Thursday, 07 Apr 2005

Johnson Blocking

Democratic Senators stall confirmation of new EPA head

When President Bush chose 24-year U.S. EPA veteran, scientist, and all-around mild-mannered dude Stephen Johnson to head the agency, observers expected no controversy. But Johnson's ongoing confirmation hearings are proving them wrong. It seems those pesky Democrats can always find something to complain about -- like, um, poisoning children. Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) pledged to put a parliamentary hold on Johnson's confirmation until he unequivocally promised to halt the Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study (or -- macabre irony alert -- CHEERS). The research program, sponsored by the EPA and the American Chemistry Council, offered families $970 (and a camcorder!) if they agreed to expose their children to pesticides and allow researchers to study the effects. The program was suspended last year, and Johnson said its future hinged on the outcome of ongoing ethical and scientific reviews. But that did not satisfy Boxer, who said the hold would stay put "until this program is canceled -- no ifs, ands, or buts."


Why, oh why, wonders one reader, is nuclear power getting reconsideration as a potentially greenish source of energy? To answer, advice maven Umbra Fisk consults a life-cycle analyzer who says, well, there's this thing called climate change ...

Spare the Rod, Foil the Riled

Spent nuclear fuel vulnerable to terrorist attacks, experts warn

Despite its renewed popularity (even Umbra's giving it a second look!), nuclear power makes the eggheads at the National Academy of Sciences nervous. Specifically, a new NAS report raises red flags about the dangers posed by possible terrorist attacks on the pools of spent fuel rods stored at nuclear reactors all over the country. Such attacks could set off fires and spread radiation in the surrounding environment, the scientists warn, urging that each of the country's 103 commercial reactors be evaluated to determine if alternative storage methods would be safer. Nuclear-safety advocates praised the report, saying it acknowledged for the first time the vulnerability of spent fuel. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and nuke-industry officials disagree with the report's authors and say the spent-fuel pools would not make for easy targets. Says industry spokesflack Craig Nesbit, "I am more worried about getting hit by a meteor walking out of my front door in the morning." We think he intends that to be comforting.

The Full Altamonty

Pombo questioned on wind-power conflict of interest

Ah, they grow up so fast! You can tell that wind energy has joined the ranks of mature industries -- it's now got its very own scandal over accusations of improper influence peddling. Aides to Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), it seems, sent a letter to Interior Department officials pressuring them to suspend environmental regulations that govern the wind industry and threaten to reduce income from the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, in which Pombo's parents have a significant financial stake. What a coinkydink! The regulations seek to reduce the number of birds sliced and diced by wind turbines, and Altamont is among the industry's worst bird killers. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service -- of which Pombo is a vocal critic -- several hundred raptors are killed there each year. Pombo says his precocious aides sent the letter without ever showing it to him, and anyway, in all the time he's spent working at his parents' Altamont ranch, he's never seen a dead eagle or protected bird. Glad that's cleared up.

The Kids on the Bus Go Cough, Cough, Cough

Kids on school buses breathe more dangerous air than pedestrians

Kids who ride the bus to school may be exposed to higher levels of pollutants than those outside on the street, a new study suggests. Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley measured the air inside six school buses on a route through Los Angeles and found that exhaust was leaking inside the passenger space. According to Julian Marshall, the lead researcher, a child on a school bus may inhale some seven to 70 times more harmful fumes from that one bus than a typical L.A. pedestrian takes from the total school-bus emissions in the area. "Because so many children ride school buses," Marshall says, "reducing the emissions of a school bus would give policy-makers more bang for their buck than the same reduction of emissions from other diesel vehicles."