• League of Conservation Voters Endorses Kerry for President
  
• EPA Plans to Let New Hampshire Out of Federal Fuel Program
  
• Bush Administration Grants Royalty Relief to Deep Gulf Gas Wells
  
• U.S. Struggles to Assure Japan Over Mad Cow Disease
  
• Endangered Listing for Slickspot Peppergrass Denied
  
• Initiative Aims to Control Invasive Tamarisk
  
• Interior Unveils Platte River Restoration Plans
  
• More Mercury Warnings for Tuna Consumers
  

League of Conservation Voters Endorses Kerry for President

Deb Callahan, president of the LCV, said the current field of Democratic candidates is "filled with environmental friends" but that Kerry is "clearly the strongest environmentalist in the field."

"John Kerry is the candidate to defeat President [George W.] Bush, who has compiled the worst environmental record in the history of our nation," Callahan said.

The League of Conservation Voters will now work in New Hampshire and in other upcoming primary states to generate support for Kerry.

The organization has been a frequent and harsh critic of the Bush administration and last month let it be known that any of the Democratic candidates would be a batter steward of the environment.

The LCV calls itself the "political voice of the national environmental movement" and is one of the few environmental groups that can endorse candidates and contribute to campaigns. It plans to spend some $5 million on behalf of the Democratic nominee.

Kerry has a lifetime environmental rating from the LCV of 96 percent based on his voting record on environmental issues.

"John Kerry understands how to protect our water and remove mercury from our air," Callahan told a pro-Kerry rally at New Hampshire Technical College. "This a man who will stand up to the corporate interests and tell them to do what is right for their country, not their wallets.

The Massachusetts senator said he was honored to have the organization's endorsement.

"We have worked together to stop drilling in the Arctic refuge, increase fuel efficiency of cars and trucks and reduce carbon emissions from power plants," Kerry said. "The work of the LCV in New Hampshire and beyond will energize our campaign."

EPA Plans to Let New Hampshire Out of Federal Fuel Program

Bush Administration Grants Royalty Relief to Deep Gulf Gas Wells

"With demand for natural gas climbing as more American families and businesses choose this clean burning fuel, we must provide incentives for development of known resources that are harder to reach," said Norton. "These incentives will help ensure we have a reliable domestic supply of natural gas in the future."

Federal experts estimate that some 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lies in water depths less than 656 feet and 15,000 feet below the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off the coasts of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.

The Bush administration says it would not be economical for oil and gas companies to tap into this massive reserve without further aid from the federal government.

"Since infrastructure and lease specific facilities are already in place, the Outer Continental Shelf is one of the best available sources for additional near term domestic natural gas supply to meet the nation's needs," said Johnnie Burton, director of the Minerals Management Service. "We believe the incentives offered in this rule will spur industry to explore and produce these deep, undiscovered resources."

The new incentives only apply to 2,400 existing leases in the Gulf. The policy forgoes royalties on the first 15 billion cubic feet (BCF) of gas produced from depths greater than 15,000 feet and less than 18,000 feet.

The first 25 BCF of gas produced from deeper wells is also afforded royalty relief and the proposal offers producer additional relief from sidetrack wells developed on an existing lease.

Barry Russell, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), called the plan "a win-win-win scenario for natural gas producers, the government and consumers."

The royalty relief reduces the economic risks associated with drilling costly new wells and will increase the country's supply of natural gas "utilizing the best technologies in areas that have already been deemed appropriate for development," said Russell, whose organization represents thousands of American independent oil and natural gas producers and service companies.

The incentives have a price threshold of $9.34 per thousand cubic feet.

In the winter of 2000-2001, natural gas prices spiked at more than $8 per thousand cubic feet - recent prices are near $6.30.

The forgone revenue is expected to cost the federal government $1.1 billion through 2018, but officials say that will largely be offset over time by lower energy costs and increased royalties.

"We need a reliable supply of natural gas to heat our homes, power our lives, keep our businesses operating in the black in America," Norton said. "This is one more way we can protect American consumers and our jobs."

U.S. Struggles to Assure Japan Over Mad Cow Disease

But the meeting failed to convince Japanese officials to lift a ban on U.S. beef and neither side appeared willing to budge on the issue.

