Wednesday, 13 Oct 2004

Unsuitable

Lawsuits against polluters decline under Bush administration

In the first three years of the Bush administration, the number of civil lawsuits filed by the federal government against polluters declined by 75 percent compared to the last three years of the Clinton administration, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project. Eric Shaeffer, who quit the U.S. EPA almost three years ago to protest lax enforcement and now leads the group, said, "If you are a big energy company, you are basically on holiday from enforcement." EIP's report comes on the heels of a similar report from the EPA's inspector general, which concluded that the Bush administration has "seriously hampered" enforcement efforts. But top officials at the agency called both reports misleading, saying that the number of lawsuits is only part of the picture. The agency has focused on settling lawsuits already filed and implementing emission-trading programs, they said. The idea that filing lawsuits is in and of itself beneficial to the environment is a "fundamentally flawed premise," said EPA's Tom Skinner.

Let a Thousand Species Bloom

Organic farming increases biodiversity, research indicates

According to the largest review yet done of studies comparing organic to conventional agriculture, organic farming increases biodiversity at every level, from bacteria to birds to mammals. The two groups that conducted the reviews -- English Nature, a government group, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds -- had no vested interest in organic farming. They concluded that organic farming fosters biodiversity by using fewer inorganic fertilizers and pesticides and by adopting critter-friendly practices like mixing arable and livestock farming. Of particular note to the Royal birders was the flourishing on organic farms of lapwings, a bird species that has declined by 80 percent in the U.K. The researchers, whose results were published in the journal Biological Conservation, did not rule out that farmers inclined to go organic were simply more green to begin with, but either way, we like what we're hearing.

Tricky Richard

Pombo uses taxpayer dollars to campaign for Bush

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), chair of the House Resources Committee, has sent at least 100,000 flyers to voters in swing states praising President Bush's environmental policies -- at taxpayer expense. He's also given his committee staff a month of vacation time immediately preceding the election, presumably so they can focus on helping Republican candidates get reelected -- that's paid vacation, mind you, again at taxpayer expense. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) called these two moves a "combined unprecedented crescendo of politicization" of House committee budgets. Individual House members must cease sending taxpayer-funded mailings 90 days before an election and must submit their mailings for approval by the House Administration Committee, but committees face no such restrictions. Pombo has requested more funds for official postage than any other committee chair -- $250,000 this year, though he only ended up getting $50,000. Prior to 2003, the largest annual committee postage budget was $8,000.

Well Run Dry

Many states lack money to enforce Clean Water Act

Out of 17 states surveyed, 11 say they do not have the money necessary to fully enforce the Clean Water Act, according to a study by the nonprofit Center for Progressive Regulation. California, for instance, enforces only 23 percent of federal wastewater standards and only 60 percent of storm-water standards. Georgia says it has 20 percent of the money it needs, Wyoming 29 percent. Environmental groups certainly agree that states aren't doing a good enough job of enforcing the act: Last month, the Environmental Integrity Project said several Great Lakes states were failing to enforce storm-water requirements, and last week, enviro groups sued Florida's Department of Environmental Protection, asking that the U.S. EPA take over regulation of the state's water pollution. The states that reported to the CPR survey that they have sufficient money for enforcement generally depend more on fees collected from polluters, said survey director Clifford Rechtschaffen of Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He suggested that other states might want to follow their lead.

Dairy Err

Millions in California anti-pollution money went to, uh, pollution

Almost $70 million in California state bond money designated to fund industry pollution-reducing measures has gone to fund the expansion of polluting mega-dairies in the San Joaquin Valley, the nation's most polluted air basin. In each case, the Pollution Control Financing Authority approved tax-exempt, low-interest loans on the basis of dairies' pledges that expanding would help them divert waste from landfills. Well, funny story ... Turns out dairies never dumped their waste in landfills in the first place. "That's a staff error," said State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who oversees the loan program. Meanwhile, dairies do divert cow poop into massive open-air lagoons where it emits millions of pounds of smog-forming gases a year, a process that none of the dairies were required to change. Angelides, who has made genuine improvements in the loan program since taking it over in 1999, was clearly embarrassed by the fiasco. "If we decide to finance dairies in the future, the pollution controls will be real," he said.