• Energy Secretary Calls for Refining Capacity Study
  
• States, Environmentalists File Brief in Global Warming Case
  
• California Sues Tuna Companies Over Mercury Warnings
  
• Western Governors Pledge to Explore Clean, Renewable Energy
  
• Congress Urged to Devise National Drought Policy
  
• Senate Resolution Honors Wilderness Act
  
• Corn Producers Keen on Wind Energy
  
• New Thoughts on Mountain Formation
  

Energy Secretary Calls for Refining Capacity Study

Speaking at the 113th meeting of the Council, a federal advisory committee consisting of oil and natural gas industry executives, Abraham said "insufficient refinery capacity" is a critical energy challenge.

U.S. demand for gasoline is expected to increase by some 43 percent by 2025, Abraham said, and demand for diesel is expected to increase by 48 percent by that same year.

"We will need 28 million barrels per day of crude oil to meet that demand, but our nation's refining capacity is forecast to be only 21 million barrels per day," the energy secretary said. "The American people need to know how we are going to address these challenges."

As part of the study, Abraham requested the NPC determine the nation's future demand for refinery products, its domestic capacity to meet future needs, the barriers to meeting future demand, and the capital factors that will drive supply growth.

He also called on the NPC to examine how worldwide capacity will impact access to products by the United States.

"I think we would all agree that the answers to those questions are needed sooner rather than later," Abraham continued. "If there is one thing the market needs, it is accurate, timely, up to date information."

Abraham called on the Council to complete the studies by September 30.

"It is my hope this information can be put to use by the end of the year in a way that will help bring greater long term stability to petroleum markets and a greater degree of certainty to American consumers," he said.

Refinery capacity has emerged as a thorny issue within the debate over high U.S. gasoline prices. Some industry officials and Congressional Republicans contend environmental standards have limited the ability of the industry to construct new facilities or expand old ones.

Refinery capacity in the United States has dropped by some 50 percent in the past two decades and refineries are currently operating at near 100 percent. The last new refinery was built in the United States in 1976.

Last week the House passed a bill to expedite approval of new oil refineries by granting greater permitting authority to the U.S. Energy Department.

The legislation passed easily despite opposition by Democrats, environmentalists and state pollution control officers who believe the measure is unnecessary and undermines protection of public health and the environment.

Democrats in the House argue the drop in refinery capacity is the result of major consolidation within the oil industry and some have called for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate possible market manipulation.

States, Environmentalists File Brief in Global Warming Case

The Bush administration announced last August that without clear legal authority from Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is prohibited from taking any regulatory action to address climate change.

Greenhouse gases, according to the administration, do not meet the Clean Air Act definition of a "pollutant."

That decision came in response to a 1999 petition by environmentalists that called on the EPA to regulate CO2 emission from cars and trucks.

In October 2003, the plaintiffs challenged the EPA's decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

They contend the statute is flexible enough to allow CO2 regulations and say the Bush administration must start taking climate change seriously.

"EPA's conclusion that it lacks authority to set motor vehicle emissions standards for greenhouse gases contravenes the act's plain language," according to the coalition's legal brief.

The coalition contends the act authorizes the agency to regulate "any air pollutant" that may adversely affect "public health or welfare" and says the statute's definitions section provides that effects on welfare include effects on "weather" and "climate."

"EPA's policy reversal is a crude attempt by the Bush administration to tie its own hands, and then claim that it is powerless to address the critical issue of global warming," said David Bookbinder, Washington legal director for the Sierra Club. "The Bush administration tried to say yet again that it's not their job to fight global warming. In fact they have both the legal and moral responsibility to tackle global warming pollution," said Bookbinder.

States, territories, and other governments challenging the EPA's decision are America Samoa, the City of Baltimore, California, California Air Resources Board, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, the City of New York, the Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

Environmental groups joining the challenge are Bluewater Network, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental Advocates, Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace USA, International Center for Technology Assessment, National Environmental Trust, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, and U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).

"When emissions contribute to air pollution that may endanger public health and welfare, the Clean Air Act requires EPA to step in," said Earthjustice attorney Howard Fox, co-counsel for Sierra Club in this suit. "By taking a pass on global warming emissions, EPA is evading a clear duty to act against a serious air pollution menace."

