Friday, 13 Oct 2000

You Don't Have to Be a Starlink, Baby, to Be in My Show

The U.S. EPA moved yesterday to revoke approval for a variety of genetically modified corn that has illegally made its way into two brands of taco shells, prompting nationwide recalls. The Starlink corn, manufactured by Aventis, had been licensed for use as livestock feed but banned from human food because of concerns that it could trigger allergies or prove difficult to digest. The EPA decision marks the first time a biotechnology crop license has ever been rescinded. The presence of the Starlink corn in the taco shells was uncovered by the Genetically Engineered Food Alert, a coalition of enviro and consumer groups calling for stricter regulation of biotechnology, and the coalition has suggested that the corn may be found in other food products. At a press conference yesterday, the GE Food Alert criticized the feds and Kraft, maker of one of the contaminated brands of taco shells, because the shells are still being sold in grocery stores nearly three weeks after a recall was announced.

If I Had a Hammer, I'd Hammer in Texas

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic candidate for vice president, visited the home state of Texas Gov. George W. Bush yesterday to hammer on Bush's environmental record, accusing him of endangering the health of Texans by failing to stand up to industrial polluters. Speaking in a poor neighborhood near a petrochemical plant, Lieberman said federal data show that Texas leads the country in toxic emissions into the air and that Houston is the nation's smoggiest city. In a debate with Al Gore on Wednesday night, Bush claimed to have signed legislation to require emissions reductions at older plants, but the facilities covered by that electricity deregulation law account for only a small portion of the state's pollution and older plants in other industries remain unaffected. Bush has instead promoted voluntary emissions reductions for the other plants, but even the state says the voluntary program has had no measurable effect on emissions. The Gore-Lieberman campaign began running ads in Florida attacking Bush's environmental record; the Democratic National Committee is running similar ads in other battleground states.

Oh! for Two

The national League of Conservation Voters endorsed both Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Rep. Rick Lazio yesterday in the New York Senate race. The LCV said Clinton has pledged to fight for the environment, promising among other things to push for ratification of the Kyoto climate change treaty. The LCV praised Lazio for being one of a handful of Republicans who publicly fought efforts to roll back environmental protections during the Contract with America era in the mid-1990s. The group endorsed Lazio in his 1998 House race. He received a 69 percent rating from the group for his voting record last year. Meanwhile, the New York League of Conservation Voters, which is independent from the national LCV, yesterday endorsed only Clinton in the race, saying she had demonstrated more potential for leadership on the environment. Dan McLagan, a Lazio spokesperson, said, "This was a test of whether a Republican with a phenomenal environmental record could get a fair shake against a Democrat with no record at all. The answer, apparently, is sort of."

Loan Wolf

In what could be a precedent-setting move, enviros are suing the U.S. Small Business Administration for aggravating sprawl in the Washington, D.C., area. The Forest Conservation Council and Friends of the Earth say that at least 30 percent of SBA loans in the region over the past three years have financed new construction, much of it in outlying suburbs. Their lawsuit, which seeks immediate suspension of local loan decisions by the SBA, contends that the agency is wrongly using federal money to promote sprawl and that it is violating the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to assess how its decisions affect the environment.

50 Ways to Love Your Lever

With the help of levers and pedals, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt pulled a 16,000-pound chunk from the face of the Matilija Dam yesterday, a symbolic step toward dismantling the 20-story structure in southern California. Babbitt has been calling attention to the need to take down obsolete dams in the country for the last couple of years, and the Matilija would be one of the largest to come down. Environmentalists and community leaders say the dam is blocking endangered steelhead trout from reaching spawning grounds and keeping needed sand from reaching downstream beaches.