Tuesday, 29 Jan 2002

Frisco Ain't Kidding

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown proposed yesterday that his city pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Brown said the goal "is as much about protecting our national security as it is about protecting our environmental quality of life." If the city's Board of Supervisors passes Brown's resolution, San Francisco will become the 116th U.S. city to promise to cuts greenhouse gas emissions in the absence of federal leadership on the issue. The Kyoto treaty on climate change, from which the Bush administration has withdrawn, would have committed the U.S. to reducing its overall emissions by 7 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

Italian Nice

The president of northern Italy's Lombardy region, Roberto Formigoni, proposed on Sunday that only eco-friendly vehicles be sold in the region by as early as 2005. He hopes gas-electric hybrid vehicles and, later, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles can help eliminate the region's pollution woes. Smog levels in Lombardy have recently surged to five times the legally permitted amounts; the region's capital, Milan, has been covered in haze for much of the winter. Vehicles have been banned across Lombardy on three Sundays since December, and last week, authorities ordered cars, motorcycles, and trucks off the roads on alternate days -- but pollution problems persist.

Leavitt, Eager Beaver

After kvetching for years about the national monuments set aside by former President Clinton across the West, Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt (R) called yesterday for President Bush to designate a 620,000-acre national monument protecting a red canyons area in the central part of the state. Enviros have long fought to protect the San Rafael Swell region, but they were reluctant to embrace Leavitt's request because it would allow off-road vehicles in much of the national monument. Heidi McIntosh of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said, "It's going to be a litmus test for President Bush." Leavitt and his backers stressed that the plan would have local support, while they claimed that Clinton's national monuments were imposed by the feds with little local input.

No Doubt Aboot It

Canadian Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal said yesterday that his country would continue to back the Kyoto treaty on climate change. He said the same thing last Thursday. What's the fuss? Canada has come under increasing pressure from the Bush administration to abandon the treaty. With only the best interests of our northern neighbors in mind, of course, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci said on Friday that backing Kyoto would be a drain on the Canadian economy. Cellucci added that he couldn't promise that relations between the two countries wouldn't sour if Canada ratified Kyoto. Dhaliwal seemed unimpressed.

Basin and Strange

The Bush administration gave the first indication yesterday of how it would work to resolve the water wars in the Klamath Basin on the Oregon-California border -- and enviros immediately warned that the administration was kowtowing to farmers while giving short shrift to endangered fish. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has proposed that area farmers receive nearly a full supply of irrigation water over the next decade, with the option of selling some water back to the government to help fish. The plan must still be reviewed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service for its impacts on endangered suckers and threatened coho salmon. Enviros said the proposal would hurt commercial fishers and tribes, as well as the fish. Last year, drought conditions led to significant cutbacks in delivery of irrigation water, prompting protests by farmers that drew national attention.