Thursday, 09 Jun 2005

Al Gore, once derided by the right as a stiff, wooden Ozone Man, is now recasting himself as the fiery, headstrong Climate Avenger -- an image that may land him a role on the big screen (and not in the Day After Tomorrow sequel). The former veep put his passion and oratorical prowess on display most recently at a World Environment Day event in San Francisco. Muckraker was there to witness the virtuoso performance.

The Swamp Bling

Bushies sought to overpay GOP supporters for Everglades mineral rights

The Bush administration agreed to grossly overpay Florida's family-owned Collier Resources Co. for oil and gas rights on 400,000 acres in the Everglades, according to Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney. In 2002, Interior Secretary Gale Norton triumphantly announced the deal as "a win for all sides" that would help protect the fragile wetlands. But Devaney's report reveals that while the Colliers would have won big, taxpayers would have been bilked to the tune of $120 million (plus tax breaks) for mineral rights worth an estimated $5 million to $68 million. In brokering the deal -- which has since fallen apart -- Interior officials ignored legal requirements and the objections of career federal employees, and failed to report fully to Congress. In fact, Devaney found evidence that Interior had already effectively paid Collier for the same rights back in 1988. In a shocking coincidence, members of the Collier family contributed more than $121,000 to Republican candidates during the last election cycle, including at least $5,000 to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Acres and Pains

Senate panel recommends tighter regulation of land conservancies

A two-year investigation by the Senate Finance Committee may lead to big changes in federal regulation of America's land conservancies. The panel's report recommends that the IRS "consider revoking the tax-exempt status of a conservation organization that regularly and continuously fails to monitor and enforce conservation easements" -- and that it fine officers and directors of such groups. The investigation was spurred by dubious doings at The Nature Conservancy, initially uncovered in a 2003 investigative series by The Washington Post. The alleged misdeeds of the organization included incomplete financial reporting, insider land deals with Conservancy trustees who then got huge tax breaks, buying land and services from corporations whose execs sat on the group's board, and letting owners build, drill, or log on supposedly protected land. The Conservancy says the report focuses mostly on past practices that it has reformed.

Tender Loving Scare

Babies in intensive care endangered by hormone-altering plastics

Infants in hospital intensive care units have much higher levels of a hormone-altering chemical in their bodies than other newborns, according to a new study. The chemical, a phthalate called DEHP, is often added to vinyl -- including some medical devices commonly used in natal intensive care -- to make it pliable. It's considered especially dangerous to baby boys, as it's been shown to block testosterone and cause testicular damage in laboratory animals. Scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health found that babies receiving the most intensive care at two Boston-area hospitals had the highest levels of DEHP of all newborns tested -- up to 17 times higher than children in the general U.S. population. The FDA has recommended that hospitals cut back on using devices containing phthalates, but doesn't require it. Alternatives are available, but many hospitals don't use them. Health Care Without Harm, a coalition of 435 groups from 53 nations, is urging hospitals to immediately switch to equipment that is DEHP-free.

Nothing to See Here, Folks

White House defends revisions of scientific reports on climate change

The White House scrambled into damage-control mode after The New York Times revealed yesterday that a former oil lobbyist had revised scientific government reports on climate change to enhance the appearance of uncertainty. Pushed in a press briefing to respond to charges that the edits made by Philip Cooney, chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, were part of a pattern of science distortion and politicization by the administration, White House spokesflack Scott McClellan defended the changes as part of standard review procedure and claimed they didn't undermine the practice of sound science. "I'm going to tell what the facts are," he said. "And the facts are that there is an interagency review process with a number of agencies involved that are impacted by -- or that are involved in -- these decisions, in these reports. And many people have input into that interagency review process." Glad we got that all cleared up.