• Gale Norton Resigns as Secretary of the Interior
  
• Senate Panel Pushes ANWR Drilling Through Budget Process
  
• Judge Orders Review of New York-New Jersey Harbor Dredging
  
• Wild Birds Migrating Across U.S. Test Negative for Bird Flu
  
• North Carolina Seeks Roadless Rule Protection of 174,000 Acres
  
• Puerto Rico Prison System Must Build New Small Town Water Supply
  
• Green Mountain Energy Launches Greenhouse Gas Reduction Project
  

Gale Norton Resigns as Secretary of the Interior

Senate Panel Pushes ANWR Drilling Through Budget Process

The Budget Committee intends to bring the measure to the Senate floor next week. Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, was criticized by members of his own party for including drilling in the refuge again in this year's budget.

"As you know, the budget process was designed to ensure that important fiscal matters be debated and decided swiftly. Congress should not be making environmental and energy policy decisions of this magnitude on the budget bill," four Republican senators wrote to Judd a letter released Thursday.

The letter was signed by Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Norm Coleman of Minnesota and John McCain of Arizona.

Nineteen Democrats, including Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, attacked the renewed ANWR push with their own letter Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican. The Democrats call projected lease revenues "highly speculative" numbers that are irresponsible to assume in the budget.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates lease sale revenues at $6 billion, which would be split 50-50 with the state of Alaska, while the White House uses an even higher figure.

The nonprofit organization Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP) says the Senate Budget Committee is hurting Republican prospects in the fall elections by reporting out a 2007 budget resolution that seeks to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling through a "backdoor maneuver."

"This scheme to authorize drilling in a wildlife refuge by playing fast and loose with Senate rules can only further feed the impression that our party is ethically bankrupt," said REP Government Affairs Director David Jenkins.

REP is concerned that further damage to the GOP image will hurt any Republican running in a swing district.

"Voters all over America give low marks to Congress for these sorts of shenanigans, and Republicans in both chambers really need to nip this in the bud. Concocting a one-issue budget plan to ram through an unpopular pork-barrel scheme represents a new low in ethical lapses," Jenkins said. "This could be the last straw that convinces voters to throw the Republican majority out."

REP Policy Director Jim DiPeso said, "Too many Republicans in Congress have swallowed the myth that drilling would be environmentally gentle. Last weekend's major oil spill at Prudhoe Bay, one of the largest ever on the North Slope, should shatter that myth once and for all."

An initial estimate of the spill volume released Thursday by the Incident Command group in charge of cleaning up the spill from a BP Explorations transit pipeline found 201,169 gallons had been spilled. The spill was discovered March 2 and has impacted at least two acres of land, including a lakeshore.

Jenkins said that while drilling advocates point to directional drilling and ice roads to support the low-impact myth, "those measures don't mean an awful lot if your pipelines leak."

"The reality is that drilling proponents have been peddling a bill of goods about what oil production in the Arctic Refuge would look like," DiPeso said.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says the Senate committee is using the budget process as a last resort because drilling proponents have been unable to pass a plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling through normal legislative channels.

“The people who want to see oil companies drilling in the Arctic have failed time and again to make it happen through legitimate legislative means. Every time the answer has been no. Now they’re breaking the rules so they can bypass the lawful democratic process altogether," said Heather Taylor, NRDC’s deputy legislative director.

Past votes on ANWR drilling in the full Senate have been very close. The issue may turn on the votes of Hawaii's two Senators. Senator Daniel Akaka, a native Hawaiian, says his several past votes in favor of drilling are "indigenous votes" to provide a better life for the indigenous people of the small Arctic village of Kaktovik. He says the indigenous people of Hawaii should "take heart" from his support of the indigenous people of Alaska.

Senator Daniel Inoyue, who has also voted for ANWR drilling, has a close relationship with Alaska's senior senator Ted Stevens, a strong proponent of drilling in the refuge.

