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Electronic
Waste (Capital Times 7/31)
Information technology has improved exponentially over the past
few decades. Computers have become smaller, faster, cheaper, and
more accessible making their predecessors become obsolete. These
old systems end up in attics, closets, basements, garages…
and landfills. They are joined by obsolete cell phones, old stereos,
and outdated TVs. Once in the landfill, these products can leach
toxic heavy metals like lead and mercury. These discarded electronic
products pose a formidable environmental challenge to our communities.
We must have a way to safely reuse, recycle, and dispose of electronic
waste. One of the most comprehensive approaches to this problem
is called extended producer responsibility, or producer take-back.
Producer take-back shifts the burden for collection and recycling
costs from taxpayers and government to the producers, providing
a financial incentive for companies to design products that are
durable, less toxic and more easily recyclable. Legislation to establish
producer take-back programs has been introduced in 10 states, including
CA, MA and MN, and is expected to be introduced in several more,
particularly Wisconsin. For more information on how your state can
implement a producer take-back program and deal with electronic
waste, visit: http://www.serconline.org/ewaste/pkg_frameset.html. |
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Eastern
States: More Air Pollution with New EPA Rule (ENS 7/29)
Nearly 1.6 million additional tons of air pollution would be emitted
in 12 key states under a new rule issued by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) to alter the Clean Air Act's New Source Review (NSR)
permit requirements, according to the report, entitled "Reform
or Rollback? How EPA's Changes to New Source Review Affect Air Pollution
in 12 States." The report was sponsored by the Environmental
Integrity Project and the Council of State Governments/Eastern Regional
Conference. The NSR requires permits and the installation of pollution
controls that conform to the best available technology if a production
unit is physically changed in a way that significantly increases
air pollution. The new EPA rule allows refineries, cement kilns,
chemical plants and any manufacturer except utilities to avoid those
permits and pollution controls so long as the new project is not
expected to increase emissions above their highest level in the
past 10 years. Under the old rule, emissions were usually not allowed
to increase above the highest level in the most recent two years.
The report found that emissions are likely to increase under the
new rule because emissions in the past tended to be higher than
they are today for many plants, and also because other federal limits
are not as stringent as the NSR provisions, and are unlikely to
check emissions growth. The report found that total emissions of
five pollutants - sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide,
volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter - could increase
by nearly 1.6 million tons a year from 1,282 plants. States included
in the study were Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana,
Louisiana, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and
Wisconsin. For more information on how your state can reduce air
pollution, visit: http://www.serconline.org/clean/index.html.
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Livestock
Friendly Counties
The Livestock-Friendly County Program, initiated by the Minnesota
Milk Producers Association (MMPA), was passed by the Minnesota Legislature
in 2002 (HF3183), and a similar program in Nebraska was signed into
law (LB754) on May 28, 2003. The program is designed to promote
agriculture throughout MN and NE by recognizing counties that value
the economic contributions of agriculture and are willing to take
steps to provide an economically friendly environment for long-term
success. MMPA initially created the program with a financial incentive
for designated counties, however due to financially tight times
the financial incentive was eliminated. The voluntary program, on
the face of it, seems to promote the agricultural industry in a
positive way. However, the devil is in the details, as many opponents
of the program have pointed out. An unfunded program gives little
incentive for counties to join on. The most disturbing portion of
the program requires counties to be "governed by a regulatory
framework conducive to a viable animal agriculture sector".
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture website labels counties
as anti-livestock if they limit the size of an operation that can
be built, place moratoria on feedlots or expansions of current feedlots,
and prohibit earthen basins to store manure. To be ‘livestock
friendly', counties cannot have these kind of regulations. The program
also eliminates local zoning control and forces counties to accept
farms known as concentrated animal feeding operations. This is a
backdoor attempt to foster unsustainable agriculture, while eliminating
family farms and polluting the environment. To further demonstrate
the needlessness of the program, no counties in Minnesota have taken
the steps to be designated, two bills (HF 861 & SF1027) were
introduced in 2003 to repeal the law, and officials have publicly
stated if no county is designated the program would be eliminated.
There are more pressing issues in agriculture that states should
be dealing instead of developing a harmful and unpopular program. |
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New
Organization Shines Light on ALEC's Questionable Practices
(PTP Press Release 7/29)
Public Trust Partnership (PTP), a newly formed collaborative
effort among state and national public interest groups, is
dedicated to shining the public spotlight on the American
Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) corrosive, secretive
and increasingly influential power in state legislatures.
