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Powder River drilling leases ruled
illegal
April 30, 2002: A federal panel has
ruled that the Bureau of Land Management illegally granted
three coalbed methane leases in Wyoming's Powder River Basin.
The Interior Department's board of land appeals determined
that the BLM granted the leases illegally, on the basis of a
1985 environmental study that addressed the potential impacts
only of conventional oil and gas drilling. The panel put a
halt to the leases, which cover 2,500 acres, and ordered the
agency to study the environmental impacts related specifically
to coalbed methane development.
The panel's ruling
ended a two-year legal challenge by conservation groups and
Wyoming ranchers. Over the past decade the federal government
has leased 98 percent of the four million acres of public
lands available for energy exploration. The ruling not only
calls into question a number of these leases -- all of which
are based on the same outdated study -- but it also could halt
Bush administration plans to increase methane production in
the region. The BLM currently is considering a proposal for
51,000 new coalbed methane wells in the Wyoming portion of the
Powder River Basin by 2010 -- making it the largest natural
gas project on federal land ever considered.
The ruling
is yet another setback for the administration's efforts to
boost coalbed methane development on public lands in the West.
Last week NRDC released internal documents from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in Denver
that gave the BLM's environmental impact statement for the
huge new basin project its worst possible rating --
"environmentally unsatisfactory." EPA concluded that BLM
ignored increases in air pollution and groundwater salinity
that would result from drilling. After the BLM announced -- on
the last day of the original comment period -- that it was
giving the public more time to review the statement, some EPA
employees charged that Deputy Interior Secretary Steven
Griles, who once ran a consulting firm whose clients included
companies drilling in the basin, was pressuring the EPA to
revise its damning scientific findings. Interior officials
deny trying to silence the EPA.
The Fish and Wildlife
Service has also voiced its concern about the possible effects
of allowing thousands of new coalbed methane wells to be
drilled in the Powder River Basin. Coalbed methane wells
discharge huge quantities of water to enable methane to be
pumped from coal seams. Sometimes the water is retained in
ponds. In its comments to the BLM, the Fish and Wildlife
Service warns that the ponds could concentrate selenium to
levels that are toxic to birds and fish. Wastewater treatment
ponds containing contaminants have resulted in deaths of
federally protected birds, prompting misdemeanor convictions
under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
"Even before its
defeat on opening the Arctic Refuge to oil development, the
Bush administration had targeted the Powder River Basin as the
centerpiece of its push for Western lands drilling," said
Johanna Wald, director of NRDC's land program. "While BLM is
blindly leading the charge, other agencies are at least trying
to make it clear that the environmental impacts of coalbed
methane drilling cannot be ignored for the sake of
industry."
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Huge win in the battle over snowmobiles in
national parks
April 30, 2002: The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency issued a report calling for an
outright ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton
national parks. Reiterating its position of three years ago,
the EPA said the continued use of snowmobiles would violate
air pollution standards and that a ban would be the "best
available protection" for air quality, wildlife and the health
of park employees and visitors.
The EPA's
recommendation could make it more difficult for the Interior
Department to overturn the long-planned snowmobile phase-out
that has been delayed by the Bush administration. The National
Park Service, part of the Interior Department, will issue a
final ruling in November on whether to implement a full or
partial ban on snowmobiles or whether to impose restrictions
on the daily number or riders. More than 1,000 snowmobiles a
day enter Yellowstone during peak periods.
"A key
federal agency once again has confirmed that snowmobiles are a
hazard to the health of our national parks and those who enjoy
them," said Chuck Clusen, director of NRDC's parks program.
"Unfortunately, as we've seen with other issues, EPA doesn't
carry much weight with this administration."
Interior
Secretary Gale Norton expressed disappointment over the EPA's
position, and questioned why her agency had not been notified
in advance of the announcement. EPA Administrator Christine
Whitman admitted that she was unaware of the report, which was
issued by the regional administrator in EPA's Denver
office.
