Thursday, 29 Jun 2006

Club Afoot

Sierra Club sues Pentagon for holding up new wind farms

The Sierra Club is suing the Defense Department for effectively halting new development of wind farms in the name of homeland security. The suit charges that the department failed to complete a congressionally mandated study on how wind turbines affect military radar by a May 8 deadline; at least 15 new wind projects await completion of the study. "If the military can have windmills and effective radar at Guantanamo, why can't we have both in the Midwest?" asked Sierra Club attorney Kristin Henry, who noted that delayed construction could make wind developers ineligible for federal tax credits that expire after 2007. Meanwhile, the administration pursues security-risky nuclear power like there's no tomorrow -- which, in their defense, there might not be. The feds were breezily unconcerned about the potential impacts of terrorist attacks when conducting environmental reviews of nuke plants until ordered to consider those impacts by a recent court decision.


When was the last time you had something other than your car repaired, rather than just throwing it away and buying a new one? Yeah, exactly. As Giles Slade explains in his new book Made to Break, that insidious pattern of consumption, of buying and tossing and buying again, actually began more than a century ago. How did our disposable culture get its start, and where will it go from here? Elizabeth Grossman chats with the author and reviews the book, adding a few notes from her own tome on the topic of high-tech trash.

With Our Tailpipe Between Our Legs

U.S. cars are tops in CO2 emissions

The U.S. boasts 30 percent of the world's cars and is responsible for almost half of global car-caused greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a new report by Environmental Defense. American-driven cars emit 15 percent more carbon dioxide per mile than the global average (meaning, in essence, they get worse gas mileage). Plus, Americans just drive more: 29 percent above the global average. In 2004, U.S. cars and light trucks drove the equivalent of the distance to and from Pluto ... more than 470 times. Small cars in toto emit more CO2 than SUVs because there are more of them, but lead author John DeCicco predicts SUVs will become a larger percentage of the U.S. car fleet over the next few years, as older cars are scrapped while relatively recent SUVs stay on the road. Environmental Defense hopes the report will encourage the feds to consider higher fuel-economy standards and emissions caps. We're not holding our breath. Or rather, we're just holding it to avoid inhaling the fumes.

Bad Vibrations

Seismic movement could assist in oil production

Like so much else in this crazy world, earthquakes are bad for you but potentially good for oil companies. Seismic shaking appears to increase permeability of underground rocks, leading to easier oil flow. "[T]his has practical implications for oil extraction," says University of California scientist Emily Brodsky, who with two other researchers published findings in Nature. Artificially shaking the ground, the researchers believe, could help extractors obtain oil from natural reservoirs; scientists already use vibroseis trucks (trucks that shake the ground) to take a sort of X-ray of the earth, determining the structure of rocks and locating oil. "Potentially if you could increase permeability you could greatly increase the available oil you could tap out of a reserve," Brodsky said. The researchers are now working to pinpoint the amplitude and frequency of seismic waves that best get the oil flowin'.

Another Fine Mess

GAO says EPA is sloppy and plagued with management problems

Well, here's a shocker: the U.S. EPA is inconsistent in its environmental enforcement and keeps sloppy records. That's what the Government Accountability Office told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works yesterday. Upon reviewing reports and studies from the past six years, the GAO discovered that the EPA's 10 regional offices disagree on which regulations to enforce and how to penalize polluters. In 2001, the GAO recommended that the agency create a management plan to better organize employees and develop an accurate budget detailing where money was needed. Looks like that didn't happen: In the past five years, the small changes the agency has made have had "minor impact," said the GAO. We expect the administration will be outraged by the discovery that a major federal agency is falling short and step right up with reforms. After all, look what's happening at FEMA. Or ... don't.