Tuesday, 17 Jul 2001

A Bonn in the Oven

It's a fair bet that many in the diplomatic horde converging on Bonn, Germany, for the latest round of global warming talks would rather be somewhere else. In the past when they've gathered, negotiators charged with forging an international strategy against climate change could usually expect to produce enough forward movement, however incremental, to go home declaring success. This time around, writes Elliot Diringer from Bonn, the outlook is not so bright. Read more from Diringer, a veteran environmental reporter now with the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, on the Grist Magazine website.

Gallons of Gasp

A panel appointed by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences has drafted a report recommending that the U.S. require automakers to improve the fuel economy of new vehicles. The 13-member panel, made up mostly of engineers and consultants who have worked for auto and oil companies, contends that fuel economy for cars and SUVs could be raised by as much as eight to 11 miles per gallon over the next six to 10 years without hurting consumers financially, if savings on gasoline were counted. In the past, President Bush has said his decision about whether to raise fuel-economy standards will be guided by the panel's findings.

Fuel on the Hill

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, five cabinet secretaries, and 25 congressional Republicans fanned out across the country yesterday to try to bolster public support for the Bush administration's drill-based energy plan. Now that fuel costs are falling and fuel supplies are rising, the administration has taken to describing the current energy situation in the country as a "challenge," rather than a "crisis" -- and it is attempting to wrap itself in a green flag. "Conservation is a must," Lynne Cheney told an audience in Philadelphia, speaking for her husband, who was suffering from laryngitis. (Recall that last April, the veep belittled conservation as nothing more than "a sign of personal virtue.) Meanwhile, Cheney is asking that the U.S. Navy, rather than the vice president's office, pay the $186,000 annual bill to heat and light his official home in Washington, D.C.

Bearly Legal

Grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park could suffer from inbreeding if a plan to reintroduce grizzlies to neighboring areas north of the park is dropped, say federal biologists. U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton has indicated that she will scrap the plan, which was developed by a local partnership of environmentalists, timber officials, and mill workers. In other grizzly news, the new government in British Colombia lifted a ban yesterday on hunting the bears, even though the ban had widespread public support. Some government scientists say as many as 13,000 grizzlies remain in B.C., while other government scientists and enviros put the number as low as 4,000.

The Year and a Half of Living Dangerously

The Bush administration took steps yesterday to delay moving forward with a Clinton-era rule to improve water quality in more than 20,000 lakes, ponds, streams, and rivers across the country. The rule, issued in June 2000, requires states to determine the total maximum daily loads of pollution that bodies of water can handle and make plans to decrease pollution accordingly. Critics like the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Cattleman's Beef Association say the rule could cost businesses billions of dollars annually, and they have sued to prevent it from being implemented. The U.S. EPA asked a federal court to postpone action on the legal challenge for 18 months, while it attempted to make the rule more acceptable to critics.

Czech Your Nukes at the Door

Germany has asked the Czech Republic to shut down the Temelin nuclear power plant near the borders of Germany and Austria. Austria became nuke-free in 1978, and German utilities agreed last month to close their 19 nuclear plants within 20 years. The Temelin plant, which began operating last fall, has provoked major protests from local enviros, as well as from Austrians who have blocked border crossing to protest its operation. Germany says it will not use the issue to interfere with the Czech Republic's entry into the European Union, but Austrian officials have threatened to try to derail the Czech membership over concerns about the plant.