Friday, 22 Jun 2007

Be Still Our Beating Hearts

Senate-approved energy bill calls for fuel-economy increase

First, the good news: the U.S. Senate has passed an energy bill containing the first significant fuel-economy increase in years. The bill requires cars and light trucks to get an average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, up from the current 22.2 mpg for light trucks and 27.5 mpg for cars. It also calls for limits on gasoline price-gouging; new appliance and lighting efficiency standards; funding for research into newfangled vehicles like plug-in hybrids; and a sevenfold increase in ethanol production by 2022 (oops, file that under "Now the bad news"). "This bill starts America on a path toward reducing our reliance on oil," said Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). But it was a mixed bag for Democrats, who were forced to axe big ideas including $32 billion in renewable-energy tax breaks and a 4 percent annual increase in fuel economy from 2020 to 2030. Still, they did a jig over the vote: "I'm flabbergasted," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). "I thought we'd be arguing this all night."

Don't Drink the Water and Don't Breathe the Air

Feds misled Manhattan residents about post-9/11 health effects, says report

The U.S. government misled New Yorkers about residential asbestos levels after 9/11, says, um, the U.S. government. In a report released this week, the Government Accountability Office takes issue with the U.S. EPA's claims that only a "very small" number of indoor air samples were contaminated after the attack, and says it failed to explain that 80 percent of the 4,000 apartments tested had been cleaned before samples were taken. With a false sense of security, says the GAO, a mere 295 buildings chose to participate in a follow-up cleanup program, out of 20,000 eligible residences. The report was part of testimony before a Senate subcommittee reviewing the federal response to environmental and health issues after 9/11; committee chair Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) made clear her irritation, declaring, "We don't have an explanation for the misrepresentations that put countless people at risk of exposure to chemicals that we know are causing illness and death."

Johnson Stiffens Smog Rules

Current U.S. ground-level ozone standard deemed insufficient

Smoggy air could get cleaner if a new U.S. EPA standard passes muster. Agency head Stephen Johnson has proposed lowering the allowable amount of ground-level ozone from 80 to 84 parts per billion to 70 to 75 ppb, since "the current standard is insufficient to protect public health." But the agency will hold a 90-day public-comment period on several options, including Johnson's plan; a recommendation from an EPA scientific panel to make the standard even stricter; or, eh, leaving it where it is. Fossil-fuel lobbyists and other panic-stricken people will no doubt weigh in; said one Texas environmental official of the new standard, "It would basically shut down our entire region, period ... the quality of life we have been able to enjoy basically goes away." Um. Fans of functional lungs, on the other hand, say the new standard doesn't go far enough: it is, says David Ingbar of the American Thoracic Society, "unhealthy for America's kids, unhealthy for America's seniors, and unhealthy for America."

Tell It to the Senate

Renewable-energy investments booming around the world

Investment in renewable energy zoomed to record levels in 2006 and shows no sign of flagging, a United Nations report said this week. More than one-fifth of that investment went into companies or projects in developing countries. Thanks to high oil prices, desire for energy independence, government incentives, and worries about climate change, renewables "are becoming generating systems of choice for increasing numbers of power companies, communities, and countries," says U.N. Environment Program head Achim Steiner; and with global capital hitting $100 billion, renewable resources are likely to stay competitive even if oil prices drop. Wind power got the biggest chunk of change, with 38 percent of investment; 26 percent went to biofuels, and 16 percent to solar. While renewables make up only 2 percent of global power generation, the 25 percent leap in investment from 2005 leads UNEP to project that almost a quarter of the world's electricity could be cleanly generated by 2030.

Noah Scape

Big-budget, zero-carbon comedy Evan Almighty opens today

Today marks the debut of a movie that is, depending whom you ask, either a shining star in the eco-entertainment pantheon or a crass manifestation of green gone bad. Evan Almighty, with Steve Carell as a latter-day Noah, bills itself as "the first major motion picture comedy to zero out its [carbon] footprint." Its producers have launched a $25 million green marketing campaign, with a website that encourages fans to offset their own emissions, plant trees in the "Almighty Forest" (24,000 and counting), and green their homes and offices. The campaign is sponsored by "organizations that care," from the San Diego Zoo to ... Coca-Cola and Burger King. Ahem. With on-set recycling, bike-riding crew members, a green-carpet premiere, and even an eco-message, the film seems to have earned its bragging rights. But it's also earned heat for being the most expensive comedy ever made, and some greens don't dig the commercialization of their pet cause. Also, it completely sucks. Or so we hear.