Judge Orders Review of New York-New Jersey Harbor Dredging

Wild Birds Migrating Across U.S. Test Negative for Bird Flu

The tests did not detect the highly pathogenic form of H5N1 avian influenza, the virulent strain that has spread throughout a large area in Asia, Europe and Africa.

To date, the H5N1 strain has not been detected in the United States.

“Avian influenza viruses are common in North American waterfowl and shorebirds, and the finding of a variety of avian influenza viruses is not unexpected,” said Dr. Leslie Dierauf, director of the USGS National Wildlife Health Center.

Most samples screened by the USGS at the Center were taken from Alaska, the most likely place for the highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 to enter North America via migratory birds. Dierauf says this is because the state is at the crossroads of many flyways and Asian and North American birds mix there.

Other USGS samples were taken from waterfowl on federal and state lands in 31 states. The only H5 subtype USGS scientists at the Center detected was a low pathogenic strain of H5N2 from one duck in North Dakota.

Still, because of the migratory movements of wild birds and the increasing number of countries that have discovered H5N1 in their migratory birds, the USGS and its partners in 2006 will monitor and test for avian influenza in wild birds as part of an expanding federal, state and regional detection effort.

Under the national testing program this year, field specialists and wildlife biologists from several federal and state agencies, universities and nongovernmental organizations plan to collect between 75,000 and 100,000 samples from migratory birds.

U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratories will screen the majority of those samples, and the USGS National Wildlife Health Center expects to screen about 11,000 of those samples in 2006.

The USGS Center, located in Madison, Wisconsin, provides regular updates on its avian influenza testing of migratory waterfowl. These current testing results cover samples taken from August 2005 through March 7, 2006. Tests performed to date at the Center showed the presence of low pathogenic avian influenza in about 10 percent of the birds tested.

North Carolina Seeks Roadless Rule Protection of 174,000 Acres

RALEIGH, North Carolina, March 10, 2006 (ENS) - North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, a Democrat, moved Thursday to protect nearly 174,000 acres of National Forest lands in North Carolina that a Bush administration rules change would otherwise open to logging and road construction.

The governor filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to exempt the North Carolina forest lands from development.

“These forest areas are vital not only for their natural beauty and the recreational opportunities they offer, but also for their environmental benefits, including providing clean water and wildlife habitat,” Easley said. “They are unique places of unspoiled wilderness and beauty and must be protected and preserved.”

The National Forest roadless areas proposed for protections by Easley’s petition are - Croatan National Forest, 20,780 acres; Nantahala National Forest, 52,650 acres; Pisgah National Forest, 100,480 acres - for a total of 173,910 acres.

Easley’s petition will preserve prime habitat for black bears and views of the Nantahala Gorge. It also protects areas near the Blue Ridge Parkway, an important economic resource in Western North Carolina that draws millions of visitors each year.

The urgency to protect these natural areas has come into even sharper focus recently with the Bush administration’s proposal to sell off about 10,000 acres of North Carolina federal forest land, a move opposed by Easley.

In 2001 the Clinton Administration adopted a rule that preserved all roadless areas and allowed for timber harvesting and road construction only in exceptional circumstances, such as reducing the risk of wildfires.

In May of 2005 the Bush administration replaced the rule with a petition process that requires governors to petition the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for protection of these roadless areas.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will review Easley’s petition and must take action within 180 days. Once the Agriculture Secretary approves the petition, it triggers a rulemaking process which would include bringing together those with a direct interest in the lands, giving public notice of the proposed rules and accepting public comment.

Ultimately, the Secretary of Agriculture makes the final determination regarding protection of the land. In light of what he calls the "bureaucratic and burdensome process," Easley is asking that the USDA expedite consideration of the petition and provide for temporary protection of the land while federal officials deliberate.

“This new process places a burden on states to protect lands that are a federal responsibility and presents states with an onerous petition process that is, frankly, unclear,” Easley said. “But North Carolina will move ahead to protect these lands for the sake of the state’s environment and its people.”

Since 1998, North Carolinians have submitted more than 50,000 public comments to the U.S. Forest Service in support of protecting these areas.

