• Cobb, Not Nader, Green Party's Presidential Choice
  
• Second U.S. Mad Cow Suspected
  
• Maine Salmon to Run When Penobscot Dams Disappear
  
• Internet Broker of Air Pollution Credits Accused of Fraud
  
• U.S. Carbon Dioxide Piped, Pumped Into Canadian Oil Well
  
• Great Lakes in Trouble Need Long Term Help
  
• Physicians Offer Guides to Safer Fish Consumption
  
• Florida Adopts Phosphorus Limit for Everglades Water
  
• Squirrel, Lizard, Cress Must Be Evaluated, Court Orders
  

Cobb, Not Nader, Green Party's Presidential Choice

Votes from the Texas delegation, from Cobb's native state, gave him a total of 408 during the second round of voting, topping the 385 necessary to win the party's nomination.

The contest that emerged in the final months of the campaign for Green support pitted a nomination for Cobb against endorsement of independent candidate Ralph Nader and his running mate, Green activist Peter Camejo.

Now Nader and Camejo are expected to campaign as Independents, but they must first get their names on the ballot state by state. A Green Party endorsement would have automatically given them that placement in 35 states.

The Cobb-LaMarche ticket features two candidates registered in the Green Party, unlike the 2000 campaign when the Green Party backed Nader and his running mate Winona LaDuke.

LaMarche said, "I'm proud that we have a Green Party ticket with Green candidates advancing a Green agenda."

"I look forward to doing for the next four months what I've been doing for the past eight months - working to build and grow the Green Party, supporting local candidates and registering more Green voters," said Cobb.

"The six month Green primary has produced a truly Green ticket," said Ben Manski, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

"While a year ago, few predicted that a grassroots Green would emerge from the ranks of the party, David Cobb has proven that the party has developed a high level of political maturity and self-confidence. We look forward to working with the Cobb-LaMarche ticket in challenging voters to cast their votes for the growth of America's true opposition party."

Raised in a small shrimping village in San Leon, Texas, Cobb was a construction worker for several years before attending college. Waiting tables to put himself through college, he graduated from the University of Houston Law School in 1993.

Cobb had a successful law practice until early 2000, when Nader asked him to manage the Green Party effort in Texas. He coordinated the ballot access drive in Texas that collected over 76,000 signatures in 75 days. When he ran for attorney general there were four local chapters of the Green Party of Texas. After he campaigned, there were 26 chapters.

Cobb lectures and facilitates "Rethinking Corporations/ Rethinking Democracy" seminars and workshops across the country, which explore the social, legal and historical context of how corporations have become the dominant institution of our times. "These seminars focus on how corporations have become unelected governing institutions, and how we can provoke (and win) a nonviolent democratic revolution in response," the Green Party says.

Cobb serves on the Steering Committee of Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County (www.duhc.org), and as Campaigns Director for ReclaimDemocracy.org which are both citizen's groups dedicated to contesting and challenging the corporate usurpation of the U.S. government.

Second U.S. Mad Cow Suspected

Dr. John Clifford, deputy administrator of the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service's Veterinary Services Program, would only say that the agency received notice that an "inconclusive BSE test result was received on a screening test" used as part of the government's surveillance program.

"Tissue samples are now being sent to USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories, the National BSE Reference Lab which will render additional testing on this sample," said Clifford, who expects results sometime after Tuesday night.

"The animal in question did not enter the food chain, and the carcass is being held," Clifford said.

While saying that the agency wanted to be "transparent" Clifford would say no more. He would not disclose what type of animal was tested, where the animal was from, or which lab did the testing.

Clifford would say only that a positive test "is not at all unexpected."

"The inconclusive result does not in and of itself mean that we have found another case of BSE in this country," he said. "Inconclusive results are a normal component of most screening tests which are designed to be extremely sensitive so they will detect any sample that could possibly be positive."

"Second, no matter how the additional testing comes back, USDA remains confident in the safety of the U.S. beef supply," said Clifford.

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, such as mad cow disease and its human form, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), are spread by prions - abnormally shaped proteins that originate as regular components of neurological tissues in animals. They are not cellular organisms or viruses, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Mad cow disease spreads from one animal to another by consumption of feed that has been contaminated by these prions, such as blood or meat meal that contains nervous system tissue from an infected animal. The human form of the disease can be transmitted if a human being eats BSE infected meat, or possibly through blood transfusions.

The ban on nervous system tissue in the human food chain, "provides the utmost protection to public health should another case of BSE ever be detected" in the United States, Clifford said.

