Tuesday, 03 Dec 2002

Cell-ebrate

In what could be the first significant step toward mass-marketing fuel-cell vehicles, Toyota and Honda put the world's first such cars on the road yesterday. The cars are being leased to the Japanese government and several public organizations in the U.S. -- at the whopping price of between $6,500 and $9,800 per month, meaning the dream of widespread ownership of the vehicles has still got a long way to go. Environmentalists hail fuel cells as the brightest R&D possibility on the current automotive horizon, because the vehicles emit none of the pollutants that contribute to smog or global warming. But aside from the prohibitive cost of the fuel-cell vehicles, there is the problem of fueling stations; Japan estimates it would need 3,800 hydrogen stations to meet the needs of the 5 million fuel-cell vehicles it hopes to have on its roads by 2020; there are currently three such stations in the entire nation, all of them strictly experimental.

You're Out of the Club?

A Utah chapter of the Sierra Club has been threatened with disbandment because of its decision to speak out against the possibility of a U.S. war against Iraq. The development may bring to a head a discussion that has been going on within the club throughout the fall. In October, 13 former national board members called on the organization to pass a resolution urging the Bush administration to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict. But some current members feel the issue is outside the scope of the Sierra Club's mission, while others say not all club members are in the anti-war camp. The national board has decided to remain neutral on the issue of war, and has issued a statement noting in part that the Sierra Club "does not authorize members, leaders, or club entities to take positions on military conflicts." Some have interpreted that wording as a gag rule, and the threatened actions against the Utah chapter seem to reinforce that impression.

Oily to Bed Makes a State Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise

In a triumph for environmentalists, a federal appeals court has blocked an attempt by the Bush administration to revive dormant oil leases off the coast of California. Last year, a federal court granted California the power to prevent new oil exploration in federal waters near the state's coastline, a ruling that was appealed by the Bush administration. Yesterday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's decision. The oil leases in question were granted between 1968 and 1984, before a ban on drilling was enacted; now they are the last hope of oil companies for expanding oil operations in the state. Yesterday's ruling, however, dealt a blow to those hopes and cast doubts on the possibility that any of the leases will ever be developed. The administration has not decided whether to challenge the ruling, but California Gov. Gray Davis (D) said the White House "should take the hint and halt further attempts to exploit California's spectacular coastal resources."

The Science of the Lambs

It ain't easy being a scientist in farm country: Researchers studying the health effects of agricultural pollution say they are being silenced by fearful superiors and harassed by individual farmers, farm groups, and even the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds and controls much of the research done on farming. One example: JoAnn Burkholder, a well-known aquatic botanist at North Carolina State University, received death threats and demands for her resignation after warning parents not to let their children wade in polluted streams; she called such harassment "rampant." Another: James Zahn, a former federal swine researcher in Iowa, was told by his bosses that he couldn't publish his findings on health-threatening emissions from hog farms or speak to citizens groups about his study. Some Midwestern scientists blame the problem on the close relationship between the USDA and industry groups; for their part, the two parties admit to working together, but they deny any effort to muffle or skew scientific findings.

I'll Have No Truck With That

An unlikely partnership of environmental, labor, and trucking groups filed for an emergency injunction yesterday to prevent the Bush administration from allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads, claiming that doing so would worsen U.S. air quality. Last week, in compliance with the North American Free Trade Agreement, President Bush called an end to 20-year-old restrictions on Mexican trucks in the U.S. and ordered transportation officials to begin processing permit applications from trucking firms south of the border. Many U.S. truckers are afraid that the move will hurt business, and environmentalists are worried about diesel emissions from the Mexican trucks, which are subject to less stringent environmental regulations than their U.S. counterparts. Some legislators and a Mexican trucking association, however, say labor and environmental groups are taking a tougher stance against truckers from Mexico than those from Canada. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave the feds until tomorrow to respond to the injunction request.