Tuesday, 13 Jun 2006

Touched by an Angelo

Bush admin weakens water-pollution rules after oil exec intervenes

When Clinton administration regulators announced they were working on a rule that would require special EPA permits for oil and gas drilling sites, to prevent water pollution, the oil and gas industry lumbered into action, lobbying furiously to thwart the rule. Then the Bush administration came into office, and their job got easier. In 2002, Ernest Angelo -- Texas oilman and longtime hunting buddy of Karl Rove -- sent a letter to Rove. He complained about the rule and said many oil types "openly express doubt as to the merit of electing Republicans when we wind up with this type of stupidity." Rove forwarded the letter to Bush environmental advisers, asking to "get a response ASAP." Mere weeks later, a top EPA official wrote Angelo and assured him that the rule was being delayed. Now, as of yesterday, the rule has been implemented in dramatically weakened form. And that, friends, is a parable for our times.


Industry has long been a favorite subject of artists, from bustling factory floors to towering smokestacks on the horizon. Now wind-energy art is getting its moment in the spotlight. An exhibit on display at last week's American Wind Energy Association conference, and perusable online, aims to showcase the beauty of the turbine. Is it a new genre, or just pretty PR? Mark Baard talked to the exhibit's organizer and artists to find out.

Let's Feed Them Some Oil Execs

Hungry polar bears eating each other

We can't think of anything funny to say about this: polar bears, deprived of their natural food by longer seasons without ice, may be turning to cannibalism. In the journal Polar Biology, American and Canadian scientists reviewed three cases of polar bear cannibalism in early 2004 in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska. The kills included a mama bear in her den, a case described in graphic detail by the researchers, insuring that we won't be able to sleep for a week. Polar bears usually eat ringed seals; they kill each other for population regulation, dominance, and reproductive advantage, but in over two decades of study, scientists had never seen polar bears stalk, kill, and eat each other. "This is not a Coca-Cola commercial," said Deborah Williams of green group Alaska Conservation Solutions. "This represents the brutal downside of global warming." You can say that again.

The Electric Tide

Tidal-energy project could come to Nantucket Sound

Nantucket Sound and Cape Cod in Massachusetts are awash in alt-energy proposals: in addition to two offshore wind projects (with which loyal Grist readers are all too familiar), a third developer is now considering a tidal-energy project off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. Seven other sites across the U.S. are also being considered for the project, which would use underwater propellers to harness energy from ocean currents. Charles B. Cooper of the tidal project's consulting company, clearly having learned a lesson from the wind-farm bickering, stated that the project would consider "aesthetic impact" and would "allow all other uses [of the sound] and not preempt any of them." As with the wind farms, residents have raised concern about for-profit developers seizing public space. New England is in dire need of new energy sources: the region's power-grid operator has warned of the possibility of rolling blackouts as soon as mid-2008.

Lightning in a Bottle

Bottled-water companies spur fights over water rights in Eastern states

Water-rights battles, long the domain of Western states, are now being fought in the Eastern U.S., thanks to the bottled-water industry. In 1980, Americans drank less than three gallons of bottled water per capita annually; today, the number tops 26 gallons. Activists worry that large-scale water withdrawals deplete local wells, rivers, and wetlands. New Hampshire and Vermont have both tightened restrictions on large-scale water withdrawals this year, and a similar bill is pending in Michigan. In Maine, where bottling company Poland Spring slurps up at least 600 million gallons of water a year, a citizens group wants to require bottling companies to bid for water, with proceeds going to the state. Bottling companies say they're being targeted unfairly, and point to a recent survey that found that only 0.019 percent of all withdrawn U.S. groundwater is bottled. State officials smell jobs and have largely sided with bottlers. "The amount of water that could be used in Maine for this type of activity is an endless supply," says the commissioner of, ironically, Maine's Department of Conservation.

AZM Grace

EPA will phase out highly toxic pesticide

If you've been avoiding Brussels sprouts because of pesticide contamination -- as opposed to the grossness -- you're in luck: by next year, the U.S. EPA plans to phase out organophosphate azinphos-methyl (AZM) on the odiferous buds, as well as on nuts and nursery stocks. By 2010, AZM would be banned completely, affecting growers of apples, blueberries, cherries, pears, and parsley. AZM, known by the trade name Guthion and used to kill codling moths, has been applied widely to crops since the late 1950s. In 2001, EPA research determined that apple pickers could not safely re-enter AZM-sprayed fields for 102 days; the agency then set the worker re-entry standard at 14 days. Farmworkers and enviros sued the EPA in 2004, saying the agency shouldn't permit use of a chemical that could cause dizziness, vomiting, seizures, paralysis, loss of mental function, and death. AZM alternatives are "all more expensive on a per-acre basis," says the director of a tree-fruit research center. "But they are all less toxic to humans." Hmm, tough call.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (and the Next Day)

Daily Grist takes a two-day break

There will be no Daily Grist on Wednesday or Thursday this week. We Gristian editors are retreating to our top-secret mountaintop redoubt to plot, scheme, conspire, and lay the groundwork for our inevitable world domination (and our impending office move; more -- actually, much more -- on that soon ...). While we're gone, write your representatives, visit your local farmers' market, see Gore's movie, or hell, just clean out your sock drawer. We'll see you on Friday.