Safety measures include a ban on the use of most mammalian protein in cattle feed that has been in place since 1997.

After a BSE infected cow was discovered in Washington state last December, the USDA banned downer cattle from the human food chain and tightened the process control for establishments using advanced meat recovery systems. The agency prohibited the air injection stunning of cattle that can force nervous system tissue into muscle tissues.

The practice of holding the carcasses until BSE test results have been confirmed negative was also put in place early this year.

U.S. trading partners around the world have banned imports of U.S. beef, costing the beef industry dearly. The total value of global beef exports in 2003 is about $3 billion.

In 2003, 10 percent of U.S. beef production was exported - 3.6 percent to Japan, 2.4 percent to Mexico, 2.3 percent to South Korea, 0.9 percent to Canada and the remaining 0.8 percent to other countries.

All major export destinations except Canada suspended imports of U.S. beef. Although Mexico has now reopened its border to U.S. beef, most other countries that banned it have not. Japan requires BSE testing of 100 percent of all animals that provide beef for export to Japan before it will reopen its border to U.S. beef.

Maine Salmon to Run When Penobscot Dams Disappear

Overlooking the Veazie Dam on the banks of the Penobscot River, Interior Secretary Gale Norton joined Maine Governor John Baldacci, a Democrat, and leaders from PPL Corporation, the Penobscot Indian Nation and Penobscot Partners to sign the agreement that is intended to restore fisheries while maintaining hydropower production.

“Today, thanks to you," Norton said, "it seems perfectly plausible that executives of a power company that owns dams on the river, environmentalists and sportsmen who have tried to get the dams torn down, the governor of Maine, representatives of state and federal agencies responsible for the fish in the river, and members of a Native American tribe that has fished the river for 10,000 years are all working together."

Under the agreement, the PPL Corporation grants a five-year option to the Penobscot River Restoration Trust to buy three of its nine hydroelectric dams in Maine for about $25 million.

The Veazie and Great Works dams will be removed. The trust, a newly formed nonprofit organization, will seek the approval of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to decommission a third dam, Howland, and construct a state-of-the-art fish bypass around it. If feasible, this arrangement will maintain the Howland impoundment.

PPL in turn will increase power generation on six other dams on the Penobscot and its tributaries. Dennis Murphy, vice president and chief operating officer of PPL Corp.’s eastern fossil and hydro unit, said, “This agreement has important benefits for the government, for the Penobscot Indian Nation, for private sporting and environmental groups, and for the environment.”

The final agreement was filed Friday with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to guide the sale of the three dams and the regulatory filings required for completion of this project.

“This is a terrific accomplishment," said Baldacci, whose administration has been involved in the Penobscot River Restoration Project.

“We reaffirm our commitment to work with people of the region as we go forward,” said Laura Rose Day, director for Penobscot Partners, a coalition of conservation groups and the Penobscot Indian Nation. “Our collective challenge now is to raise the funds necessary to implement the project – an investment sure to produce unprecedented benefits.”

“This is by far the most important natural resource project the Penobscot Nation has been involved with," said Chief Barry Dana of the Penobscot Indian Nation. "Reconnecting the Penobscot River and our reservation to the Atlantic Ocean repairs an important cycle of nature that historically allowed our tribe to survive and prosper. Reestablishing this link will provide economic and ecological benefits to all people in this region of Maine."

Norton said the agreement will “make history."

First, the agreement opens 500 miles of the Penobscot River where last year's salmon run made up more than three-quarters of the entire New England return of 1,436 salmon.

Environmental partners have agreed to drop their challenges to other dams on the Penobscot in return for the environmental benefits of removing the selected dams.

The utility will recapture some 90 percent of the energy lost in removing the two dams by increasing production on other dams and improving efficiency. The Veazie, Great Works and Howland dams represent about 18 megawatts of electric generating capacity.

Restoring the Penobscot is expected to set an example for the rest of the nation of how partnerships can result in win-win situations for energy and the environment.

The coalition that put the deal together includes the U.S. Interior Department, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission, the Penobscot Indian Nation, American Rivers, the Atlantic Salmon Federation, Trout Unlimited, Maine Audubon Society and the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

Internet Broker of Air Pollution Credits Accused of Fraud

U.S. Carbon Dioxide Piped, Pumped Into Canadian Oil Well

At the Weyburn oil field in southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada, the U.S. Department of Energy is joining more than 15 government agencies, universities and research institutions from around the world to monitor the capacity, movement and fate of carbon dioxide injected into a producing oil reservoir.

