Monday, 11 Apr 2005

You Deserve a Breykjavik

Grist dangles prize, nakedly pursues more readers

Other folks will claim to love you, but will they send you to a remote northern island? We didn't think so. That's the kind of love we've got in our hearts here at Grist. For a limited time, if you get two friends to sign up for our pithy emails, we'll give each of you a chance to win a trip for two to Iceland. The reader we love the most will get round-trip airfare from the U.S., six nights of accommodation, and four day trips. Ten other people we like -- but not in "that way" -- will score jackets from Patagonia. The rest of you get the warmth that comes from knowing you've helped Grist worm into a few more unsuspecting brains.

Johnson Pulls Out

EPA scraps controversial pesticide study

Just two days after Senate Democrats announced they would block Stephen Johnson's confirmation as U.S. EPA administrator until the contentious Children's Health Environmental Exposure Research Study was cancelled, Johnson bowed to pressure, reversed the agency's previous wait-and-see position, and pulled the plug. The creepily acronymed CHEERS would have given a group of low-income families in Florida $970 and a camcorder in exchange for exposing their small children to pesticides and taping the results. Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) have said they will no longer block a vote on Johnson's confirmation. Says Johnson, "I am committed to ensuring that EPA's research is based on sound science with the highest ethical standards." Cheers to that.


Arni Finnsson of the Iceland Nature Conservation Association fights to protect his country's highland wilderness areas and worries about what climate change will do to his homeland and the whole planet. As this week's InterActivist, Finnsson laments his government's efforts to bad-mouth conservationists, offers his support for the McCain-Lieberman climate-change bill in the U.S., and tells you, dear reader, "Don't send your love, send money." Toss a question of your own at Finnsson by noon PDT on Wednesday, April 13; we'll publish his responses to selected questions on Friday.

World War CO2

Feds, states, and interest groups face off in court over carbon dioxide

An epic environmental case got a day in court on Friday, as a coalition of 12 states, several cities, and 13 nonprofit organizations squared off against the federal government, 11 states, and 19 industry groups before a panel of three judges in a federal appeals court. At issue is the U.S. EPA's authority to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. The Bush administration and its allies say the agency has no such authority. The plaintiffs say that's bunk, noting that the act calls on the EPA to regulate any pollutant that "may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare," and that it even specifically mentions "climate." Said the plaintiffs' lead lawyer, James R. Milkey, "You don't have to look far to find the authority that the EPA says is missing." The judges may take months to issue an opinion, and that opinion will surely be appealed.

Oil and Peace Don't Mix

Oil strategists plan for geopolitical drama as demand increases

It's a small world after all -- with an even smaller oil supply. That's what U.S. energy experts, oil companies, and national-security planners are concluding as they try to project America's and the world's oil demand versus declining supplies in coming years. Military planners in particular, aware of the interconnectedness of, if not all things, at least oil markets, intend to spend millions on oil-price-stabilization projects in emerging oil regions like the Caspian Sea and West Africa. One project, to cost $100 million over the next decade, is the Caspian Guard -- a network of special-ops units and police intended to secure oil facilities in the region, though almost none of the Caspian oil will reach U.S. markets. Most worrisome to strategists is the role China and India will play in increasing oil demand worldwide. Already, government-owned oil companies in the two countries are forging production partnerships with Iran and Sudan.

Two Paths Diverged in the Desert ...

Battle between coal and renewables plays out in Nevada

A drama in the small Nevada town of Gerlach is a harbinger of things to come for communities around the U.S. On one side is Sempra Energy, which wants to build a coal-fired power plant that would generate enough energy for 1.5 million households and pipe it west to California and up to the Pacific Northwest. On the other side is a somewhat motley coalition of renewable-energy advocates with a proposal for a collection of wind, solar, and geothermal installations that would do the same for 1.2 million households. The transmission line that would carry the energy doesn't have room for both. Sempra already has funding and can guarantee results, but coal spews smog- and acid rain-forming emissions into the air. The renewable advocates don't quite have funding together, and their technology is less tested, but it runs clean. As ranch owner David Rumsey put it, "The difficult political decision in Nevada is: Do we take this old-fashioned coal plant, or do we wait?"