ProgressNow.org Daily News Digest

Forest Service Is Set to Allow the Paving of Logging Roads, Aiding Developer - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/03/AR2009010301715.html The Bush administration appears poised to push through a change in U.S. Forest Service agreements that would make it far easier for mountain forests to be converted to housing subdivisions. Mark E. Rey, the former timber lobbyist who heads the Forest Service, last week signaled his intent to formalize the controversial change before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. As a candidate, Obama campaigned against the measure in Montana, where local governments have complained of being blindsided by Rey's negotiating the policy shift behind closed doors with the nation's largest private landowner. The shift is technical but has large implications. It would allow Plum Creek Timber to pave roads through Forest Service land. For decades, such roads were little more than trails used by logging trucks to reach timber stands.

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Advocates for Action on Global Warming Chosen as Obama’s Top Science Advisers - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/18/AR2008121803640.html President-elect Barack Obama has selected two of the nation's most prominent scientific advocates for a vigorous response to climate change to serve in his administration's top ranks, according to sources, sending the strongest signal yet that he will reverse Bush administration policies on energy and global warming. The appointments of Harvard University physicist John Holdren as presidential science adviser and Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which will be announced tomorrow, dismayed conservatives but heartened environmentalists and researchers. Like Energy Secretary-designate Steven Chu, who directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Holdren and Lubchenco have argued repeatedly for a mandatory limit on greenhouse gas emissions to avert catastrophic climate change. In 2007, as chairman of the board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Holdren oversaw approval of the board's first statement on global warming, which said: "It is time to muster the political will for concerted action."

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Obama taps Harvard physicist as science adviser - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/12/19/obama_chooses_harvard_physicist/ In a sign that President-elect Barack Obama intends to elevate science to greater prominence, John P. Holdren, a Harvard physicist widely recognized for his leadership on energy policy and climate change, will be appointed White House science adviser this weekend, the Globe confirmed yesterday. A representative from one of the institutions with which Holdren is affiliated said Obama will announce Holdren's selection during a Saturday morning radio address. That person, who has direct knowledge of the appointment, declined to be named. Representatives for Obama and for Harvard refused comment. The news, coming in the same week as Nobel laureate physicist Steven Chu's appointment as secretary of energy, was heartening for the scientific community. Many scientists have objected to the Bush administration's policies, from restrictions on embryonic stem cell research to the pace of action on climate change.

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EPA Eases Emissions Regulations for New Power Plants - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/18/AR2008121803687.html The Environmental Protection Agency ruled yesterday that new power plants are not required to install technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, rejecting an argument from environmental groups. The ruling, in a memorandum signed by EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, turns on a seemingly arcane regulatory question that could govern the future of new fossil fuel-burning buildings and power plants under the Clean Air Act. During the Bush administration, the EPA has rejected the idea that greenhouse gases should be regulated like soot, smog precursors and other kinds of air pollution, despite an April 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said carbon dioxide fit the definition of a pollutant that could be regulated under the Clean Air Act.

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Cooperation helped Louisville clean up air - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-12-16-toxic-louisville_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip For years, Louisville has been known for fast horses, fine bourbon, a love of college basketball — and lousy air. People who lived near a complex of chemical plants, called Rubbertown, put up with odors, burning eyes and fears that their every breath might contribute to asthma, cancer or other illnesses. But that began to change about a decade ago, after a minister from the predominantly African-American neighborhoods around Rubbertown organized protests, demanding aggressive government action to clean up the toxic air and reduce the chemical emissions from factories. The campaign soon ranged beyond those neighborhoods, attracting the help of university scientists, industry representatives and government officials. It has led to an ambitious and successful anti-pollution effort that has gained national attention.

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Florida Water Board, Voting 4 to 3, Approves U.S. Sugar Deal in the Everglades - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/us/17everglades.html?ref=us Florida’s water managers agreed to buy nearly 300 square miles of land from United States Sugar on Tuesday, approving a $1.34 billion deal that could reshape the Everglades, the sugar business and several small towns that have relied on agriculture for decades. The decision by the board of the South Florida Water Management District, by a vote of 4 to 3, with one abstention, moves the state closer to completing its largest and most expensive environmental acquisition. But supporters and opponents said economic uncertainties could keep the deal from closing. Board members were so concerned about the worsening financial picture that they added an amendment to the contract that says its debt burden from the purchase must not “adversely affect” the district’s core operations, like flood control.