Among the participating organizations are People for the American
Way Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, Common Cause, Public
Citizen, League of Conservation Voters, NAACP, Midwest States
Center, AFL-CIO, Western States Center, National Education
Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, American Federation
of State County and Municipal Employees, U.S. Public Interest
Research Group, Center for Policy Alternatives, and the Service
Employees International Union. ALEC portrays itself as a bipartisan
membership organization for state legislators committed to
Jeffersonian principles of democracy. In reality, legislator
dues are a miniscule portion of ALEC's budget, and it is not
legislators who call the shots. Each of ALEC's task forces,
which develop model legislation, has a private-sector co-chair
with direct interest in the legislation prepared by the task
force. No model bill is passed through a task force without
support from a majority of the corporate task force members.
The public often does not know that state legislators in whom
they've placed the public trust of elected office may have
forgotten they work for the public, not private corporate
interests. Public Trust Partnership hopes to change that by
drawing attention to ALEC's activities. For more information,
visit: http://www.publictrustaction.org/ptp/. |
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University
of California Passes Clean Energy Policy (GreenBiz.com
7/25)
The University of California (UC) Board of Regents unanimously
approved a system-wide clean energy and green building policy.
The new policy requires ten megawatts of renewable energy
production at the ten UC campuses and that ten percent of
UC's energy be supplied by renewable sources – with
the percentage to increase to 20 by 2017. The Policy also
requires that new campus buildings meet green building standards.
According to Greenpeace, which worked with UC students to
promote the policy, more than 50 campuses across the country
are launching clean energy campaigns. For more information
on similar efforts at the state level, visit: http://www.serconline.org/cleanenergy.html. |
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Oregon
Lawmakers Deal Blow to Pesticide Reporting (Statesman-Journal
8/1)
In 1999, Oregon legislators overwhelmingly approved a pesticide
reporting law that was designed to inform the public about
when and where toxic chemicals are being used in the state.
The program, however, has been on hold since then, largely
due to opposition from the pesticide industry. Now legislators
are refusing to provide the money needed to get it started.
Negotiations over how specific the information reported needs
to be broke down recently, resulting in the program being
put off another two years. Environmentalists criticized the
Governor for failing to fight for the program after identifying
it as a priority in a speech earlier this year. |
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Wyoming
Approves Wolf "Recovery" Plan (Casper Star
Tribune 7/31)
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission recently approved a wolf
management plan that will allow wolves to be killed in 80
percent of their range within the state. The plan, based on
legislation by Rep. Mike Baker, requires the state to maintain
around half of the existing wolf packs in the state, most
of which live in national parks. Over about 20 percent of
their range, wolves would be protected as trophy animals,
and hunting them would be regulated. All other wolves would
be classified as predators and could be shot on sight. According
to Defenders of Wildlife, all wolves in WY would be at risk
under this plan. The WY plan must be approved by the US Fish
and Wildlife Service, along with plans in MT and ID, before
wolves can be removed from the federal endangered species
list. For more information, visit: http://www.serconline.org/wolfpreservation/index.html. |
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Montana
Anti-water Pollution Ruling Upheld (Billings Gazette
8/1)
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a May 2007 deadline
for establishing maximum daily pollution levels for hundreds
of Montana waterways. Chief U.S. District Judge Don Molloy
of Missoula established the deadline in a June 2000 ruling
that said state officials were nearly two decades behind in
establishing maximum pollution loads and that the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) had been too generous in approving
Montana's inadequate efforts. The appeals court also upheld
Molloy's order that prohibited new discharge permits or increases
in existing permitted discharges in damaged streams until
acceptable pollution loads have been established. The lawsuit
was filed in 1997 charging that EPA and the Montana Department
of Environmental Quality were not meeting their requirements
under the Clean Water Act. The Act called for total maximum
daily loads to be set no later than 1979, with the deadline
later extended to 1985. The total maximum daily loads (TMDLs)
are the total amount of pollutants that waterways can handle
and still support fisheries, drinking water and agricultural
uses. Molloy found that Montana failed to develop any total
maximum daily loads until 1996 and then only identified one.
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Maryland
House Tour Aims to Boost Support for Lead Bill (Sunspot.net
7/31)
Hoping to build General Assembly support for tougher lead
paint regulations, advocates took lawmakers on a tour of several
East Baltimore row houses yesterday to illustrate the importance
of holding landlords accountable for their properties. The
afternoon event, organized by the Kennedy Krieger Institute
and the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, gave a
dozen members of the House of Delegates a chance to see a
home in which three children were recently poisoned, as well
as two other homes in various stages of being cleaned up.
