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Fuel Economy Standard Proposed for Light Trucks Called "Feeble" LOS ANGELES, California, August 24, 2005 (ENS) - In the first reform of federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards since they were enacted in 1975 during an Arab oil embargo, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta Tuesday proposed a new fuel efficiency program for light trucks.Mini-vans, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles all are considered light trucks under the CAFE program, and make up half of the vehicles on U.S. roads today. According to the plan, by 2011, all vehicle manufacturers will be required to produce more fuel-efficient light trucks, including those who currently build smaller vehicles, Mineta said during a speech in Los Angeles introducing the proposal. "The reformed CAFE creates six categories for light trucks based on size, each with its own fuel economy target. The new targets for miles per gallon will be calculated according to vehicle size in each category," the secretary explained. "For example, a new minivan off the assembly line today gets on average 21 miles to the gallon. Under our plan, a similar size minivan will have a category target of 23.3 miles to the gallon. And over the next six years, we will aim to have small SUVs get as much as nine more miles to the gallon, up from the 19 miles to the gallon that some SUVs get today," he said. "Ultimately, this new plan also will enhance safety," Mineta said. "That is because we will judge vehicles on their size, or footprint, not on their weight. The new plan will not encourage manufacturers to simply build smaller vehicles just to meet the CAFE requirements, as the current system does." When fully implemented in 2011, all new light trucks will be required to meet miles per gallon targets based on vehicle size. "Our proposal asks automakers for the first time to focus their technology on increasing fuel efficiency across their entire fleets, rather than only in their least economical models," said National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Jeffrey Runge, M.D., who heads the agency responsible for the CAFE standards. "Under our proposal, every pickup, SUV and mini-van purchaser will benefit by buying vehicles that are as fuel-efficient as possible, regardless of who makes it or how big it is," Runge said. The proposal was called "feeble" and "paltry to the point of irrelevance" by REP America, the national grassroots organization of Republicans for environmental protection. David Jenkins, government affairs director of REP America, said, "This feeble proposal represents failed leadership. It is another troubling sign that the administration refuses to take the dangers of oil dependence seriously. At a time when gasoline prices are skirting $3 per gallon, what will it take for the Bush administration and for Congress to wake up?" asked Jenkins. Jim DiPeso, policy director of REP America, said, "The more dependent we are on oil, the more exposed our economy becomes to price shock, the more entangled the United States becomes in the world's trouble spots, the more political pressure increases to drill our nation's finest wilderness areas, the more carbon dioxide we emit, and the more risks we take with global warming." REP America supports a substantial increase in motor vehicle fuel economy standards to at least 36 miles per gallon, which would save an estimated 2 million barrels of oil per day, about 10 percent of current consumption. Joan Claybrook, president of the campaign group Public Citizen, said the Bush administration has adopted "the ostrich strategy." "At a time when some Americans are paying almost $3 for a gallon of gasoline and our troops are dying in the oil fields of the Middle East, the administration is doing next to nothing to reduce our insatiable thirst for oil," Claybrook said. "The new fuel economy standards announced today for light trucks have been in the works for years but are too meager to affect oil prices now or in the future," said Claybrook. "But they are carefully designed to appease automakers, who resist innovation, and the oil companies, which are raking in record profits. The fact that the largest SUVs, including Hummers, will be exempt from any fuel standards speaks volumes about this administration’s priorities." Secretary Mineta said, "This plan is good news for American consumers because it will ensure the vehicles they buy get more miles to the gallon, requiring fewer stops at the gas station, and ultimately saving them money at the pump." The light truck proposal will "save 10 billion gallons of gasoline in the years to come," Mineta said. NHTSA will take comments on the proposal for 90 days, with plans to issue the final rule by April 2006. The complete CAFE reform proposal can be seen at: www.nhtsa.gov then click on Laws/Regulations, then click on CAFÉ.
