Tuesday, 17 May 2005

Friends With Benefits

Saudi-owned company set to profit from proposed MTBE liability shield

OK, kids, follow the bouncing red ball: The Republican energy bill, pending in the Senate, is advertised as a way to gain independence from Saudi Arabian oil (boing!). Part of the energy bill, included at the insistence of Texas Rep. Tom DeLay (R), is a provision shielding makers of groundwater-polluting, potentially cancer-causing gas additive MTBE from liability lawsuits, despite projected costs of $8 billion to $29 billion to clean up MTBE contamination (boing!). One of the major companies that produces MTBE and would benefit from the liability shield is SABIC -- which has spent some $1.5 million lobbying for it and happens to have a big research and technology center in Sugar Land, Texas, DeLay's home base (boing!). SABIC is largely owned by the Saudi government (boi... wait, wha?). "The standard sound bite we've been getting for the last five years is that [the energy bill] will reduce our dependence on foreign oil," says Keith Ashdown of the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Now it's about how to subsidize foreign oil regimes." Boing!

Mr. Hanky

Bush touts biofuels and his energy bill

With his approval ratings plunging due in part to high gas prices, President Bush is fighting back by ... sniffing a hanky. Let us explain. Yesterday, Bush visited a biodiesel refinery in West Point, Va., to tout the alternative-fuel subsidies in his energy bill, which the Senate will begin considering this week. He praised biodiesel as a clean-burning fuel, even going so far as to closely inspect a handkerchief that had been held over a biodiesel exhaust pipe, noting that it "remained white." He said dependence on foreign oil is "like a foreign tax on the American Dream," adding that "every time we use homegrown biodiesel, we support American farmers, not foreign oil producers." Virginia resident Phyllis Karhatsu was impressed: "He's the type of person you can see as a father or a brother. He's a great leader." Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) was not: "No photo-op can hide the fact that the Bush energy plan gives 90 percent of its tax breaks to big oil and gas and other fossil fuels, and less than 10 percent to alternative sources of energy."

Sick Transit Gloria

Public transit in major cities on collision course with tight budgets

Flat or declining revenue and ridership, coupled with increased fuel costs, have left public transit systems in many major cities across the U.S. in financial trouble. Commuters in New York, D.C., Pittsburgh, and Boston have already seen boosted fares over the past few years. Philadelphia and San Francisco are considering similar measures, and Chicago has proposed reducing service, eliminating routes, and hiking fares to account for a $55 million budget hole. Though the cuts are meant to ease financial problems, higher fares and reduced service often lead to a decline in ridership, says William Millar of the American Public Transportation Association. With fewer commuters taking buses, subways, and trains, automobile traffic -- along with associated delays and environmental nasties -- is likely to increase. "We're providing an essential public service with transportation, and there still is a fairly large segment of the population that's dependent on transit," says civil engineering professor Alan Horowitz. "We have to decide as a society if this is something we want to support."

U.S. Companies: Working to Keep Europeans Safe

American firms conforming to E.U. chemical regs

Though the U.S. was once a global leader in environmental regulation, that is, to put it mildly, no longer true. Now, the real challenge for many U.S. companies is complying with the stringent standards that govern the European Union market -- if they want to reach its 460 million consumers. Using a "better safe than sorry" model, the E.U. has instituted hundreds of bans on industrial compounds linked to cancer, reproductive problems, and other ill health effects. The newest piece of such legislation, set for evaluation by European Parliament this fall, would require companies to provide scientific data on some 30,000 chemical compounds, in many cases evaluating their effects on environmental and human health. The testing could cost industries up to $6.8 billion and might involve bans on thousands of chemicals if they can't be proven safe. "In the E.U., if there is a risk with potentially irreversible impact, we don't wait until the last piece of information," said Rob Donkers, the E.U.'s environmental counselor in Washington, D.C.

Everyone Knows It's Windy

Argentine town may be model for producing hydrogen from wind

The people of Pico Truncado in southern Argentina know the power of the wind that whips through their open land; it rips flags to shreds, dumps dust on clothing, and musses hair. But it also provides more than half of the town's electricity and could bolster its economic future. Pico Truncado already has four working windmills, and a wind-powered hydrogen plant will open in June. A nearby village is participating in a U.N. pilot project as one of five sites worldwide to be powered solely by alternative fuels, and an Argentine oil company has begun looking into financing a $19 billion wind-powered facility in or near Pico Truncado that could export hydrogen around the world. The 15,000 or so residents of the Patagonian town are hoping their, um, windfall will continue, possibly making the area the Middle East of the future. "Why not?" asks resident Mario Salomon. "We lack water, we lack money, but we have never lacked wind. We have plenty to spare."