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Environmental groups, scientists cheer Obama appointments - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-green16-2008dec16,0,1585629.story With a Nobel physicist and a former EPA chief on board, some expect Obama's White House to break from what they see as the Bush administration's record of overlooking science in favor of politics.

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Over 2T tons of ice melted in arctic since 2003 - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-12-16-arctic-ice-melting_N.htm More than 2 trillion tons of land ice in Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska have melted since 2003, according to new NASA satellite data that show the latest signs of what scientists say is global warming. More than half of the loss of landlocked ice in the past five years has occurred in Greenland, based on measurements of ice weight by NASA's GRACE satellite, said NASA geophysicist Scott Luthcke. The water melting from Greenland in the past five years would fill up about 11 Chesapeake Bays, he said, and the Greenland melt seems to be accelerating. NASA scientists planned to present their findings Thursday at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco. Luthcke said Greenland figures for the summer of 2008 are not yet complete, but this year's ice loss, while still significant, will not be as severe as 2007.

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Report Finds Meddling in Interior Dept. Actions - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/washington/16interior.html?_r=1 The inspector general of the Interior Department has found that agency officials often interfered with scientific work in order to limit protections for species at risk of becoming extinct, reviving attention to years of disputes over the Bush administration’s science policies. In a report delivered to Congress on Monday, the inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found serious flaws in the process that led to 15 decisions related to policies on endangered species. The report suggested that at least some of those decisions might need to be revisited under the Obama administration. Among the more significant decisions was one reducing the number of streams that would be designated as critical habitat for the endangered bull trout and protected from commercial use. That rule is already the subject of a lawsuit by environmentalists.

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Obama sounds alarm on global warming - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/12/15/obama_sounds_alarm_on_global_warming/ Since Clinton's inauguration, summer Arctic sea ice has lost the equivalent of Alaska, California, and Texas. The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since Clinton's second inauguration. Global warming is accelerating. Time is close to running out, and Obama knows it. "The time for delay is over; the time for denial is over," he said Tuesday after meeting with former Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming. "We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now that this is a matter of urgency and national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way." Obama is expected today to name Nobel physics laureate Steven Chu as his energy secretary and former Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner as the head of a new council that will coordinate White House policy on energy, climate, and environment.

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Interim Climate Pact Approved - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/12/AR2008121204564.html The effort to come up with a global warming treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol inched forward Saturday morning as delegates to United Nations-sponsored talks here agreed on a narrowly framed interim document that leaves all the difficult negotiating until next year. The modest result leaves the three-year process far short of the goal of concluding a binding agreement by the end of 2009 to curb greenhouse gas emissions and slow the planet's warming, which under current conditions scientists predict will reach dangerous and irreversible levels by the end of the century, if not sooner. Given the minimal progress made in negotiations this year, several key players said, it will almost certainly take direct involvement by President-elect Barack Obama and other world leaders to produce a meaningful agreement next year.

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Obama to Announce Energy, Environment Team Monday | 44 | washingtonpost.com

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/12/14/obama_to_announce_energy_envir.html President-elect Barack Obama will announce his energy and environment team late Monday afternoon at a news conference in Chicago -- continuing a steady roll-out of his Cabinet, which is now nearly complete. Obama is expected to name Carol Browner, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, as the head of a new policy council to coordinate climate, environment and energy issues. He is also planning to make official other choices: Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, as his energy secretary; Lisa Jackson, the chief of staff for New Jersey's governor, as head of the EPA; and Nancy Sutley, deputy mayor of Los Angeles, as head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Obama is expected to take questions at the news conference, and is all but certain to face continued queries about the contacts between his aides and disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of trying to effectively sell Obama's open Senate seat. The Illinois legislature is convening this week to debate potentially impeaching Blagojevich, who may resign as early as Monday.

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EPA Issues Exemptions for Hazardous Waste, Factory Farms - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/12/AR2008121203826.html The Environmental Protection Agency issued a new regulation yesterday exempting an estimated 118,500 tons of hazardous waste annually from strict federal incineration controls, and it separately exempted factory farms from a requirement to report hazardous air pollution to the federal government. The two rules are among dozens of regulations being issued during the final weeks of the Bush administration after lengthy internal deliberations and public controversy. The hazardous waste exemption was proposed in June 2007 and approved by the White House three weeks after the presidential election. It allows companies that create hazardous chemical wastes in industrial processes to burn them as fuel in their own incinerators, instead of paying highly regulated incineration firms to destroy them.

