Wednesday, 15 Aug 2001

Mighty Morphin' Power Rearrangers

Not wanting to provoke another attack from environmentalists, the Bush administration said yesterday that it would delay announcing its plan for overhauling regulation of aging power plants and instead include the plan as part of a more comprehensive package of clean-air policy options in September. President Bush had ordered the U.S. EPA to reassess the "new source review" program by this Friday. The program requires the installation of the latest pollution-control equipment when power plants and refineries are built or significantly upgraded. The U.S. Justice Department under former President Clinton sued dozens of older power plants for failing to improve pollution controls when they modernized their facilities.

Humpty Dumpty Sat on the Great Wall

Claims by China that it has significantly reduced its greenhouse gas emissions may be a bunch of hooey. A Japanese scientist funded by the World Bank found that coal production hasn't gone down nearly as much as represented by China. Other researchers assert that oil consumption is increasing in the country at a faster clip than reported. Although vehicle traffic in Chinese cities has been doubling about every five years, official data show oil consumption rising only 11.4 percent from 1996 to 1999. A separate World Bank report released last week warned that economic growth in China is overwhelming efforts to protect the environment.

Rocky Mountain Low

Hoping to give himself a green sheen, President Bush traveled to Rocky Mountain National Park yesterday to engage in trail work for a few minutes and talk about character. "There's a grand vision embodied in these mountains," he said. "And the vision is that we can teach our children right from wrong." He also criticized environmentalists who are concerned that fire management plans might be used by the Bush administration to boost logging levels on federal lands. Bush said, "I know there are some in our country who want to just, you know, let the forests fall apart. We're not going to let that happen in this administration." More than 125 protesters greeted Bush, waving signs calling for more wilderness protection and no drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

World Bunker

Citing the disruptiveness of protests and a fear of violence, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have decided to cram their annual meetings into two days next month in Washington, D.C., instead of a week. When the meetings last occurred, in April 2000, police arrested more than 600 protesters. Just to make sure that the delegates from 183 nations are safely tucked away from the scary, nasty demonstrators, the IMF and World Bank have moved portions of the meetings from a suburban Washington-area hotel to the organizations' headquarters, about a mile from the White House. Protesters say the changes are designed to stifle dissent, and they may sue over plans to erect barriers to keep them away from the meetings.

Bug Bang Boom

A California appeals court ruled yesterday that pesticide companies can be sued over concerns that home bug sprays are making people sick. The court in Los Angeles rejected arguments by Dow Chemical and other chemical manufacturers that they were protected from suits covering chemicals approved by the U.S. EPA for residential use. It said the EPA-approved warning labels could not be challenged, but a jury could still decide that a chemical's dangers to human health outweighed its benefits. The case involves a couple who believe that ant spray used by their landlord caused brain damage to an unborn daughter and sickened a baby daughter.