "yelling demons" and "overgrown vicious children." The whole territory, he wrote, should be "swept of any scattered bands that might infest it." Accompanying him that day was one of the most ferocious militias in western American history, the Mariposa Battalion, commanded by James Savage. A veteran of Indian wars, Savage was there with one blunt aim: to rid Yosemite of its natives. Bunnell, who is remembered today largely for his lyrical prose about nature, stood by and watched while Savage and his men burned acorn caches to starve the Miwok out of the valley. Seventy were physically removed. Twenty-three were later slaughtered at the foot of El Capitan, the towering granite obelisk that has become a totem of California wilderness. Although it took some years to complete the task of creating a fictional wilderness in Yosemite, all the valley's residents were eventually evicted, and in 1914 their land became a national park - no natives welcome. This tactic became known as "the Yosemite model" and was replicated around the country, and eventually around the world. At most of the major parks created in America - Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, Mount Rainier, Zion, Glacier, Everglades, and Olympic - thousands of tribal people were expelled from their homes and hunting grounds so the new parks could remain in an undisturbed "state of nature."...Boston Globe

Seeking to Save the Planet, With a Thesaurus

The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.” The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes, according to extensive polling and focus group sessions conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington. Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about “our deteriorating atmosphere.” Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up “moving away from the dirty fuels of the past.” Don’t confuse people with cap and trade; use terms like “cap and cash back” or “pollution reduction refund.” EcoAmerica has been conducting research for the last several years to find new ways to frame environmental issues and so build public support for climate change legislation and other initiatives. A summary of the group’s latest findings and recommendations was accidentally sent by e-mail to a number of news organizations by someone who sat in this week on a briefing intended for government officials and environmental leaders. The answer, Mr. Perkowitz said in his presentation at the briefing, is to reframe the issue using different language. “Energy efficiency” makes people think of shivering in the dark. Instead, it is more effective to speak of “saving money for a more prosperous future.” In fact, the group’s surveys and focus groups found, it is time to drop the term “the environment” and talk about “the air we breathe, the water our children drink.” “Another key finding: remember to speak in TALKING POINTS aspirational language about shared American ideals, like freedom, prosperity, independence and self-sufficiency while avoiding jargon and details about policy, science, economics or technology,” said the e-mail account of the group’s study. Mr. Perkowitz and allies in the environmental movement have been briefing officials in Congress and the administration in the hope of using the findings to change the terms of the debate now under way in Washington...NYTimes

US firms offshore 22,000 green jobs to India

Barack Obama and his green guru, Van Jones, have a green-collar job plan that they believe will solve the two biggest crises of our time: 5 million new green-collar jobs will directly stimulate the economy and will contribute to a more sustainable future in the face of coming climate change. But the 2009 Green Outsourcing Report, an annual industry study conducted by Brown-Wilson Group, found that green technology jobs are being created faster in India than in the US since Obama took office. The report, which was released two weeks ago, surveyed 4,000 businesses around the world, including Xerox, Accenture, IBM Global, CSC, Capgemini, Oracle, HP/ ED S, Aramark, SITEL and Perot. Doug Brown, co-author of the Green Outsourcing Report, told The New Indian Express, “We see the (green job offshoring) trend increasing. There are few suppliers who match credentials and outcomes of Indian firms.” Soaring energy costs and regulatory pressure have put pressure on firms in the US and Europe to embrace green technologies. 84% of companies outsourcing green jobs are doing so because of skyrocketing energy costs, compared to 12% and 18% in the past few years, respectively. Most corporations seeking to outsource a service or product require impeccable green credentials in their suppliers before handing over work, the report says...Raw Story

Black Carbon: Al Gore’s New Crusade

When climate evangelist Al Gore, climate skeptic James Inhofe, and even the National Review agree on something, you know something’s afoot. What’s afoot is soot, also known as “black carbon,” familiar to anybody that owned a diesel-powered car in the 1980s or has ever cleaned a fireplace. Black carbon has suddenly become the new, unaddressed cause behind global warming, melting ice caps, and sundry other ills. The former vice president, fresh off his testimony in Congress last week urging quicker action to limit emissions of carbon dioxide, this week railed against pernicious soot. It’s the reason the air in the Himalayas resembles Los Angeles, he said. For once, Mr. Gore is (slightly) behind the curve. The unlikeliest of bedfellows, Okalahoma Sen. Inhofe and Massachussets Sen. John Kerry, just introduced a bill to prod the Environmental Protection Agency into figuring out what to do about soot. Another bill in the House goes further, calling for “immediate” action to reduce soot emissions...WSJ