Japan tests 100 percent of the cattle it slaughters and wants to see other beef producing nations follow suit. It is one of some 40 countries that have banned U.S. beef in the wake of last month's discovery that a Washington state dairy cow was infected with the deadly brain wasting disease.

Mad cow disease, officially known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), spreads from one animal to another by consumption of feed that has been contaminated by protein - such as blood or meat meal - from an infected animal.

Consuming beef from infected cattle is believed to cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, which is always fatal for humans.

In 2002 the U.S. beef industry exported $1 billion - one third of its total exports - to Japan.

At a press briefing Friday following a meeting with Japanese officials, U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture J.B. Penn said it is neither efficient nor effective to do "massive testing" of younger cattle in which BSE "is very unlikely to manifest itself."

"We did discuss the possibility of 100 percent testing, and we have reviewed the scientific basis for that," Penn said. "We think it not necessary to do 100 percent testing."

In the past two years, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors have tested approximately 20,000 of the 40 million cows slaughtered annually in the United States, about one in every 2,000 animals. This is 47 times the recommended international standard, according to the USDA.

The U.S. agriculture official said the United States concentrates its testing on "higher risk" animals, including older cows and cows that have calved, because the system provides the highest probability of identifying animals that would exhibit the disease.

Penn said the meetings were "meaningful [and] productive" but acknowledged there were "no new proposals presented from either side."

Nine herds in three states have been quarantined by U.S. officials because of the concerns about mad cow disease.

DNA tests and agricultural records proved the infected cow came from a dairy farm in the Canadian province of Alberta.

The USDA has 27 of the 81 cattle listed on the Canadian health certificate definitely accounted for and is continuing to try and trace back the origin and fate of the remaining animals.

Endangered Listing for Slickspot Peppergrass Denied

The species was first proposed for listing under the ESA in 1999. Conservationists sued the Fish and Wildlife Service in November of 2001 for failing to issue an emergency rule to list the plant and for not proceeding with a proposed listing rule.

Monday's decision is the product of a court order signed by the Bush administration and the conservation groups.

According to Dave Allen, regional director of the Fish and Wildlife Service's Pacific Region, the agency spent 18 months analyzing independent peer review studies and working with local, state and private interests to develop conservation plans to protect the species.

The species, which is native to sagebrush-steppe habitats in southwest Idaho, ranges from four to 12 inches in height, and has many tiny, white flowers.

When the agency proposed the species for listing in 2002, biologists had documented 70 occurrences of slickspot peppergrass but only six of these areas were considered to be of high quality. In 2002, the Fish and Wildlife Service said that remaining suitable habitat to support this species is less than 12,400 acres.

In its announcement Monday, the agency said the total area of sagebrush steppe habitat containing occurrences of slickspot peppergrass is about 20,500 acres.

Of this, 91 percent is on federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Air Force (USAF), three percent is on private land, six percent on state land, and the remaining habitat is on city and county land.

Allen said the species does not need ESA protection in part because other federal agencies - the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Air Force and the Idaho Air National Guard - have developed conservation plans for the slickspot peppergrass.

"The commitment among the cooperating parties demonstrates that listing a species is not necessarily the only means to achieve conservation," Allen said.

Initiative Aims to Control Invasive Tamarisk

The small, drought resistant tree has damaged wildlife habitat, impacted water management, and is causing severe ecological and economic problems, officials said.

The effort will formally begin with a three day conference - from March 31 to April 2 in Albuquerque, New Mexico - that will bring together federal, state and local government officials, tribal representatives, private water and land managers, and plant and water scientists to identify collaborative opportunities that make the most effective use of collective resources.

The initiative was announced by U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman.

"There is a need for a strategic regional approach to tamarisk eradication and control that organizes all levels of government, academia, and the private sector under a coordinated, partnership based, outcome oriented framework," Norton said. "No single state or federal agency can effectively tackle this problem alone. We all need to work together as partners."

Veneman said efforts to control invasives such as the tamarisk are "crucial to help restore wildlife habitat and ensure our rural communities can maintain critical water supplies."

The tamarisk has crowded out native cottonwoods and willows and is believe to cost the region hundreds of millions of dollars annually in economic activity.

