Archive for the ‘Earth Friendly’ Category
??? Even though it’s his last year in office, President Bush’s administration plans to go ahead with its ill-conceived exploitation of public lands in Utah. They want to open up public land that has never been mined, farmed or had roads built into it for developers. Thankfully we have a bill that was introduced into Congress that would ban them from doing this. America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act would protect more than 9.5 million acres of wilderness-quality lands in Utah. They seem still to believe, against all contrary evidence, that resource extraction is the best economic use of our public lands, and that their highest recreational purpose is as an arena for the depredations of dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles. I know there is a lot of fun and recreation with motorized vehicles but at the same time we need to save some of our pristine land. This land would take centuries to recover if ever from depredations of this sort.
??? One area of this bill, protects the greater Zion-Mojave region, which is currently threatened by proposed legislation that fails to protect wild lands in the region and authorizes the sale of up to 40 square miles of public lands in southwestern Utah to development projects. This is our land and we should have a say in whether it is sold and I for one do not wish to see any of our wild lands sold to anyone at all much less developers who are only in it for the money. And I feel that is where the votes will come from, lawmakers that take hush money from these developers and their lobbyists. The wild lands in Utah contain remote twisting canyons, mesas topped with groves of juniper and pinyon pine, rivers, and stark mountain peaks. The wilds of Utah hold much to behold. there are areas where you feel as if no one has set foot there in hundreds of years there are areas so vast that the stone and sky seem to intermingle.
??? If you are like me and a lover of the land, who feels like we cannot own the land but only care for it for the next generations to follow. Then you should keep an eye on H.R. 1919: America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act of 2007 this was inroduced by?Rep. Maurice Hinchey [D-NY] or S. 1170: America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act of 2007 introduced by?Sen. Richard Durbin [D-IL]. Please contact your representatives in Congress or the Senate to encourage them to co-sponser or vote yes to the bill.
??? Once again the EPA is in the news as Rep. Henry Waxman, (D-Calif) of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee subpoenaed documents reviewed by the agency’s administrator before he blocked a California tailpipe emissions law. There have been indications that the EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson overruled EPA staff who recommended granting the waiver.
??? What California wants to do and along with twelve other states – Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington – was to require automakers to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 30 percent in new cars and light trucks by 2016. This would bring the fuel economy standards up to 36.8 mpg four years earlier four years earlier than the new federal law which would result in a nationwide average of 35 mpg by 2020. The governors of four other states -Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Utah – said they also planned to adopt Californias newer tougher rules.
??? According to congressional investigators there are EPA internal documents that said California had a compelling need for the waiver, and that EPA was likely to lose in court if sued over denying it. But once again our executive branch seems to be in the pockets of big business. They have also lost a suit in federal court because they were ignoring the law when they imposed less stringent requirements on power plants to reduce mercury pollution. A three-judge panel – U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia – unanimously struck down a mercury-control plan imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency three years ago. It established an emissions trading process in which some plants could avoid installing the best mercury control technology available by buying pollution credits. such trading of pollution credits would have created hot spots of mercury contamination around power plants across the country. Power plants are one of the biggest sources of of mercury, which finds its way into the food supply, particularly fish. Mercury damages developing brains of fetuses and very young children.
??? The court decision was the latest in a string of judicial losses for the Bush administration’s environmental policies. You may remember that I mentioned them losing a battle for not regulating greenhouse gases. Courts have also rejected administration attempts to overhaul federal forest policies and streamline fuel economy standards for small trucks. The policy as established under the Clinton Administration required utilities to capture more than 90 percent of mercury releases. The standard as set by the Bush administrations approach was to capture 70 percent of mercury emissions. “This three-judge panel has done the world a favor and helped save lives,” said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. Connecticut was one of the states that participated in the lawsuit. EPA spokesman Jonathan Shradar said, “This rule is still our policy until we evaluate how to move forward.”
