Current Wildlines

 

SERC Wildlines Report #35

September 2, 2002

  A publication of the State Environmental Resource Center (SERC) bringing you the most important news on state environmental policy from across the country.
               

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In this Edition:
Issue Spotlight: Traffic Congestion Relief
Headliner: Study Finds Urban Sprawl Wastes Water, Worsens Drought
Watchdog: ALEC’s "Environmental Literacy Improvement Act”
News Important to the States:
* Minnesota DOT Collects Comments on 20-Year Transit Plan
* CA Passes Nation’s Largest Renewable Portfolio Standard
* NE Govs and Eastern Canadian Premiers: A Regional Response to Climate Change
* Plants to be New Hydrogen Source
* L.A. Schools to Stop Soda Sales
* Poll Strongly Supports Cleaning Texas' Air
* Large-scale Forest Thinning Challenged as Fire Control Tactic
* Activists Criticize Off-Highway Vehicle Use in Utah

Issue Spotlight: Traffic Congestion Relief
Nearly 4 million miles of roads and 200 million vehicles keep Americans moving, but our mobility comes with a price. Highways are a major cause of public health and haphazard development problems. With shrinking budgets, massive traffic congestion, and a backlog of maintenance needs, most states are looking for ways to control spending and achieve economic prosperity. In 2000, New Jersey passed innovative transportation legislation with overwhelming bi-partisan support. The “Fix it First” bill achieved the goals of cutting traffic congestion, protecting green space, and prioritizing repair. By increasing accountability and planning, New Jersey has gone a long way towards balancing the state’s infrastructure needs with the public’s need for safe, efficient and ecologically sound transportation. SERC’s traffic congestion relief page at http://serconline.org/trafficcongestionrelief  offers the tools necessary for you to bring transportation reform to your state.

Headliner: Study Finds Urban Sprawl Wastes Water, Worsens Drought

The 8/30 Winston-Salem Journal reported on a study released by a coalition of American Rivers, the National Resources Defense Council, and Smart Growth America which says that the drought-plagued southeast and other regions waste billions of gallons of water each year because of urban sprawl. The report, titled “Paving our Way to Water Shortages,” says that growing development has aggravated the effects of drought by greatly increasing the amount of rain that runs off from roads, roofs and parking lots rather than falling on open land, where it would be absorbed into the underground water supply. The study ranks the top 20 metro areas that have seen the greatest amount of acres developed between 1982 and 1997, as well as estimates of the yearly water wastage of those areas. Several bone dry Southern cities ranked in the top 20, including No. 1 Atlanta, No. 8 Charlotte, No. 13 Raleigh-Durham, and No. 18 the NC Piedmont Triad. Nationwide, government figures suggest that 365 acres of forest, farmland and other open space are developed each hour. The report also presents a series of "smart growth" policy recommendations, such as strengthening regional cooperation on planning and concentrating development in urbanized areas. For more on sprawl, visit http://www.serconline.org/UrbanSprawlState.html

Watchdog: ALEC’s "Environmental Literacy Improvement Act”
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is trying to get their corporate environmental agenda—and only their agenda—into your state’s classrooms. The "Environmental Literacy Improvement Act" is built around establishing an “Environmental Education Council” that would approve ‘acceptable’ environmental education materials. Such a council would be charged to “actively seek countervailing scientific and economic views on environmental issues.” However, it would ban experts in environmental science from participation on the board while mandating that 40 percent of the board be economists. In addition, it states that text materials must “not be designed to change student behavior, attitudes or values” nor “include instruction in political action skills nor encourage political action activities.” The Environmental Literacy Improvement Act attempts to control, confine, and intimidate educators into toeing the corporate line on environmental issues. This legislation has already passed in Arizona and similar legislative efforts have emerged throughout the country. To learn more about this and other harmful legislation, visit SERC's Watchdog page at http://www.serconline.org/watchdogpage.htm .

News From the States: 

Minnesota DOT Collects Comments on 20-Year Transit Plan

Smart Growth Online reported last week that the Minnesota Department of Transportation is gathering public comments on a new transportation plan with a series of town meetings statewide. "Moving Minnesota 2003: Moving people and freight to 2023" is the first MN plan that looks beyond roads to all travel modes and proposes performance measures for evaluating progress toward each long-range goal. The new plan, including public comments, will be presented to the state legislature in January. For more on land use planning, visit http://www.serconline.org/land&water.html .

 California Passes Nation’s Largest Renewable Portfolio Standard

As a result of a bill passed last week in California, the state’s use of solar, wind and other renewable energy can now expand dramatically over the next 15 years. The bill, which passed the Assembly 49-13 and cleared the Senate over the weekend, now goes to Governor Gray Davis, who has pledged to sign it. When enacted, this legislation will give California the most ambitious Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) in the nation. For more on RPS legislation, visit http://www.serconline.org/RPS/index.html .

