• Scientists Urge White House to Withdraw Peer Review Proposal
  
• Farmworkers Challenge EPA Pesticide Approval
  
• Documents Counter Industry Claims in Clean Air Cases
  
• Apollo Alliance Lays Out Alternative Energy Plan
  
• U.S., China Pledge to Work on Nonproliferation, Green Olympics
  
• California's Budget Woes Derail Marine Reserve Plan
  
• Reducing the Threats of Used Motor Oil
  
• Feds Ready to Give $4 Million in Western Water Grants
  

Scientists Urge White House to Withdraw Peer Review Proposal

A letter by the group to Josh Bolton, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), calls on the administration to withdraw the proposal and engage in a thorough, open discussion about the role of peer review in the regulatory context with America's scientific, public health, environmental and consumer communities.

The group includes Democrats and Republicans from the administrations of President Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton.

They say that a review of the proposal last November by a National Academies of Science panel raised strong concerns that implementation of the plan "would lead to increased costs and delays in disseminating information to the public and in promulgating health, safety, environmental and other regulations, while potentially damaging the existing system of peer review."

"Many of the speakers noted that OMB had failed to identify a single report or piece of regulation that would have been improved had the proposed peer review system been in place," according to the letter.

The "Proposed Bulletin on Peer Review and Information Quality" would shift management of peer review for federal rules, plans and proposals away from the agency with direct oversight to the OMB.

Proponents say this would set a consistent standard across agencies, but critics fear it puts politics at the forefront of a process that should be grounded in independent review.

"Peer review is an important process," the group wrote. "It is too important to be addressed in a poorly conceived proposal."

The concern over the proposal comes amid repeated warnings by some American scientists that the Bush administration is manipulating scientific advisory committees in order to further its political agenda.

The federal government relies on hundreds of these committees to provide agencies with unbiased advice based on the best science available as well as to peer review grant proposals for scientific research.

The Bush administration, many scientists fear, has distorted this process by putting committee members through political litmus tests, eliminating committees whose findings looked likely to disagree with its policies, and stacking committees with individuals who have a vested interest in steering conclusions to benefit effected industries.

Farmworkers Challenge EPA Pesticide Approval

The two pesticides are azinphos-methyl (AZM) and phosmet - both are highly toxic organophosphate neurotoxins.

Organophosphate pesticides (OPs), derived from nerve agents used during World War II, attack the human nervous system and exposure can cause dizziness, vomiting, seizures, paralysis, loss of mental function, and death.

The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Seattle by attorneys with Earthjustice, Farmworker Justice Fund, California Rural Legal Assistance, and the Natural Resources Defense Council on behalf of Sea Mar Community Health Centers, United Farm Workers of America, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, National Campaign Against the Misuse of Pesticides, and Frente Indígena Oaxaqueña Binacional.

"It is outrageous that EPA authorized the use of these pesticides, putting thousands of workers at risk of serious illness every year," said Erik Nicholson of the United Farmworkers of America. "These two pesticides can poison so many farmworkers that EPA found the risks unacceptable, but the agency still allowed them to be used."

Under federal law, EPA decides which pesticides may be used throughout the United States.

The plaintiffs say the agency has continued to allow uses of these pesticides without even considering the magnitude of the risks posed to workers, their children, and communities.

They allege the EPA analyzed the estimated economic value of using these two pesticides to farmers but failed to quantify the risks to people and the environment.

"We are asking the federal district court to overturn EPA's unlawful authorization of these extremely toxic pesticides," said Patti Goldman, an attorney for Earthjustice, "and to force EPA to consider the magnitude of the harm to workers, and proven alternatives that are less harmful to farmworkers and communities."

Farmworker families and communities are exposed to OPs through "take home" exposures on clothing, cars, and skin.

Farmworker children and people who live within one quarter of a mile of fields have four to five times more chemicals in their bodies from exposure to OPs, including AZM, than other individuals.

AZM and phosmet are mostly used to kill pests on orchard crops such as apples, cherries, pears, preaches, and nectarines. The highest uses occur in Washington, Oregon, California, Michigan, Georgia, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Documents Counter Industry Claims in Clean Air Cases

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says a recent Justice Department brief cites documents that contradict oft repeated complaints by industry officials that they had no idea they had run afoul of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) interpretation of the law until the agency filed the first of several high profile enforcement lawsuits in 1999.

Duke Energy Corporation is one of several electric utilities that EPA determined were violating the Clean Air Act's New Source Review program, which requires companies to install modern pollution control technologies in new plants, and in old plants when they make modifications that significantly increase emissions.

Memoranda to Duke Energy from the Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG), an industry trade organization were attached to a December 23 brief to the federal court hearing the government's case against the company in North Carolina.