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NRDC issues subpoena to former head of White
House energy task force
April 29, 2002:
NRDC has issued a subpoena to Andrew Lundquist, the
director of Vice President Cheney's energy task force. The
group wants to depose Mr. Lundquist and force the Energy
Department to finally hand over records of who consulted with
him to formulate the Bush energy policy.
"As the
administration's top official on the task force, Andrew
Lundquist ran the show for Vice President Cheney," said NRDC
senior attorney Sharon Buccino. "The public is entitled to
know what he knows."
Because Lundquist headed the
energy task force as an employee of the Department of Energy
(DOE), he was subject to NRDC's Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request. But the agency failed to include his records
among the more than 12,000 court-ordered documents provided to
NRDC.
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White House rejected more stringent EPA
air-pollution proposal before issuing so-called "Clear Skies"
plan
April 28, 2002: President Bush's
controversial "Clear Skies" proposal to reduce air pollution
-- weak as it is -- is less stringent than an alternative
advocated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
According to administration documents obtained by the New
York Times, the EPA's proposal would have reduced air
pollution further and faster than the proposal the president
eventually chose.
Whereas the White House policy
unveiled in February would the amount of sulfur dioxide
emitted nationally to three million tons by 2018, the EPA had
argued that those emissions should be limited to two million
tons by 2010. Sulfur dioxide causes acid rain and other
environmental problems. Moreover, the EPA's proposal would
have maintained the Clean Air Act and added other
anti-pollution programs. But Bush's "Clear Skies" initiative
calls for scrapping existing federal air pollution laws in
favor a new emissions cap-and-trade system and voluntary
measures to reduce mercury, nitrogen oxides and sulfur
dioxide. The latter approach would do nothing to reduce the
major global warming pollutant -- carbon dioxide -- and would
allow old, dirty coal-fired power plants to avoid forced
cleanup.
Finally, EPA's analysis of its alternative
plan showed that it would prevent at least 19,000 premature
deaths, 12,000 new cases of bronchitis and 17,000
hospitalizations -- and save about $154 billion in annual
health care costs by 2020. The Bush administration has not
analyzed the benefits of the "Clear Skies"
proposal.
"Even compared to EPA's inadequate proposal,
Bush's 'Clear Skies' plan is a clear miss in terms of reducing
harmful air pollution and protecting public health," said John
Walke, director of NRDC's clean air program. "Fully enforcing
the Clean Air Act and forcing polluters to reduce their
emissions is the surest way to clear our skies."
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Bush administration debates management of
monuments
April 24, 2002: After a year-long
delay, Interior Secretary Gale Norton sent letters to the
governors and elected officials of several western states,
asking for their consultation as the Bureau of Land Management
begins developing management plans for 15 of the 19 national
monuments designated by President Clinton. There are five
monuments in Arizona; three in California; two each in Montana
and Idaho; and one each in Colorado, New Mexico and Oregon.
The monument designation generally permits a broader mix of
commercial and recreational activities than is allowed in
national parks, while barring many of the tourism facilities
common in the parks.
The Bush administration originally
considered scaling back the monuments but met with public
resistance and opted to revise the management plans instead.
The administration has vowed to provide state and local
officials and residents with unprecedented input in devising
the management plans. The process will no doubt spark debate
about everything from oil drilling to dirt-biking, and will
pit those who want to lift restrictions on monument lands --
developers, industry, landowners -- against environmentalists
who want to protect the areas with strict management
plans.
"These national monuments belong to all
Americans, not just the residents in those states where the
monuments are located," said Johanna Wald, director of NRDC's
land program. "The administration is sadly mistaken if it
thinks the public will accept weakened environmental
protections for these special places."
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Administration establishes habitat protections
for endangered kangaroo rat
April 23, 2002:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated 33,000 acres
of California's San Bernadino and Riverside counties as
habitat critical for survival of the endangered kangaroo rat.