Many of the roadless areas in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests are within watersheds that the state Division of Water Quality has classified as High Quality Water or Outstanding Resource Water. North Carolina depends on these areas to provide a buffer to protect watersheds, particularly for the Asheville and Hendersonville areas.

William Meadows, president of The Wilderness Society, said, "In asking for 100 percent protection of North Carolina’s remaining roadless National forest lands, Governor Easley sent a clear message to the Bush administration that these last, invaluable wild forests deserve to be off limits to road building and development."

Puerto Rico Prison System Must Build New Small Town Water Supply

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, March 10, 2006 (ENS) - The Puerto Rico Administration of Corrections (PRAC) has agreed to construct a safe drinking water supply system, at a projected cost of $1 million, to provide safe drinking water to the rural community of La Sapia, in Orocovis, Puerto Rico.

The settlement, filed earlier this month, resolves violations of a consent decree entered in 1997, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In addition, PRAC will pay a penalty of $500,000 for violations of the 1997 settlement, which resolved allegations that PRAC violated the Clean Water Act by discharging contaminated wastewater from four prisons into Puerto Rico waters.

In addition, PRAC is required to deposit a total of $3 million in two escrow accounts dedicated to the funding of the La Sapia project and to the payment of penalties in the event of any future violations.

“This settlement eliminates the discharge of untreated wastewater and protects local waters,” said Alan Steinberg, EPA Regional Administrator from his New York office. “We are now in the home stretch of what has been a concerted effort on the part of EPA to bring PRAC into compliance.”

PRAC must perform detailed tasks necessary for completion of the La Sapia project according to a specified schedule and hire a field inspector to supervise compliance and submit regular status reports to EPA.

As a result of EPA and Department of Justice enforcement actions in this case, PRAC has already spent millions of dollars to permanently close malfunctioning wastewater treatment plants at three prisons - Guerrero Penal Camp, Zarzal Penal Camp and Guavate Penal Camp - and connect the camps with regional wastewater treatment systems.

Green Mountain Energy Launches Greenhouse Gas Reduction Project

Called eMission Solutions, the project was launched on February 28.

"With climate change, high energy costs, environmental concerns and increased focus on sustainable business practices by institutional investors, customers and other stakeholders at the forefront of today's global mind-set, businesses are increasingly looking for ways to reduce their impact on the environment," said Gillan Taddune, chief environmental officer for Green Mountain Energy Company and head of the eMission Solutions division.

"Our experience and relationships put us in a unique position to offer carbon management solutions designed for next generation businesses," said Taddune.

Carbon reduction products and services offered by eMission Solutions include Renewable Energy Credits, forest sequestration projects, and consulting on energy efficient building practices approved by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program of the U.S. Green Building Council.

These products will allow companies to reduce their carbon footprints and offset the greenhouse gas emissions associated with business activities like transportation, production, electricity usage, and employee commuting and air travel.

In support of this new initiative, Green Mountain Energy Company has recently joined the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), a voluntary, multi-sector market for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions.

CCX represents the first legally-binding commitment by North American corporations, municipalities and other institutions to establish a rules-based market for reducing all six greenhouse gases.

CCX enables members to receive credit for reductions, and to buy and sell credits to determine the most cost-effective means of achieving emission reductions.

Michael Walsh, senior vice president of Chicago Climate Exchange said, "eMission Solutions is a great example of the creative environmental actions that can leverage CCX's organized emission reduction market. We congratulate Green Mountain Energy on the launch of this entrepreneurial initiative."

In addition, Green Mountain Energy Company is expanding its ongoing partnership with American Forests to offer customers the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprints through supporting forest sequestration projects. Forests have the capacity to store, or sequester, carbon dioxide.

"We have partnered with Green Mountain Energy Company for over five years on various projects and are excited to work together on this new initiative," said Deborah Gangloff, executive director, American Forests. "Together we will help companies realize the value of forest sequestration in their carbon reduction plans."