Friday, 08 Nov 2002

Back in Black

Now that President Bush has strengthened his hand with a Republican-controlled Congress, his once-doomed energy plan -- which would provide $30 billion in tax cuts for the fossil-fuel and nuclear-power industries and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling -- stands a good chance of passing. Enviros are pinning their hopes on possible presidential contenders, John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), who in the past have promised to filibuster any bill in the Senate that would allow drilling to begin. Meanwhile, Bush's plan to increase logging in national forests as a way to combat wildfires will also be revived, and his proposal to create a more industry-friendly Clean Air Act will receive a warm welcome from GOPers in control of congressional committees. So much for regulating emissions of greenhouse gases, which had been a top policy goal of Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.), the outgoing chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. And there's more: Proponents of smart growth will face an uphill battle against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and highway lobbyists as Congress debates major transportation legislation this session.

Knock the Vote

In addition to suffering a loss at the federal level, the environmental movement came up short in several statewide and local votes on Tuesday. A huge majority of Oregonians voted down an initiative that would have made Oregon the first state to require labeling of genetically modified foods. The Grocery Manufacturers of American, with support from the biotech and food industries, spent more than $5 million to combat the measure. In Utah, voters overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have outlawed high-level radioactive waste from entering Utah and raised taxes on low-radioactivity waste already brought into the state. In Berkeley, Calif., 70 percent of voters vetoed a plan that would have forced stores and restaurants in the city to serve only fair-trade, organic, or shade-grown coffee. On a brighter note for environmentalists, voters in 79 towns in 22 states supported measures to fork over a total of $2.6 billion to protect land for parks and open space, according to the Trust for Public Land and the Land Trust Alliance.

Subway to Heaven

Congregations in 15 states are joining forces this Sunday to belt out the clean-energy gospel in the launch of a national "What Would Jesus Drive?" campaign. Reverend Jim Ball, who directs the Evangelical Environmental Network, said: "Jesus wants his followers to drive the least-polluting, most efficient vehicle that truly meets their needs -- though first he might look at other ways to get around. ... He'd definitely be in favor of us taking public transportation." His organization plans to run ads on Christian radio stations and cable TV asking consumers and automakers to wake up and smell the emissions.

The Bucks Stop Here

The Bush administration slaps fewer polluters with fines than did the Clinton administration, and those it does nab get far gentler punishments, according to federal records compiled by Eric Schaeffer, the former head of the U.S. EPA's Office of Regulatory Enforcement. In the first 20 months of the Bush administration, civil penalties plunged nearly 56 percent, compared to those levied during the last 28 months of the Clinton administration, a Knight Ridder analysis found. Bush's current budget proposal would axe 112 EPA enforcement positions.

Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire

Horrendous wildfires in Indonesia five years ago accounted for a whopping 13 to 40 percent of the world's total carbon emissions that year, according to new research published by European and Indonesian scientists in the journal Nature. The fires were probably ignited by timber companies and farmers trying to clear the drought-parched land; ultimately, the fires swept through an area twice the size of Belgium. Most of the greenhouse emissions did not come from burnt trees, but from carbon-rich deposits of peat. The research puts forest fires on the map as a leading culprit of greenhouse emissions, right up there with power plants and gas-guzzling vehicles and airplanes.

Moving Appalachian Mountains

Think your job is challenging? Try convincing farmers in Appalachia to change their focus from tobacco to organic vegetables, running a sustainable forestry program, and shepherding around a "Good Morning America" film crew. It's all in a day's work for this week's Grist diarist, Anthony Flaccavento, executive director of Appalachian Sustainable Development. For Flaccavento, nurturing local communities is the name of the game. From garlic to goats to solar-powered kilns, read all about it, only on the Grist Magazine website.

Trump Card

The U.S. wants the European Union to stop trying to weigh down trade rules with environmental considerations. (Silly Europeans, what were they thinking?) In a face-off at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York City earlier this week, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and E.U. Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy argued about how international environmental agreements should interact with World Trade Organization rules. Zoellick said, "If Europe keeps pushing things in the environmental area that look threatening to the developing world, we're not going to be able to move forward." Lamy countered, "If it were only a European view, I would say environment should trump trade rules, but since we live on the same planet, I would say they have to be on the same footing."