• House Approves Fast Track Bill
  
• Campfire Sparked Blaze Threatens Giant Sequoias
  
• Nine Stranded Whales Die on Cape Cod
  
• National Bottle Recycling Bill Introduced
  
• Heavier Vehicles Not Always Safer
  
• Geothermal Power Promoted in Nevada
  
• Tornado Season Spawns Few Twisters
  
• Antarctic Glacier Offers Climate Change Clues
  

House Approves Fast Track Bill

The Trade Promotion Authority bill (HR 3009), also called the Fast Track Trade Authority bill, would allow trade agreements to be negotiated by the White House, then presented to Congress for a yea or nay vote, without amendments or alterations. Conservation groups say the bill could allow trade agreements that threaten the environment to be pushed through by the executive branch.

"Now more than ever, Americans want Congress to hold corporations accountable, not give them more breaks," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. "The House's capitulation to powerful business interests could jeopardize many of the environmental protections Americans take for granted."

Pope said that fast track powers would allow the Bush administration to extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) across the Western Hemisphere. Provisions in NAFTA already allow foreign corporations to sue the U.S. government whenever they feel that U.S. federal or state environmental laws affect their profits.

Already, a Canadian chemical company has used NAFTA to sue the U.S. government for $1 billion, jeopardizing a California clean water law banning the gasoline additive MTBE. Extending NAFTA could increase the number of these claims, and threaten enforcement of environmental and public health laws.

"Here in California, we fought hard to keep our drinking water safe from dangerous toxic chemicals. But that progress could be undone by NAFTA's corporate friendly provisions," added Pope. "Now thanks to the House vote, many more environmental protections across the country could soon be under attack."

House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, said passage of the House-Senate conference report on the Trade Promotion Authority bill would create opportunities for U.S. companies to expand abroad.

"Today's vote in the House of Representatives to renew Trade Promotion Authority is a vote for American leadership, American workers, and American families," DeLay said. "We simply cannot afford to sit on the sidelines any longer as the rest of the world continues striking trade agreements that exclude the U.S."

But House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri, who opposed the bill, said that "to ensure improved living standards at home and abroad, trade policy needs to enhance human rights, reaffirm worker rights and promote environmental protection. This legislation fails on all counts."

Gephardt added that he opposed the fast track conference report because it "guts Senate language that provided meaningful assistance to American workers whose factories move overseas. The bill also removes bipartisan Senate language requiring that the Bush Administration support U.S. trade laws that protect our workers and farmers from unfair foreign competition," largely by requiring environmental and labor protections in international trade agreements.

"We can have a trade policy that is clean, green, and fair, but not by handcuffing our elected representatives," added the Sierra Club's Pope. "The Bush administration now must take care not to put international trade on a collision course with the need to protect our environment."

Campfire Sparked Blaze Threatens Giant Sequoias

Peri Van Brunt, 45, is charged with lighting an illegal campfire last Sunday near the Roads End Resort beside the Kern River. Although campfires were allowed in the area, Brunt had failed to obtain a permit as required by law.

An affidavit filed by U.S. Forest Service special agent Phillip Stewart states that shortly after the fire started, a woman with blond hair and a bruised left eye entered the resort, screaming about having started a wildfire. The woman drove off in a white pickup truck without identifying herself.

The McNally fire on July 26, near the Needles area, looking to the east side of the Kern River. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

"He said [on the day of the fire] he saw his wife walking toward the resort from a campsite that the two of them had used for several years," the affidavit states. "In the years they camped there, they had always obtained fire permits and properly cleaned the area around the campfire."

After Stewart confronted Peri Van Brunt at her home in Bakersfield, California, she "admitted that she did not have a campfire permit prior to starting her campfire," and said she had planned to turn herself in.

"She also admitted to having smoked methamphetamine the night before she traveled to the resort," Stewart wrote.