The critical habitat designation will allow the government to
limit or block development and other activities deemed harmful
to the recovery of the species. The kangaroo rat achieved
federally protected status under the Endangered Species Act in
1998 due to massive loss and fragmentation of habitat from
development.
"The Fish and Wildlife Service is finally
doing the right thing by protecting the kangaroo rat's
dwindling habitat," said NRDC attorney Joel Reynolds. "This
decision makes it all the more puzzling why the agency
currently is trying to rescind millions of acres of critical
habitat for dozens of other endangered plants and animals
around the country."
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Norton vows to limit Florida oil
drilling
April 23, 2002: Despite promising
no expansion of new oil leasing in the Gulf of Mexico near
Florida, the Bush administration has yet to decide whether to
uphold the State of Florida's objections to developing
existing leases situated just 25 miles off Pensacola. Chevron
wants to develop hydrocarbons on leases it purchased more than
a decade ago in the area known as "Destin
Dome."
Interior Secretary Gale Norton has said the
administration will sell no new petroleum leases in the
eastern gulf outside a 1.47-million-acre area 100 miles
southwest of the Florida-Alabama border for at least five
years. But in December, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham
refused to rule out future drilling off Florida's coast,
citing the need to reduce reliance on foreign oil. Secretary
Abraham's remarks raise questions about the administration's
intentions with respect to Chevron's existing leases off the
Panhandle coast beaches.
"The Interior Department
should uphold Jeb Bush's objections to developing oil and gas
near Florida's spectacular Gulf Coast, " said NRDC senior
policy analyst Lisa Speer. "The Bush administration should
accept the fact that America cannot drill its way to energy
independence."
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EPA watchdog resigns in protest over Bush
policies
April 22, 2002: In an embarrassing
development on Earth Day, the government official charged with
representing public concerns against the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency resigned, citing mistreatment by the Bush
administration. As EPA ombudsman, Robert Martin's job involves
intervening on behalf of citizens in the agency's pollution
cleanup cases. Although Martin could not directly order the
agency to take action, the ombudsman's recommendations carried
weight and usually were heeded by the EPA.
The EPA's
independent ombudsman function was assured by an act of
Congress until the law expired last year. Since then, Martin
has been engaged in an internal struggle with EPA
Administrator Christine Whitman over her plans to weaken the
ombudsman's investigative authority. According to Martin, the
last straw was when Whitman made good on her threat to
transfer him to the EPA Inspector General's Office. Martin
returned from a trip to find that EPA officials had taken his
files and changed his office locks.
The forced move
followed Martin's recent questioning of Whitman's financial
ties to the owner of a Denver Superfund site and to a firm
that provided insurance around the World Trade Center in lower
Manhattan. He blasted the EPA for its decision on what to do
with radioactive contamination in Denver. The agency reached a
settlement allowing the company responsible for the polluted
site -- Citigroup -- to pay $10 million to be relieved of
liability, when the actual cleanup costs are likely to be
between $70 million and $100 million. While investigating the
mater, Martin discovered that Whitman's husband served for
years as an officer of Citigroup and now manages nearly $800
million of the firm's investments. Whitman not only refused to
recuse herself from any decisions about the site, but also
asked to be briefed on the matter.
In New York,
citizens contacted Martin because they were suffering
breathing problems and other maladies after the twin towers
collapse. Martin later discovered that Citigroup owns
Traveler's Insurance, which insured many buildings in the
area. Whitman issued a statement assuring the public that
there were no health concerns associated with the disaster,
saving Traveler's from having to pay millions of dollars in
health claims. EPA was heavily criticized after air pollution
problems were later confirmed, prompting the Justice
Department to launch an inquiry.
"EPA needs an
independent Watchdog," said Greg Wetstone, NRDC's director of
advocacy.
