Tuesday, 02 Jan 2001

Not Watt! Nit Whit!

In a move that has environmentalists up in arms, President-elect George W. Bush nominated former Colorado Attorney General Gale Norton for Interior secretary on Friday. Norton, a protege of James Watt, Ronald Reagan's first Interior secretary, was part of an effort under Watt to try to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling and has been an active critic of the Clinton administration's land protection record. She is an advocate of granting states, local governments, and corporations a greater say in how the federal government regulates the environment. Bush has also nominated New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R) to head the U.S. EPA. As governor, Whitman has cut the state's environmental protection budget by 30 percent and promoted voluntary compliance with environmental regulations. She has also fought against ocean dumping and launched an effort to protect 1 million acres from urban sprawl.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

After a decade of debate, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released final standards for labeling organic foods last month, siding with environmentalists and the organic farming industry on nearly every contentious issue. The standards, which will become fully effective in 2002, ban the use of irradiation, biotechnology, and sewer-sludge fertilizer for any food labeled organic. All three methods would have been allowed under the standards proposed by the USDA in 1997, but the department did an about-face after receiving nearly 300,000 public comments protesting their inclusion. The final standards also ban the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers in growing organic foods, and the use of antibiotics in organic meats. Sales of organic foods in the U.S. have increased by 20 percent each year since 1990, reaching $6 billion in 1999.

Chile Today, Hot Tomorrow

The Chilean government and environmentalists are protesting the passage around Cape Horn of a ship carrying about 76 tons of spent nuclear fuel from the U.K. to Japan. Greenpeace Chile fears that the southern route around South America, longer and more treacherous than a trip through the Panama Canal, will become the preferred route for shipping nuclear waste. The group says that if an accident were to occur to the ship en route, it might rival the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. In 1995, the last time nuclear waste was shipped around Cape Horn, Chile's navy blocked the ship from entering its waters.

Rush More Monuments

Building on his record-setting use of the 1906 Antiquities Act, Pres. Clinton is expected to designate at least five more national monuments, including lands in Montana, California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Enviros have in mind more than a dozen potential monument sites, including the Siskiyou region in southwestern Oregon. But the president's use of the 1906 act has enraged many Western Republicans. Rep. James Hansen (R-Utah), who is expected to chair the House Resources Committee, has pledged to explore ways to turn back monument designations, and Vice President-elect Dick Cheney, in particular, has seemed amenable to the idea.

Guerilla Monsoon

The Colombian army is claiming in a recent report that leftist guerrillas, far-right paramilitaries, and the illegal drug trade are causing ecological disasters within the country. The army says that pipelines blown up by leftists have caused more than 2 million tons of crude oil to pollute 1,625 miles of river in the last 10 years, and that the drug trade has contributed to deforestation and contaminated soil with 200,000 tons of chemicals a year. Overall, the army says that 3,600 square miles of jungle and agricultural land have been lost in the last decade.