Wednesday, 19 Feb 2003

Crying Shaman

A new oil pipeline that will run from the Russian region of Buryatiya into China is being hailed by industry officials and government leaders as a major economic boon, but many local residents beg to differ. Construction of the pipeline will involve bulldozing land and felling trees -- environmental problems anywhere and cultural travesties in a region characterized by Buryat shamanism, a belief system built around respect for nature. The proposed path of the pipeline would cut through Tunykinsky National Park, where development is banned. But Yukos, the oil company behind the project, has figured out a way around that concern: It wants the park's boundaries moved. The company claims Buryatiya's grassroots environmentalists, who fear logging and oil spills, are financed by the U.S. in a secret plot to thwart Russia's economic development.

We've Got Mail

Neither rain nor sleet nor a massive snowstorm on the Eastern Seaboard can stop the letters from pouring into Grist. In the latest mailbag, a U.S. Energy Department advisor defends President Bush's hydrogen car initiative, while other readers share their thoughts on EPS (that's the stuff commonly mistaken for Styrofoam), the real problems along the Mexico-U.S. border, and much more. Find out what your fellow readers have to say, only on the Grist Magazine website.

Oakless Creek Canyon

Flagstaff, Ariz., is shaping up to be the testing grounds for the Bush administration's Healthy Forests initiative, a highly controversial effort to ease environmental reviews of logging projects on many Western public lands and ban reviews entirely in areas where forest fires could threaten human developments. Some 2,000 suburban Flagstaff homes are located just seven miles upwind of one of the state's most dangerous fire regions, Oak Creek Canyon; many of those homes are $500,000-plus mansions, and a fire in the region could do as much as $1 billion damage in the subdivision of Forest Highlands alone. This week, the U.S. Forest Service is expected to okay a plan to cut down hundreds of thousands of trees in the area and burn about 16 square miles of forest. That move is sure to attract criticism from environmentalists, especially if the USFS allows timber companies to cut trees more than 18 inches in diameter.

Maple Syrup

Canada yesterday set aside $1.3 billion over five years to slash its greenhouse gas emissions and another $660 million for other environmental initiatives, as part of what Environment Minister David Anderson called "the greenest budget this country has ever seen." The government also approved a tax break for cleaner diesel and agreed to prioritize infrastructure projects that will help reduce pollution. Ottawa has not yet decided how to spend most of the $1.3 billion earmarked to help the country meet the terms of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. Options on the table include pumping money into alternative-energy projects and backing initiatives to retrofit buildings to improve energy efficiency. Environmentalists said the sum of money was a promising sign, but expressed concern that decisions about its use would be made behind closed doors and with too much corporate input.

Who Ya Gonna Call? Coast Busters!

The California legislature has passed a bill to alter the structure of the California Coastal Commission, thereby enabling the powerful board to continue regulating development along the state's coast. Seven weeks ago, a state appeals court ruled that allowing the legislature to remove commissioners at will violated the state constitution's mandate to maintain separation of the legislative and executive branches of government. Under the new structure, commissioners appointed by the legislature would serve fixed four-year terms; those appointed by the governor could still be removed at her or his will. Gov. Gray Davis (D) is expected to sign the bill, setting the coastal commission back on course. The commission is responsible for approving or denying development permits in coastal areas and regulating offshore industrial activity. Supporters believe the fix will strengthen the group by making its members less beholden to those who appointed them, but many Republicans fought the bill, saying the commission violates property rights and needs a thorough overhaul.