• Supreme Court Justice Asked to Leave Energy Task Force Case
  
• Conservation Voters Scorecard Marks Partisan Divide
  
• EPA Must Rewrite Toxic Air Rules for Small Incinerators
  
• Ohio Egg Producer Settles Clean Air Violations
  
• Northeast Hatchery Fish to Be Tested for Contaminants
  
• Transgenic Fish May Cause Extinction of Natural Species
  
• Energy Agency Delays Weakening Nuclear Worker Safety Rules
  
• U.S. Importers Buy Timber Ripped From the Amazon
  

Supreme Court Justice Asked to Leave Energy Task Force Case

Citing the intense public attention drawn to a January duck hunting trip that Cheney and Scalia took together while the case is before the Supreme Court, the Sierra Club concluded that recusal is necessary to "redress an appearance of impropriety and to restore public confidence in the integrity of our nation's highest court."

"Unfortunately, the Cheney-Scalia vacation mirrors the secrecy with which the Bush Administration often conducts business," said David Bookbinder, Sierra Club's Washington legal director. "The public is continually shut out."

The public interest group Judicial Watch filed suit in 2001 to obtain documents detailing what occurred in meetings of Cheney's Energy Task Force which wrote the Bush administration's National Energy Policy issued in May 2001. Cheney's office had ignored the watchdog group's request for information about the task force meetings.

The organization, which was later joined in the suit by the Sierra Club, contends that Cheney inappropriately allowed industry lobbyists to help craft White House energy policy.

Judicial Watch said in a statement that it does not believe the presently known facts about the hunting trip satisfy the legal standards requiring recusal.

The recusal motion filed by Sierra Club cites the dozens of editorials and editorial cartoons calling for Justice Scalia's withdrawal from the case as evidence that his impartiality is being reasonably questioned.

"The public debate clearly echoes the common sense conclusion that the duck hunting vacation taken by Cheney and Scalia creates the appearance of impropriety," said Bookbinder.

The high court will hear the case in April, with a ruling expected sometime in June 2004.

So far Cheney's lawyers have been unable to convince lower courts that the White House has the right to shield information from the public about the role of energy industry executives and lobbyists on the task force.

The plaintiffs say the public has a right to know what influence energy corporations may have had in writing the administration's energy plan, which is behind the energy bill that will come before the Senate shortly. It has already been passed by the House.

Bush officials say there was nothing devious about the meetings and argue that the White House should be able to gather information and advice without public scrutiny.

In July 2003, a three judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Bush administration is subject to "discovery," and must comply with requests for information.

In rejecting the government's arguments, the court wrote that the White House's position would "transform executive privilege from a doctrine designed to protect presidential communications into virtual immunity from suit."

The administration asked the appeals court for a rehearing, but that request was denied in September, prompting the White House to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

Conservation Voters Scorecard Marks Partisan Divide

The 2003 National Environmental Scorecard, released Tuesday by the environmental political lobbying organization, also reflects the disconnect between public health and safety and the desires of large corporate contributors, according to LCV President Deb Callahan.

"While we are encouraged by the number of "100" scores this year, we are similarly discouraged by the persistent attempts of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill to dismantle 35 years of environmental policy at the behest of corporate polluters," said Callahan.

"Chairs of committees with jurisdiction over environment and conservation issues in the 108th Congress have remarkably poor scores, particularly when compared to those of rank and file members," she said.

The LCV has published a National Environmental Scorecard on every Congress since 1970, the year it was founded by leaders of the environmental movement following the first Earth Day.

A score of 100 means that a legislator has voted for environmental protection on all of the selected votes chosen for scoring by the LCV. A score of zero means the legislator never voted for environmental protection.

The 2003 scorecard contains several changes from years past, including double-scoring votes on the House and Senate energy bills. And for the first time ever, the document factors in a vote on a judicial nominee.

"We believe the significance of the judicial branch has risen exponentially with the decline of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, and thus has become an integral part of how environmental policy is framed in America," Callahan said.

The 2003 Scorecard included 43 scores of 100 percent - 41 in the House, two in the Senate - and 58 zeros, with 36 of these in the House and 22 in the Senate.

There is a clear partisan trend in the scoring - Georgia Senator Zell Miller was the only Democrat among the 22 Senators who scored a zero and all 36 zero scores in the House were Republicans.

All of the lawmakers receiving a score of 100 are Democrats.

The national average was 46 percent for House members and 41 percent for Senators.

Congressman Richard Pombo, a California Republican and the chair of the House Resources Committee, was one of several House Republicans who took issue with the LCV's report, which gave him a score of five.