Mirant Ordered to Shut Polluting Virginia Power Plant ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, August 24, 2005 (ENS) - The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has directed the Mirant Potomac River power plant in Alexandria to take immediate steps to protect human health and the environment, including potential reduction of operations or plant shutdown, as a result of a Mirant study that shows significant violations of air quality standards near the plant.Mirant Potomac River Power Plant is one of the largest industrial facilities in Alexandria. It is a coal fired electric generating plant with a generating capacity of 482 megawatts. Following DEQ’s directive, Mirant announced today that it has reduced operations at the plant and will close the facility by midnight tonight if no short-term solutions to the violations are found. "DEQ takes this situation at the Mirant facility very seriously," DEQ Director Robert Burnley said. "We expect immediate action to protect people’s health and to improve the quality of the air that people in Alexandria are breathing." Mirant’s computer modeling analysis shows that – under certain conditions – pollution from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particles in the vicinity of the plant are higher than the national ambient air quality standards allow. Mirant submitted its study to DEQ on August 19, and DEQ responded the same day by instructing Mirant to address the situation immediately and to inform DEQ of the steps it is taking by this afternoon. The study was conducted as a requirement of a consent order signed in 2004 relating to alleged air quality violations at the Potomac River plant. Mirant agreed to conduct the study to determine whether key pollutants exceeded health standards, and to reduce the pollution if violations were found. Maryland activists say they are appalled that a Virginia power plant may have to shut down entirely due to pollution violations and want officials to investigate three power plants owned by the same company in the District of Columbia's Maryland suburbs to see if similar violations exist. "Mirant has been caught red handed polluting the air and endangering the health and well-being of people in our area," said Mike Tidwell, executive director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. "If we can't trust them to honestly control their air emissions in Virginia, how can we trust them in Maryland?" "If it weren't for the work of the people of Alexandria, we never would have known about this pollution," said Tidwell. "We applaud their efforts and call on Maryland's leaders to show the same concern for public health by fully investigating Mirant's operations to ensure the company is complying with the Clean Air Act." A growing coalition of faith, health, community activists and environmental groups are pushing for Maryland to adopt a bill dubbed the Healthy Air Act, which would require Mirant and others to clean up their coal-fired power plants. "The news about Mirant's extreme pollution problems at one of its power plants makes it more important than ever for Maryland legislators to protect the public's health by passing the Healthy Air Act," said Dr. Gina Angiola, a physician and Montgomery County activist. "Cutting toxic pollution from these plants will be a major step towards a cleaner, healthier Maryland."
Re-Wilding North America Seen as Unrealistic ITHACA, New York, August 24, 2005 (ENS) - A plan to restore elephants, lions and other large animals that disappeared from North America 13,000 years ago advanced by a Cornell University ecologist is meeting with ridicule in Africa where these animals roam in the wild today.Josh Donlan in the Cornell Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology proposed in the current issue of the journal "Nature" that giant tortoises, camels, cheetahs, Asian and African elephants, and lions be set loose in the North America. "Our vision begins immediately, spans the coming century, and is justified on ecological, evolutionary, economic, aesthetic and ethical grounds," Donlan argues. "The idea is to actively promote the restoration of large wild vertebrates into North America in preference to the 'pests and weeds' (rats and dandelions) that will otherwise come to dominate the landscape," he says. "This Pleistocene re-wilding would be achieved through a series of carefully managed ecosystem manipulations using closely related species as proxies for extinct large vertebrates, and would change the underlying premise of conservation biology from managing extinction to actively restoring natural processes," writes Donlan. But on Monday, Uganda Wildlife Authority chief Moses Mapesa told the Agence France Press news agency in Kampala that the idea sounds "like fiction" to him. "They cannot start dreaming things in a new age," Mapesa said. "If they want to support and feel strongly as it sounds, they should support conservation work where it is." Kenya Wildlife Service spokesman Edward Indakwa said the idea that the only way to save Africa's lions, cheetahs, elephants and rhinos is to move them to the United States is unrealistic and might be viewed as theft. Donlan contends that Africa and parts of Asia are now the only places where megafauna are relatively intact, and the loss of many of