If convicted of setting the fire "willfully and without authority," Van Brunt faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Containment lines have stopped the fire from moving in the direction of giant sequoia trees, but the fire remains less than a mile from the Packsaddle giant sequoia grove, which contains the Packsaddle Giant, the world's fourth widest tree. The fire also reached within two miles of a grove called the Trail of 100 Giants.

Protection of these groves is a major focus of fire control efforts.

No major wildfires have burned in Packsaddle grove during the past 90 years. Since fires have not kept the grove naturally thinned, a dense understory of white fir and incense cedar is now growing under the giant sequoias. These smaller trees provide a ladder for ground fire to reach the crowns of large giant sequoias.

These giant trees can survive burning of up to 75 percent of the crown, but if the entire crown is burned, even the largest giant sequoia tree will die.

Nine Stranded Whales Die on Cape Cod

Hundreds of volunteers, local residents and vacationers worked all day to keep the whales cool and wet before high tied helped them float most of the whales back out to sea. Draping wet towels over the whales, and pouring buckets of water over them, rescuers managed to save most of the animals, but several died of the heat before the midday tide rolled in.

All the animals were pilot whales, a common species in the area. The sociable animals tend to travel in large groups or pods near coastal areas where they feed on squid and other invertebrates. Adult pilot whales can grow up to 16 feet long and weigh about 1,800 pounds.

One whale was already dead by the time teams of rescuers arrived from the Cape Cod Stranding Network and the New England Aquarium. Another whale was euthanized after it went into shock, according to Sallie Riggs, director of the Cape Cod Stranding Network. The carcasses of the dead animals were removed by dump trucks.

Riggs told the Associated Press that it is rare to see pilot whales beached at this time of year, though they sometimes become stranded after following concentrations of their favorite prey into the shore. Today's stranding was on of the largest on Cape Cod over the past decade.

Although most of the whales were saved, the survivors remained close to shore, and rescuers planned to monitor area beaches to be sure the whales did not become stranded again.

National Bottle Recycling Bill Introduced

Representative Lynn Rivers, a Michigan Democrat, introduced the National Beverage Producer Responsibility Act of 2002 as a companion to a bill offered by Senator Jim Jeffords, a Vermont Independent, in April.

The two bills would create new incentives for reuse and recycling of beverage containers and would establish a national 10 cent deposit on glass, plastic and aluminum beverage containers.

"Reusable containers are simply not being recycled," said Rivers. "Over the past nine years, the rate at which recyclable containers have gone to landfills has grown by 40 percent."

"This bipartisan, bicameral legislation is a modification of my National Beverage Container Reuse and Recycling Act, which I have introduced in this and previous Congresses," Rivers added. "Allowing for a refund on all beverage containers will motivate individuals to clean up the environment."

Modeled after a successful Michigan program that has achieved a 90 percent recycle rate, the Rivers-Jeffords bottle bill would reduce the amount of recyclable wastes sent to landfills and incinerators. It would also improve on current state programs by settings deposits on bottled water, juice and tea, a step considered essential because the sale of non-carbonated bottled beverages has skyrocketed over the past decade.

"In addition to creating new incentives for reuse and recycling, this legislation would greatly reduce the costs associated with solid waste management and result in significant energy conservation and resource recovery." Rivers concluded. "It's the smart thing to do."

A study released in January by the Businesses and Environmentalists Allied for Recycling (BEAR) found that a deposit system of recovery for recyclable beverage containers, like that in the Rivers-Jeffords bill, would produce the greatest return of any recovery system.

"One only has to look around to see that many reusable containers are simply not being recycled," said Rivers. "A national system of refunds on all beverage containers would increase recycling and limit the environmental impact of current disposables. It would also lessen the financial burden of waste management for cash strapped municipalities."

The BEAR study found that the recovery rate for states using a deposit system was 79 percent, compared to 29 percent for non-participating states.

"The issue of recycling could not be more timely," Senator Jeffords testified earlier this month before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which he chairs. "In the last year, our security and resource concerns have been highlighted more than ever. Lest we not forget that President Roosevelt's recycling campaign helped us win World War II."

