When Irresistible Cuts Meet Immovable Pork
Senate Republicans Flailing as They Try to Push Through Energy Bill
Senate Republicans are having a bad week. A proposal to push the energy bill through Congress by attaching it to the more popular and pressing transportation bill was roundly rejected yesterday. President Bush told Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on Monday that he wants costs cut substantially on both the energy bill and the transportation bill, a move many observers say is a response to election-year concerns over the budget deficit. Congressional leaders managed to pare down the energy bill's costs by more than half (from $31 billion to $14 billion) by eliminating several business-friendly tax breaks and other costly provisions; they also cut a controversial provision that would shield manufacturers of the gasoline additive MTBE from legal liability (a change that House Republicans adamantly oppose). Despite these concessions, the energy bill still faces substantial opposition within the Republican Party from lawmakers who feel, like Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), that the bill is too expensive and uses "a lot of gimmicks, a lot of B.S."
only in Grist: Unplugged? -- worries over federal deficit could dim prospects for energy bill -- in Muckraker
Pombo Magic
Unlikely Proposal Would Fund Transportation Through ANWR Drilling
In other news of desperate Republicans, House Resources Committee Chair Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) recently posted an open letter on the committee's website proposing to fund the pricey transportation bill in part with revenue from opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration -- despite the fact that transportation dollars are needed now and ANWR drilling wouldn't produce any money for at least a decade. Could the letter be a joke, like the announcement from Pombo's office last week that he is considering introducing legislation that would ban the construction of most tall buildings in response to a study by enviros showing that lots of birds die when they run into skyscraper windows? In times of desperation, the line between parody and self-parody becomes blurry, so we leave it to readers to draw their own conclusions. Get the story in our latest Muckraker column -- only on the
Grist Magazine website.
Snowmobefuddlement
Judge Issues Yet Another Reversal of Yellowstone Snowmobile Ban
An already-confusing winter for tourists and tour operators in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks got more muddled yesterday, when a federal judge overturned severe restrictions on snowmobiling in the parks. For those of you keeping score at home, a quick rundown of the story so far: Just before leaving office in January 2001, President Clinton imposed restrictions on snowmobile use in the parks, aiming for a complete ban by 2003-04. Later in 2001, President Bush gave the National Park Service a chance to "further study" the issue. NPS released much milder rules, prompting a 2002 lawsuit by enviro groups seeking to reinstate Clinton's rules. In December 2003, a federal judge sided with the enviros and imposed sharp restrictions on snowmobile use in the parks. Yesterday, another judge granted an injunction against those restrictions and instructed NPS to issue temporary rules for the remainder of the season. The upshot is, you can go into Yellowstone on a snowmobile. For the moment. We think.
Ballast Off!
Invasive Species in Ballast Water Messing With World's Oceans
Ships that carry ballast water -- used to balance and stabilize the vessels -- also carry thousands of aquatic species across the globe to foreign habitats, where they can have environmentally catastrophic effects. Recognizing this as one of the top four environmental problems facing the world's oceans (along with pollution, overfishing, and habitat destruction), 100 countries are expected to sign a U.N. treaty this week calling for regulation of ballast-water use in vessels around the world. Ballast water "can transfer pathogens and other micro-organisms and invasive species that have the capacity to distort and destroy the delicate [ecosystem] balance," said Efthimios Mitropoulos, secretary general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). "Once introduced, they can be virtually impossible to eliminate and, in the meantime, may cause havoc." The IMO estimates that more than 10 billion tons of ballast water are transported each year, a number that will only rise as trade increases.
Natural Gas, Unnatural Allies
Unlikely Coalition Opposes Bush's Plan to Drill in New Mexico
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) is leading an improbable coalition of enviros, ranchers, hunters, and property-rights activists in a fight against the Bush administration's plans to drill for natural gas in the Otero Mesa area of New Mexico, a vast and largely untouched expanse of desert grasslands that Richardson has called "the West's ANWR." A recent Department of Interior proposal would open 90 percent of the area to drilling. Richardson's strong stance is a signal that Bush's energy policy could become a hot election-year issue in the Rocky Mountain West, an area traditionally dependent on energy production but increasingly wary of aggressive oil and gas development. Not surprisingly, the companies that stand to benefit most directly from Otero Mesa drilling have close ties to top administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, and Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles. Richardson is frequently mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate in 2004; this uniting, not dividing, maneuver could strengthen his chances.