these species within this century seems likely. "Given this risk of further extinction, re-wilding of North American sites carries global conservation implications," he says. He says managed elephant populations could benefit ranchers through grassland maintenance and ecotourism. "Five species of proboscidians - mammoths, mastadons and gomphotheres - once roamed North America in the Late Pleistocene; today many of the remaining African and Asian elephants are in grave danger," is the way Donlan reasons. "Lions, which play a pivotal ecological role in the Serengeti, represent the ultimate in Pleistocene re-wilding for North America," Donlan says. "They are increasingly threatened, with populations in Asia and some parts of Africa critically endangered. Replacing the extinct American lion, Panthera leo atrox, although challenging, has clear aesthetic and economic benefits," says Donlan. Among the objections to Pleistocene re-wilding is that the proposed proxies are not genetically identical to the animals that formerly existed in North America, Donlan admits. "Existing lions and cheetahs are somewhat smaller than their extinct counterparts, and Camelus is different from Camelops," he says. But Donlan points to the successful reintroduction of peregrine falcons, Falco peregrinus, in North America to demonstrate that "same is relative." Captive-bred falcons from seven subspecies on four continents were used, yet there were no differences among the birds in subsequent breeding success, and the subspecies now serve as a collective proxy for the extinct midwestern peregrine falcon, Donlan says. Challenging objections to Pleistocene re-wilding include the possibility of disease transmission, the fact that habitats have not remained static over millennia, and the likelihood of unexpected ecological and social consequences of reintroductions, he says. Indakwa called the scheme "romantic," but Donlan acknowledged that his vision "might strike some as playing God."
Pennsylvania Mine Discharge Permit Revoked PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, August 24, 2005 (ENS) - Two conservation groups appealing the renewal of a wastewater discharge permit for the Potato Ridge clay mine operated by Kaiser Refractories in Fayette County, Pennsylvania have succeeded in blocking the renewal. The groups argued that the mine's discharge contained too much aluminum and manganese.The Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board sustained their challenge to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) permit renewal for the mine. The Mountain Watershed Association and Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture) argued that renewal of the permit was inconsistent with a pollution cleanup plan for the receiving stream, Laurel Run, prepared by the DEP and approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2003. The Board agreed, revoked the permit renewal, and sent the permit back to DEP for further consideration. DEP has been charged with payment of the appellants' attorney's fees and costs. Laurel Run is a tributary of Meadow Run, a trout fishery in Ohiopyle State Park that is frequented by anglers, swimmers, kayakers, and hikers. Both streams are designated by the state as High Quality waters. The appeal is the first action brought by Mountain Watershed Association's Yough Riverkeeper project, which is part of the international Waterkeeper Alliance. Yough Riverkeeper Beverly Braverman, who is also executive director of Mountain Watershed Association (MWA), said that nearly every sample of the treated mine drainage taken during the preceding five-year term of the permit violated the permit's maximum concentration limits for manganese. "The law flatly prohibits DEP from renewing a permit where violations of the permit are continuing," said Braverman. "The Board ruled that DEP acted unlawfully by renewing the permit without doing anything about the ongoing violations." The Laurel Run cleanup plan establishes the maximum amount of specific pollutants that may be discharged into the waterway, known as a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). PennFuture Senior Attorney Kurt Weist explained that discharge of aluminum is part of the problem. "The TMDL for Laurel Run assumed that the Potato Ridge Mine would discharge no aluminum into Laurel Run, so the renewed permit should have prohibited the discharge of aluminum. Instead, DEP placed no limit at all on the amount of aluminum Kaiser Refractories could discharge." As a result of deficiencies highlighted by the appeal, DEP is in the process of amending the TMDL for Laurel Run. The conservation groups suggest that one possible solution to the ongoing discharge violations would be to build a new treatment system to handle the Potato Ridge Mine discharges as well as several discharges from the adjacent Smith Mine in Ohiopyle State Park. Kaiser Refractories has taken the lead in designing this combined system and advocating for its development with the DEP and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which supervises and maintains the State Park. Kaiser Refractories is part of a family of companies owned by Kaiser Aluminum Corporation and Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation, which are seeking to reorganize under federal bankruptcy laws.