Supporters of stricter state legislation said they hope the
first-hand experience will persuade lawmakers to back HB 872
that failed during this year's legislative session. During
this year's General Assembly session, advocates of tougher
rules proposed HB 872 to prohibit landlords from going to
Rent Court to collect from tenants unless they prove their
properties comply with lead paint regulations. That proposal
bogged down in the House Environmental Matters Committee.
In 2001, about 288 children statewide, including 230 in Baltimore,
were reported to have lead poisoning, while 2,841 had elevated
levels of lead in their blood, according to the Maryland Department
of the Environment. |
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Maine
Puts the Rubber to the Road (Portland Press Herald
7/31)
Maine is transforming a sprawling environmental hazard into
the nation's largest use of shredded tires for road construction.
A new Maine Turnpike interchange being built in Sabattus is
taking shape atop the recycled remains of about 2 million
tires removed from a 40-acre dump in nearby Bowdoin. The project
will use almost all the remaining tires from the state's most
notorious illegal tire landfill and will help the Maine Turnpike
Authority save $500,000 on the $6 million project. Maine is
a national leader in putting shredded tires to use in civil
engineering projects, a technology that has been evolving
for the past 15 years and is now catching on in other states.
In 1990, 2 million tires were used in road projects nationally,
compared with 52 million last year, said Dana Humphrey, a
professor at the University of Maine and a pioneer in the
field of using chopped-up tires in construction. Using old
tires becomes more affordable when states are willing to pay
to get rid of them. The Maine Department of Environmental
Protection has spent more than a decade cleaning up some 15
million tires from the state's worst illegal tire landfills.
Five tire dumps in the state each had more than a million
discarded tires and the Bowdoin site had as many as 8 million,
though state officials say precise counts are difficult because
often the tires are buried more than 100 feet deep. |
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Florida
Citizen Group Looks for New Approach to Sprawl (St
Petersburg Times 8/1)
A new citizen group has emerged in Florida seeking to get
the public's vote when a community wants to change its land
use plan. Florida Hometown Democracy is looking to collect
enough signatures and receive approval from the State Supreme
Court to get a proposal to add an amendment to the state constitution
on the Nov. '04 ballot. The amendment would require a local
election before a city or county commission could change its
local comprehensive plan. Even though Florida law includes
the Growth Management Act, the group contends the lack of
enforcement has forced people to step in and fill the void.
The group also contends that local plans intended to stop
growth have failed, leading to increased traffic, more pollution,
and more strip malls. A similar law exists in Ventura, CA
where citizens have had input for years, forcing developers
to stay within growth boundaries rather than exploiting areas
beyond them. A lobbyist for the Florida Homebuilders Association
contends that the problems citizens complain about, traffic
and overcrowding, are not the result of poor planning or increased
construction, but the lack of government funding to balance
infrastructure needs with continual growth. Some developers
voiced support for placing land use changes to a vote, rather
than holding public meetings where there is little time for
opposing sides to debate. For more information on how your
state can control sprawl, visit: http://www.serconline.org/sprawl/pkg_frameset.html. |
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California
Governor Signs Bill Declaring Rivers as Recreational
(LA Times 7/30)
California Governor Gray Davis signed AB1168 on Monday, declaring
the Albion and Gualala rivers as recreational under state
law, preserving the rivers from being altered. The designation
prevents companies from damming, diverting, or exporting the
water from certain areas of the rivers that connect to the
Pacific Ocean. In addition to supporting 30 fish species,
including two which are threatened (salmon and steelhead),
the rivers also provide a sanctuary for birds and support
a tourist industry that some communities within their proximity
depend on. The bill signing comes after a three year battle
including multiple attempts by various water export companies
to utilize the river's water. For more information on how
to protect the rivers in your state, visit: http://www.serconline.org/streamflow/pkg_frameset.html. |
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Wisconsin
State Senators Want to Adjust Motorboat Gas Tax (WSNetwork
news 8/1)
In an attempt to fairly allocate the revenue from the state's
motorboat gas tax, Senators Cowles, Breske, and Hansen have
introduced SB215. The bill would require that, "an amount
equal to 1.4 times the estimated motorboat gas tax payment
be transferred each fiscal year from the transportation fund
to the conservation fund," according to the WI Legislative
Fiscal Bureau. The amount the used to estimate the motorboat
gas tax payment would increase to 80 gallons from 50 gallons.
The bill also authorizes the Department of Agriculture, Trade
and Consumer Protection (DATCP) to provide funding assistance
to counties seeking to implement the federal Conservation
Reserve Enhancement Program, which provides a stipend to homeowners
wanting to improve water quality, wildlife habitat, and erosion
control. DATCP would also be authorized to provide funds to
counties for the necessary staff to implement land and water
resource management plans. |
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