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Biodiesel
We live in an age where oil acquisition and consumption dominate
the course of national and international politics throughout much
of the world. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the United States,
where 25 percent of the world's oil is consumed. Our dependence
on oil is responsible for many of the greatest environmental, health,
and security problems our nation faces today. Finding a way to ease
our dependence on oil presents one of the paramount challenges of
our age. In 2002, diesel fuel accounted for almost 23 percent of
total vehicle fuel consumption in the United States. Biodiesel,
which is a relatively clean-burning, renewable fuel produced from
new and used animal and vegetable oil, could be used to replace
at least a portion of the diesel fuel consumed in this country.
Biodiesel has three large advantages over regular petroleum diesel.
First, it is not a petroleum-based fuel, which means that using
biodiesel would reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Second, biodiesel
is produced domestically, which means that using biodiesel will
create jobs and contribute to local economies. The third major advantage
of biodiesel is that it is cleaner than conventional diesel; biodiesel
produces significantly less harmful emissions than regular petroleum
diesel when burned in a combustion engine. For more information
on how your state can incorporate biodiesel into its fuel supply,
visit: http://www.serconline.org/biodiesel/index.html. |
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Vermont
Senate Votes to Hold Biotech Firms Liable (ENS 3/12)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2004/2004-03-12-09.asp#anchor1
Vermont Senators voted 28-0 to support the Farmer Protection Act
(S 164), a bill to hold biotech corporations liable for unintended
contamination of conventional or organic crops by genetically engineered
plant materials. The debate revolved around patent laws that allow
biotech corporations like Monsanto to sue farmers for patent infringement
whose fields are contaminated with genetically modified pollen or
plant materials. The vote comes after 79 Vermont towns have passed
Town Meeting measures calling on lawmakers in Montpelier and Washington
to enact a moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and
10 percent of Vermont's conventional dairy farmers have pledged
not to plant the crops. "The Farmer Protection Act is a preemptive
strike to stop predatory lawsuits against Vermont's family farmers
by biotech companies like Monsanto," said Ben Davis of the
Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG). "Today the
Vermont Senate took the first step to defend family farmers from
these kinds of intimidation suits and the hazards of genetically
engineered crops." For more information on how states are dealing
with GMOs, see: http://www.serconline.org/geFood/index.html. |
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ALEC's
"Common Sense" Scientific & Technical Evidence Act
The American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC) Scientific and
Technical Evidence Act is not based on common sense. Instead, it
is based on "corporate polluters' sense." This bill makes
it more difficult to hold corporations accountable for their threats
to human health and the environment. The act appears to be innocuous
by simply defining scientific evidence and expert testimony. Those
definitions, however, have serious consequences because they significantly
limit the evidence that can be presented to the court. One common-sense
guideline that would be excluded by the act is the precautionary
principle. The precautionary principle -- better safe than sorry
-- states that regulation should be based on precautionary measures,
even if a cause-and-effect relationship is not fully established.
For example, schools should limit the use of dangerous chemicals
and pesticides before there is direct proof that children are sick.
This bill would encourage a "sorry before safe" decision-making
approach. This "sorry before safe" approach means we have
to wait for damage to occur before we have "direct scientific
evidence" needed to stop the harm. If a statistical correlation
showed that dangerous chemicals in certain schools were hurting
children in those schools, ALEC's model legislation would not allow
that information to become evidence in a lawsuit at another school.
ALEC's bill requires direct evidence of a specific pollutant hurting
a specific child before the use of dangerous chemicals has to be
discontinued. It's not using common sense to wait for a child to
get sick before we act. ALEC's bill makes it more difficult for
environmental activists to bring lawsuits against corporate polluters.
By not allowing relevant information as evidence in court, this
bill takes power away from states, judges, and juries. ALEC would
have you believe that their legal definitions are commonplace, but
there are sharp divisions among the courts regarding the proper
standard for "expert testimony." The Federal Rules of
Evidence do not give any indication that "general acceptance"
is a necessary precondition to the admissibility of scientific evidence.