Conservationists find eager sellers in new real estate market

Two years ago the 27 acres in Southeast Portland were platted for 65 homes: the Waterleaf subdivision. The patch of cedars might be Southeast Aston Street by now had the housing market not collapsed and the developer decided to sell his still unbuilt parcel to the Trust for Public Land, which conveyed it to the city for a park. It's what Owen Wozniak, who managed the Clatsop Butte project for the trust, calls a "green lining" -- bad times for builders mean more opportunities for conservation. On the fast-growing fringe of Portland and across the nation, property that conservationists have eyed for years is now cheaper, there's less competition from developers and time is plentiful, even if cash is not. "In central California, we're working with an industrial (timber) landowner who wouldn't even talk to us five years ago," said Phillip Wallin, president of Portland-based Western Rivers Conservancy, another group that buys land for conservation. There's precedent for this: During the Great Depression, John D. Rockefeller bought up ranches in Jackson Hole, Wyo., which he later donated to the National Park Service...Oregonian

Ain't this wonderful: Government policy causes a housing/real estate downturn from which the government benefits by being able to acquire more property at cheaper prices.

They put a rattlesnake in your pocket and then ask for a match.

Nevadan vetted as possible BLM nominee

Bob Abbey, a former state director for the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada, is in line to be nominated to head the BLM nationally, Sen. Harry Reid said Thursday. Reid, D-Nev., said he put Abbey's name forward, and he expected the Nevadan to be selected. Other sources confirmed Abbey, who lives in Reno, was being vetted by the Obama administration. A spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said a couple of months could pass before the Obama administration announces a BLM nominee. "At this point no decisions have been made. Secretary Salazar has cast a wide net," Kendra Barkoff said. Abbey was Nevada state director of the BLM from 1997 until he retired from the government in 2005. He had a 25-year career with the federal land agency...Review-Journal

Strickland confirmed for Interior job

Former two-time U.S. Senate candidate Tom Strickland was confirmed Thursday as the Interior Department's assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, a job he'll add to his current title as the department's chief of staff. The confirmation represents a breakthrough of sorts for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has had confirmation of his key lieutenants delayed by Senate Republicans. A hold on Strickland's nomination by Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., was removed Wednesday, and he was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday, 89-2...Denver Post

Jay Jensen named as USDA official over Forest Service

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the appointment of Jay Jensen as USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment (NRE). In this position, Jensen will have responsibility for the U.S. Forest Service (FS), which manages 193 million acres of National Forest System lands and provides assistance to the more than 10 million family-forest landowners in this country. Jay Jensen succeeds Melissa Simpson in the position. The NRE mission area includes the FS and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). NRCS is the federal agency with primary responsibility for working with private landowners in conserving, maintaining and improving their natural resources. Since May 2005, Jensen has been Executive Director of the Council of Western State Foresters/Western Forestry Leadership Coalition. The Coalition is a federal-state governmental partnership. Jensen had served earlier as the Coalition's Government Affairs Director. He has also served as Senior Forestry Advisor for the Western Governors Association, where he was responsible for the biomass energy program. Before that, as lead forestry advisor for the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture, Jensen helped develop programs under the 2002 Farm Bill. He has also served as lead policy analyst for the National Association of State Foresters...Chronicle

Bennett set to block another Obama nominee - Hillary Tompkins

Utah Sen. Bob Bennett vowed to block a second high-profile nominee to the Interior Department on Thursday, ratcheting up pressure on the Obama administration to negotiate on oil and gas drilling in the West. The move comes as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar visits Utah on Friday to highlight projects paid for by the $787 billion economic stimulus bill. But Bennett, a Republican, said Salazar's actions have caused more economic hardship than help. He is infuriated that Salazar pulled back 77 oil and gas leases in Utah, saying the secretary's actions have some oil executives talking about abandoning rural Utah for less controversial drilling locations. "This is a big, big deal with hundreds of millions of dollars for the state at risk," said Bennett, a member of the Senate energy committee. Under Senate rules, Bennett has the right to "put a hold" on the nomination of Hilary Chandler Tompkins, who is President Barack Obama's pick to be the Interior solicitor or chief legal adviser...Salt Lake Tribune