California Judge Halts Use of Rotenone in Wilderness Stream SACRAMENTO, California, August 24, 2005 (ENS) - A federal court judge in California has ordered an immediate halt to the poisoning of a stream in the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness to remove non-native fish, due to concerns that rare species may be destroyed in the process.Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. granted conservationists’ request to stop California Department of Fish and Game personnel from using the pesticide rotenone to poison 11 miles of stream plus a lake in the Silver King Creek basin this weekend. The agency must release information from its files to show whether rare species live in the stream and, if so, how they would recover from exposure to rotenone. "The judge preserved the community’s right to know what the results of this poisoning would be on a pristine area that Californians care deeply about," said Pete Frost, an attorney with the nonprofit, public interest Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene, Oregon. "This is a win for the stream and the community." The agency claims it must poison the stream to eradicate non-native trout that compete with Paiute cutthroat trout, a rare fish protected by federal law. The state agency and federal authorities hoped to eradicate non-native trout in Silver King Creek to restore Paiute cutthroat so that anglers can eventually fish in the area for the Paiute cutthroat. The case was filed by the nonprofit conservation groups Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, Wilderness Watch, and Friends of Hope Valley, based in Alpine County. They are joined by two individuals, including Laurel Ames, who previously served on the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Board after her appointment by then Governor Ronald Reagan. The plaintiffs said they support restoring Paiute cutthroat but not unless agencies disclose fully the impacts of their actions. "Rotenone does one thing well: it kills," said Pete Harrison of Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, based in Eureka, California. "Before we dump rotenone into our wilderness creeks, we should consider what we will kill, and what can be restored." Rotenone is a natural product, extracted from the derris plant, and a mainstay of organic farms and gardens, and is considered to be benign compared to many other pesticides. But Professor Tim Greenamyre, of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia suggested at a conference in 2000 that exposure to rotenone could cause Parkinson's disease, a crippling brain illness. Rotenone has been commonly used by fishery professionals throughout North America for the past 50 years to control fish and as a sampling aid. The use of rotenone and other fish management substances is the only method, other than complete draining, that will eliminate entire populations of fishes, according to the American Fisheries Society, which supports responsible use of the chemical.
World Carfree Network Takes on New York City Over Bike Rides NEW YORK, New York, August 24, 2005 (ENS) - On Saturday, the World Carfree Network, an international organization with member groups in 29 countries, will launch a worldwide campaign to demand an immediate end to the arrests of cyclists in New York City. The Network is also seeking the return of bicycles confiscated by police and the withdrawal of lawsuits curbing cyclists' civil rights. The Network is responding to a police crackdown on cyclists that began on August 27, 2004, when the New York Police Department (NYPD) arrested 264 participants and bystanders at a community bicycle ride known as Critical Mass, two days before the Republican National Convention. In total, in less than a year, over 500 cyclists have been arrested for participating in community rides, hundreds of bicycles have been seized by the NYPD, and the City of New York filed a lawsuit in March seeking to bar the environmental nonprofit organization Time's Up! from promoting or discussing Critical Mass. The city's lawsuit also seeks a ruling that TIME'S UP! and the general public cannot participate in riding or gathering at the Critical Mass bike ride. It claims that any event with 20 or more persons requires a permit, and bases its complaint on the fact that several thousand participants have taken part in Critical Mass bike rides in July, August, September and October 2004. The city also complains that people gather in Union Square Park for half an hour before the bike rides. TIME'S UP! responds that this case is "ridiculous, selective enforcement." Every day there are hundreds of events that take place with more than 20 people without a permit, the environmental group says. On the right to promote Critical Mass bicycle rides, Time's Up! says, "We advertise hundreds of events each year promoting sustainable environmental solutions. Some of the events we organize and others we