Thursday, 18 Apr 2002

ANWR Sedate

In a major defeat for President Bush and a hard-won triumph for environmentalists, the Senate this morning effectively killed a proposal to allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Drilling advocates fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to end a Democratic filibuster and force passage of the bill. All but five Democrats voted against oil drilling, while all but eight Republicans voted in favor. The defeat was especially crushing for Alaska Republican Sens. Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski, both of whom had battled hard for its passage, including offering eleventh-hour deal-sweeteners aimed at undecided senators. The fate of a House-approved energy bill, which includes a measure to allow drilling in the refuge, is now uncertain, as the Senate seems unlikely to compromise on the issue.

A Rocky Start

Before you celebrate too much ... The Bush administration has already set its sights on another drilling target: the Rocky Mountains. Dozens of petitions to drill on public lands throughout the Rocky Mountain states have been submitted to the White House, which has established a Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining "to expedite the increased supply and availability of energy to our nation," according to President Bush. That's great news for industry reps, who have long lobbied the government to cut the red tape and ease regulatory hurdles to drilling, but bad tidings for environmentalists, who fear the impact on wildlife and the land. The U.S. Geological Survey says there are roughly 137 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and several billion barrels of oil under public lands in the Rocky Mountains.

Privates Exposed

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, is coming under fire from environmentalists after the London Guardian published information from apparently secret E.C. documents describing efforts to liberalize trade by privatizing state-run services in poor nations. The market for such services is estimated at more than $1 trillion per year. Under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, the E.U. is currently engaged in talks about the General Agreement on Trade in Services. Green groups say the E.U. is paving the way for exploitation of developing nations by huge multi-national corporations eager to control critical resources such as water, as well as services such as sewage. One such group, Friends of the Earth, said liberalization of public services would lead to lax environmental regulation.

Dunces With Wolves

The age-old conflict between wolves and livestock owners is erupting again. Last year, at least 40 farm animals in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming were killed by wolves, which were reintroduced to the American West in the mid-1990s. In response, a significant number of the predators have been killed this year as well (including all 10 wolves from the Whitehawk pack). Under a federal compromise negotiated when the wolves were reintroduced, any of the animals that harm livestock can be destroyed. Farmers defend wolf-killing as necessary to protect their livelihoods, but many conservationists believe the step is simply too drastic. (Apparently, their arguments aren't holding water in Idaho, where a law grants ranchers the right to shoot a wolf on private property, whether or not livestock are at risk.) The federal government spent nearly $15,000 to hunt down and kill the Whitehawk wolves, even though the livestock losses amounted to just hundreds of dollars, and the owners were compensated for their losses.

Death to Coughy

Almost 6,000 people will die prematurely from respiratory illness due to emissions from power plants owned by eight utility companies that the Clinton administration sued for violating the Clean Air Act, according to a private report released yesterday. In addition to the deaths, the report predicted that the pollution would lead to 140,000 asthma attacks and 14,000 cases of acute bronchitis. Residents of the Midwest and the South will be hit hardest, and the nation's overall productivity will suffer as well, because Americans will miss an estimated 1.2 million days of work per year due to related health problems. The energy industry pooh-poohed the study, with one spokesperson calling it the "45 millionth" of its kind and questioning the science behind it. The report, which was prepared by Abt Associates and paid for by the Rockefeller Family Fund, comes as the Bush administration is lobbying to change the Clean Air Act in ways that environmentalists say would weaken it.

7.7 Degrees of Separation

Two new studies on global climate change, both appearing in the latest issue of Nature, predict that the Earth will get even hotter by the end of the century than previously estimated by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. One study, from Switzerland, sees a 7.7 degree Fahrenheit increase by 2100; the other, from Great Britain, predicts as much as a 12.4 degree increase. (The IPCC expected a rise of anywhere from 3 to 10.5 degrees; for comparison's sake, the temperature difference between now and the last Ice Age is 9 degrees.) More important, say scientists, the studies show a temperature increase of 0.5 to 2.3 degrees (the British study) or 0.9 to 1.9 degrees (the Swiss study) for the years 2020-2030 -- just two decades from now. And you thought it was bad on the East Coast right now.