[Mb-civic] Environews--Selling public land, giving $$ to Big Oil, cutting EPA funding...

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

PUBLIC LAND ENEMY NO. 1
White House wants to auction off 300,000 acres of public land

The Bush administration has proposed a sell-off of over $1 billon worth of
public land over the next five to 10 years. Proceeds from the auctions of
more than 300,000 acres of Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management
holdings would largely go to rural schools and roads, funding for which
has been cut by, um, the Bush administration. Environmental historian Char
Miller calls the scheme "a fire sale of public lands ... utterly
unprecedented." Mark Rey, the Agriculture Department undersecretary in
charge of the Forest Service, claims timber, oil, and gas interests
weren't directly consulted on that agency's sale plans -- though some of
the plots might have been chosen based on such "conversations in recent
months and years." Ahem. While Rey says the national forest parcels on the
block are not ecologically vital, some conservationists worry that the
sales may break up important wildlife corridors and bring development to
the banks of scenic rivers. Congress would need to approve the plan before
it could go into effect.

straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Janet Wilson, 11 Feb 2006
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=6450>

straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Associated Press, 13 Feb 2006
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=6451>


ROYALING FOR A FIGHT
Oil and gas companies set to receive $7 billion taxpayer windfall

To supplement their already record-breaking profits, oil companies are set
to receive around $7 billion in royalty relief over the next five years --
possibly up to $35 billion, depending on the outcome of an ongoing lawsuit
-- and the feds claim they are basically powerless to stop it. At issue
are royalties charged for oil and gas extracted from federal land and deep
waters off shore. Or in this case, not charged: In the mid-90s, oil was
cheap and the feds were trying to sweeten the pot to encourage risky,
high-cost exploration in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, so they
passed a "royalty relief" act that zeroed out royalties. Only now, oil and
gas prices are up, oil companies are drowning in cash, and the taxpayer
giveaway continues. The feds say the royalty-free bonanza is typically
tied to price points for oil and gas, but a lawsuit by oil company
Kerr-McGee, if successful, could remove even that modest limitation,
jacking up the additional lost royalties to around $35 billion.
Congressional Democrats are working to end the royalty relief, but their
chances of success are slim.

straight to the source: The New York Times, Edmund L. Andrews, 14 Feb 
2006
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=6465>

straight to the source: The New York Times, Edmund L. Andrews, 15 Feb 
2006
<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=6466>


DICK, GET YER GUN!
Bald eagle may soon leave the Endangered Species List

Remember when John Ashcroft sang that hymn he wrote, "Let the Eagle 
Soar"?
That was something, wasn't it? Anyhoo! Speaking of the bald eagle, it may
soon leave the Endangered Species List, thanks to its strong recovery in
parts of the U.S. In an unusual joint news conference on Monday, U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service chief H. Dale Hall and representatives of several
prominent green groups united to hail the eagle's progress -- from 413
breeding pairs in the continental U.S. in 1963 to an estimated 7,000 to
9,100 today. FWS is effectively restarting a process begun in 1999 to
delist the eagle, which some see as vindication of the Endangered Species
Act. The enviros at the press conference didn't miss the chance to note
that some act protections that proved vital to restoring the bald-eagle
population would be weakened or lost under legislation passed last year by
the House of Representatives. Let the eeeeeagle sooooooar ... now it's
gonna be in your head all day!

straight to the source: The New York Times, Felicity Barringer, 14 Feb
2006 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=6457>


HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE DEPENDENCE ON 
FOREIGN ENERGY SOURCES?
Austria embraces renewable energy

Austria is yodeling up a new tree: the biofuels tree (oh, what are you,
the metaphor police?). Like other hip countries, Austria is giving
renewable energy a big bear hug -- nearly 70 percent of its domestic power
production came from renewables in 2003. Taking advantage of what is
readily available right within its own borders, the half-forested nation
utilizes forestry byproducts like wood chips and sawdust to make pellets
for high-tech, smoke-free boilers; biomass accounts for about 21 percent
of its heat production. Having banned nuclear power generation, Austria is
using biofuels to wean itself off of energy imports, meet environmental
goals, and spur job creation. The government funds research and
development into renewables and heavily subsidizes them as well. That's
the sound of music to our ears (what are you, the dated pop-culture
reference police?).

straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Delphine
Strauss, 13 Feb 2006 <http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=6456>



White House Looks to Cut EPA Library Funds
by Brendan Coyne

Feb. 13 – Continuing a four-year trend, the White House budget proposal for 
2007 would cut 80 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency's library 
budget, drastically reducing the amount of information available to 
government scientists and the public. The library cuts come on top of funding 
reductions for several other EPA programs that environmental groups 
maintain are vital to the global ecosystem and the national interest.

The $7.3 billion proposed EPA budget would trim $2 million from the $2.5 
million EPA library fund, which, according to the watchdog group Public 
Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), may cause many 
regional libraries to shut down. The pared-down library budget would de-fund 
the agency's electronic catalog and pull $500,000 from the EPA headquarters 
library coordination network, according to EPA documents released by 
PEER.

The cuts come even as the president has called on the EPA to become more 
aggressive in researching and adopting cutting-edge technology, PEER 
Executive Director Jeff Ruch noted. Ruch asked, "How are EPA scientists 
supposed to engage in cutting-edge research when they cannot find what the 
Agency has already done?" PEER is an advocacy organization representing 
local state and federal resource professionals

"Access to information is one of the best tools we have for protecting the 
environment," Ruch said. "Closing the Environmental Protection Agency 
libraries actually threatens to subtract from the sum total of human 
knowledge."

Overall, the Bush administration's budget proposal would cut EPA funding by 
nearly $400 million from last year.

Environmental groups began raising alarms over the budget shortly after it 
was unveiled last Monday. In a group report released last week, the Union of 
Concerned Scientists, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Wildlife 
Society and several other organizations noted that the proposed EPA budget 
does have a few high spots. But overall, they said, "America is not keeping up 
with its investment in core safeguards for protecting the health of our 
communities."

The budget plan does call for increased funding for cooperative conservation 
measures as well as improvements in diesel-fuel emissions and the 
management of underground storage tanks.

But among the slated cuts are $199 million for the Clean Water State 
Revolving Fund, a program that provides loans to communities for drinking 
water. The Fund has been subjected to over $1.4 billion in reductions since 
2002.

The proposed budget would also slash $4 million from Energy Star, a 
voluntary energy-efficiency improvement program, and $1.8 million from the 
Environmental Justice program, which serves low-income communities 
adversely affected by pollutants.

© 2006 The NewStandard. All rights reserved. 
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"A war of aggression is the supreme international crime." -- Robert Jackson,
 former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor

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