According to the government's brief, the documents reveal "that UARG understood and told Duke from the beginning" that the EPA created exemption from the Clean Air Act for "routine maintenance" at industrial facilities was too narrow to accommodate the substantial emissions boosting renovations that utilities had been making at their plants.

For years, lawyers for Duke Energy and other UARG members have asserted that until the federal government began suing their clients in 1999 for illegal pollution increases, they had no idea that EPA's exemption for "routine maintenance" was a narrow one.

"Not since the tobacco industry's deceptions have we seen such a brazen corporate conspiracy to hide an intentional assault on public health," said John Walke, director of the clean air program at NRDC, which has publicized the details of the documents. "This is smoking-gun evidence that the utility industry has been lying to the American people, its shareholders and the government for years."

Walke says the claims by the utilities about unfair EPA prosecutions contributed to the Bush administration's decision to revise New Source Reviews.

A dozen states along with several environmental and public health organizations have challenged the revisions to New Source Review in federal court - last month the court agreed to stay the most recent rule changes until it decides the case.

Critics argue the changes roll back existing law, but the administration says the revisions will clarify a confusing program for industry and will result in improved efficiency and increased emissions reductions.

In the past two years, the Department of Justice, state attorneys general, and public interest groups have successfully prosecuted or settled New Source Review lawsuits that the Clinton administration brought against the 12 owners of the country's oldest, largest and dirtiest coal fired power plants.

The settlements and legal victories would not have been possible under the revised rule, critics say, and the revisions have cast doubt over other pending enforcement actions brought by the Clinton administration under the old rule.

EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt told the Associated Press last week that the administration intends to move forward with those enforcement lawsuits - and could file new actions - but in a speech Friday to utility executives he described the situation as a "stalemate."

NRDC is calling on the utility defendants in the enforcement cases to release relevant documents to the public and accept accountability for their decade long campaign of deception.

"The executives of the companies and their lawyers have a lot of explaining to do," said Walke, "to the courts, to their shareholders, and to the public."

Apollo Alliance Lays Out Alternative Energy Plan

The Alliance says it has received support from 17 of America's largest labor unions, including the United Auto Workers, the Steelworkers and Machinists, as well as a broad cross section of the environmental movement, including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Greenpeace.

"If economists agree on anything it is that inventing new technologies and creating whole new industries is what America does best," said Dr. Ray Perryman, a corporate economist from Texas who prepared a detailed economic analysis of the proposal for a New Apollo Project.

"We are a creative economy, not a commodity economy," Perryman said. "The New Apollo Project would keep us on the cutting edge of manufacturing emerging technologies and secure our longterm prosperity.

The plan calls for spending $300 billion over the next 10 years in clean energy technology and infrastructure through tax credits and direct investments. This would create 3.3 million new, high wage jobs for manufacturing, construction, transportation, high tech, and public sector workers, while reducing dependence on imported oil and cleaning the air, Perryman said.

His analysis indicates that a New Apollo Project would also position the United States to take the lead in fast growing markets, reduce the trade deficit and more than pay for itself in energy savings and returns to the U.S. Treasury.

"A bold approach like Apollo is the kind of leadership we need from our next President," said Bracken Hendricks, executive director of the Apollo Alliance. "The public is demanding a forward looking plan to rebuild our economy and a positive solution to our energy insecurity."

U.S., China Pledge to Work on Nonproliferation, Green Olympics

In discussions this week officials reviewed the statement of intent signed earlier this month in Beijing. That agreement established a process for cooperation on a range of initiative, including efforts to strengthen export controls, international nuclear safeguards, physical protection of nuclear materials and facilities, nuclear emergency management, and radioactive source security by setting up information exchanges and training programs.

Abraham called the statement an "an important step toward accelerating the global effort to reduce the threat posed by the proliferation weapons of mass destruction."

The U.S. Energy Secretary also joined China's Science and Technology Minister Xu and Beijing's Vice Mayor Fan this week to sign the Green Olympic Protocol for Beijing's 2008 Olympic Games.

Abraham was in Beijing for a ribbon cutting ceremony for the first energy efficient building demonstration project in Beijing that will lead to more widespread use of clean energy technologies in Beijing, in particular for the 2008 Olympic Games.

"This energy efficient building in Beijing demonstrates how the United States and China can work together to promote clean energy solutions," Abraham said. "I hope that the Green Olympic Protocol for Beijing's 2008 Olympic Games we are signing today will further deepen our joint efforts to improve Beijing's air quality and environment." The United States and China are the two largest energy consumers in the world.

The two nations have established 11 teams to move forward on Green Olympics cooperation since a statement of intent was signed between the Department of Energy and China in September 2002.