The legal challenges underscore how climate change has emerged as a polarizing issue for the United States.

Many scientists believe that there is ample evidence manmade greenhouse gas emissions are causing the climate to warm, and if left unchecked, could cause rising sea levels, the melting of the polar icecaps, and a host of other environmental problems that could have far reaching impacts.

But President Bush is loathe to enforce mandatory C02 reductions on American industries and has repeatedly questioned the science that points to the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on the climate.

The administration has instead called for more study of climate change and has pushed forward with a voluntary program to cut the nation's greenhouse gas intensity - the ratio of emissions to economic output - by 18 percent.

Critics believe this approach will do little to reduce emissions and note that the United Nations released data this year that found U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rose some 14 percent from 1990 to 2000.

U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are expected to increase another 12 percent by 2012. The United States is responsible for more than 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. C02 emissions from the nation's automobiles represent some 20 percent of the U.S. total.

Last week California announced a draft proposal to cut greenhouse gases emitted by passenger cars and light trucks some educed 30 percent in 10 years - a move it is taking because it has authority under the Clean Air Act to set its own pollution standards.

If adopted, the proposal would make California the first state in the nation to require automobile manufacturers to make cars that emit fewer global warming pollutants.

California Sues Tuna Companies Over Mercury Warnings

Western Governors Pledge to Explore Clean, Renewable Energy

The governors have agreed to examine the feasibility and actions required to reach a goal of 30,000 megawatts of clean energy by 2015 and a 20 percent improvement in energy efficiency by 2020.

The initiative was detailed in a resolution adopted at the annual meeting of the Western Governors Association (WGA), an independent, nonprofit organization representing the governors of 18 states and three U.S. flagged Pacific islands.

Spearheaded by Governors Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democrat, and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, a Republican, the resolution builds upon recommendations the governors received from the nearly 700 participants at the North American Energy Summit, which the association held in April.

A new working group will be formed to determine how to reach that goal, and at the same time, ensure the region has the necessary generation and transmission capacity.

"This region has a unique opportunity to develop clean energy to fuel our growing economy," said Richardson, WGA Chairman. "We have an enormous potential to improve the efficiency of energy use. The West also has the highest quality solar, wind, and geothermal resources in the nation, and this clean energy initiative will determine the steps needed to take advantage of this unique opportunity."

Governor Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming will serve as lead governor for energy policy, along with Richardson and Schwarzenegger.

"Western governors recognize that both traditional and non-traditional resources will play an important role in meeting the energy needs of the West," Freudenthal said.

Congress Urged to Devise National Drought Policy

The NIDIS plan was prepared by a Western Governors' Association (WGA) working group and adopted Monday during the association's annual meeting.

"Better science will lead to better and more timely decisions, thus reducing or mitigating a drought's impact," said Governor Mike Johanns of Nebraska. "NIDIS will help us to better predict drought; beyond that the governors want a more predictable response to drought, which NIDIS will facilitate."

Western states are in the midst of a multiyear drought that began in 1999 - U.S. Geological Survey scientists said last week that the parched Interior West could be the driest it has been in 500 years.

In 2003, Johanns met with Conrad Lautenbacher, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to discuss a partnership between NOAA and the WGA to develop recommendations for establishing an improved drought monitoring and forecasting system.

The NIDIS study, "Creating A Drought Early Warning System for the 21st Century: The National Integrated Drought Information System" is the first product of that partnership.

Lautenbacher said NOAA "is committed to moving forward on this project" and indicated the initial steps of integrating databases could begin immediately.

"In South Dakota, we depend on weather conditions for a large part of our economy," said the state's Republican Governor Mike Rounds. "With this system, we can more accurately predict a drought based on science rather than estimates. This is critical for our states and at the national level."

The WGA, which is an independent, nonprofit organization representing the governors of 18 states and three U.S. flag islands in the Pacific, has long been critical of the federal government for failing to adopt a national drought policy.

The federal government has given Western states broad authority over water, but several federal agencies play pivotal - and often competing - roles in allocating the finite supply in the West.

In total, federal agencies spend some $6 billion to $8 billion a year on drought.

"The nation has policies for tornados and floods," said Montana Governor Judy Martz, a Republican. "We need a national policy for drought that can work to provide needed assistance to farmer and ranchers."