University of Alberta researcher Dr. Ben Rostron is part of the team working on the $28 million Weyburn CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project, the largest of its kind in the world. He says the team has safely buried the greenhouse gas, keeping it from entering the atmosphere.

"It's one thing to say that underground is a great place to store carbon dioxide, but it's another thing to be able to prove it as we have done," said Rostron, the hydrogeology co-ordinator on the project. Rostrom is co-author on a paper appearing Friday in "GSA Today," a journal published by the Geological Society of America.

The researchers are working with Encana Corporation on their 30 year commercial CO2 enhanced oil recovery operation which is designed to recover an incremental 130 million barrels of oil from the Weyburn field.

The carbon dioxide gas comes from the United States, where it is compressed and sent through a pipeline to the Weyburn field. There, Encana injects it into the reservoir and the results are observed by the project scientists and stakeholders, regulatory agencies and government officials. More than 1.9 billion cubic metres have been injected so far.

"We have been able to show that you can safely capture carbon dioxide that would otherwise go back into the atmosphere, and put it back into the ground," said Rostron. "It's very exciting work."

CO2 emissions from burning coal, oil, natural gas and organic matter have been linked to global warming, and there has been a worldwide effort to reduce those emissions and their effects on the planet through the Kyoto Protocol and less formal methods.

The operation at Weyburn shows that it is feasible for the oil industry to pump carbon dioxide into its wells and produce extra oil, said Rostron. The work also demonstrates that geological sequestration can be successful, enabling wider application in other parts of the country and the world, he said.

The project is co-ordinated by the Petroleum Technology Research Centre and is sponsored by Natural Resources Canada, the U.S. Department of Energy, Alberta Energy Research Institute, Saskatchewan Industry and Resources, the European Community, and 10 industrial sponsors. Research is being conducted by universities, industry, federal and provincial government agencies in North America and Europe.

Great Lakes in Trouble Need Long Term Help

The Biodiversity Project will sponsor magazine and radio advertisements, educational signs in the coastal state parks, Great Lakes BioBlitz events in Green Bay, Superior, and Milwaukee, and educational drink coasters in restaurants and taverns on Wisconsin's coast.

All of the materials are backed by a new website - www.greatlakesforever.org - featuring information about the Great Lakes ecosystem, threats to the health of the lakes and simple solutions everyone can take to help protect the Great Lakes.

Working with 50 partner organizations in Wisconsin and the region, including state and federal agencies, and local nonprofit groups, the Biodiversity Project identified four key issues where increased public concern could have an impact on the future of the Great Lakes - water quality, water supply, habitat protection and invasive species control.

"This campaign is a bit different," said Biodiversity Project Executive Director Jane Elder. "We're not just trying to achieve a short-term victory. Instead, we're trying to raise the overall profile of a suite of threats to the Great Lakes."

Jeffrey Potter, coordinator of the Great Lakes Forever program, says, "Pollution is closing our beaches and contaminating our fish. Invasive species and irresponsible development are threatening the survival of our native wildlife. And special interests are pushing to actually buy and sell Great Lakes water for a profit."

Great Lakes water has been contaminated by toxic pollutants such as mercury, PCBs, and agricultural pesticides for decades. Said Potter, "Threats to aquatic life become threats to human health when contaminated fish end up on our tables. Mercury-contaminated fish in particular are of great concern - potentially causing birth defects, high blood pressure, infertility and even brain damage."

Efforts to understand and mitigate the threat posed by mercury and other air toxics will receive $1.2 million in research grants from the Great Lakes Air Deposition (GLAD) Program.

An initiative of the Great Lakes Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), GLAD funds innovative research into airborne toxic pollution and its effects in the Great Lakes basin.

“Many of the toxic chemicals now entering the Great Lakes, including some of the most toxic, are mainly the result of air pollution,” said Steve Rothblatt, director of the Air and Radiation Division of EPA Region 5. “The GLAD program helps generate the information we need to address these pollutants and informs decisions on measures to protect the Great Lakes ecosystem.”

Research is useful, but the region still does not have a effective conservation plan and regulatory structure to protect Great Lakes surface freshwater and groundwater supplies.

"The Great Lakes are a treasure and so they should be cautiously protected," said Potter. "A strong, fully enforceable, management agreement between the federal and regional governments of the United States and Canada should be signed as soon as possible."

