Rising Gas Prices Don't Keep Americans Out of Their Cars Enviros hoping that rising gas prices would change Americans' driving behavior have been bitterly disappointed. Although gas prices have reached a national average of $1.80 per gallon, American drivers are buying more gas than ever, and big, gas-guzzling SUVs are flying off showroom floors like never before. Explanations for this phenomenon vary. For one thing, gas prices are not nearly as high, in relative* terms, as they were during the energy crisis of the late 1970s, when demand for fuel-efficient cars and public transportation spiked. For another, the U.S. economy …

Gilchrest (left) and Olver, the new climate warriors. Photo: U.S. House. The nascent congressional effort to fight global warming has spread to the House -- but supporters acknowledge that it's not likely to receive an especially warm welcome from the chamber's leadership. Last week, a motley bipartisan crew of representatives including Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) and John Olver (D-Mass.) stood beside Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) to introduce companion legislation to the senators' Climate Stewardship Act. The House version, like the Senate's, proposes to set a mandatory cap for greenhouse-gas emissions and create a market-based carbon-dioxide trading system …

The surging popularity of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has local communities where LNG terminals are planned worried about safety. Ships carrying five LNG tanks contain as much energy as a nuclear weapon. If even one of the tanks spilled and the gas ignited, it could cause a fire up to half a mile wide, and the resulting thermal radiation could burn people up to half a mile beyond the fire, say some researchers. Currently there are only four LNG terminals in the U.S., but more than 30 are under consideration, many in densely populated areas. The Bush administration, which is …

Enviros Push California to Buy Ocean Areas and Fishing Boats Environmental groups, buoyed by their success in channeling government money to buy large swaths of California coast to protect it from development, have set their sights on the Pacific Ocean. They hope to secure funding to buy boats, fishing permits, and even plots of ocean floor off the California coast in an effort to mitigate the destructive effects on the ocean of overpopulation, pollution, and overfishing. What the groups -- including the Natural Resources Defense Council and Oceans Conservancy -- are after is money set aside by the state's Proposition …

A whole lot of exaggerating going on. If you think the fuel economy of U.S. vehicles is dismal, well, you're right. Perhaps more right than you know. Official U.S. EPA statistics ascribe a pathetic average of 20.8 miles per gallon to the 2003 car fleet, about 6 percent lower than 15 years ago. The fleet averaged 22.1 mpg in 1987, before Americans got hooked on gas-guzzling SUVs. But according to the enviro group Bluewater Network, the actual fuel economy of America's cars and light trucks is as much as 20 percent lower than the EPA claims. The Bush administration last …

Gassing up. It seemed oddly off-message: John Kerry stood before an audience of thousands of California liberals yesterday at a rally at the University of California at San Diego, roasting the petroleum-hungry Bush administration for letting gas prices escalate. "I'll use real diplomacy to do what George Bush hasn't -- pressure OPEC to start providing more oil! We'll stop diverting oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until gas prices get back to normal," said the Democratic presidential contender, who in 1993 voted for a gas-tax hike and in 1994 spoke in favor of a 50-cent increase in the gas tax …

Life's a beach -- and then you die. Photo: NPS. This time of year, a slim strip of Texas beach known as South Padre Island is hopping with bikini-wearing, hard-drinking college students on spring break. On neighboring North Padre Island, however, the scene tends to be quite a bit calmer. Nearly 70 miles of this Gulf Coast barrier island are national seashore, managed by the National Park Service; except for one heavily visited five-mile stretch, the place is inaccessible by passenger car. "There are miles and miles of miles and miles," says Johnny French, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife …

Methane Hydrates Could Be Next Big Energy Source; Enviros Concerned Methane hydrates deep under the ocean floor and the Alaskan permafrost may represent the world's next big energy source, if they can be extracted safely. Some 10 trillion tons of carbon are trapped in the strange ice-like compounds, which form when flammable methane gas is subjected to cold, high-pressure conditions. When perturbed, they can explode violently or release massive amounts of methane -- a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide -- into the atmosphere. Currently, extracting and processing them is six times more expensive than traditional oil …

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) is facing off against the Department of Interior and its Bureau of Land Management over a plan to allow oil and gas drilling on his state's pristine Otero Mesa -- an expanse of desert grassland which the governor, with a touch of dramatic flair, has called "the West's ANWR." Don't mesa 'round with New Mexico. Photo: Nathan Newcomer, NMWild.org. On Monday, Richardson -- whose name frequently pops up on lists of possible Democratic vice presidential nominees -- released an official state report [PDF] slamming the BLM's plan as "inconsistent with numerous state laws, rules, …