Wednesday, 07 Apr 2004

Housewarming

New House Bill Sparks Hope of Congressional Action on Climate Change

With new studies coming out virtually every week about the looming threat of global warming, it appears that Congress is slowly getting the message. A bipartisan group in the House has introduced a companion bill to the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act in the Senate. Both measures propose mandatory caps on carbon-dioxide emissions and the creation of a market-based emissions trading system. While the Senate bill failed last fall, it was by a narrower vote than expected, and its sponsors plan to bring it up for another vote this spring. Read about the new House bill and its chances (or lack thereof) in Muckraker, today on the Grist Magazine website.

Do Good

Support the Climate Stewardship Act

If you'd like to see Congress get cracking on efforts to fight climate change, join an Environmental Defense campaign to generate support for the Climate Stewardship Act. The group aims to get 500,000 people to send messages to their senators, representatives, and President Bush in support of the bill by May 1. It's quick, it's easy -- make your voice heard. Come on -- everybody else is doing it.

Hole in the Wal-Mart

Los Angeles Suburb Spurns Mega-Retailer

Voters in the Los Angeles community of Inglewood voted overwhelmingly yesterday to deny giant retailer Wal-Mart the right to build a mammoth "supercenter" on a parcel of land the size of 17 football fields without an environmental impact study or public hearings. Citizens voted by a margin of 61 to 39 percent against a ballot measure put forward by a Wal-Mart sponsored group, which poured more than $1 million into the campaign. The proposed store, which would have been the first in L.A. County, was previously blocked by the Inglewood City Council, prompting the citizen-initiative end-run. It is part of the uber-retailer's plan to open some 40 supercenters, each including a supermarket, across California in an attempt to break into the lucrative grocery market. Citizens and small-business owners opposed the plan due to worries about sprawl, traffic congestion, threats to local businesses, and what many say are the company's exploitative labor practices. Inglewood Assemblyperson Jerome Horton said, "Clearly, this is a test site ... I think everyone should prepare for a full frontal attack from Wal-Mart."

Friends in Hybrid Places

American Automakers Get Ready to Sell Hybrids

Ford Motor Co. announced today that it will put a second hybrid SUV on the market in 2007, but the company and its American counterparts still have a ways to go before they catch up with Japanese automakers and satisfy the demands of environmentalists. Ford's first hybrid SUV, the Escape, will debut in dealerships this summer, but protesters outside this year's New York International Auto Show are keeping the pressure on CEO Bill Ford, Jr., who prior to taking over the company was an outspoken environmental advocate. "Ford has shown that they can make a 35-mpg SUV -- now they need to use this technology throughout their fleet to clean up the environment and cut our oil dependence," said the Sierra Club's Dan Becker. General Motors also has a few hybrid models set to debut in 2007. By that year, however, Toyota and Honda -- who have reported high demand for their hybrids -- will be selling three to four hybrid models apiece, including mid-size sedans and SUVs. Some analysts predict, and enviros hope, that high gas prices will accelerate demand for the fuel-saving models.

Melts in Your Oceans, Not in Your Hand

Greenland Ice Sheet to Melt, Drowning Coastlines

If current global warming trends continue, Greenland's ice sheet -- the world's second largest, after Antarctica's -- will begin melting by the end of the century, and over the course of 1,000 years will melt entirely, raising worldwide ocean levels by some 23 feet and totally screwing up real estate prices in Orange County, Calif. A new study in the journal Nature used computer models to forecast various levels of carbon-dioxide increase in the atmosphere. In most models, the crucial point at which melting exceeds snowfall happens around 2100. "We conclude that the Greenland ice sheet is likely to be eliminated by anthropogenic climate change unless much more substantial emission reductions are made than those envisaged by the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]," say the authors. Time to sign the kids up for swimming lessons!

Don't Be So Defensive

Pentagon Seeks Yet More Environmental Exemptions

The U.S. Department of Defense went to Congress again yesterday and requested more exemptions from environmental laws. Congress has granted five of the eight exemptions previously sought by the DOD, which claims -- despite findings to the contrary by congressional investigators in 2002 -- that environmental restrictions are hampering troop training and readiness. The Pentagon now wants to be exempted from certain sections of the Clean Air Act and toxic waste laws so that military training exercises can, well, pollute the air and the land. Enviros wonder why the Pentagon seems perpetually irritated by the prospect that it might, someday, be slightly constrained by regulations meant to protect the environment and the health of the military families and communities that surround its bases. Raymond DuBois, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, says the military spends $4 billion annually on environmental programs and takes environmental concerns seriously.