Tuesday, 26 Aug 2003

Bill 'er Up

Bill Moyers Speaks His Mind on Bush-Brand Environmental Destruction

While most TV journalists have been preoccupied with the wars against terrorism and Iraq or the equally pressing Kobe Bryant scandal, Bill Moyers has produced more than 20 reports on timely environmental topics in the last year and a half for his PBS program "NOW with Bill Moyers." In an interview with Grist, Moyers explains why he's so perturbed by the Bush administration's efforts to roll back environmental protections. He also chats about how his capitalist beliefs inform his environmental consciousness, how religious dogma is driving current assaults against the planet, and what President Bush could do to get himself elected to a third -- yes, third -- term. Get Moyers' take on the state of the environment -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

Read Between the Pipelines

Huge Energy Project on Russian Island Could Wreak Environmental Havoc

Conservationists are warning that plans to build the world's largest energy project -- a massive pipeline and three oil-drilling platforms on and around the Russian island of Sakhalin, just north of Japan -- could mean environmental disaster. The project, led by a Shell subsidiary and expected to be completed in 2007, would run a pipeline underground through an earthquake-prone area, and the pipeline would crisscross rivers and streams on the island more than 1,000 times, endangering salmon breeding grounds and river and forest areas. Enviros are also warning that one platform already constructed is disturbing whales and other marine life. And it's not only wildlife that are suffering: Local fishers, most from a tribe known as the Nivkhi, have been banned from practicing their trade because the government doesn't want the oil platform disturbed.

Secret Disservice

Big Biz Shaped Bush Energy Plan, Congressional Investigators Say

Corporations had a significant hand in formulating the Bush administration's energy policy, but the full extent of their influence is unknown because the White House has mulishly refused to release information on the matter. That's the word in a report released yesterday by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Executives from petroleum, electricity, nuclear, coal, chemical, and natural gas companies gave detailed recommendations to the energy policy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, the GAO said, while environmentalists and academic experts were largely shut out of the process. The GAO had filed suit to obtain information from the White House about the task force's dealings but the suit was dismissed in federal court and the agency didn't appeal. The Sierra Club and Judicial Watch are pressing forward with a separate lawsuit that would force the administration to reveal details of its secret meetings with industry officials.

Air Apparent

Bush Admin. Lacked Data to Support Relaxing Emissions Rules, GAO Found

And that's not all the GAO's been up to. In a report released yesterday, the agency determined that the Bush administration had no real evidence to back up its claims that loosening air pollution rules for industrial plants would lower emissions and reduce health risks. The U.S. EPA, in making its case for revising the "new source review" provision of the Clean Air Act late last year, relied on anecdotes supplied by industry instead of good scientific data, the GAO found. "This report should be the final nail in the coffin of environmental credibility for this administration," said Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general. This week the EPA is expected to unveil another air-pollution rule change that would allow many of the nation's dirtiest coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities to make major upgrades and boost output without installing good pollution-control equipment.

The Three Amigos

Three Major Companies Join Fight to Protect Tongass

Office supply giant Staples and building companies KB Home and Hayward Lumber have joined with environmentalists in opposing a Bush administration proposal that would allow roads and development in southeast Alaska's pristine Tongass National Forest. The three companies, all big users of wood products, have been working with enviro groups to reduce their consumption of old-growth wood and have sent letters to the U.S. Forest Service calling for roadless protections to be maintained in the Tongass as well as Alaska's Chugach National Forest. "The homebuilding industry and similar industries do not need wood from Tongass," wrote Andrew Henderson, KB's director of public and government relations, in an Aug. 5 letter. "It is one of the last few remaining wild places in our nation.