Friday, 23 Jan 2004

You Know the Drill

Bush Admin. Opens Nearly 9 Million Alaskan Acres to Oil Exploration

Interior Secretary Gale Norton approved a plan on Thursday that will open nearly 9 million acres of pristine land on Alaska's North Slope to oil exploration and drilling. She pledged that the exploration and production in the area, a section of the huge National Petroleum Reserve, would be done in an "environmentally responsible manner with the best available technology." Enviros weren't convinced. "It makes no sense to industrialize this incomparable wilderness area when there's only about six months' worth of economically recoverable oil ... and it would take at least 10 years to get it to market," said Charles Clusen of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Thinners Have Much More Fun

Forest Service to Triple Sierra Nevada Logging

Citing the need to prevent catastrophic forest fires like the ones that plagued Southern California last year, on Thursday the U.S. Forest Service announced a plan to spend $50 million a year to thin forests in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. The plan would allow logging of 330 million board-feet of green timber a year, roughly triple the amount allowed under the Clinton administration. "You have to thin the forest to protect the forest," said Regional Forester Jack Blackwell. "If we don't take those actions, we're going to burn 'em up. It's as simple as that." The Forest Service originally stated that 75 percent of the logging would take place near communities, to protect them from wildfires; the final plan lowered that number to 50 percent. Environmentalists criticized the plan for casting aside research on sustainable logging levels that the Clinton administration spent years and millions of dollars to produce -- and wondered what other natural resources the Bush administration would save by whacking.

The Scarlett Letters

Readers Sound Off on Scarlett, Dean, and More

Reactions to our interview with Assistant Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett ranged from, "Hey, she's kinda smart" to "Lo, behold evil!" Readers seem to agree, however, that the attempt to build bridges across the environmental divide was a worthy effort. Meanwhile, several readers were skeptical of the decision by Bruce Babbitt and other enviros to endorse Howard Dean, though we did hear from committed Deaniacs as well. Read these and miscellaneous other missives in our Letters to the Editor section -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

Crop the Insanity

USDA to Revisit Rules Governing GM Crops

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Thursday that it will begin revising rules governing genetically modified crops. Several of the proposed revisions sounded like good news to wary enviros. One proposed a wide-ranging environmental impact statement assessing the ecological impact of current regulations, something environmental and consumer groups have been calling for for years. Another proposed broadening the authority of the USDA to regulate several GM plants and insects not covered under current rules. While enviros expressed concern that the new process may not result in the stricter regulations they've been fighting for, they viewed this announcement as a positive step. A biotech trade group joined enviros in expressing qualified approval of the proposals, hoping that increased scrutiny of regulations would improve public trust of GM organisms. Members of the two groups could be seen nervously shifting from foot to foot, glancing shyly at each other.

Streaming Media

Judge Bans Pesticide Use Near Northwest Salmon Runs

A federal judge Thursday banned the use of a wide range of pesticides in and around thousands of miles of waterways in the Northwest frequented by endangered salmon, and required stores selling seven of the most dangerous banned pesticides to display signs reading "salmon hazard." U.S. District Judge John Coughenour's sweeping ruling, which will apply to everything from farms to orchards to golf courses, establishes a 100-yard buffer around streams when aerial spraying and a 20-yard buffer when ground spraying -- protective measures that the ruling calls "common, simple, and effective." Although the ruling was expected, it drew alarmed reactions from farming groups, which warn that it could hurt the economy and drive small farmers out of business. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by enviro and fishing groups against the U.S. EPA, which sought immediate protections for salmon under the Endangered Species Act, and is expected to have broad consequences for similar suits pending around the country.