Thursday, 09 Feb 2006

Less Money, Mo' Problems

Bush's 2007 budget slashes funding for energy conservation

When President Bush said "America is addicted to oil," we thought he meant that was a bad thing. Apparently not: Bush's proposed 2007 budget increases funding for oil and gas drilling on public lands and slashes $100 million from some of the Energy Department's most effective conservation programs. That includes a 30 percent cut to a program that helps poorer Americans weatherize their homes and install efficient heating and air-conditioning systems, and a 9 percent cut to the Energy Star program, which promotes energy-efficient products. Some initiatives authorized by last year's energy bill -- like a $90 million public-outreach campaign to increase energy conservation -- go largely unfunded. But what about all that promised new research into alternative fuels? Oops: Bush's proposed $381 million extra for renewable-energy development falls short of the spending approved in last year's energy bill -- and a fair bit of it is going to nukes. We believe the relevant term here is "enabler."

A Woman Needs a Fish Like a Bicycle Needs ... Oh, Never Mind

One in five U.S. women have high mercury levels, suggests new report

You weren't thinking of having children, were you? Good: One in five American women of childbearing age may have unsafe levels of mercury in their bodies, according to a new report by the Environmental Quality Institute at University of North Carolina-Asheville. In the largest test of mercury contamination in the U.S. to date -- commissioned by Greenpeace and the Sierra Club -- hair samples from over 6,500 volunteers were analyzed. Of the 2,834 women ages 16 to 49 who were tested, 23 percent had mercury levels exceeding the U.S. EPA's recommended safe level of 1 part per million. New York participants had the highest incidence of elevated mercury levels, with Florida, Colorado, and California close behind -- and Asian Americans had average levels significantly higher than African Americans, Latinos, or whites. But, cautions study coauthor Steven Patch, the study sample wasn't random enough to be representative of the overall U.S. population.


You could grow ravenous just gazing at the photographs in two new books on farming and food: In Fields of Plenty, Michael Ableman visits small-scale farmers around the U.S. and chats with these quirky characters about their work, and in Hungry Planet, Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio visit families around the world and watch them eat. Tom Philpott reviews these tasty tomes.

The Sweden Hereafter

Sweden aims to be oil-free in 15 years

It's official: Sweden is the coolest ... country ... evar. Already widely admired for meatballs, Ikea, and, um, other Swedish stuff, the country has now announced its aim to have an oil-free economy by 2020. The Swedes cut the percentage of their energy coming from oil from 77 percent in 1970 to 32 percent in 2003, and they're favoring biofuels over nuclear power to get them down to zero. Only 8 percent of Swedish homes are heated by oil today, and thanks to tax breaks, Swedes can fill their Saabs with ethanol-based fuel for a third less than they'd spend on ordinary gasoline. Upon hearing that President Bush had declared America addicted to oil, Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson expressed relief that "at last there's one more who understands the problem." Guess he didn't get Bush's "didn't mean it" follow-up memo. Awkward! (Note that this blurb contained not a single Swedish Chef joke -- that's the kind of maturity we bring to environmental journalism.)

Derrick Cheater

Bush admin proposes drilling off Florida, Virginia, Alaska coasts

When President Bush said "America is addicted to oil," we thought ... wait, did we say this already? Yesterday, the administration proposed new oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Florida, Virginia, and Alaska -- including areas covered by a long-standing moratorium on offshore energy development. The Interior Department plan estimates these areas could produce 85.9 billion barrels of oil and 419.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The proposal needs approval from both the White House (no worries there) and Congress, where a furious battle seems certain. Virginia's delegation is enthusiastic about possible state revenue, and many inland states (read: some farm and industrial groups) support legislation to let states opt out of the moratorium. But California, Florida, and most other coastal states want to protect their tourism-friendly beaches. We believe the relevant term here is "enabler." Wait, did we already say that?