??? It sounds to me as if they are going to drag their feet as long as possible allowing pollution to go on as long as possible so as to generate more profits for the big businesses that seem to have our Environmental Protection Agency in their pockets. Hopefully an administration change will return the EPA back to the role of protecting the citizens and not big business.
Are you like me, an animal lover, who would love to be able to take care of more than the pets we now have? Well I have found a web site – The Animal Rescue Site – that will allow you to help feed abused, neglected, and abandoned animals by simply clicking a button on their web site. It takes only a few moments to visit and click the purple button to donate food to these needy animals. Corporate sponsors and advertisers use the number of daily clicks to donate food in exchange for advertising and public relations. They pay CharityUSA, the parent entity of the site on a per click basis. CharityUSA then directs a percentage of the ad revenue to animal shelters and sanctuaries. They then keep the remaining funds. The Animal Rescue Site is not a non-profit entity so it should not be confused with charity even though it does send a large portion of its revenues to the needy. While you are there you can click the tabs to give for hunger, help sponsor mammograms, click to give free health care for children, donate books for literacy, and assist in saving the rain forests. Now that I have explained that let me also make sure you know that upon your clicks, all proceeds are donated 100%. There is no profit off you clicks only giving. Now if you would visit every day and tell ten of your friends to tell ten of their friends and so on and so forth there would be a big difference made for abandoned pets and humans as well. Over all it is a win win situation for those in need. Can you please help them?
The Environmental Protection Agency?s (EPA) December decision to prevent California from regulating automobile emissions beyond national standards may have puzzled some but not me. The way I see it they [EPA] are conceding to the auto manufacturers in this matter. The auto makers are not wanting this to pass.
So EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, ( a Bush appointee) totally ignored his staffs advice that California and other states had good reason to enact global warming pollution standards higher than the federal rules and denied a waiver required for states to move forward with tougher emission control standards.
Apparently EPA staffers presented evidence to Johnson last year that shows California has met the “compelling and extraordinary conditions” needed under the Clean Air Act for the EPA to approve regulations set by the state. Staff members made a strong case for California and 18 other states to proceed with its greenhouse gas regulations. After dragging its heels for weeks the agency has allowed Sen. Barbara Boxer‘s (D California ) staff to see the documents this week. He [Johnson] Should be on the hot seat today when he appears before Boxer’s, Environment and Public Works Committee.
Initially the EPA refused to turn over any documents to Boxer’s committee. Then when they finally did turn them over they had many of the pages “whited” out. When Boxer raised objections the EPA agreed to allow staff members to see the documents but they could not photocopy them and ended up hand transcribing the documents that were then released to reporters. “This information belongs to the American people,” Boxer said. “It’s shameful that we’ve had to go through such a torturous process to get it.”
California feels they have greater risk from impacts of global warming than most other states do. Something that is supported by scientists at the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is one that is headed for the courts.
Despite the public outcry of conservationists, animal rights groups and just plain wolf lovers the Fish & Wildlife Service has made it easier to kill wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Rockies region — even while they remain protected under the Endangered Species Act. The change to the rules will make it easier to slaughter wolves in Idaho,Wyoming and Montana. They could potentially kill hundreds of wolves, not because they are a threat to livestock but to try and increase deer and elk herds for more hunter kills.
The states would only need to prove that wolves are a “major cause” of the inability of elk and deer to meet state management goals. Wolves could be killed even if they only have an effect on how elk herds move or behave — not just if they reduce herd numbers. Predators like wolves actually help keep the herds strong by weeding out the sick and weak members. I would think that a real hunter would prefer hunting healthy alert animals rather than a game farm situation.
Since the gray wolf was reintroduced into the greater Yellowstone area they have helped balance out nature as it was meant to be. They suppress coyotes, change the behavior of deer and elk plus they benefit the grizzly bear by leaving kills that the bears quickly take over for themselves. For a little while we appeared to have came to our senses and realized we can coexist with the wolf. But it appears we are throwing that out the window with this loophole in the Endangered Species Act.