"The LCV headlines would have Americans believe that Congress is voting to blacken the sky and decimate American lands when the data trend lines show that our environment is cleaner than it has been in 30 years," Pombo said. "This blurring of the true state of our environment now is the biggest threat to continued environmental success for the future."

The LVC says the 2003 Scorecard also reflects a substantial increase in the number of votes scored, due to the sheer number of procedural methods used by members on both sides of the aisle to either slow or fast track controversial legislation.

Votes on national energy policy were an integral part of the analysis from both the House and Senate in 2003, the LCV said, as were individual votes on forest policy, global warming and Arctic drilling in the Senate and forest management, Defense Department environmental exemptions along with clean air and water exemptions in the House of Representatives.

The full report can be viewed at http://www.lcv.org

EPA Must Rewrite Toxic Air Rules for Small Incinerators

"This is a huge victory for the health of our communities," said Jim Pew, the Earthjustice attorney representing the Sierra Club and New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) in the case.

The ruling will impact some 90 garbage incinerators known as small municipal waste combustors.

These facilities have the capacity to burn between 35 and 250 tons of refuse daily and collectively they emit significant levels of dangerous air toxins, such as mercury, lead, dioxins and PCBs.

"These incinerators fill our lungs with toxic chemicals, make it tougher for kids with asthma to breathe, and poison the food we eat," said Laura Haight, NYPIRG senior environmental associate. "This decision will greatly reduce the risks that communities face from toxic air pollution."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the EPA had failed to set the protective air pollution standards required by the Clean Air Act and ordered the agency to redo its regulations.

Under the federal Clean Air Act, EPA was required to set emission standards for small municipal waste combustors that, at a minimum, matched the performance of the cleanest units now in operation.

In December 2000, the EPA issued standards that fell short of that requirement and allowed the dirtiest units to continue operating unabated.

"The EPA is now required to raise the bar for all municipal waste combustors," said Nat Mund, a Washington Clean Air Representative with the Sierra Club. "This decision will decrease the amount of air pollution released into our communities, and help protect our children and families from dangerous air toxins."

Ohio Egg Producer Settles Clean Air Violations

Northeast Hatchery Fish to Be Tested for Contaminants

Marvin Moriarty, regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Service in the Northeast, announced the decision Monday and cited a January study published in the journal "Science" that documented the contamination of farm raised salmon with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins.

The study reports that these contaminants probably came from fish food.

"Fish raised in national fish hatcheries may be fed the same diet as farm raised salmon and may, therefore, have the same contaminants," Moriarty said.

The fisheries program in the Northeast Region manages 11 national fish hatcheries, 13 fishery resource offices, a fish health center, and a fish technology center in 13 states from Maine to Virginia.

The Fish and Wildlife Service gives excess Atlantic salmon, lake trout and rainbow trout from its hatcheries to Northeast states for recreational fish stocking. If hatchery fish are found to be contaminated, it means that fish stocked into Northeast rivers and streams may also contain the same toxic PCBs and dioxins.

Moriarty said he expects test results in early May, well in advance of the release of nearly all fish provided to states. The agency will compare test results with federal consumption advisories.

The federal agency has notified states in the Northeast of its concerns and requested that they inform anglers about the possible contaminants.

Ingestion of PCBs causes liver, stomach, and thyroid gland injuries in lab animals. Rats that ate food containing high levels of PCBs for two years developed liver cancer, and the federal government considers PCBs to be carcinogens. Dioxins have been shown to be very toxic in animal studies and may cause cancer in people.

"Our position is to take a cautious approach when it comes to the health and safety of the public," said Moriarty. "We are working with many state and federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations, industry and the public throughout the Northeast Region to provide healthy fish, healthy fish habitat and healthy economies."

The fish given to the states are brood stock retired from years of producing eggs. Atlantic salmon and lake trout help restore populations to self-sustaining levels, and rainbow trout provide recreational fishing.

Transgenic Fish May Cause Extinction of Natural Species

Although the genetically modified fish will be bigger and have more success at attracting mates, they may also produce offspring that are less likely to survive to adulthood, the researchers say.

If this occurs a population could dwindle in size over time and potentially disappear entirely.

The research appears in this week's online issue of the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

"Ours is the first demonstration that a genetically modified organism has a reproductive advantage over its natural counterpart," said Rick Howard, a professor of biological sciences in Purdue's School of Science. "Though altering animals' genes can be good for humans in the short run, it may prove catastrophic for nature in the long run if not done with care. And we do not know just what kind of care is necessary yet, or how much."