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Australia plans to reduce pollution by 5% - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-12-14-australia-pollution_N.htm Australia has announced a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as little as 5% by the year 2020, far less than the 25% cut sought be environmentalists. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government remains committed to its election promise of slashing Australia's carbon emissions that are blamed for global warming by 60% from 2000 levels by 2050. But climate change policy documents released Monday set an interim reduction range of only 5% to 15% by 2020. Environmental groups have been lobbying for months for a 2020 reduction target to be set at a minimum of 25%. Australia, the world's driest inhabited continent, is expected to be the developed country hardest hit by the effects of global warming. Government research released last year predicted that parts of the country could be 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter and 80% drier by 2070 if global greenhouse gas emissions are not radically reduced.

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Wild-Horse Roundup Plans Anger Advocates - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/13/AR2008121301781.html Wild-horse advocates are up in arms over new plans, announced by federal land managers, to conduct emergency roundups of nearly 2,000 more mustangs from the range in Nevada at a time when government holding pens are already overflowing. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has started removing 1,480 horses south of Battle Mountain and plans to begin removing 450 more in January south of Gerlach, agency spokesman JoLynn Worley said. Without the actions, she said, the animals could starve this winter because of extremely limited forage. The horses will be sent to a BLM coral just north of Reno to be readied for adoption or long-term holding. "Once the snow gets on the ground, it'll be even more difficult for the horses to find what limited forage is out there," Worley said.

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Florida sugar deal may be going sour - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-everglades15-2008dec15,0,2481333.story When Crist announced the plan in June, it was met with much fanfare and was widely seen as a legacy-defining gambit for the popular Republican governor. In recent months, however, critics and complications have emerged that may threaten the plan's chances of approval by a state water board, which is slated to vote on it Tuesday. Particularly problematic is the economic mess beyond Clewiston's borders: The world financial meltdown has struck Florida particularly hard, saddling the state with a $5.8-billion budget shortfall. Last week, a number of state legislators questioned the wisdom of borrowing the money to fund a 181,000-acre land deal during such uncertain times.

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Obama’s ‘green dream team’ is warmly received - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/environment/2008-12-11-greenteam_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip One is a Nobel Prize winner overseeing research of alternative energy. The three others all have one thing in common: experience working for the Environmental Protection Agency. Together, the group — as the Associated Press has reported — will make up President-elect Barack Obama's team to oversee energy and environment, a lineup that drew mostly praise Thursday from environmental and industry groups alike. "This is clearly a green dream team," said Gene Karpinski, head of the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group. "These people have shown they can get the job done." Obama has mustered an "impressive team of experienced and capable leaders," said Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, a group representing electric companies. All the same, fulfilling Obama's goals of taking action on global warming and turning the country toward more sustainable energy "is very challenging, and they ought not to underestimate how difficult this is going to be," said Eileen Claussen of the non-profit Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

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EU leaders agree on groundbreaking but costly deal to tackle global warming—chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-eu-eu-summit8c,0,7316029.story European leaders agreed Friday to stick to an ambitious plan to fight global warming through emissions cuts and renewable energy, and on ways to share the hefty costs of setting a global example. The plan includes concessions to heavy industry and countries in Eastern Europe worried that the cost of curbing pollution would impede economic growth. The expense of the plan had caused uproar among many countries as the continent grapples with economic downturn. The plan, agreed at an EU summit, lays out how the 27 member countries will cut carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who holds the bloc's rotating leadership, called the agreement historic and urged global partners to follow Europe's example at U.N. climate change talks in Poznan, Poland.

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Concern for Climate Change Defines Energy Dept. Nominee - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121103380.html The man tapped to be the next secretary of energy, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, recently compared the danger of climate change to a problem with electrical wiring in a house. Suppose, he said, you had a small electrical fire at home and a structural engineer told you there was a 50 percent chance your house would burn down in the next few years unless you spent $20,000 to fix faulty wiring. "You can either continue to shop for additional evaluations until you find the one engineer in 1,000 who is willing to give you the answer you want -- 'your family is not in danger' -- or you can change the wiring," Chu said in a presentation in September. Because of the danger of climate change, he said, the United States and other countries also need to make some urgent repairs. He said governments need to "act quickly" to implement fiscal and regulatory policies to stimulate the deployment of technologies that boost energy efficiency and "minimize" carbon emissions.