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Bush administration ousts top global warming
scientist
April 19, 2002: Carrying baggage
for ExxonMobil and other fossil-fuel industries, Bush
administration representatives to the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) succeeded in ousting Dr. Robert
Watson from the science panel's chairmanship. With industry
and U.S. government backing, officials meeting in Geneva,
Switzerland, elected Dr. Rajendra Pachuari of India as IPCC
chair for the next five years.
Operating under United
Nations auspices, the 2,500-member expert panel provides
policymakers around the world with rigorous, consensus-based
assessments generally regarded as the most definitive word on
global warming and its causes. The IPCC is widely recognized
for meticulously maintaining political neutrality in its
scientific assessments.
Watson, IPCC chair since 1996,
is a respected atmospheric scientist highly regarded for his
strong leadership of the complex organization. But earlier
this month -- immediately following closed-door talks with
oil, utility and auto lobbyists -- the Bush administration
announced it would not renominate him. That same week, NRDC
released a confidential memo from ExxonMobil to the White
House asking that Watson be replaced. Lobbyists for
ExxonMobil, Southern Company (the second largest U.S. electric
company), and other polluting industries worked in Geneva with
OPEC countries to round up the majority needed to oust Watson.
This is the first time that the IPCC chair has been selected
other than by consensus.
"The White House teamed up
with ExxonMobil and other polluters in hopes of disrupting the
IPCC's effectiveness as the global authority on climate
science," said David Doniger, policy director at NRDC's
climate center. "But the IPCC is vibrant body that includes
thousands of scientists. They and the new chair now have the
challenge of demonstrating that they can continue to speak
scientific truth to fossil power."
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Bush administration speeding up drilling in
Rockies
April 18, 2002: Alaska's Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge may be safe from oil drilling for
now, but federal agencies are looking at ways to encourage and
facilitate new energy exploration in the lower 48 states. In
testimony before Congress, Bureau of Land Management Director
Kathleen Clarke said that a study on possible oil and gas
reserves on federal lands should be completed this year.
Although more than 50 new sites around the country are being
considered for development, Clarke said the BLM is focusing on
five basins in the Rocky Mountain region where industry has
expressed the most interest. The five basins being targeted
are the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana; the Green
River Basin in Wyoming and Colorado; the Uinta-Piceance Basin
in Utah and Colorado; the San Juan-Paradox Basin in Colorado,
new Mexico and Utah; and the Montana Thrust Belt.
In
addition, President Bush set up a task force last May to
examine how to streamline the permit and leasing process in
order to increase domestic energy production on hundreds of
thousands of acres of public lands. The task force has
collected numerous requests and comments from industry. In
2001, the administration approved 3,800 permits for companies
to drill for oil and gas, the most in one year since
1988.
"In his energy policy last year, President Bush
ordered agencies to expedite their studies of impediments to
federal oil and gas exploration and development," said Johanna
Wald, director of NRDC's land program. "That's a bureaucratic
way of saying the agencies should disregard environmental
protection and do whatever it takes to help industry exploit
public lands for private profit."
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Bush clean air plan would boost coal
use
April 17, 2002: Under the Bush
administration's "Clear Skies" multi-pollutant reduction plan,
the amount of coal burned by electric power companies will
increase by 7.3 percent, according to an analysis by the
Environmental Protection Agency. The president's initiative,
proposed in February, would cause a 79-million-ton increase in
coal use between now and 2020. The administration claims that
the Clear Skies initiative, which would replace many existing
Clean Air Act programs, would reduce power plant emissions of
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury by as much as 73
percent by 2018. The proposal does not address carbon dioxide,
the leading global warming pollutant.
"In September of
last year, EPA projected declines in coal use under existing
Clean Air Act programs. It makes no sense to replace those
effective programs with one that increases coal emissions,"
said John Walke, director of NRDC's clean air program. "The
'Clear Skies' initiative is a prime example of how coal state
politics, not public health, is driving the administration's
policy."
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Administration bans jet skis in a few parks,
may allow them in others
April 16, 2002:
There's good news and bad news for environmentalists on
the issue of motorized water scooter access in special places.
