Wednesday, 28 Sep 2005

The Apollo Alliance's grand proposal for a 10-year, $300 billion program of government investment in clean-energy technology has elicited rapturous praise from union leaders, progressive thinkers, environmental activists, and hawkish conservatives -- but, two years after the group's founding, what else has it got to show for its efforts? Muckraker reports on a leadership shakeup, clashes over vision, and the alliance's latest strategy for bringing about a clean-energy future.

Re-Pete Performance

Endangered Species Act coauthor wants to oust fellow Republican Pombo

Former Rep. Pete McCloskey (R-Calif.), coauthor of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, is considering a 2006 primary-election run against the man who wants to kill it: Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.). McCloskey, who served in the House from 1967 to 1983, has denounced Pombo's proposed rewrite (read: weakening) of the keystone environmental law, currently fast-tracked for a House vote. He accuses Pombo of losing touch with his Republican roots and kowtowing to his campaign contributors rather than representing his constituents. The septuagenarian moderate says he'll move to California's 11th congressional district himself if another viable Republican challenger doesn't turn up. "This is an administration which has repeatedly derogated or suppressed scientific opinion which opposed the agenda of the politicians," said McCloskey. As for Pombo's recently floated idea of selling off national park sites to help balance the budget, McCloskey said, "It's so transparent ... these guys are selling the store."


Commuting on a trusty 10-speed seems like a healthy way to go about your business. But is it? What about all those fumes you inhale? What about the peril posed by passing trucks? A faithful but doubtful bicyclist wonders whether the risks outweigh the benefits, and Umbra gears herself up to offer an answer everyone can handle.

You've Got Gale

Interior Secretary urges more energy extraction on public lands

According to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, the current vicious hurricane season has taught the Bush administration a lesson, namely: Keep doing the same stuff. She says that Katrina and Rita show the folly of concentrating the nation's fossil-fuel infrastructure in one geographic area, and that the solution is reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. No, we kid! The solution, she told The New York Times, is to continue pushing to open more public lands -- like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and coastal waters -- to energy development. She also expressed support for opening public lands, including national parks, to other activities endorsed by private interests, from cell-phone tower construction to increased snowmobiling. And while she did not explicitly endorse the latest House bill that would weaken the Endangered Species Act, Norton talked up its two principal provisions and spoke of what she considers flaws in the ESA.

Let No Good Seed Go Unpunished

Exposure to heavily polluted air can damage sperm DNA

Turns out air pollution can make a man into a eunuch. Research published this month in the journal Human Reproduction found that the sperm quality of 35 men in Teplice, Czech Republic, diminished significantly in the winter when more fossil fuels were burned and the area's air pollution reached or exceeded the allowable limit for U.S. cities. Impacts could include infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects. But the sperm DNA recovered when air quality improved at other times of the year. "This is the first real evidence that air pollution can damage sperm DNA," said scientist Allan Pacey of the British Fertility Society, "but it is reassuring that the effect is reversible." Experts recommend that men attend to their overall health if they're bent on procreation, but as it takes about three months to produce mature sperm, hopeful dads-to-be should start cleaning up their acts -- and breathing cleaner air -- well ahead of the moment of conception.