Martz said the multiyear drought facing much of the West is "no longer a weather event, it is a widespread socioeconomic tragedy. NIDIS is one component of a policy that can help."

Senate Resolution Honors Wilderness Act

The Act defined wilderness as ""an area where the Earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."

It has since been used to permanently protect the wild and natural character of more than 106 million acres of public land.

The resolution calls on the Senate to "recognize and applaud the extraordinary work of the organizations and individuals involved in building the National Wilderness Preservation System."

The resolution also remembers the legacy of wilderness champions, including Democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Republican Representative John Saylor of Pennsylvania, who introduced the Wilderness Act more than four decades ago and shepherded the bill through the process.

It notes that "now, as a consequence of wide popular support, the people of the United States have a system of places wild and free for the permanent good of the whole people of this great Nation."

Conservationists praised the resolution and called on Congress to sustain protections for wilderness laid out by the act.

"This resolution carries on the true spirit of the nation's wilderness legacy, and shows that wilderness preservation is an issue for Republicans and Democrats alike," said Mike Matz, executive director of the Campaign for America's Wilderness. "We applaud these senators for reminding us that wilderness is an important value for all Americans."

The resolution was put forth by Republicans Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Richard Lugar of Indiana, John McCain of Arizona, John Sununu of New Hampshire, John Warner of Virginia, as well as Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, both of Maine.

Democrats signing the resolution include Barbara Boxer of California, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, and Patty Murray of Washington.

Corn Producers Keen on Wind Energy

The survey found 90 percent of corn farmers support the development of wind energy and 89 percent want the U.S. House of Representatives to quickly pass the same wind energy production tax credit extension as the U.S. Senate in order to encourage new wind energy projects. New wind power development has stalled this year because the production tax credit expired at the end of December 2003.

"U.S. corn farmers are unified to the tune of 70, 80 or 90 percent on the essential federal and state wind energy policies needed to realize the tremendous community based renewable energy and rural economic development potential that wind energy offers," said Dan McGuire, chief executive officer of the American Corn Growers Foundation, which organized the survey.

The survey was conducted by RMA Research, Inc. of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

It consisted of 500 farmers in 16 top corn producing states with more than 90 percent of the 2004 planted corn acreage based on federal data.

Each farmer surveyed had at least 100 acres of corn.

The survey found 89 percent of those polled want farmers, industry and public institutions to promote wind as alternative energy and 81 percent are more inclined to invest in wind energy because it helps clean the environment.

Seventy-seven percent want farmers to be offered financial incentives such as production tax credits through government programs to encourage wind energy development

The poll found 85 percent support rural electric cooperatives to support and promote wind energy and 82 percent agree that farmers, landowners and investors should be able to sell electricity from wind turbines to public power districts.

New Thoughts on Mountain Formation

At the center of the Mid-Ocean Ridge is a continuous fissure in which hot magma bubbles up from below and cools to become new crust material added to the plates on either side.

For decades, the most popular explanation for the ridge's distinct undulating topography has been that magma flows upward from the mantle interior in directed streams of differing sizes.

Scientists thought larger magma flows led to higher, broader peaks, while a magma trickle or drought was reflected in lower, more narrow valleys.

But after analyzing thousands of miles of the Mid-Ocean Ridge, researchers with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University disagree.

Their findings indicate that the height and width of underwater mountains are highly correlated to the direction that the ridge and connecting plates move across the surface of the planet.

"Our observations indicate that these variations in ridge height reflect a top down rather than a bottom up process," said Lamont marine geologist Suzanne Carbotte. "The motion of the plates seems to be the important factor, not the mantle."

The results, published this week in the journal "Nature," have implications for geologists concerned with crust and mantle structure, as well as for biologists interested in life around hydrothermal vents.

Previously, many scientists believed that the structure of the upper mantle must be both physically and chemically diverse in order to explain the peaks and valleys along the Mid-Ocean Ridge.

This implied that ridge segment would spend time above both high and low magma streams as it travels over the mantle.

"Our findings suggest that the upper mantle could be quite uniform and still produce a varied topography due solely to plate migration," said Carbotte. "This has all sorts of implications. For example, if certain ridge segments are just more volcanically active than others due simply to their geometry, those locations may host hydrothermal communities over very long periods of time."