The National Park Service upheld a Clinton-era decision to
permanently close five national parks to personal watercrafts.
Park officials and much of the general public object to jet
skis in parks because the noisy and polluting scooters disrupt
wildlife and endanger marine life. But the agency also ordered
eight other national parks to reopen their review process, a
move that could lead to lifting the ban on jet skis in those
places. Eight other parks are open to the high-speed motorized
craft.
The agency's announcement came one day before a
court hearing in Texas in a potentially precedent-setting
lawsuit by the personal-watercraft industry against the
government. The suit contends that park administrators imposed
bans on jet skis without conducting adequate reviews, and
seeks to overturn the prohibitions in virtually all national
parks.
"The Bush administration shouldn't be trying to
force a political decision at the expense of science," said
Chuck Clusen, director of NRDC's parks program. "There's no
environmental rationale for allowing motorized vehicles --
either Jet skis or snowmobiles -- to run amok in our national
parks."
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Administration may weaken lead testing for
kids
April 16, 2002: The Bush
administration is considering a new policy for testing
children for lead poisoning, a change that would have a direct
effect on tens of thousands of poor children. States may be
granted flexibility to determine which children should be
tested for elevated lead levels, ending the federal
requirement that all states test young children on Medicaid.
According to many health officials, the proposed policy change
would allow states to interpret federal law, redefine who is
at risk and possibly test fewer children.
A 1989
federal law requires that children on Medicaid be tested for
lead poisoning, which can cause learning disabilities and
brain damage. But government figures show that most states are
lax at screening for lead poisoning. Only 10 percent of poor
children were screened in 1999 and 2000. A 1998 report by the
General Accounting Office estimated that 535,000 Medicaid
children have harmful levels of lead.
"Medicaid
children are three times more likely to have dangerous levels
of lead in their blood because they often live in substandard
housing, where they can be exposed to high concentrations of
lead-based paint," said Gina Solomon, director of NRDC's
public health program. "The administration's proposal would
needlessly jeopardize the health of tens of thousands of poor
children."
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Administration's plan allows overfishing in
New England
April 16, 2002: Despite data
indicating that 12 of 18 New England fish stocks are severely
depleted, the Bush administration will allow overfishing to
continue indefinitely. New England fish populations are down
70 percent from historic levels, while fishing has increased
300 percent. But an agreement put forth by the National Marine
Fisheries Service threatens the fishery's sustainability by
failing to impose limits on when, where and how fisherman can
fish, as required by the 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act.
Environmentalists say the measures in the agreement are far
weaker than those that had been proposed by the federal
government over the last several months. NRDC and three other
groups have requested that a federal judge reject NMFS's
fisheries agreement.
"The government's 'business as
usual' proposal focuses on short-term economics at the expense
of the long-term goal of rebuilding the region's fisheries. If
enacted, it will illegally perpetuate overfishing," said NRDC
attorney Brad Sewell.
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Bush administration fails to protect
manatees
April 16, 2002: The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service proposed creating a special "exception" so
that a boat manufacturer could continue to conduct high-speed
tests in one of the few federal "refuges" designated for
Florida manatees. Under the proposal, the Sea Ray Company --
which is responsible for at least one manatee death -- would
be able to continue using the Barge Canal in Brevard County to
operate its speed boats.
Environmentalists cite this
latest action as yet another example of the Bush
administration's disdain for manatee protection. Last fall the
administration missed a court-ordered deadline to designate
federal manatee sanctuaries in Florida. According to the terms
of a landmark legal agreement -- signed in January 2001 by the
Clinton administration -- the Interior Department committed to
creating several manatee refuges throughout peninsular Florida
by September 30, 2001. Interior Secretary Gale Norton ignored
the deadline, and deferred final rulemaking until December
2002. Last January the Fish and Wildlife Service created two
federal refuges in Brevard County -- but is seeking the
special exception for the boating industry in one of
those.
