Monday, 02 Apr 2007

Supreme Slapdown

Supreme Court rules against Bush administration in global-warming case

In a landmark Supreme Court case -- the first ever on the issue of global warming -- the court has ruled that carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act and that the U.S. EPA should regulate it as such. Boo-yah! The ruling is the latest in a long series of blows to the beleaguered and increasingly isolated Bush administration. The case of Massachusetts v. EPA put three questions before the court. The first is whether states have the right to sue the EPA over this issue -- whether they have "standing." The court said: yes. The second was whether carbon dioxide fits the Clean Air Act definition of an air pollutant, thus giving the EPA the right to regulate it. The court said: yes. The third was whether, given that right, the EPA has to regulate it. On that question, SCOTUS strongly urged the EPA to reconsider its refusal to address the issue. The ruling split the court 5-4, with conservative justices dissenting.

Chaos and Effect

New climate report from IPCC will have bad news and worse news

On Friday, a comprehensive new report will map the likely effects of global warming -- and it ain't pretty. The good news is, we can expect higher food production in northern, more affluent regions. Whee! Now the bad news: globally, we can expect increased poverty and starvation, drinking-water shortages, more infectious diseases, flooding, drought, heat waves, melting glaciers, disappearing islands, vanishing species, and the continuing popularity of reality TV. The report is the second of four expected from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this year. The first, in February -- perhaps you heard about it? -- covered the basic science. The report this Friday is on "Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability." Cheat sheet: we're vulnerable, impacts will be nasty, and we'd better adapt. But don't worry, says one scientist: "The worst stuff is not going to happen because we can't be that stupid." Ha ha! Nothing like a little humor to brighten up some cataclysmically depressing news. In a month, the IPCC will release its report on ways we can battle climate change. Finally.


David James Duncan nearly became the hippie leader of the low-income golf revolution -- but found his calling as a writer and activist instead. This week, the river guardian and author of bestselling fly-fishing novel The River Why is Grist's InterActivist. With trademark passion and wry humor, he opines on entering the Eternal Now, why he hates the word "environmental," and how he justifies his tendency toward profanity. Send Duncan a question by noon PDT on Wednesday; we'll publish his answers to selected questions on Friday.

Nom de Doom

Bush renominates controversial industry folk to environmental positions

President Bush is recycling -- nominees, that is. To fill three top environmental jobs in his administration, Bush has re-suggested three folks with ties to polluting industries, all of whom were blocked by Congress the first time they were nominated. William Wehrum, temporary-seeking-permanent administrator for the EPA's air office, has previously proposed discontinuing maximum air lead limits; Alex A. Beehler, EPA inspector-general wannabe, has lobbied to weaken standards for perchlorate in drinking water; and Susan Dudley, hopeful for White House regulations chief, once wrote that in calculating drinking-water arsenic levels, the EPA should value older people's lives less than younger people's. This time around, Bush may avoid the congressional approval process by making recess appointments while the Senate is on break. Says Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), "I view it as an enormous threat to public health that the president refuses to back off." Guess a Decider's gotta do what a Decider's gotta do.

Forest Eviction

Judge tosses out Bush administration's forest-management rules

Heads-up to the Bush administration: You can't always get what you want. (As always, the Rolling Stones know best.) On Friday, a federal judge tossed out the administration's revised forest-management rules, issued in 2005, which allowed national forest managers to approve logging, mining, cell-phone towers, and other commercial projects without undergoing environmental reviews. The U.S. Forest Service had claimed that the new rules were environmentally benign, but had failed to undertake any studies showing that species were unaffected. Siding with 15 green groups, U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that the administration did not adequately consider the environmental effects of the new rules and failed to properly gather public comment. Says Peter Frost of the Western Environmental Law Center, "I think people who love wildlife and care for our public forest should be elated by this decision." Better elate than never.


In a cruel blow to parents everywhere, it's becoming clearer and clearer that the kid-friendly equipment many families rely on -- baby bottles, plastic cups, even rubber duckies -- contains chemicals that are, well, unfriendly to kids. Today, a mother asks advice maven Umbra Fisk if she should worry about sippy cups, and Umbra has no choice but to answer in the affirmative. Lamenting our collective plight, she manages to get juiced about alternative materials and resources.

Massachusetts Passes Wind

Cape Wind gets state OK, boosting chances it will get built

If you're not up on the history of the controversial Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, here's the brief version: It's alive! It's dead! It's alive! It's dead! Repeat. Our news today: It's alive! Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's (D) administration declared Friday that the proposed 130-turbine offshore-wind project would do more environmental good than harm; this will allow the project's developers to pursue other state permits. The decision is sure to fire up more bitterness between Cape Wind's advocates, anxious to see movement on a large-scale renewable-energy project, and its opponents, worried about birds, recreation, tourism, and views from oceanfront homes. If all goes well, Cape Wind could start producing as much as 79 percent of the surrounding area's electricity by 2010. But plenty of potential roadblocks remain, the largest being a comprehensive federal review that's expected to take much of this year. Stay tuned.