Friday, 19 Aug 2005

The "Road to Detroit" biodiesel and veggie-oil tour bus made its triumphal arrival in Motown last night, wrapping up a 12,000-mile journey that took it to 26 states to spread word about the need for cleaner cars and a smarter national energy vision. The bus riders, other student activists, and assorted do-gooders are now convening in Detroit for a weekend of rallying and rabble-rousing, which will culminate when they deliver to Ford thousands of signatures on their Clean Car Pledge. What, you haven't signed it yet? Get moving!

Ranch Dressing-Down

Rancher wins defamation claim against conservation nonprofit

An Arizona rancher has employed activist tactics to win a lawsuit against a conservation group, and his success may inspire other ranchers to fight back against greens. Jim Chilton took the Center for Biological Diversity to court last year for defamation, after the group posted photos to its website showing destruction on land that Chilton has long leased for grazing from the U.S. Forest Service. The center claimed that bad grazing practices caused the devastation. Chilton produced new photographs of the same areas, shot from different angles, to support his contention that the center exaggerated its claims. In January, a jury awarded Chilton $600,000, including $500,000 in punitive damages. Paying up may devastate the center, says cofounder Kieran Suckling. The group is planning to appeal. Suckling admits that its photos weren't representative of all the land Chilton leases, but, he says, "What law in the universe says I'm not allowed to take pictures showing [just] damaged areas?"


Got questions about biodiesel? Rob Elam's got answers. As cofounder of Seattle-based biodiesel company Propel Fuels, he's had lots of practice correcting misconceptions about the alternative fuel. As this week's InterActivist, he responds to reader queries about emissions from biodiesel vehicles, ways to persuade local service stations to offer the fuel, home-brewing, and more.

Tender Is the Nitrogen

Lower summer ozone levels give Eastern lungs a break

Summer air quality has improved in 19 Eastern states, thanks to a federally mandated cap-and-trade system for nitrogen oxides*. According to a report released yesterday by the U.S. EPA, nitrogen-oxide emissions from power plants and other sources in the region were about 50 percent lower in 2004 than in 2000, leading to a drop in ozone concentrations of about 10 percent. The federal plan, implemented under the Clean Air Act, sets overall state caps for emissions, but allows dirtier plants to meet their targets by buying credits from cleaner ones. Some eco-advocates have criticized this approach, saying it allows plant owners to evade upgrades to the best available pollution-reduction technology, while others laud the combo of mandatory limits with market mechanisms. The feds argue that cap-and-trade gives operators an incentive to control emissions from the biggest sources first. But all sectors hailed Thursday's lung-friendly news as a sign of much-needed progress.

*[Correction, 22 Aug 2005: This summary originally stated the cap-and-trade system and power-plant emissions were of nitrous oxides. Instead, the pollutants in question are nitrogen oxides.]

The 0.7 Percent Absolution

Portland retracts claim that its CO2 emissions dropped below 1990 levels

Breaking the hearts of factoid-citers everywhere, the city of Portland, Ore., has issued a correction to its widely hailed announcement that last year its carbon-dioxide emissions dipped below 1990 levels. Thanks to a subtle data-entry mistake, the figures were miscalculated, and 2004 levels were actually 0.7 percent above 1990 levels. The city discovered the discrepancy when it supplied the data backing up its announcement to various researchers, including some from the Cascade Policy Institute, an Oregon-based libertarian think tank. CPI has made much of the less-than-one-percent error, publicly urging the city to retract its claim. Portland posted a corrected report on the web and sent out a press release that acknowledged the error but pointed out that its CO2 emissions have still fallen for the fourth consecutive year. Which is more than can be said for some countries we know.