Hybrid SUVs to Hit U.S. Market This Year While a "green SUV" may sound like an oxymoron, Toyota and Ford plan to roll out new gas-electric hybrid SUVs later this year that warrant the label "greener" -- or, at least, less egregiously wasteful. Ford's hybrid Escape will hit U.S. showrooms this summer, while Toyota will start selling a hybrid version of its luxury Lexus RX330 in November or December. These newfangled hybrid SUVs are expected to get 27 to 40 miles per gallon -- comparable to standard cars. Enviros don't love 'em, but say they're a definite improvement over current …

Pollution a Likely Contributor to Rising Asthma Rates Asthma rates are climbing around the world, and though scientists can't say precisely what's causing the increase, pollution is thought to be a serious contributor. The respiratory disease has become a particular problem in Asia, where terrible air quality, rapid urbanization, and poor medical treatment have contributed to a troublingly high asthma death rate. Wealthier countries are afflicted too: More than 18 percent of the population of Scotland suffers from asthma, making it the nation with the highest asthma rate in the world. In the U.S., the number of asthma sufferers grew …

Google Bans Ads from Environmental Group The popular search engine Google is facing accusations of censorship after it refused to carry ads from an environmental group that is protesting a major cruise line's sewage-treatment methods. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Oceana paid Google to run an ad that read "Help us protect the world's oceans" when people entered search terms such as "cruise vacation" and "cruise ship." The ad itself didn't mention the cruise line by name, but it pointed web surfers to a site that criticized Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines for dumping pollutants at sea. Google ran the ad …

Texas Ship-Inspection Company Implicated in Prestige Tanker Disaster Negligence on the part of the Texas-based American Bureau of Shipping -- a company that conducts safety inspections of ships -- could be to blame for the notorious Prestige tanker disaster, which spilled millions of gallons of oil off the coast of Spain 15 months ago and affected or destroyed the livelihoods of some 100,000 fishers and other Spaniards. So say two lawsuits pending against ABS, which seek a combined total of $1 billion in damages from the company. Though numerous problems had been found with the ship over the years and …

Native Peoples Speak Up for Their Lands Indigenous peoples are rallying for their lands and their rights this week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where a major U.N. convention on biodiversity is taking place. Representatives of native peoples are demanding the right to reject development projects on their ancestral lands, saying that multinational companies should not be able to plunder these areas for profit. Indigenous groups are also speaking out against governments that force natives off their homelands in order to create national parks and nature preserves, and criticizing pharmaceutical companies that try to patent generations-old medicinal and agricultural practices. An …

Invasive Species in Ballast Water Messing With World's Oceans Ships that carry ballast water -- used to balance and stabilize the vessels -- also carry thousands of aquatic species across the globe to foreign habitats, where they can have environmentally catastrophic effects. Recognizing this as one of the top four environmental problems facing the world's oceans (along with pollution, overfishing, and habitat destruction), 100 countries are expected to sign a U.N. treaty this week calling for regulation of ballast-water use in vessels around the world. Ballast water "can transfer pathogens and other micro-organisms and invasive species that have the capacity …

Senate Republicans Flailing as They Try to Push Through Energy Bill Senate Republicans are having a bad week. A proposal to push the energy bill through Congress by attaching it to the more popular and pressing transportation bill was roundly rejected yesterday. President Bush told Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on Monday that he wants costs cut substantially on both the energy bill and the transportation bill, a move many observers say is a response to election-year concerns over the budget deficit. Congressional leaders managed to pare down the energy bill's costs by more than half (from $31 billion …

American Cars Conspicuously Absent from List of 2004's Greenest Vehicles An annual ranking of the year's "greenest" and "meanest" automobiles released today found America's Big Three auto manufacturers absent from the former list -- and well-represented on the latter. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, widely considered a top source for info on eco-friendly passenger vehicles, gave the 2004 Honda Civic GX sedan (powered by compressed natural gas) its highest score, followed by gas-electric hybrids from Honda and Toyota. Volkswagen's diesel-powered Touareg SUV got pegged with the group's "meanest" designation. "The absence of the Big Three [from the "greenest" …

Environmental Groups Target Bill Ford, Jr. Ford Motor Co. CEO Bill Ford, Jr., once a darling of the eco-friendly set, has come under attack by a coalition of environmental groups led by California-based Bluewater Network. In full-page national newspaper ads that began appearing Wednesday, the group lambasted Ford, Jr., for reneging on his July 2000 pledge to increase the fuel economy of the company's SUVs by 25 percent over five years. Last year, Ford execs announced that the goal would not be met due to inclement business conditions and technological challenges. Since then, the company has refused to make any …

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) unveiled a $22 billion state budget yesterday with numerous eco-friendly provisions that promise to protect green space, return abandoned mine sites to productive use, improve state parks, and revitalize aging city centers, asserting that such measures would spur economic development. Enviros hailed the budget, saying it would make Pennsylvania the top state in energy and environmental policy, but Republicans in the state legislature grumbled that it sent the wrong message to business. "He's a tax-and-spend liberal," said Rep. Jerry Birmelin (R). Despite the complaint, Rendell's "Growing Greener II" initiative would be paid for not with …