Monday, 08 May 2006

Cape of Good Hope

Cape Wind outlook better after Bush administration voices support

The controversial Cape Wind project planned for Nantucket Sound has found new allies in a strange place: the Bush administration. On Thursday, Undersecretary of Energy David Garman sent a letter urging Congress to drop a measure that would allow the Massachusetts governor (currently Mitt Romney, a Cape Wind opponent) to block the wind farm. Garman points out that New England is struggling to meet energy demands and says the measure would "inhibit the development of this clean, domestic, renewable energy resource." A bipartisan group of Congressfolk has also announced that they will try to kill the amendment, attached to a Coast Guard spending bill. "It sets a terrible precedent," said Senate Energy Committee Chair Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) vowed to continue fighting for the measure, saying that Cape Wind is a sweetheart deal for the developer -- and a really bad deal for the view from his family's estate.


Some 50 million dirty diapers hit U.S. landfills every day, say Jason and Kimberley Graham-Nye, cofounders -- or dad and mum -- of gDiapers, a company making flushable baby-bum covers that put poop where it belongs: in the toilet. As InterActivists this week, Jason and Kimberley leak details about an upcoming fashion line, spout off about cigarette butts on beaches, and more. Send them your burningest questions by noon PDT on Wednesday; we'll publish answers to selected questions on Friday.

Mardi Gross

New Orleans opens new landfill without environmental safeguards

Without environmental studies or community consultation, a new landfill has been opened on the eastern edge of New Orleans. The site is less than two miles from a community of more than a thousand Vietnamese-American families and across a canal from the largest urban wildlife refuge in the country. Oh, and the landfill will lack certain safeguards, because the government says Hurricane Katrina-generated trash is cleaner than other garbage -- even though the definition of demolition debris was expanded in the wake of the storm to include most house contents, from moldy furniture to electronics to bleach. "[T]here's nothing toxic, nothing hazardous. There will be no impact [on the community]," says Chuck Carr Brown of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, which issued the landfill permit. Not so, says a Vietnamese reverend worried about groundwater contamination and vowing to fight the landfill: "They're threatening our very existence."


You've probably given some thought to organic fruits and vegetables, to organic meats, to organic milk. But what about nuts? Should you be worried about pesticides on your pecans? Crud on your cashews? Alar on your almonds? Advice maven Umbra Fisk cracks the case today.

Not Wade Away

U.S. streams in sad shape, says EPA analysis

It's Monday and most of the streams in the U.S. are in bad shape. Can we go back to bed? A U.S. EPA study finds that 42 percent of "wadeable" U.S. streams are in poor condition, 25 percent are fair, and only 28 percent are good (OK, math geeks, 5 percent were not analyzed because of sampling problems). Streams running between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean fared the worst, with 52 percent listed as poor. And the blame goes to: human sewage, erosion, and logging and farming practices that pollute streams with nitrogen and phosphorus. "The data collected through this study will help support better water-quality protection," said the EPA's Benjamin Grumbles, whose name we never tire of. None too soon, says Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group: "We passed the Clean Water Act 35 years ago, and this is the first time we've taken a look at our small rivers and streams."