Manatees are an endangered species, and the
number killed by boats continues to grow at an alarming rate.
So far this year 38 manatees have been killed by watercraft,
compared to 27 by this time in 2001. At the current rate, more
manatees will be killed by boats this year than ever
before.
The administration's failure to ensure that the
refuge protects habitat contradicts the mandate of the
Executive Order on Marine Protected Areas, which calls on all
federal agencies to use their full authorities to strengthen
protection in marine refuges and other ocean areas, not reduce
it. Though President Bush supposedly embraced that popular
order last year, actions like this one flaunt its protective
goals.
"With the speedboat exceptions sought by the
Bush administration, these so-called refuges will become a
manatee target range," said Karen Garrison, Co-Director of
NRDC's Ocean Protection Initiative. "The administration isn't
just ignoring the plight of an endangered species; it's trying
to break a court agreement to set aside protected habitat,
leaving the few remaining manatees even more vulnerable to
horrific deaths."
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Forest Service wants to circumvent
environmental laws
April 12, 2002: A draft
report by the U.S. Forest Service reveals that the agency
intends to speed up land management projects by streamlining
rules protecting the environment and endangered species, as
well as limit court challenges to its decisions. According to
the document, within two years the agency would implement
regulations limiting external review of projects for
endangered species. The Forest Service also would no longer
wait for consultation with other federal agencies about how to
protect endangered species before allowing land management
projects to proceed in national forests.
"The Forest
Service should be ashamed of itself for refusing to be held
accountable to anybody," said Nathaniel Lawrence, director of
NRDC's forest program. "While paying lip service to
collaboration, the agency simply wants to rewrite the rules so
that it can do whatever it wants in national forests
regardless of public input or environmental impact."
When confronted about the document, Agriculture
Undersecretary Mark Rey dismissed it as a low-level staff
draft, saying the administration does not intend to act on its
recommendations.
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Corps approves Everglades
mining
April 11, 2002: The Army Corps of
Engineers, the federal agency in charge of the government's
plan to restore the Florida Everglades, will actually allow
miners to destroy 5,409 acres of this national treasure in the
next decade -- more than doubling the number of open-pit
limestone mines in the protected wetlands. And that's just the
first phase: the project would eventually open up a
30-square-mile hole in the middle of the Everglades. Rock
mined from the Everglades is turned into crushed stone and
used as an aggregate in cement for Florida's roads.
The
EPA and Interior Department had objected to the thousands of
acres of unique wildlife habitat that would be destroyed, the
harm the pits would do to restoring water flows in the
Everglades, and the contamination threat the mines pose to
adjacent drinking water supplies. But the Corps decided to
approve the project, and require that the 10 mining companies
receiving the permits to pay nearly $50 million in fees that
will be used by the federal government to purchase and improve
another 7,500 acres of wetlands near the
Everglades.
"Mining will destroy critical wetlands and
endangered species habitat, harm the Everglades restoration
effort, contaminate local drinking water supplies, and cost
taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars," said NRDC attorney
Brad Sewell. "It's outrageous that the agency entrusted with
fixing the Everglades is allowing the mining industry an
opportunity to further endanger this unique and irreplaceable
resource."
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White House moves one step forward, two steps
back, on chemical treaty
April 11, 2002: A
year after signing an international treaty to phase out a
dozen highly toxic chemicals, President Bush formally sought
congressional approval. Shortly before Earth Day last year,
Bush announced his that he would sign the treaty aimed at
reducing the release of dangerous chemicals linked to cancer
and birth defects. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants calls for the gradual elimination worldwide
of several pesticides, such as DDT, and industrial chemicals,
such as polychlorinated byphenyls (PCBs). Most of those
chemicals are already banned in the United States and other
industrialized countries.