Everyone that reads this should contact your representatives in Washington DC to stop this before it goes any further.
A recent study says FEMA ignored and hid government research on the effects of formaldehyde in trailers used by victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Even going so far as to manipulate the findings so as to play down the dangers posed by the chemical. Though a FEMA spokesperson denies the charges saying [the agency] “did not suppress or inappropriately influence any report.”
Formaldehyde is commonly found in building materials especially those found in mobile homes. I worked in the mobile home industry doing everything from set-ups, truck driving, repairs and factory service. I remember all too well the acrid burning sting of going into a new trailer house and smelling the formaldehyde in the air. Most homes had aluminum vents situated so they would allow fresh air in and the formaldehyde to escape, while insuring that the window would not allow moisture or insects inside the new home. I would suspect that anyone with the least amount of common sense would insure that new trailers were aired out before residence is take up inside of them. But then again this is the federal government we are talking about and common sense goes right out the window with them. Just more college educated idiots in my book. Go out onto job sites and they are everywhere. Out of school with a degree in hand and not a clue as to what is really happening. But even these fools should know that formaldehyde is a dangerous chemical that can cause respiratory complications and has been classified as a carcinogen.
Spearheading the investigation is Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C. of the House Science and Technology Committee. The committee is looking into reports that show how FEMA ignored expert Christopher De Rosa who said,
“Any level of exposure to formaldehyde may pose a cancer risk, regardless of duration, failure to communicate this issue is possibly misleading and a threat to public health.” FEMA used data from unoccupied trailers that had aired out several days and then they compared them to federal standards for short term exposure never comparing them to long term exposure. As a matter of fact they even instructed scientists to leave out the details of long term exposure. I agree with Rep. Miller when he said, “Honest scientific studies don’t start with the conclusion, and then work backwards from there”.
They are currently testing a mere 500 out of 40,000 trailers and are expected to give their most likely flawed reports in February and May. Don’t hold your breath expecting an honest review. Honesty has been infrequent when it comes to anything under the executive branch the past seven years.
Here we go again with anti eco system policies, 3.4 million acres in Alaska‘s Tongass National Forest will be open to logging under a Bush Administration plan. Once more it seems that the Bush administration is in big corporations back pockets. They are backing a plan to open up 3.4 million acres acres of wild, road less back country areas open to clear cutting and new logging roads. It includes 2.4 million acres that are considered very remote and unmolested by man. At more than 26,000 square miles, the Tongass – often labeled the crown jewel in the national forest system – is larger than 10 states.
Christy Goldfuss with Environment America had this to say, “This plan simply ignores economic realities. Logging these pristine areas makes no sense”. He – like most environmentalists – fear that the proposal will devastate the forest. Just more of a Bush administration policy of catering to the timber industry.
The plan released Friday stems from a series of lawsuits filed by environmental groups in 2003, which forced the Forest Service to adjust its timber sale program away from roadless areas to land that can be reached by roads that meander for 3,700 miles through the southeast Alaska forest.
In 2005, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a 2003 plan on grounds that the Forest Service had mistakenly doubled the volume of timber needed to supply local sawmills and failed to consider better protections for roadless areas.
Hopefully they will get this one halted as well. There is plenty of forest accessable by roads that they do not need to open up our pristine forest to the greed of big timber companies.
When the Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1970 during Richard Nixon‘s administration, its aim was well-defined: protect human health and the environment.