Norton the new initiative is needed because most efforts to eradicate tamarisk are carried out on the local level and are often constrained by political boundaries, conflicting missions, and authorities.

"Tamarisk is not confined by geographic or administrative boundaries," Norton said. "We need to identify greater opportunities to collaborate on tamarisk control across the landscape."

Interior Unveils Platte River Restoration Plans

The river, which runs through Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska, supplies drinking water for some three million individuals and is considered by conservationists to be the most important stopover for migratory birds in the nation's heartland.

The four alternatives share several common features - voluntary water transfers, incremental timetables, retimed water flows, depletion management, shared federal/state costs and streamlined compliance with the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The costs of the proposals range from $97 million to $180 million.

The proposals reviewed in the draft environmental impact statement are the culmination of a cooperative agreement signed in 1997 by the states of Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming and the Department of the Interior.

The agreement's goal was to offset the negative effects that decades of dam building, water diversions and overuse have had on the Platte's flows and habitat.

In many places, the river is a fraction of its original width and long stretches of it dry up altogether in the summer.

The Platte River supports four species federally listed as threatened or endangered - the whooping crane, the piping plover, the interior least tern and the pallid sturgeon.

The drying of the Platte has also had important consequences for people. More than three million people get their drinking water from the Platte or nearby wells, and the Platte's wells and surface water projects irrigate more than 3.5 million acres of farmland.

Bird watching is a major economic boon to communities along the Platte, generating between $25 million and $53 million annually in tourism dollars.

Conservationists said the draft environmental impact statement is an important first step in restoring the water flows for wildlife and people.

"The Platte is a river dying of thirst," said the Nebraska Wildlife Federation's Duane Hovorka. "With increasing demands on the Platte, the water situation will worsen without basin wide, cooperative efforts between Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and the federal government - the kind of effort set forth in the draft environmental impact statement."

The public can comment on the proposals through April 2, 2004.

More Mercury Warnings for Tuna Consumers

The data, compiled by the Mercury Policy Project, California Communities Against Toxics, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), show a wide range of mercury levels in canned albacore tuna. The data shows some higher than the average levels in swordfish and shark - two fish the federal government says should not be consumed by pregnant women.

"A woman who eats an average six ounce can of albacore in a day would exceed the Environmental Protection Agency's 'safe' level for mercury exposure by more than 10 times," said Michael Bender of the Mercury Policy Project. "But five percent of the albacore cans we tested had much higher levels than the average. A woman eating albacore with the highest level of mercury would consume 30 times more mercury than what EPA considers safe."

Scientists have shown that mercury can cause brain and nerve damage and studies indicate children and women of childbearing age are at a disproportionate risk.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says some eight percent of U.S. women childbearing age have unsafe levels of mercury in their bodies.

People are primarily exposed to mercury through consumption of fish, which ingest the toxic metal - both from natural sources and from power plant and factory emissions.

The environmental groups presented their data at the three day conference, which is an annual meeting of state public health and environmental officials, Native American tribes, and nonprofit organizations, including fishing groups.

This year's meeting includes a special session on mercury at which participants will discuss the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) proposed national mercury advisory, along with new data on mercury levels in tuna.

The FDA released a draft advisory last month that calls on pregnant women, women of childbearing age and children to limit consumption of all fish to 12 ounces per week. It recommends these populations not to eat four species known to often have high mercury levels - shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tile fish - but does not list fish species that are low risk and high risk for mercury content and offers no specific guidance for children.

The FDA's proposal does not recommend limiting in take of any other particular species, rather it calls for people to eat a variety of seafood and avoid eating just one kind of fish or shellfish during a week.

Environmentalists say the proposal is too lax and ignores ample evidence that at risk populations should be advised to limit consumption of particular fish known to be of higher risk of mercury contamination

New tests by the FDA show that albacore "white" canned tuna has three times the mercury levels of "light" tuna, but this is not reflected in the advisory.

The blood of 74 percent of pregnant women would exceed the government's safety level at least once during their pregnancy if they ate even one six ounce can of albacore every week, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research and advocacy group.

"The FDA should throw away its proposed guidelines and follow the recommendations of its science advisory panel," said Dr. Gina Solomon, a physician and senior scientist at NRDC. "People have a right to know which fish are safe to eat and which are not."