Thursday, 28 Jul 2005

Ever wondered where your trash goes after the guys in the big truck come and take it away? Yeah, us too. Ever set out on a journey to track every bit of your trash to its respective landfill, recycling plant, and electronics-disassembling operation in a remote Chinese village? Yeah, us neither. Luckily, Elizabeth Royte did, and wrote a ripping good book about it: Garbage Land. Reviewer Jim Motavalli takes a big whiff.

Gas-Muzzler

EPA holds back negative report on U.S. auto fuel efficiency

According to a report not released Wednesday by the U.S. EPA, loopholes in U.S. fuel-economy standards let automakers produce cars and trucks much less fuel-efficient than models 20 years ago. On Tuesday, the same day the long-debated energy bill emerged from congressional negotiations, EPA opted to keep the report to itself for another week. An agency spokesflack says it's being reviewed for clarity and thoroughness, but some think the delay has a peculiar smell. Says the Sierra Club's Daniel Becker, "Something's fishy when the Bush administration delays a report showing no improvement in fuel economy until after passage of their energy bill, which fails to improve fuel economy." According to the report, the average 2004 auto sold in the U.S. got 6 percent fewer miles per gallon than one from the late 1980s, both because of the rising popularity of SUVs and because advances in engine technology have largely been used to make vehicles more powerful rather than more fuel efficient.

Dirty Financing

Dirty-energy tax breaks total over $8.5 billion in energy bill

Highly profitable dirty-power industries may be treated to even fatter bottom lines thanks to the energy bill that emerged this week from congressional conference committee. It would dedicate more than $8.5 billion in tax breaks over the next 10 years to oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear power, and electric utilities. Nukes alone would get $1.5 billion in direct subsidies, $2 billion in "risk insurance," and loan guarantees for future new reactor construction. Says a nuke industry spokesflack, "This is a great bill." After the bill was out of committee, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) snuck in another lump o' pork: a $1.5 billion fund designed to funnel taxpayer money to oil and gas companies, with some $1 billion of the fund to be administered by a private consortium composed largely of -- you guessed it -- oil and gas companies. Coincidentally (ahem), the likely consortium is based in DeLay's home district in Sugar Land, Texas. As for solar and wind power, plus conservation and efficiency initiatives, over the next 10 years they'd collectively see about $4.3 billion in tax breaks.


Yesterday, a letter signed by reps from more than a dozen environmental organizations was sent to Congress with a strong message about the energy bill that recently emerged from conference committee: it stinks. It does nothing to wean the U.S. from its dependence on foreign oil. It ladles subsidies on mature, already-profitable, heavily polluting industries. It shortchanges renewables and conservation efforts. Today, the folks from the Apollo Alliance circulated an op-ed about the energy bill saying that it does nothing to wean the U.S. from dependence on foreign oil, and it ladles ... hey, wait a minute. Stop by Gristmill to read them both.

Thrill Spill Cult

Water should keep pouring over Northwest dams to aid salmon, court says

Salmon will continue to find a watery way over several Northwest dams. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week voted to uphold a federal judge's June order for the feds to aid migrating salmon by spilling water over five dams in the Columbia and Snake river systems in the Northwest. A three-judge panel of the appeals court specifically endorsed Judge James Redden's finding that 13 endangered species of salmon and steelhead in the region are not "evidencing signs of recovery" under the federal government's current management plan, which emphasizes barging or trucking the fish around dams so as not to disrupt hydroelectric power generation. More than half of the spring-summer run of Snake River chinook salmon are killed each year as they pass through dam turbines. The Bush administration had appealed Redden's order, arguing the spillage made this year's slower, hotter river conditions even more dangerous to tender young salmon.

Beach Blanket Politico

Green activist Donna Frye leading in race for mayor of San Diego

San Diego may soon get a jolt of green in City Hall. Veteran surfer chick and longtime environmental activist Donna Frye (D) took 43 percent of the vote in the city's mayoral election on Tuesday, far ahead of the 27 percent earned by her closest contender, but short of the majority needed to win without a runoff. Frye, who's served on the San Diego City Council since 2001, will now face former Police Chief Jerry Sanders (R) in a November runoff election. Last November, Frye ran as a write-in candidate against then-Mayor Dick Murphy (R). Although she got more votes, she didn't get the job; a judge threw out thousands of ballots as technically invalid because voters didn't fill in the bubble next to the line where they wrote in Frye's name. Since then, both Murphy and his replacement have resigned in a cloud of scandal, giving Frye another shot at the spot. Co-owner of a surf shop, she has long been active in local good-government and environmental campaigns in San Diego.