Senate Passes Healthy Forests Initiative Meanwhile, forest management in the rest of the U.S. is set to change, too, with yesterday's 80-14 Senate vote in favor of a compromise version of President Bush's Healthy Forests initiative. Although the vote was somewhat influenced by the fires in California, its effect will be felt well beyond the Golden State, on as many as 20 million acres of federal land. The bill will now go into conference with the House, which has already passed similar legislation. Among the chief differences between the two bills: The House version does not say where the logging …

California Fires Could Trigger Massive Changes in Forest Management The devastating forest fires raging across Southern California this week could initiate a change in environmental policy as sweeping -- but probably not as desirable -- as those ushered in by the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. Forest-management experts say blame for the fires is widespread, but the most recent act of neglect lies at the door of the Bush administration: While (successfully) pushing its Healthy Forests initiative as a way to prevent forest fires, the White House simultaneously denied an emergency request by Gov. …

There's a tongue-in-cheek ad campaign going on in New York City right now regarding smoking in public places. The ads feature slogans like, "If they ban smoking in airports, people will never fly again," and "If they ban smoking in bathrooms, people will never gossip again." I thought of this campaign when I stumbled across a Reuters article on Tuesday describing opposition to a new law requiring that meat, seafood, produce, and peanuts be labeled with their countries of origin. Critics of the law quoted in the article foresaw disasters of nigh-biblical proportions: U.S. exports plunging, thousands of farmers pitched …

Judge Agrees to Appoint Expert to Oversee Everglades Cleanup Dealing a blow to both Bush administrations (that is, G.W. in the White House and Jeb in Florida), a federal judge agreed late yesterday to appoint an expert to monitor the $8 billion restoration and cleanup of the Everglades. Environmentalists and a Native American tribe had asked for such an appointment, but government agencies and the powerful sugar industry lobby had strenuously objected. Siding with the former, U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno said an environmental lawyer will be appointed in two weeks to ensure "that the Everglades cleanup will proceed in …

It's no surprise that Mike Leavitt will finally take the helm at the U.S. EPA. But who knew, after all the Democratic resistance to his nomination, that keen political maneuvering on the part of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Jim Connaughton, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, would usher the Utah governor into the EPA administrator slot by a landslide? Late last week, Frist dealt Democratic resisters the all-powerful "cloture" blow -- a senatorial trump card that can overturn a hold with a minimum of 60 votes. The move paved the way for yesterday's overwhelming …

More States Make Strides to Address Global Warming In the absence of any meaningful action on climate change by the Bush administration, more than half of U.S. states are stepping up to address the problem through legislation, programs launched by governors, or lawsuits. In the last three years, state legislatures have approved at least 29 bills that deal with some aspect of global warming or carbon dioxide emissions, often with bipartisan support. At least 15 states, including Nevada and Texas, are requiring utilities to add renewable sources like wind and solar to their energy mix. "We hope to see the …

Former EPA Chief to Call for Moderation in New Book Christie Whitman, who seemed none too happy during her conflict-laden stint as head of the U.S. EPA, has found a new vocation: author. Whitman has struck a deal with the Penguin Group to publish a book that will call for political moderation instead of hard-line stands. Presumably, she knows whereof she writes: Whitman ran into plenty of hard-liners while serving in the Bush administration, where she clashed with officials on a number of environmental issues, most notably climate change. "The leaders must recognize the gap they are creating between themselves …

California Wildfires Put Pressure on Senate to Pass Bush's Forest Plan The wildfires raging through Southern California are turning up the heat on senators to pass President Bush's "Healthy Forests" plan, which would limit environmental and judicial reviews of many logging projects in national forests with the stated aim of reducing the risk of fire. But enviros say the legislation would open up remote old-growth areas to logging while doing far too little to eliminate fire risks near communities; they argue the bill would do little or nothing to stymie fires like the ones now burning in Southern California, which …

EPA Official Knew Rule Change Could Hurt Enforcement, GAO Says The top air-quality official at the U.S. EPA was warned repeatedly by agency staffers that changes to the New Source Review rules of the Clean Air Act could undermine enforcement actions against polluting industrial plants, a General Accounting Office report found last week. But still the official, Assistant EPA Administrator Jeffrey Holmstead, told Congress last year that the change would not get in the way of pending court cases against polluters. Now a number of Democratic senators, including presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), are asking the EPA's inspector general to …

Two Enviros Named to San Francisco Power Commission in Political Coup A political coup in San Francisco last week led to two environmentalists being named to the city's Public Utilities Commission: former Sierra Club President Adam Werbach and Robin Chiang, an architect specializing in eco-friendly design and construction. San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly was serving as acting mayor for a day while Mayor Willie Brown traveled abroad, and Daly took the opportunity to quietly appoint and swear in Werbach and Chiang. Brown was livid, but he'll have to live with the appointments unless he can convince eight of 11 city …