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FDA Draft Report Urges Consumption of Fish, Despite Mercury Contamination - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121103394.html The Food and Drug Administration is urging the government to amend its advisory that women and children should limit how much fish they eat, saying that the benefits of seafood outweigh the health risks and that most people should eat more fish, even if it contains mercury. If approved by the White House, the FDA's position would reverse the government's current policy that certain groups -- women of childbearing years, pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants and children -- can be harmed by the mercury in fish and should limit their consumption. The FDA's recommendations have alarmed scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency, who in internal memos criticized them as "scientifically flawed and inadequate" and said they fell short of the "scientific rigor routinely demonstrated by EPA."

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Seasoned Regulators to Lead Obama Environment Program - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121103669.html The Obama administration has ambitions for a radical change in U.S. environmental policy. But President-elect Barack Obama did not pick radicals to lead it. Instead, the three officials tapped for leadership posts on the environment are not activists but regulators who have spent years in the weeds of such issues as mercury emissions, brownfields and black-bear hunts. They will inherit the usual issues -- dirty air, dirty water, brownfields and red tides -- plus an unprecedented one. Obama has promised to cut back U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases -- a proposal that could set off an enormous political fight. A review of their records and past statements reveals little about the exact policies they would pursue under Obama. It shows they have won over some environmental activists with an open attitude and disappointed others who felt they were not pushing hard enough.

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‘Timberrrr’ echoes less often in the West - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/2008-12-11-timber_N.htm The nation's housing slump is dealing a devastating blow to Western states dependent on the forest and wood products industry. "We're in the midst of the deepest downturn in the history of the timber industry," said Butch Bernhardt, of the Western Wood Products Association. Bernhardt said the association figures, due to be released next week, will show the decline is even worse than predicted in its fall report. "It was ugly enough, but now it's very, very ugly," he said. Sawmills across the region are eliminating shifts, curtailing operations and even shutting down, said Ray Wilkeson of the Oregon Forest Industries Council.

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Bush administration rule changes trouble environmentalists - chicagotribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-endangered-protectiondec12,0,4819110.story The Bush administration issued two late-term regulations on Thursday that environmentalists say weaken federal protection for endangered species but that Interior Department officials defended as blocking a "back-door" attempt to regulate emissions that contribute to global warming. Conservation groups sued to block the new rules, reigniting a fight over so-called midnight regulation that had seemed to die down a day earlier when the administration declined to impose looser air pollution rules that environmentalists had feared. Previously, federal agencies were required to consult with scientists who specialized in particular species before proceeding with a project like a road or dam. The project could not go forward unless the specialist certified that no harm would come to endangered plants or wildlife. The rules announced Thursday would allow federal agencies to bypass those scientists in some cases if the agencies determined that the endangered species would not be harmed. The revision was finalized after four months of deliberation and over the objections of what officials said were the bulk of nearly 235,000 public comments on the change.

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Bush administration takes independent scientific reviews out of Endangered Species Act - Los Angeles

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-endangered-species12-2008dec12,0,7532076.story The Bush administration on Thursday eliminated 35-year-old regulations in the Endangered Species Act that required an independent scientific review of proposed federal projects to determine whether they imperil protected plants and animals. Instead, federal agencies undertaking projects like road and power plant construction or oil and gas drilling will make their own assessment. Without the independent reviews, such projects could be accelerated. As part of the changes announced by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in the final days of the Bush administration, the department finalized an interim rule that allows oil and gas drilling in polar bear habitat off Alaska's coast. The rule change is designed to prevent the Endangered Species Act from being used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, essentially making climate change policy. Kempthorne, who characterized the new rules as a common-sense streamlining of bureaucratic processes, acknowledged that there was disagreement within the department regarding the rules, which take effect in 30 days.

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Administration Loosens Species Protections - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121103392.html The Interior Department yesterday finalized rules changing the way it administers the Endangered Species Act, enabling other government agencies to decide on their own whether a project would harm an imperiled species without an independent scientific review. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne called the move "a clarification" he considered essential in order to narrow the law's reach. "The rule strengthens the regulations so the government can focus on protecting endangered species as it strives to rebuild the American economy," Kempthorne said, adding that agencies can bypass a review by either the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration only "in specific and limited instances where an action is not anticipated to harass, harm or kill a protected species."

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