When dealing with our children's health, it makes sense for the
court to consider and weigh all relevant information. ALEC-influenced
bills on this subject have been introduced in South Dakota, Oregon,
Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania this year. These states, and others,
should be careful to protect their citizens, rather than protecting
polluters, as ALEC would have them do. For more information about
ALEC's model bills, go to: http://www.serconline.org/alecIndex.html. |
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West
Virginia Bill Would Aid Preservation, Local Zoning (The
Dominion Post 3/12)
http://www.dominionpost.com/a/news/2004/03/12/ae/
West Virginia SB 454, backed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers,
would give local authorities more control over planning and
zoning efforts. The bill, which was recently approved by the
House Government Rules Committee, would allow municipalities
and counties to regulate planning efforts. Proponents say
it will be especially helpful in preserving historic districts
and buildings, and is expected to aid conservation and wise
land use efforts. If the bill passes, it will give local governments
more control in guiding land use, housing, traffic congestion
relief, recreation, conservation, and public service goals.
Local governments could also establish "corridor overlay
districts," which would allow them to preserve historic
buildings and landmarks and establish design/architectural
standards for new projects. The bill is currently being considered
by the House of Delegates; if approved it will move to the
Senate for a full vote. For more information on how your state
can curb sprawl, visit: http://www.serconline.org/sprawl/pkg_frameset.html. |
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Arizona
Bill Proposes to Use Preservation Funds for Military Bases
(Arizona Daily Star 2/11)
http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/13341.php
Arizona SB 1039 would seek to help preserve military bases
in the state by establishing regulations governing what can
be built near them and a fund to help buy development rights
in adjacent restricted zones. But some are questioning the
legality of the proposed method of paying for the annual $14.3
million to help buy those development rights. As proposed,
that money would be taken from the annual $20 million that
voters approved in 1998, specifically intended to buy land
for preservation. Sandy Bahr, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club,
said Proposition 105, a constitutional amendment also passed
in 1998, requires major changes like this one to be approved
by voters. A Senate staff attorney disagrees, claiming that
the 1998 Growing Smarter initiative could be interpreted to
allow lawmakers to redirect the funds. Legal or not, opponents
say it's inappropriate for the state to use funds approved
by voters for a particular purpose to suit its own agenda
of retaining military bases. For more information on how to
make conservation funding a priority in your state, visit:
http://www.serconline.org/conservationfunding/index.html. |
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TN:
Agreement Reached on Building Roads, Protecting Waterways
(The Tennessean 3/11) http://tennessean.com/government/archives/04/03/48173108.shtml?Element_ID=48173108
In an unusual consensus, Tennessee road builders and state
environmental departments signed an agreement to ensure roads
are built without damaging waterways. The agreement clarifies
methods needed to halt erosion, establishes the planning required
on the front-end for storm water management, and creates quality
control teams to monitor projects. Lawmakers are relieved
to have reached a settlement following years of interdepartmental
disputes that resulted in several lawsuits, mostly over stream
damage caused by road building. Environmentalists say they
are satisfied with the deal, but warn that they will be monitoring
the situation carefully to make sure transportation officials
play by the rules. |
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Wyoming
Session Ends with No Plan for Wolves (Billings Gazette
3/9)
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2004/03/09/build/wyoming/20-wolves.inc
The Wyoming legislature completed its 2004 session without
approving any wolf management plan that would satisfy the
federal government, effectively ending efforts to remove the
predator from the endangered species list at least until next
year. The legislature's failure to act also brought Wyoming
closer to an expected lawsuit against the federal government
over its rejection of a wolf management plan adopted administratively
last year. Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming must all submit acceptable
wolf management plans before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
will consider removing wolves from federal protection and
turning management over to the states. Although it approved
plans from Idaho and Montana, the agency rejected Wyoming's
plan in January, about three weeks before the start of the
session. The main point of contention is Wyoming's proposal
to allow wolves to be shot virtually on sight outside of Yellowstone
and Grand Teton national parks and adjacent wilderness areas.