The Council of Great Lakes Governors - which includes the premiers of Ontario and Quebec - have made some progress on a management plan, but the existing "charter" on water withdrawal, signed in 1985, is non-binding. Since 2001, the governors and premiers have been working on a revised Charter Annex - nicknamed Annex 2001.

The Biodiversity Project is relying on informed public opinion to drive the protection of the five lakes, which with their connecting channels contain roughly 18 percent of the world's surface freshwater, second only to the polar ice caps.

More than 37 million people and a unique diversity of plants and animals inhabit the lakes and their surrounding lands.

"We're trying to build a deeper constituency for the lengthy effort that it will take to restore, protect and care for one of the world's largest freshwater ecosystems," Elder said.

Potter said, "We hope that this campaign will encourage individuals, families and communities to become more engaged in the future of their lakes."

Physicians Offer Guides to Safer Fish Consumption

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (ARHP) released the guides this week to help other doctors and consumers decide how much fish they can safely eat to minimize their risk from mercury and PCB exposure.

“Millions of American women and their children are at risk from mercury and PCB contamination from fish and other sources,” said Katherine Shea, M.D., M.P.H., an author of the new guides.

“These pollutants can cause problems with memory, attention, language, and other irreversible learning and health problems in children. These guides will help families protect themselves from mercury and PCB exposure through fish,” Shea said.

Shea said the guidelines developed by the two physicians' groups intentionally recommend a more cautious approach to fish consumption than the mercury advisory issued jointly by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) earlier this year.

The federal government advisory ignores fish contaminated by PCBs, she points out.

“Our clinician and consumers’ guides recommend less consumption of certain fish based on the evidence of health risks from exposure to fish containing moderate amounts of mercury, and to fatty fish that may be high in PCBs.” said Dr. Shea.

New analysis by EPA scientists indicates that as many as 630,000 newborns annually are exposed to mercury levels above EPA’s safe level. While Americans’ PCB levels have declined in recent years, many people – especially heavy consumers of sport fish – are still at risk, the physicians' groups say.

“Doctors and reproductive health professionals are the best sources to educate current and future parents about avoiding contaminated fish,” said Amy Swann, Director of Education, Association of Reproductive Health Professionals.

"Healthy Fish, Healthy Families" is the guide written for consumers. “Fish is a delicious, nutritious food,” said Nora Pouillon, chef and owner of Restaurant Nora and a pioneer in healthy and environmentally friendly dining. “Healthy Fish, Healthy Families provides consumers with the information they need to limit exposure to pollutants while still enjoying the benefits of fish.” http://www.mercuryaction.org/fish/

"Fish Consumption to Promote Good Health and Minimize Contaminants: A Quick Reference Guide for Clinicians," is written for doctors. See it at: http://www.arhp.org/healthcareproviders/onlinepublications/QRGfishandhealth.cfm

“Even the best fish consumption guide is only a band-aid,” said Karen Perry, deputy director of the Physicians for Social Responsibility's Environment and Health Program, and an author of the guides.

Perry notes that the Bush administration has proposed to delay significant mercury reductions from power plants until 2018. The public comment period for this EPA proposal ends June 29. In addition, she said, the administration has reduced funds to clean up toxic waste sites, some of which include PCB contamination.

“To thoroughly protect women and children, we must reduce these pollutants at their sources. Real solutions include a steep cut in mercury pollution from leading sources, particularly coal fired power plants. We must also clean up the Great Lakes, Hudson River, and other places contaminated with PCBs, and prevent similar chemicals from further polluting our waterways and fish,” Perry urged.

Florida Adopts Phosphorus Limit for Everglades Water

The rule was proposed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) three years ago. It establishes a phosphorus standard of 10 parts per billion for the entire freshwater area of the Everglades Protection Area.

“This first numeric phosphorus water quality standard for the Everglades is the result of decades of biological research,” said Governor Jeb Bush. “The stringent, science based standard combined with the comprehensive cleanup plan already underway will restore water quality throughout the famed River of Grass.”

The Everglades naturally requires small amounts of phosphorus to stay healthy. But it has been flooded with high levels of the plant fertilizer from sugar and other agricultural operations.

Cattails flourish in water with high levels of phosphorus, and they have taken over open water and sawgrass and blocked the production of algae that is important in the Everglades food chain.

As part of its schedule to improve water quality in the Everglades, the state is operating more than 41,000 acres of constructed wetlands that use the plants to remove nutrients such as phosphorus from water flowing into the marsh.

