Tuesday, 22 Aug 2006

You know how you'd ride that spinny ride five times in a row, and you'd have to fight to keep down the cotton candy you'd eaten, and eventually you'd end up laying in the back seat sweaty and sick on the way home? That's the stuff memories are made of! A devoted group of fans doesn't want to let the good times be ruined by bad land-use decisions. As small amusement parks close around the country, they are waging battles to keep developers at bay. Condos by the carousel? Not so fast, some say. Dan Rafter reports.

Radioinactive

Nuclear industry will move forward, but not significantly

The much-heralded revival of the U.S. nuclear industry is moving at a less-than-explosive pace (ha ha!). The slow growth isn't for lack of trying by the Bush administration, whose 2005 energy bill juices the industry with tax credits, insurance, loan guarantees, a ceiling on accident liability damages, and for all we know, free lollipops. For utility executives, though, the decision about whether to move forward with new plants is purely about reward versus financial risk -- not, say, questions of safety and environmental impact -- and neither risks nor rewards are clear. PPL Corp. runs two nuclear reactors, but chair William Hecht has declined to seek more, deciding that shareholder profit would be maximized by cleaning up PPL's coal-fired plants. In contrast, delightfully named Constellation Energy CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III believes his company "can continue to do well in nuclear." Nuclear power supplies less than 20 percent of U.S. electricity; more than 100 senior utility executives surveyed recently do not expect that number to rise.


These days, big ol' companies like Ford and Wal-Mart announce giant eco-initiatives with some regularity. And no matter the details of the announcement du jour, they can be sure they'll receive this response from certain quarters: "It's just greenwashing." But what exactly constitutes greenwashing, and can it actually help businesses improve in the long run? Auden Schendler weighs in.

Like Blight on Rice

U.S. commercial rice crop contaminated with GM strain

The U.S. government admitted last week that its commercial supply of long-grain rice has been contaminated by an illegal, untested, genetically modified strain with the warm-and-fuzzy name of LLRICE 601. The European Union, the biggest importer of U.S. long-grain rice, may decide to delay or ban imports; Japan, which buys very little U.S. long-grain rice, will now be buying none. LLRICE 601, engineered by German biotech company Bayer CropScience to withstand an herbicide, has not been approved for human consumption. U.S. rice supplies from the 2005 harvest were contaminated, even though field testing of LLRICE 601 ended in 2001. Unknowns include where the contaminated rice came from, how widespread it is in the U.S. food supply, and how it occurred. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns stated, "There are no human health, food safety, or environmental concerns associated with" LLRICE 601. And if we never study it, there never will be! Handy.

Adieu, Advisinator

Environmental adviser to Schwarzenegger steps down

Terry Tamminen, influential environmental adviser to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is leaving his post, taking with him some of the green -- ethos, that is. Tamminen, a Democrat, was part of the Governator's inner circle and an outspoken voice for environmental protection. Republicans in the California legislature won't miss him -- "The general perception was he was not pro-California business," says Republican Assemblymember Ray Haynes -- but greens will. "There now is nobody [in the administration] with experience in the environmental movement, and you have to think that's going to make a difference when they have their internal tug of war between the business interests and the environmental promises that the governor has made," says the Sierra Club's Bill Magavern. Tamminen will volunteer for the governor's reelection campaign before leaving; he said he wants to help convince voters of the governor's strong green record. But without Tamminen, would a second Schwarzenegger term be as green?