Friday, 23 Apr 1999

The Answer, My Friend, Is Funding in the Wind

The U.S. is putting up $1.5 million to export American energy-efficiency technology to China, Russia, Ukraine, and a number of Latin American countries. U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced the grant yesterday at an Earth Day news conference in New York, also noting that the Clinton administration later this year would launch a five-year plan to boost wind energy, which has increased 500% in the last 10 years. Global wind-power capacity is expected to continue its rapid growth, a Danish wind energy consultancy forecast yesterday, growing 300% over the coming five years.

Hasta la Vista, Baby?

Monsanto has temporarily tabled its controversial new "terminator technology" while it waits for completion of studies into its potential environmental, social, and economic effects, the company announced yesterday. The gene technology, which makes seeds sterile so farmers must buy new seeds each year, has spurred an uproar of angry protests around the globe, with some farmers torching experimental Monsanto fields.

Congress Suffers Mass Midlife Crisis

A group of congressional members posed with their surfboards on Capitol Hill yesterday to celebrate the House's unanimous passage of a bill setting national standards for beach water quality. The bill, now headed for the Senate, would make $150 million available to encourage state and local governments to test coastal waters and warn beach-goers when contamination is found. It would also require the EPA to work with state and local governments to set a minimum water-quality standard for beaches.

Protect Your Willy

The number of orca whales along British Columbia's coast is on the downswing, prompting Canada to place the animal on its threatened species list. The orcas are suffering from declining stocks of salmon, an important food source, and potentially from whale-watchers, who sometimes follow the whales in groups of up to 100 boats. But because Canada has no federal endangered species law, it is unclear how the at-risk designation will help solve the orcas' troubles. Canadian Environment Minister Christine Stewart has said she plans to introduce legislation this spring that would expand recovery plans to help protect threatened species.

Damn Logjam

A plan to remove a dam from the Elwha River in Washington to help restore salmon runs seems to have hit another stalemate, even though the feuding parties agree the dam should come down. Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) is insisting that a bill to fund the dam's removal include a provision stating that no dam on the Columbia or Snake rivers, whether privately or federally owned, could be removed without congressional permission. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said yesterday that he would never agree to give Congress veto power over the breaching of privately owned dams.

If They Can't Even Agree on This Number ...

Utah Rep. Jim Hansen (R) stepped on the toes of environmentalists yesterday, Earth Day, by usurping the bill number that since 1989 has been attached to enviros' Utah wilderness proposal. Hansen will assign the number H.R. 1500 to his own wilderness bill instead, which would impose a 10-year limit on the amount of time an area can be considered a "wilderness study area." If after 10 years a decision has not been made about the land, it would be open to multiple uses. The bill backed by enviros, now likely to be called H.R. 1501, would designate 9.1 million acres of Utah land as wilderness.