Thursday, 15 Nov 2001

All's Quiet on the Rocky Mountain Front

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear an industry appeal of a 1997 U.S. Forest Service decision to ban oil and gas exploration on Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, a 1.8 million-acre swath of land where the plains meet the Rocky Mountains. The area, which is home to grizzlies, wolves, and bighorn sheep, also contains an estimated 2.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, as well as possible oil deposits. The Independent Petroleum Association of America and industry compadres went to court to gain access to the gas and oil, arguing that the ban was illegal. But two lower courts disagreed and kept the ban in place -- and the Supreme Court saw no reason to overturn those decisions.

Trunk Driving

A plan to save one of the last remaining wild herds of elephants in Vietnam got off to an inauspicious start earlier this week, with the deaths of two elephants. A team of elephant experts spotted the two on Monday and shot them with tranquilizer darts, hoping to sedate them for the long trip from their deforested home to a nature reserve near Cambodia. One of the elephants was captured and chained, but died yesterday; the other escaped but died on Monday, apparently after falling down a hillside. Only six elephants remain in the herd, which has trampled to death a dozen people in the last three years. Overall, Vietnam has but 70 to 100 wild elephants left, down from as many as 2,000 at the end of the Vietnam War.

Oil in a Day's Work

Capitol Hill hosted competing demonstrations yesterday over proposed oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Unions reps, black and Latino business leaders, Orthodox Jews, industry bigwigs, and war veterans gathered on the Capitol lawn in Washington, D.C., to hear U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) argue that drilling in the refuge would be the best economic stimulus plan for the country. A block away, environmentalists drew a larger anti-drilling crowd with the help of the ever charismatic Robert Redford.

Round, Round, Get Around, I Get a Round

The latest round of World Trade Organization negotiations concluded yesterday with delegates from 142 nations agreeing to an agenda for the next round of trade talks and glossing over environmental disagreements for the moment. The agenda, which includes cutting tariffs on industrial goods, phasing out farm subsidies, reducing foreign investment barriers, and limiting anti-dumping laws, pays some lip service to the environment and includes a proposal to offer tax breaks for environmentally friendly products. But critics worry that other measures, such as efforts to determine the relationship between WTO rules and those governing multilateral environmental agreements, could undermine environmental gains. For more WTO details, read the wrap-up from our correspondents in Qatar, only on the Grist Magazine website.

You're Not Doing Fine Oklahoma

Demonstrators paraded around the annual Governor's Water Conference in Oklahoma City yesterday to protest a deal struck behind closed doors to sell millions of gallons of water from southeastern Oklahoma to drought-stricken Texas. The deal, which is subject to approval by the Oklahoma legislature, has the backing of state officials and the Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes, who say selling surplus water makes good economic sense. But Margaret Ruff, director of the Oklahoma Wildlife Federation, objected to the deal: "The thirsty people are here in this state."