"It has been over two decades since the Senate has evaluated the merits of deposit legislation to encourage greater beverage container recycling," Jeffords said. "Every Congress, we hold hearings on the flow of trash through our states. It is a difficult issue that elicits strong reactions. One of the best ways to temper these fights is to ensure that there is less trash on the road in the first place."

Heavier Vehicles Not Always Safer

The study counters car industry warnings that tighter emissions and fuel efficiency requirements would force the production of smaller, lighter - and less safe - vehicles.

Physicist Marc Ross and LBML scientist Tom Wenzel have released a report showing that vehicle quality is a better predictor of safety - both for the driver and for other drivers - than vehicle size and weight. Recent Senate hearings on Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards focused on the increased risk Americans would face if they had to give up their sport utility vehicles (SUVs) for vehicles that weigh less.

"We set out to see whether that risk is real, whether SUVs really are safer than cars. The answer, by and large, is no," Ross said.

The first major result Ross and Wenzel found is that SUVs are no safer for their drivers than cars. Popular midsize cars, minivans and import luxury cars have the safest records, while SUVs are about as risky as the average midsize or large car, and are no safer than many compact and subcompact models.

The researchers defined risk as the number of deaths per year per million vehicles.

Other studies have not considered combined risk, which looks at both risk to the driver of the model in question and risk to the drivers of all other vehicles involved in crashes with that model. The study found that, when measuring the combined risk, most cars are safer than SUVs, while pickup trucks are much less safe than all other types of vehicle.

"Clearly the characteristics of the drivers of certain types of vehicles also have a strong effect on their safety," Ross said. "However, it is not clear exactly what that effect is, and the age and sex of drivers do not fully explain these results."

Some of the safest subcompacts also have a high fraction of young male drivers. At the other extreme, elderly drivers dominate certain large cars but there is no clear pattern suggesting that those cars pose higher risk to drivers of other cars as a result.

To determine quality, Ross and Wenzel used quantifiable parameters such as new car price, used car price, Consumer Reports safety ratings, and country of origin.

"It is extremely difficult to determine the inherent safety of a vehicle type or model because it is too hard to separate the contribution of driver characteristics and behavior from the contribution of vehicle design. We can say, however, that quality is a much better predictor of safety than weight," Ross said.

"It turns out that relatively inexpensive light cars do tend to be unsafe, but more expensive light cars are much safer, and are as safe as heavier cars and SUV models," Ross explained. "In any event, the argument that lowering the weight of cars to achieve high fuel economy has resulted in excess deaths is unfounded. If designers pay careful attention to safety in vehicle design, smaller cars can be, and indeed have been, made as safe as larger ones."

Geothermal Power Promoted in Nevada

Interior Secretary Gale Norton made the announcement following a tour of Caithness Yankee Geothermal Plant located at Steamboat, south of Reno.

"The president's national energy policy places a high priority on alternative energy development, while promoting energy conservation," Norton said. "Energy security is part of our national security. Our renewable energy such as geothermal can play an important role in helping to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy."

Norton noted that geothermal energy has been a component of Nevada's energy sources since 1985. More federal leases are in operation in Nevada than any other state.

The geothermal generation capacity for Nevada includes a total of 12 power plants, nine of which use federal resources, while two are located on federal lands. Nevada's nine powerplants using federal resources have a total generation capacity of 165 megawatts, enough to supply the electrical needs of 165,000 households.

"Last November, the Department of the Interior along with the Department of Energy, held an historic conference on renewable energy on public lands," said Norton. "We followed up by doubling our renewable energy budget."

Geothermal energy accounts for about 17 percent of renewable electricity generation and 0.3 percent of total U.S. electricity supply. Nevada now has 157 geothermal leases covering 211,300 acres.

The Interior Department manages about one fifth of the nation's lands and provides about one third of the nation's domestic energy. The agency produces about 40 percent of the nation's geothermal energy.