are just passing along the word. Our right to do so is protected under the First Amendment." Critical Mass rides are held monthly in 400 cities around the world, involving cyclists of all ages. For eight years, the rides in New York City have been a popular community activity with a celebratory atmosphere often described as a "carnival on wheels." There were no serious incidents or disagreements between cyclists and police before August 27, 2004 and the monthly rides attracted thousands of participants. To this date, many cyclists continue with Critical Mass in New York City, despite the police crackdown, but rough treatment by the police has made the rides too dangerous for families with children, the environmental group warns. World Carfree Network has concluded that "the arrests constitute a serious violation of internationally-recognized civil rights, including Articles 9 and 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." The Network's Free NYC Cyclists campaign will include letter writing to New York City officials, public awareness activities in dozens of countries, and "if necessary the deployment of international legal observers to New York City." "Wherever in the world the right to use non-automotive transportation is seriously infringed upon, we will apply international pressure to call attention to and stop the injustice," says Randall Ghent, co-director of the Network's International Coordination Centre. "We are confident that Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the NYPD will come to recognize that Critical Mass is a beneficial community event, supported by people all over the world." The cyclists, Time's Up! and the World Carfree Network argue that group bicycle rides are not illegal. Under New York law, bikes are vehicles, so cyclists have the same rights and are subject to the same traffic laws as drivers of motorized vehicles, the contend. Moreover, in New York City, cyclists are permitted to ride more than two abreast, according to § 4-02(e) of NYC Traffic Rules. However, Assistant Police Chief Bruce Smolka, head of NYPD's South Manhattan Borough Command, has declared before a court that he views any group of more than seven cyclists as a "procession" requiring a special permit. Investigators have found that official police videos were edited in at least one case to exclude from court proceedings video evidence showing cyclists behaving peacefully and lawfully, Time's Up! says. "We are hoping for a friendly outcome that would benefit the people of NYC," Time's Up! says. The next Critical Mass bike ride is scheduled for Friday evening at Union Square.
Bacteria Modified to Make Eco-Safe Plastics, Solvents HOUSTON, Texas, August 24, 2005 (ENS) - Trials have begun in Kansas on an environmentally friendly production method for a chemical called succinate, a key ingredient of many plastics, drugs, solvents and food additives. The technology, developed with funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, uses a genetically modified form of the bacteria E. coli that metabolizes glucose, or sugar, and produces almost pure succinate. "Succinate is a high-priority chemical that the U.S. Department of Energy has targeted for biosynthesis," said process co-developer George Bennett, professor and chair of the department of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice University in Houston. Biosynthesis is the formation of a chemical compound by a living organism. "One reason for this is succinate's broad utility - it can be used to make everything from noncorrosive airport de-icers and nontoxic solvents to plastics, drugs and food additives," Bennett said. The centerpiece of Rice University's succinate technology is a mutant form of E. coli that makes succinate as its only metabolic byproduct. The technology is taking its first step from the laboratory to the marketplace in August with the start of industrial scale-up efforts in Kansas. A Kansas-based company, AgRenew Incorporated, has just begun testing how to use farm-grown products like grain sorghum as food for the succinate-producing bacteria. Finding such environmentally friendly methods to make key chemicals like succinate is a high priority for the chemical industry. Many researchers are trying to create a succinate-producing bacterial mutant by either inserting genes that boost succinate production or deleting genes that interfere with it. The goal is to maximize the amount of succinate produced per pound of glucose converted. "Our experiments in the laboratory have produced near-maximum yields, with almost all the glucose being converted into succinate," said Bennett's collaborator Ka-Yiu San, the E.D. Butcher Professor of Bioengineering and professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice. "The implementation was actually easier than we expected because the cells did the balancing themselves."
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