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Writ from Ritt

The EU has threatened to withhold as much as $15.5 billion from a number of member states unless they comply with EU environmental laws by establishing nature reserves and other protected areas. France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Portugal have been given formal written warning from EU Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard. The crackdown follows a […]

Oh No, Mr. (Interior) Bill

A rider tacked onto the Interior Department spending bill, courtesy of Sens. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho), would stall a large federal land and wildlife management plan for 64 million acres in the Pacific Northwest. The Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project — covering federal lands in eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, Idaho, and […]

An Aphrodisiac? Ah, Baloney

Police in South Africa are trying to crack down on heavily armed poachers of abalone, a shellfish prized in China, Taiwan, and Japan as an aphrodisiac. Some marine scientists warn that South Africa’s abalone population could be virtually wiped out within five years. Meanwhile, investigators in China have broken up a massive smuggling ring that […]

Snake in the Bush

Not winning any environmental plaudits, GOP presidential hopeful George W. Bush yesterday announced his opposition to breaching four dams on the Snake River to help save endangered salmon runs. As he kicked off a campaign swing through the Northwest, Bush said, “I think it’s very important for us to protect the fish, but I think […]

Renewable Powers — Yeah, Baby!

The British government has been slow to make the major policy changes necessary to meet its stated goals of increasing renewable energy generation and combating global warming, a Parliamentary select committee said yesterday. The committee made a number of proposals to help move the country toward its target of producing 10 percent of its electricity […]

The Roadless Ahead

Vice Pres. Al Gore’s email box has been bombarded in the last two months with 170,000 messages from constituents asking him to “permanently protect all roadless areas in the national forest larger than 1,000 acres.” The emails were spurred by the Heritage Forests Campaign, which paid the free email provider Juno Online Services to send […]

Y2 OK?

One third of U.S. nuclear power plants still have work to do on their non-safety computer systems if they are to be ready for Y2K, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said yesterday. But computers controlling safety systems at all 103 nuclear plants are free of problems that could cause radiation leaks, the NRC claims. However, Rep. […]

A Sandy Dunkin'

Many U.S. beaches are washing away, being pushed into decline by erosion, coastal overdevelopment, and wrongheaded conservation efforts. Billions of dollars have been spent in the U.S. to keep beaches in place, but efforts in many cases have only exacerbated erosion. Ecologists say that for beaches to survive, they must be free to move and […]

Outtasight Insight in Sight

Honda will be hawking its new 80-mile-per-gallon “Insight” in showrooms across the U.S. by the end of this year, the company announced yesterday. The two-seat coupe will be the world’s most fuel-efficient, gas-powered, mass-produced vehicle. The Insight, which will be priced below $20,000 in the U.S., has a three-cylinder gasoline engine assisted by an electric […]

Back Scratch Fever

The Senate is packing the Interior Department spending bill with measures to benefit oil, gas, timber, mining, and ranching interests. Riders would let oil companies keep hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties owed to the public, miners dump thousands of tons of waste on federal lands, timber companies log more of Alaska’s forests, and […]