Friday, 22 Feb 2002

Scream of the Crop

Genetically modified crops should be subject to stricter and more public review prior to being approved for use, as well as more careful monitoring in the field afterward, a panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences determined yesterday. The panel said its recommendations were intended to "improve an already functioning system" of monitoring GM crops, but warned that new genetic innovations (for example, plants that produce their own chemical pesticides) will require more rigorous review. Naturally, bioengineering companies interpreted the report as praise for the status quo, while their critics said they hoped it would help encourage stricter regulation on genetic modification of plants.

Mickey Mao's

It might be the Magic Kingdom, but sometimes it has to face reality: That's the message of an environmental study released today on a future Disney theme park in Hong Kong. Environmentalists have attacked the $1.8 billion project as an ecological nightmare, and now the report seconds the opinion. The park is slated to be built in Penny's Bay, just southwest of the recently decommissioned Cheoy Lee Shipyard, which must be dismantled to make way for the Mouse. Doing so will involve cutting almost 55,000 cubic yards of earth and rock to stabilize the area, and removing around 114,000 cubic yards of polluted soil, which will then be transported to another site for treatment and decontamination. The study warned that the dismantling process could "cause high level impacts on ecological resources," particularly to rice-fish habitats and protected plant species.

Nothing New

In what was billed as her first major environmental speech of the year, Interior Secretary Gale Norton called Wednesday for "a new environmentalism" in which local residents and landowners, not just the government, would take responsibility for protecting the Earth. Norton also called for an environmentalism that did not threaten jobs. The Interior secretary said that a number of her pet projects -- such as the $100 million Citizen Conservation Initiative, which will pay landowners to protect the environment -- fall under the rubric of new environmentalism. Environmentalists were both unsurprised and unimpressed, saying there was nothing very new about Norton's new environmentalism: Melanie Griffin, public lands director for the Sierra Club, said "Gale Norton has never favored environmental laws. She seems to prefer voluntary solutions."

Gone With the Wind

Enron, the financially (and, some would say, morally) bankrupt energy trading firm, announced this week that it will sell its wind-turbine business to General Electric. If the transaction is approved by bankruptcy court and federal regulators, Enron will use the proceeds -- a rumored $250 million -- to repay creditors, while GE will use the new business as a stepping-stone into the renewable energy sector. The proposed acquisition would mark the energy giant's first investment in wind power, an industry which it expects to grow at an annual rate of some 20 percent. The deal covers Enron's wind turbine manufacturing and marketing operations, but not the wind farms it owns and operates, which are slated to close later this year. The proposed sale to GE comes as a surprise to analysts, who were expecting European companies -- which dominate the sector -- to vie for purchase of the operations.

Bay Watch

If three environmental groups have their way, California's mammoth agriculture industry will be subject to state water-pollution laws for the first time in history. The three groups (San Francisco BayKeeper, DeltaKeeper, and the California Public Interest Research Group) filed suit yesterday against the Central Valley Regional Water Control Board to close a loophole that allows farmers in the Central Valley to discharge pesticide-filled irrigation runoff without a permit. The federal Clean Water Act exempts agricultural runoff, and in California, farmers are not subject to the restrictions imposed on other industries. The result, according to the allegations in the lawsuit, is that every year, millions of gallons of polluted agricultural runoff flow into the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers, and from there into the San Francisco Bay, where it kills and injures marine life.