California's Budget Woes Derail Marine Reserve Plan

Schwarzenegger's administration announced the move on Monday.

California faces a $33 billion budget shortfall and officials say the state cannot afford the $2 million needed to finish the plan by next year's deadline.

State officials say the program will restart once funds are available.

Conservationists say they understand the budget pressures, but contend the initiative is too important to delay.

Although some critics question the science behind the concept of marine reserves, advocates say the creation of networks of marine reserves is a major tool to restore and manage ocean ecosystems.

"Postponing the creation of marine reserves allows further decline of living ocean ecosystems and only makes it harder to restore ocean health and diversity," said Warner Chabot, vice president of The Ocean Conservancy.

Instead of the proposed indefinite halt, Chabot and others are urging Schwarzenegger be more creative and work with the stakeholders who are willing to fund the process and move forward with this legal mandate.

California environmentalists have offered to work with the state to get additional foundation funding to implement this law, even in a streamlined manner.

Chabot says California polls show "overwhelming support for creating marine reserve networks."

"California's living ocean systems need responsible management," he said. "Marine reserves protect key ocean habitats that are nursery areas for ocean fish and wildlife."

Last April California officially protected 175 square miles around the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary - these protected waters are the largest scientifically designed network of marine reserves in the continental United States.

Reducing the Threats of Used Motor Oil

The research is published in the January 15 issue of "Environmental Science & Technology," a peer reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society.

Some one billion gallons of used oil are generated in the United States each year. This total comes primarily from lubricating oils - motor and transmission oils - and from hydraulic and cutting oils used in industry.

The researchers compared the environmental impacts from the three primary ways of managing used oil, focusing on used oil data from California in 2002.

Some 14 percent of old oil is re-refined, 11 percent is treated and recycled for heating fuel, and 75 percent is resold, without treatment, as fuel oil to industrial consumers.

They found that, while the three ways of handling used oil were equal in their effects on ozone depletion and global warming, emissions from the untreated used oil fuel contained significantly higher levels of zinc, lead, copper and cadmium - heavy metals that can threaten both human health and the environment.

The total emission of heavy metals from used oil fuel in 2002 was potentially on the same scale as the combined emissions from all of California's large stationary pollution sources, such as refineries and other manufacturing plants.

These results suggest that Californians - and others in the United States - should support recycling and re-refining programs to reduce this environmental burden, according to lead author Bob Boughton, a researcher with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.

"Only 10 percent of the more than 100 million gallons of used oil generated each year in California is recycled to produce useful lubricants, just as paper is recycled to produce paper again," Boughton said.

Boughton says the results provide further incentive for citizens and policymakers to encourage alternative used oil management strategies, possibly through incentives for treatment and by supporting markets for processed oil products.

But he and his colleagues note that the best option is to use less oil in the first place.

One way to accomplish this would be extending oil change intervals from the national average 4,500 miles to more than 9,000 miles, Boughton explained.

"The bottom line is that motor oil quality has continually improved, but the oil filters have stayed basically the same for the last 30 years," Boughton said.

Most filters are made of a paper element that gets clogged after 5,000 miles, so the oil needs to be changed simply because it gets dirty, but high efficiency filters exist now and are available to the public.

"If the auto manufacturers put these on new cars and called for these at each oil change, the used oil volume could be reduced by half from the transportation sector," Boughton said.

Feds Ready to Give $4 Million in Western Water Grants

The grants will be awarded in the current fiscal year, which ends September 30, 2004.

"Because of growing populations and heightened competition for limited water supplies, the chronic shortages in many of the West's watersheds are likely to worsen," said Interior Secretary Gale Norton. "The goal of these challenge grants is to support realistic, cooperative approaches and tools that have the most likelihood of successfully addressing water challenges in the basins facing the greatest risk."

The grants program is being funded under the Western Water Initiative, which was proposed by President George W. Bush in his fiscal year 2004 budget request. The initiative was the initial step towards the administration's Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West, which was announced in June 2003.

Administration officials say Water 2025 will help manage scarce water resources and develop partnerships to nourish a healthy environment and sustain a vibrant economy.

The plan aims to encourage voluntary water banks and other market based measures, promote the use of new technology for water conservation and efficiency, and remove institutional barriers to increase cooperation and collaboration among federal, state, tribal, and private organizations.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation will be accepting proposals for matching challenge grants from irrigation and water districts that seek to leverage their money and resources to create water markets and make more efficient use of existing water supplies through water conservation and efficiency projects. By law, proposals must have matching non-federal funds of at least 50 percent.

The grants should focus on achieving the goals identified in Water 2025 and the selection process will emphasize projects that can be completed within 24 months and that can reduce future conflicts.

More information about submitting proposals will be posted at http://www.grants.gov.