The state says that improved farming practices and the management of the manufactured wetlands have prevented nearly 1,400 tons of phosphorus from entering the Everglades over the last 10 years.

“Florida is ahead of schedule in removing phosphorus from water entering the Everglades,” said DEP Secretary Colleen Castille. “This is another step toward improving water quality, achieving further phosphorus reductions and restoring the Everglades to its natural condition.”

In July 2003, the Environmental Regulation Commission approved the phosphorus rule proposed by the DEP. On June 17, Administrative Law Judge David Maloney formally upheld the department’s rule by issuing a Final Order specifying that all waters entering the Everglades Protection Area must achieve compliance with the 10 ppb water quality standard by December 31, 2006.

The rule is part of Florida's Long-Term Plan, a comprehensive set of water quality improvement measures for the Everglades. They include enhancements to existing stormwater treatment areas, expanded best management practices, and integration with projects in the overall $7.8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).

Florida's total estimated expenditures are $444 million from fiscal years 2004 through 2016 for full implementation of the Long-Term Plan.

But state expenditures could be much higher. The Long-Term Plan suggests that a total of $578 million in the Everglades Stormwater Program basins, and an additional $88 million in the Everglades Construction Project basins might be added to the $444 million.

Earlier this month, an agreement was signed to provide an independent scientific review panel for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The National Academy of Sciences and will conduct the review and report to Congress on the progress of the restoration every two years.

Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, of which the Florida Long-Term Plan is a part, covers 16 counties over an 18,000 square-mile area, It will update 1,000 miles of canals, 720 miles of levees, and several hundred water control structures.

Independent scientific review is a wise investment," said Craig Manson, assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks. "Agencies engaged in restoration benefit from independent feedback and constructive advice. Meanwhile, Congress needs to be assured progress to restore the Everglades is being made."

Squirrel, Lizard, Cress Must Be Evaluated, Court Orders

Judge Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon issued a decision Monday ordering the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether the Sand dune lizard of New Mexico, the southern Idaho ground squirrel, and the Tahoe yellow cress deserve legal protection no later than December 20, 2004.

Each of the three species was the subject of a petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity, Committee for the High Desert and the Western Watersheds Project between December 2000 and June 2002.

By law, Fish and Wildlife has one year to determine if a species warrants listing following submission of a petition. The agency argued that they did not have to issue findings because the species were already recognized as candidates for the Endangered Species List.

The court rejected this argument.

A spokesperson said the Fish and Wildlife Service would comply with the court order.

Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, said placing species on the candidate list has been a favorite method used by the Bush administration for delaying protection of species.

"Listing as a candidate provides no protection to species and often results in lengthy delays in real protection," said Greenwald. "The Tahoe yellow cress, for example, has been a candidate for protection for 29 years, first petitioned by the Smithsonian Institute July 1, 1975. Such delays are not atypical."

A review by the Center for Biological Diversity of all species listed as threatened or endangered in the United States found that, on average, the Service took nearly 10 years to list candidate species. "At least 34 species have gone extinct waiting for protection under the Endangered Species Act, the organization said.

“The Bush Administration has only protected 31 plants, animals, and fish to date, compared to 394 species protected during the Clinton Administration’s first term and 234 during the first Bush Administration - an atrocious record," said Greenwald.

The Fish and Wildlife Service claims it does not have the budget to list species needing protection. But Greenwald says a review of their annual budget requests, shows that the Interior Department does not request enough money for listing.

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service estimates, $153 million is needed to deal with the listing backlog, yet the Bush administration requested slightly more than $9 million in 2003.

“The Bush Administration is manufacturing a budget crisis to cover up their opposition to endangered species protection and poor implementation of the Nation’s most important environmental law,” said Greenwald.

The Sand Dune Lizard is found only in the Mescalero Sands of southeastern New Mexico and in western Texas on sand dunes covered by shinnery oak, a shrub that can be thousands of years old. The lizard is threatened by oil and gas drilling and herbicide spraying to create forage for livestock.

Threatened by livestock grazing, development, invasive species, and used for target practice, the southern Idaho ground squirrel survives only on the sagebrush steppes of Gem, Payette and Washington Counties of Southwestern Idaho.

The Tahoe Yellow Cress is found on a narrow seven foot zone between Lake Tahoe’s low and high water lines. Forty-eight populations once existed, but only 10 populations were found in 1999. The plant is threatened by development, fluctuating water levels, pier construction and recreation. “These species are an important part of the web of life and deserve the protection of the Endangered Species Act,” Greenwald said.