Environmentalists praised the
president last year for supporting the treaty -- which governs
persistent chemical pollutants -- but were disappointed that
the administration backtracked on its commitment to creating a
means for adding more chemicals to the list of banned
pollutants. The Environmental Protection Agency, which drafted
the enabling legislation accompanying the treaty submitted to
the Senate for ratification, failed to include a provision
addressing additional chemicals. EPA dropped the provision
imposing restrictions on other toxic chemicals at the urging
of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
"By
reneging on the promise to fully address the public health
threat posed by the persistence of a wide range of toxic
chemicals, the White House is failing to fulfill the U.S.
obligation under the treaty," said Gina Solomon, director of
NRDC's public health program.
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Bush administration to ax Northwest Forest
Plan
April 08, 2002: The Bush
administration wants to boost logging on public lands, and
it's not about to let endangered species stand in the way.
Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth has instructed regional
heads of his agency, the Bureau of Land Management and other
federal regulators to recommend changes to the 1994 Northwest
Forest Plan. The landmark plan, enacted by the Clinton
administration to protect the spotted owl and other rare
forest species, placed restrictions on logging in old-growth
forests to protect wildlife habitat. Although Bosworth set no
deadline for "fixing" the forest plan, he said the
administration has made the effort a priority and that the
White House will suggest changes at its
discretion.
Logging over the last 150 years has
destroyed about 90 percent of spotted owl habitat, forcing its
protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Northwest
Forest Plan set aside millions of acres of federal forests for
protection of the threatened northern spotted owl and other
wildlife while permitting logging of nearly 1 billion board
feet of federal timber each year.
"The Northwest Forest
Plan accommodated the timber industry while preserving enough
old-growth forests to ensure the survival of dwindling
populations of animals and plants," said Nathaniel Lawrence,
director of NRDC Forest Project. "Despite what the
industry-friendly Bush administration says, the plan is not
broken and doesn't need to be fixed."
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Alaska oil drilling would harm environment,
despite Bush claims
April 07, 2002: Despite
the Bush administration's assurances that oil drilling would
have little impact on the environment, a new government study
confirms that opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
to oil development could significantly harm wildlife.
According to report, written by the Interior Department's U.S.
Geological Survey, drilling in the refuge coastal plain could
especially hurt the Porcupine caribou herd. The report, based
on 12 years of study, shows that the caribou, which use the
coastal plain for calving, are "particularly sensitive" to
disturbance from oil exploration and other human development,
and likely would avoid roads and pipelines. USGS scientists
also confirmed that drilling activities could endanger other
refuge wildlife, including polar bears, musk oxen and snow
geese.
A week after the release of the study, the
agency issued a two-page follow-up report requested by
high-level Interior officials -- including a former oil
industry lobbyist -- which bolsters the case that drilling can
proceed in the Arctic Refuge without harming wildlife. Last
fall, it was revealed that Interior Secretary Gale Norton
provided erroneous information to Congress suggesting that oil
development has no effect on caribou.
"They didn't like
the results of a 12-year study, so they ordered a seven-day
rush job to get the results they really wanted," said Chuck
Clusen, NRDC's director of Alaska projects. "The
administration's refusal to accept that drilling in the refuge
is a bad idea says something about its commitment to basing
environmental decisions on sound science. That is, if it
'sounds' good to industry, forget about the
environment."
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Bush administration scales back habitat
protection for endangered butterfly
April 05,
2002: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reduced nearly
130,000 acres of critical habitat for the endangered Quino
checkerspot butterfly. Instead, the agency set aside 172,000
acres in southern California -- 40 percent less protected land
than the agency proposed in February 2001. Before that, the
agency had considered protecting more than 300,000
acres.
The inch-long butterfly used to be plentiful
throughout San Diego and Riverside counties, but agriculture
and development have significantly reduced its range over the
past several decades. More than 95 percent of the butterfly's
habitat has been developed, and remaining territory has been
harmed by the spread of non-native plants that kill the
insect's host plants. Federal officials declared the insect in
danger of extinction in 1997, and environmental groups
successfully sued to force the government implement habitat
protections two years later.
