Thursday, 13 Oct 2005

Green activists and Democrats are hoping the Senate won't pass GAS. They say the Gasoline for America's Security Act flat-out stinks. The bill -- which would weaken environmental laws and give incentives to the already-flush oil industry in a purported attempt to expand refinery capacity -- barely squeaked by the House last week, and the tactics Republican leaders used to shove it through drew cries of "Shame! Shame!" from Democrats on the House floor. Senators seem inclined to pass a more moderate version of the legislation, but environmentalists still have good reason to be nervous. Muckraker surveys the scene.

Helter Swelter

2005 shaping up to be the warmest year on record

Is it warm in here? Readings from about 7,200 weather stations worldwide indicate that 2005 will probably be the hottest ... year ... ever -- breaking 1998's record by about one-tenth of a degree Fahrenheit. The Northern Hemisphere is heating faster, with the average 2005 temperature two-tenths of a degree warmer than in 1998. David Rind from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies says it would take something pretty major, like a big volcanic eruption, to keep 2005 from setting the record. These findings come hot on the heels (ha) of other dramatic signs of climate disruption, from the shrinkage of the Arctic's summer ice cap to August's unusually high sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, which may have contributed to the extra-intense hurricanes this season. It's a predictable outcome of putting so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, says Rind: "At this point, people shouldn't be surprised this is happening."


You know how even though you work with words on a daily basis, poetry scares the bejeezums out of you? Oh, that's just us? Anyhoo, turns out poetry is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, says former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass, it can be a potent tool for eco-activists. OK, we're not saying it'll pierce Gale Norton's marrow or anything -- but the power of verse might just surprise you. Hass dishes up odes of opinions on this and other matters in a conversation with Claire Cain Miller.

Throw Momma From the Pontchartrain

Some post-Katrina floodwaters cleaner than expected

Some of the floodwaters pumped out of New Orleans by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- about 250 billion gallons all told, dumped mostly into Lake Pontchartrain -- may not have been as toxic as initially feared. Researchers at Louisiana State University took samples five to nine days after the deluge and found that, in general, chemical levels in the water were similar to the area's normal rain runoff. The samples did show high levels of sewage contamination, aligning with findings already published by the U.S. EPA, so returnees are being cautioned to protect themselves against possibly germ-laden residual sludge. The study also cautions that the results apply only to residential areas of New Orleans, not industrial areas. Being soaked with the equivalent of a couple years' worth of storm runoff in just a few weeks may ultimately prove hazardous to Lake Pontchartrain's wildlife -- researchers say the state will need to stay on top of monitoring the lake and its critters for trouble.


Formosa Plastics is the self-proclaimed "Jewel of the Texas Gulf Coast." But last week its plant in Point Comfort, Texas ... how to put this ... blew up, sending workers running for their lives. At least 11 ended up in the hospital. This came as no surprise to activists who have followed Formosa's decades-long track record of toxic environmental chicanery. Diane Wilson, whose long fight against the company is recounted in her book An Unreasonable Woman, reports on this recent disaster and how it's all part of a pattern.

Hapless Wetlands

Supreme Court will hear two Clean Water Act cases

The first U.S. Supreme Court session under Chief Justice John Roberts will feature two cases pitting government regulatory power against private property rights -- precisely the area where greens most fear Roberts' jurisprudence. Both cases originated in Michigan, and ask whether the federal government has jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act to regulate development on wetlands that, while part of a tributary system or drainage area, do not directly abut or drain into the "navigable waters" cited in the CWA (sounds thrilling, we know). If it does give the feds this authority, say the landowners, then the act is, in that sense, unconstitutional -- high stakes for one of the nation's cornerstone environmental laws. The commerce-clause-centered case is reminiscent of the case wherein Roberts famously suggested that a "hapless toad" that didn't cross state boundaries shouldn't be protected by the Endangered Species Act. No word yet on when the SCOTUS will hear arguments in the Michigan cases.