Howard and Purdue colleague William Muir, who collaborated with fellow Purdue professor Andrew DeWoody on the new study, published a related article in the same journal in December 1999 that showed larger animals had a mating advantage, but their previous article did not relate mating advantage to genetic modification.

"With all the concern over whether transgenic food is safe for humans, the environment has been more or less left out of the picture," Howard said. "Plenty of laboratories are studying whether genetically modified organisms are safe for human consumption, but to my knowledge, ours is the only one that looks at whether they will be safe for the Earth."

The researchers studied the Japanese medaka, a small fish that breeds daily, because it would reproduce often enough for trends to emerge quickly.

"We took several tanks and put a female into each one with two males - one natural, and one transgenic," Howard said. "The transgenic males were 83 percent heavier than the natural bred males, so it was easy to distinguish which male was mating with the female."

The research team found that the larger transgenic males mated three times for every time the natural bred males did - not surprising, considering the premium that female medakas place on male size. But though the transgenic males mated more often, fewer of their young survived to adulthood.

For every 100 offspring sired by a natural male that survived to adulthood, only 70 of the young produced by a transgenic male survived.

"Putting both of these things together, a population invaded by a few genetically modified individuals would become more and more transgenic, and as it did the population would get smaller and smaller," he said. "We call this the 'Trojan gene effect.'"

Over time this effect could continue to multiply itself over generations, eventually decimating a population.

Though the report's conclusions are sobering, Howard cautions that the group's research is based on computer models as well as observation of actual fish mating behavior - behavior that took place within a controlled laboratory setting rather than in nature, where other factors could influence the outcome.

Energy Agency Delays Weakening Nuclear Worker Safety Rules

The plan would have covered some 24 Energy Department nuclear weapons plants and research labs.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham sent a letter Monday announcing the decision to Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Chairman John Conway.

Energy Department officials had said the move would increase flexibility for contractors without compromising safety, but appear to have changed that view. Abraham said the move was in response to the perception expressed by the board and others that the proposal was not consistent with the goal of ensuring the safety and health of workers at Department of Energy sites.

"Consequently, I have directed that the current proposed rulemaking be suspended to allow further consultations with the board and to consider the concerns of other interested stakeholders as appropriate," Abraham said.

The Energy Secretary said in the letter that "any final rule will reflect Congress's direction that the rule 'provide a level of protection for workers at Department of Energy facilities that is substantially equivalent to the level of protection currently provided to such workers at such facilities.'"

Abraham added that any final rule will also carry out the intent of Congress that civil penalties be part of the enforcement plan for safety rules at these facilities.

"Any final rule will reflect my policy that safety standards will not be 'written by contractors,' but instead will be subject to the personal approval of more senior federal officials than is the case today," according to the Energy Secretary. "I welcome the opportunity to work closely with the Board on this important matter."

U.S. Importers Buy Timber Ripped From the Amazon

The report "State of Conflict" details how Madenorte and other timber companies use fraud, intimidation, slavery, and murder to usurp land from Pará residents and decimate the rainforest.

More than one-third of the total Amazon deforestation in Brazil is taking place in Pará state.

Greenpeace identifies Texas based Ihlo Sales & Import Company as the single largest importer of wood from Madenorte, and lists several other U.S. companies that either import from Madenorte directly or distribute Madenorte wood from Ihlo.

The international environmental organization says it delivered copies of the report to every company named along with a letter asking them to stop doing business with Madenorte.

Greenpeace also delivered copies to the U.S. Justice Department, the State Department, the Commerce Department, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Customs, and other government agencies responsible for enforcing the President's Initiative on Illegal Logging.

"By doing business with Madenorte, U.S. companies directly contribute to environmental destruction, slavery and death in the endangered Amazon rainforest," said Scott Paul, coordinator of Greenpeace's Forest Campaign.

"The United States is the largest importer of forest products worldwide and too many U.S. companies do not bother to look into the practices of the companies from which they buy. With this report, the federal government and companies such as Ihlo can no longer plead ignorance to the criminal activity of Madenorte."

The Greenpeace report also shows that Ihlo imports wood from Indonesia, where more than 80 percent of logging is illegal.

Other importers identified by Greenpeace include: Columbia Forest Products in Portland, Oregon; Dantzler in Miami Lakes, Florida; DLH Nordisk in Greensboro, North Carolina; John S. Connor, Inc. in Baltimore, Maryland; McCausey Lumber in Roseville, Michigan; Robinson Lumber in New Orleans, Louisiana; and Sabra International in Miami Beach, Florida.