"It's good that the
butterfly finally has some protection, but the smaller habitat
designation may not be enough to reverse its downward spiral,"
said Joel Reynolds, a wildlife policy specialist with NRDC. "A
lot changes in a year, not in terms of the viability of this
rare species but in terms of the politics surrounding
environmental protection."
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Bush administration promotes coal-bed methane
development
April 04, 2002: Citing rising
energy demands and the need to increase energy production, the
Bush administration is touting natural gas development on
public lands. Assistant Interior Secretary Rebecca Watson
spoke at a conference in Colorado about the Bureau of Land
Management's plans to increase gas supplies through coal-bed
methane development in the Rocky Mountain region. The San Juan
Basin in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico is
the country's largest coal-bed methane producer. The Powder
River Basin in southern Montana and northeastern Wyoming is
catching up, with about 10,000 wells already drilled and a
more than 50,000 planned over the next several
years.
Methane gas is produced by pumping groundwater
to relieve the pressure trapping the gas in coal seams.
Coal-bed methane development mars the landscape with drilling
rigs and roads, and disrupts wildlife. It also requires
pumping vast amounts of water out of the ground and
re-injecting contaminated water into aquifers, eventually
polluting streams and rivers.
"Conserving energy
through efficient technology and developing clean, alternative
energy sources are far better solutions than turning our
public lands over to industry," said Johanna Wald, director of
NRDC's land program.
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Bush administration trying to dump global
warming scientist
April 02, 2002: To the
delight of politically-connected energy companies, the Bush
administration is moving to boot America's top climatologist
off a prestigious international panel that assesses global
warming. Robert Watson's term on the panel is expiring and the
State Department has decided not to renominate him. The reason
may be that Watson has been outspoken in his belief that
global warming is a serious environmental threat, and is
caused by human activity -- emissions. The United States is
responsible for producing 25 percent of the world's carbon
dioxide pollution, the main cause of global warming. The Bush
administration has steadfastly rejected international efforts
to reduce emissions.
"The Bush administration refuses
to accept that global warming is happening, then lets the
nation's biggest polluters write its energy plan," said Dan
Lashof, science director of NRDC's Climate Center. "Now the
White House is shooting the messenger in a vain attempt to
make the problem of global warming go away."
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White House ends environmental research
funding
April 02, 2002: The Bush
administration officially eliminated a popular Environmental
Protection Agency fellowship program that provides $10 million
a year to students pursuing graduate degrees in environmental
science, policy and engineering. Since 1995, the "Science To
Achieve Results" (STAR) program has financed nearly 800
students, awarding $60 million for environmental research. It
now supports 311 fellows, with each receiving approximately
$30,000 for one to three years. More than 1,350 students
applying for fellowships for 2003 were recently notified that
the program has been canceled.
"President Bush has
consistently emphasized the importance of scientific research
in environmental decision making. Just last year EPA
Administrator Whitman touted the STAR program for engaging the
best environmental scientists from academia through
competitive, peer reviewed grants," said Wesley Warren, NRDC's
senior economics fellow. "The White House gets a failing grade
when it comes to investing in sound science."
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Bush administration fails to boost automobile
efficiency
April 01, 2002: The government's
deadline for issuing a fuel economy standard for 2004 light
trucks came and went, with no change in store for mileage
requirements. The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)
standard for pickups, sport utility vehicles and minivans will
remain at 20.7 miles per gallon, the same standard that has
been in effect since 1996. Although Congress lifted the
prohibition against studying fuel economy standards last
December, as expected, the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration failed to take action. The automobile industry
had lobbied the Bush administration not to increase the
mileage standard.
"Is this some kind of April Fool's
joke? The White House keeps insisting that America must reduce
dependence on foreign oil, yet it steadfastly resists raising
fuel economy standards that would save billions of gallons of
gas," said Dan Lashof, science director of NRDC's Climate
Center.
Raising CAFE to 40 miles per gallon would save
15 times more oil than could be produced by drilling in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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