New England Govs and Eastern Can. Premiers: A Regional Response to Climate Change

The 8/28 Kennebec Journal reports that governors from New England states and premiers of eastern Canadian provinces have agreed to study the prospect of regional limits on greenhouse gas emissions as a possible alternative to the Kyoto Protocol. The current U.S. administration has rejected the proposed greenhouse gas treaty, while the Canadian government has signaled its intention to sign the protocol. The national-level disagreement, said the governors and premiers, would not stand in the way of regional cooperation on the issue. The resolution was just one of many environment and energy-related resolutions passed by the conference this week designed to push states and provinces in a more energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable direction. For more on emissions visit http://www.serconline.org/clean/index.html .

 Plants to be New Hydrogen Source

The 8/29 Wisconsin State Journal reported that researchers developed a way to produce hydrogen, a clean energy source, from renewable organic sources. A report published in the journal Nature, says that scientists have developed a new and practical process that transforms the sugar from plants such as corn or sugar beets into hydrogen.  The process is efficient and inexpensive, according to the researchers, and could be used in the near future to generate fuel to power internal combustion engines or fuel cells. The process improves the feasibility of using ‘waste’ products such as paper mill sludge, cheese whey or corn stalks as a source for energy. The hydrogen now used as an energy source is made from fossil fuels such as natural gas. For more on plant energy sources, visit http://www.serconline.org/biomassdefinition/index.html .

 L.A. Schools to Stop Soda Sales

Los Angeles school district officials expelled sodas from campus last week in an attempt to improve student health at the nation's second largest school system. The 8/28 San Francisco Chronicle reports that the ban is modeled loosely on Oakland's, which was the first such policy in California and much stricter. The policy is part of a growing movement to fight the state's obesity epidemic as more than one-fourth of CA children ages 9 to 17 are overweight, some by as much as 100 pounds or more. A study published this year by Children's Hospital in Boston shows that an extra can of soda a day increases a child's risk of obesity by about 50 percent. In addition to the schools' efforts, some have tried at the state level to limit the sale of soda and junk food at schools. Last year, a bill by State Sen. Martha Escutia, would have banned sodas and junk food from all of California's public schools. Gov. Gray Davis signed a watered-down version last year that prohibits the sale of junk food in elementary schools and bans soda sales at middle schools but leaves high schools virtually untouched. For more on protecting children’s health, visit http://www.serconline.org/childrenshealth.html .

 Poll Strongly Supports Cleaning Texas' Air

About half of Texas voters believe the air is dirtier now than five years ago, and most would support a candidate with a plan to clean it up, according to a poll reported in the 8/27 San Antonio Express-News. In the statewide poll of 600 registered voters, conducted for Public Citizen and the SEED Coalition, nearly half of the respondents said air pollution and global warming have worsened in the past five years. According to the poll, 73 percent of voters would support a candidate with a plan for reducing air pollution, while 61 percent would favor a candidate with a plan for reducing global warming. The telephone poll was conducted July 29 through Aug. 1. It has a margin of error of four percentage points. Pollster Randy Gutermuth said he was surprised by an evident lack of voter backlash against candidates who have plans to clean the air — even if the plans require more money to register vehicles or to purchase new cars meeting tougher tailpipe standards. Only ten percent of voters would oppose a candidate with a plan to reduce air pollution, and 12 percent would oppose a candidate who has a plan to reduce global warming. The Texas office of Public Citizen plans to ask the 2003 Legislature to cap industrial emissions that dirty the air over Corpus Christi and Houston, require more energy to come from renewable sources, mandate lower vehicle emission standards like those in California and encourage efficient technologies such as fuel cells. For more on clean air legislation, visit http://www.serconline.org/cleanairstate.html .

 Large-scale Forest Thinning Challenged as Fire Control Tactic

According to the 8/27 New York Times, forest thinning may not be the best way to control damage resulting from fires. There is increasing research that calls into question a main justification for thinning: protecting the housing increasingly being built around western forest edges. A premier laboratory that studies fire behavior recently found that the only thinning needed to protect houses -- even in the most tinder-dry forest -- was within a "red zone" of 150 to 200 feet around a building. Researchers found that no matter how intense the fire is the principal determinant for fire damage is based on critical home and exterior characteristics, such as a metal roof; clearing pine needles and brush around the house; and thinning large trees in the red zone to increase the space between tree crowns. Many southern California municipalities adopted similar codes after suffering through several summers of devastating fires.

 Activists Criticize Off-Highway Vehicle Use in Utah

The Salt Lake Tribune reported on 8/30 that an environmental group called "Republicans for Environmental Protection" (REP) criticized advocates for the "unfettered spread" of off-highway vehicle (OHV) use on America's public lands. The criticism comes at a time when conflicts over OHV use are at an all-time high in Utah. REP, a group launched five years ago by environmentally concerned Republicans who felt alienated by the party's shift away from conservation, was in Utah last week as part of a multi-state tour. "Many Americans are fed up with the noise, trespassing, vandalism, pollution, diminished hunting opportunities and loss of peace and quiet" that off-highway vehicles often bring to the national forests, beaches and rangelands, said James Monteith, Northwest field representative for the Illinois-based environmental group. For more on responsible off-road vehicle state legislation, visit http://www.serconline.org/orv/pkg_frameset.html.

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