In its action last week deflecting state attempts to impose tough greenhouse gas emission standards on motor vehicles, the EPA is acting more like the Polluter Protection Agency, defending the interests of the oil and auto industries rather than those of the public.California, and 15 other states, filed suit on the second of January 2008 against the Environmental Protection Agency for rejecting its plan to limit greenhouse gases on cars, trucks, and SUVs. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the Bush administration is “ignoring the will of millions” by ruling that Congress’ recent boost in fuel-efficiency standards makes California‘s own emissions law unnecessary. The 1970 Clean Air Act allows states to set their own emission rules if they receive a waiver from the feds; the EPA refused on Dec. 19 to grant California’s request. California Attorney General Jerry Brown called the denial “shocking in its incoherence and utter failure to provide legal justification for the administrator’s unprecedented action”. The EPA has done nothing to curb greenhouse gases despite a Supreme Court ruling that requires them to treat greenhouse gases as a pollutant and therefor a threat to our air.
Twelve other states – Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington – have adopted California’s emissions standards, and others have said they plan to do so. The 12 states, along with Arizona, Delaware and Illinois, said Wednesday that they plan to intervene in support of California.
It was the first time the EPA had fully denied California a waiver under the Clean Air Act . The EPA’s decision was a victory for automakers, who had argued they would be forced to reduce their selection of vehicles and raise prices in states that adopted California’s standards. California’s air board is reviewing other measures it could impose on automobile manufacturers if the lawsuit fails or delays the state’s regulations from taking effect.
“Hamilton Sundstrand, a division of United Technologies, announced this week that it will start to commercialize a new type of solar power plant. A new company called SolarReserve will be created to provide heat-resistant pumps and other equipment, as well as the expertise in handling and storing salt that has been heated to more than 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit. According to venture capitalist Vinod Khosla ‘Three percent of the land area of Morocco could support all of the electricity for Western Europe.’ Molten Salt storage is already used in Nevada’s Solar One power plant. The molten salt is used because it’s pumpable, so that it can quickly gather up a bunch of energy from the reflectors, and just as quickly dump it through conduction when the heat is used to make steam. Water is king, in terms of storing heat, unfortunately it turns to gas at a relatively low temperature. Fortunately, it can be stored under pressure, unfortunately the pressure goes up very much at very high temperatures, which makes containing it more expensive, more dangerous and generally harder to do. Is this the post-hydrocarbon world finally knocking?” I found this video on Nevada‘s Solar One power plant that will give you an idea of how this technology works.
While most of us in the U.S. have been celebrating the holidays, officials in the Bush/Cheney Administration have been working behind the scenes to pave the way for the killing of hundreds of wolves in the Greater Yellowstone area.
Over the last several weeks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been quietly moving forward with rule changes that would allow officials in Idaho and Wyoming to begin killing wolves even before gray wolves are removed from the list of federally protected threatened and endangered species.
This latest proposal would allow them to start using airplanes and helicopters to kill hundreds of wolves in Idaho. And it is not just the wolves in Idaho that are threatened but the hundreds of wolves in Wyoming as well. Hundreds of wolves could be shot and trapped under the new rules, whether wolves are removed from the endangered and threatened species list or not. They even have plans to remove the wolves from the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho while they are still on the federally protected status.
A decision on the proposal is expected in the next few weeks. I have not been able to find the Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne email address but you can still contact your representatives in both the House and Senate and urge them to speak out against this travesty. Having spoken to them may help also when if, as expected, the Bush/Cheney Administration eliminates Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies early next year.
As of December 14th, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially approved the State of Wyoming’s wolf management plan, allowing state officials to use aerial gunning and snares to shoot and trap as many as two-thirds of the wolves in the state.
Just last week, Congressman Nick Rahall (D-WV), Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), George Miller (D-CA), Jim Saxton (R-NJ) and Norm Dicks (D-WA) warned in a letter to Secretary Kempthorne that de-listing wolves in the Northern Rockies now is a mistake. In the letter, this bipartisan group of lawmakers cited grave concerns with the state wolf management plans approved by the Bush/Cheney Administration and their potential impact on the future of wolves in the region. Now is the time to speak up. I added links to the above representatives so you can congratulate them for their stance on saving our wildlife. Contact your representatives in the House and Senate. Contact the Whitehouse even. Above all speak out before they destroy our free wolves forever.
Snail Mail:
U.S. Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240
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