Articles by Ana Unruh Cohen

FBI looks askance at those who oppose fossil fuels

Newsweek has a short article on Josh Connole, a southern Californian, who was wrongfully arrested by the FBI in connection with the torching of a SUV dealership in 2003.

One piece of FBI detective work on Connole and the members of the commune where he lived should concern environmentalists:

Agents placed the commune under surveillance and developed a political profile of the residents, discovering the owner of the house and his father "have posted statements on websites opposing the use of fossil fuels," one doc reads.

Unfortunately, the FBI's concern about ecoterrorism is not new.

Help the oil companies spend their lucre, won’t you?

At a press conference this afternoon, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton came up with another creative reason to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling: The oil companies need some place to invest their record profits!

(Or so I'm inferring from this E&ENews PM headline "ANWR: Oil industry needs places to invest profits, Norton says." I can't get the full story because I have no subscription.)

Why not spend the rest of Friday afternoon thinking of better ways for the oil companies to spend their profits? Leave your bright ideas in comments or send them to Sec. Norton.

Crichton testifies before Congress

Not always. And definitely not yesterday at the Senate Environment and Public Works committee hearing on the role of science in environmental policy making.

Such an important topic demands the opinions of distinguished scientists and policy makers, right? Wrong. Headlining the hearing was none other than science fiction author Michael Crichton, whose latest book, State of Fear, takes on the science of global warming and the evil environmentalists behind it. (Read Dave's review here.)

I couldn't face watching it, but the brave scientists at Realclimate.org did. Their summary is worth a read.

Pombo proposes selling off nat’l parks

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA), chairman of the House Resources Committee, has officially established beyond any doubt that he is no Teddy Roosevelt Republican. Today, draft legislation from his committee proposed selling off a number of national park holdings, including Theodore Roosevelt Island, home of the TR memorial in Washington, D.C.

As reported by Greenwire, the other sites include:

• Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, Texas
• Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, Alaska
• Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska
• Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Alaska
• Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, California
• Fort Bowie National Historic Site, Arizona
• Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Massachusetts
• Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska
• Lake Clark National Park, Alaska
• Mary McLeod Bethune Council House, Washington, D.C.
• Minute Man Missile National Historic Site, South Dakota
• Noatak National Preserve, Alaska
• Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Monument, Pennsylvania
• Thomas Stone National Historic Site, Maryland
• Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, Alaska

Pombo also proposes selling advertising space just about anywhere in National Parks to help generate revenue.