Friday, 17 Jan 2003

The Air Up There

Air pollution may be to blame for lower birth weights and smaller skulls in African-American babies born in Upper Manhattan and the South Bronx, according to a study on childhood asthma to be published next month in Environmental Health Perspectives. The study, which was conducted by researchers from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, found that African-American women exposed to car exhaust, cigarettes, and incinerators during their third trimester of pregnancy gave birth to smaller babies with smaller skulls, factors that have been linked to poor health and mental problems later in life. The study also analyzed Dominican women and their newborns but found no significant problems. Begun in 1998, the study will follow the children through their fifth birthdays or beyond, tracking overall health, respiratory health, cognitive function, and school performance to determine what role pollutants play in the physical and mental well-being of urban children.

The Truck Stops There

In a setback for the Bush administration, a federal appeals court yesterday halted a federal plan to permit thousands of Mexican trucks on U.S. roads, calling instead for environmental reviews that could take up to three years. In November, President Bush approved the entry of 30,000 Mexican trucks per year, citing obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement to lift trade barriers. A coalition of environmentalists, Teamsters, and U.S. trucking companies responded by filing suit, claiming the trucks would not meet U.S. emissions standards. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the plaintiffs, saying that compliance with NAFTA "cannot come at the cost of violating United States law."

Climate Every Mountain

Move over, NASDAQ. Watch out, NYSE. Here comes the Chicago Climate Exchange, the nation's first greenhouse-gas trading program. Announced yesterday by a coalition of corporations and government entities including DuPont, Ford Motor Company, Motorola, and the city of Chicago, the exchange will permit companies to reduce (on paper, at least) their emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming gases through buying credits earned by firms that surpass emissions-reductions goals. Those participating in the exchange will sign a pledge to reduce emissions over the next four years by 4 percent of their average levels from 1998 to 2002. A similar but mandatory U.S. trading program for acid-rain reductions has met with considerable success, but critics question whether the Chicago Climate Exchange can succeed without nationwide enforceable targets.

Basin and Strange

Since Sept. 11, the Bush administration has claimed that strict environmental laws are hindering oil and gas exploration in the West -- thereby compromising national security by forcing ongoing dependence on foreign energy sources. But a new federal study undermines that claim by showing that most oil and gas reserves on Western federal lands could be explored under standard government leases. In a finding described by Interior Assistant Secretary Rebecca Watson as "unexpected," 57 percent of oil and 63 percent of gas in five major geological basins on federal land are not subject to any kind of special usage restrictions. Only 15 percent of the oil and 12 percent of gas is "totally unavailable" -- i.e., in wilderness areas or national parks. Environmentalists said the findings suggested that there is no need to ease environmental protection on public lands. But the report could backfire for greens: Diemer True, chair of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said, "Now we know that these resources in the inter-mountain West should be available for leasing, we need to make sure it happens."