Tornado Season Spawns Few Twisters

The National Weather Service says the unofficial count of 451 tornadoes reported by July 24 is just half the 10 year average of 914 tornadoes and the lowest mid-year count since 1988.

This year, fewer tornadoes also meant fewer deaths. As of July 24, 11 people have been killed by tornadoes this year.

"The 10 year average for deaths by July 24 is 46," said Dan McCarthy, warning coordination meteorologist for the Storm Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

"A cold air outbreak in February and March, when tornadoes typically occur in the southeast, delayed the start of tornado season," McCarthy explained. This followed a winter when the position of the jet stream and resulting storm track prohibited tornado development. Drought may also be a factor in the low number of tornadoes this year, he added.

According to the Storm Prediction Center, just 11 years since 1950 have seen fewer tornadoes during the same period. On average, about 57 Americans are killed by tornadoes each year, with 1,200 injured.

An annual average of 1,200 tornadoes cause more than $400 million in damages each year. Peak tornado activity occurs during the months of March through early July.

The most destructive and deadly tornado this year occurred in La Plata, Maryland, on April 28, killing three people. Based on the damage, officials rated it an F4 on the Fujita Damage Scale.

Other deadly tornadoes that occurred that same day were an F3 in Dongola, Illinois, that killed one person and an F2 in Irvington, Kentucky, that also killed one.

Two other April tornadoes each killed one person, an F3 on April 21 in Fairfield, Illinois, and an F3 on April 27 in Marble Hill, Missouri. On May 5, an F2 tornado in Happy, Texas, killed two people and four days later an F1 in Centralia, Illinois, also killed two people.

More information about tornado forecasting and research is available at: http://www.noaa.gov/tornadoes.html

Antarctic Glacier Offers Climate Change Clues

Hongxing Liu, a geography professor in the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University, along with Kenneth Jezek of Ohio State University, has been awarded almost $250,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to analyze remotely sensed data from the glacier. The two researchers will be spending the next three years using computer programs to calculate the thickness of the Lambert ice sheet and its mass balance as it edges toward the sea.

Then they will look for answers as to how such glaciers might respond to world climate.

"The Lambert glacier is the largest such ice mass in the world," Liu said. "We believe that studying its movement and mass balance will yield clues that can help us understand the role of glaciers in global climate change."

Liu or Jezek will use data provided by two missions of the Canadian Radarsat satellite, which provided complete coverage of the entire Antarctic continent over a 30 day period in 1997 and over three months in 2000.

The researchers will also use optical stereo data collected by the Aster sensor onboard the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Terra satellite. The Terra satellite offers high resolution data showing a wealth of geographic detail.

"Satellites provide the comprehensive observations needed for modern scientific investigations of ice flow dynamics and mass balance in the Lambert glacier basin," Liu observed. "Optical sensors are affected by clouds and often saturated due to the high albedo [or reflectivity] of snow for visible wavelengths. This limits their use in polar regions."

"With the ability to fly unimpeded by the harsh climate, to peer through clouds and to observe day and night, satellite borne microwave instruments can provide large scale coverage of the Antarctic ice sheet at very high resolution," Liu said.

The researchers will look at how much new ice is being formed on the glacier, and the flow of that ice toward the sea. Liu and Jezek will integrate their research to address the role of glaciers in the dynamics of climate change.

"The theory is that the stability of glaciers is related to sea level change," Liu said. "Any significant change in a glacier's ice thickness or rate of movement could lead to changes in sea level. A catastrophic interpretation of the theory speculates that collapse of the Antarctic ice sheet could raise sea level as much as 60 meters worldwide."

Long term monitoring of the glacier will help scientists judge whether it is stable or not. He noted that global warming could affect the glacier's stability.

"It is expected that any changes in regional and global climate will result in mass changes in ice streams and glaciers," Liu said. "However, this mechanism is far from being understood. In principle, warming leads to reduction of ice. Another possible scenario is that, in a slightly warmer climate, precipitation increases, and high precipitation of snow over Antarctica adds mass to the ice. So, until we've done more analysis, we can't predict what will most likely happen."