One bill before the legislature would have brought state policy
more in line with the wishes of federal game officials. The
bill followed negotiations between Fish and Wildlife Director
Steve Williams and lawmakers in Cheyenne. However, the bill
failed to get enough votes to make it to the House floor and
the talks ended. Another bill would have taken the opposite
tack, revising state law to conform to the rejected administrative
plan. The reasoning was that a seamless position would bolster
the state's standing in court. That bill passed the House
but died in Senate committee. For more information of wolf
management plans, see: http://www.serconline.org/wolfpreservation/index.html. |
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New
Mexico Proposal Clamps Down on Oil Drilling (Carlsbad
Current-Argus 3/8)
http://www.currentargus.com/artman/publish/article_5203.shtml
New Mexico's alternative to a federal proposal for guiding
oil and gas development on Otero Mesa would make 310,500 acres
of desert grassland off-limits to drilling. Gov. Bill Richardson,
who opposes drilling on the southern New Mexico mesa, described
the area as "sacred grasslands." The state's proposal
for Otero Mesa would place restrictions on 894,000 acres to
protect plants and animals, groundwater, and cultural resources.
Gov. Richardson, environmentalists, ranchers, and hunters
have criticized the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's (BLM)
plan, saying it falls far short of what is needed to protect
fragile and biologically rich Chihuahuan Desert grasslands.
The state plan would leave 709,350 acres open to leasing with
no special restrictions, compared with 1.4 million acres in
the BLM plan. |
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FL:
Bill Would Exempt Gun Ranges from Cleanup (St. Petersburg
Times 3/5)
http://www.stpetetimes.com/2004/03/05/State/Gun_fee_proposed_to_c.shtml
The Florida legislature is moving quickly to pass a law that
prohibits the state, cities, or counties from suing gun ranges
to require cleanups. The bill exempts ranges from any cleanup
costs if they inform the state by 2005. The National Rifle
Association and conservative lawmakers consider environmental
enforcement at gun ranges an assault on the Second Amendment's
right to bear arms. Supporters introduced the measure just
as state regulators are preparing to go to court in a three-year-old
lawsuit against a Pinellas County shooting range that is accused
of contaminating public property with lead, arsenic, and antimony
from lead shot and splintered clay pigeons. The bill would
require the state to withdraw all lawsuits within 30 days
after it becomes law. Environmentalists are outraged. They
say the bill would let polluters off the hook and subject
state regulators to misdemeanor charges if they decided to
sue a gun range owner. "Here's a public employee out
there that we pay with our state tax dollars trying to protect
our health and well-being and you're saying put him in jail,"
said Susie Caplowe, a lobbyist with the Florida Chapter of
the Sierra Club. "That's outrageous." Mike Sole,
Director of the Department of Environmental Protection's Division
of Waste Management, is worried that the bill will send the
wrong message. Of the 400 gun ranges, only 26 have been found
to have problems, and most of them are voluntarily offering
to work with the state to devise a cleanup plan, Sole said.
"If this passes, we would have no incentive to get owners
to cooperate," he said. Governor Bush, who initially
opposed the bill, is negotiating with Senate sponsors. The
compromise is a proposal to charge gun buyers a special fee
to clean up polluted gun ranges. |
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New
Jersey Enlists Help to Combat Invasive Species (ENS
3/5)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2004/2004-03-08-09.asp#anchor1
Invasive (non-native) plants, insects, and other organisms
in New Jersey are so damaging to the state's biological diversity
and economy that Governor James McGreevey recently established
the New Jersey Invasive Species Council to develop comprehensive
measures to fight them. The new Invasive Species Council,
co-chaired by Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner
Bradley Campbell and Department of Agriculture Secretary Charles
Kuperus, is expected to develop a New Jersey Invasive Species
Management Plan to be submitted to the governor by June 2005.
The governor signed the Executive Order after accepting a
new Department of Environmental Protection report that details
the substantial problems posed by harmful invasive plant species,
which crowd out native species and damage wetlands, uplands,
lakes, and rivers. There are more than 1,000 nonindigenous
plants in New Jersey that have been introduced from Europe
and Asia. The report includes fact sheets on 29 nonindigenous
plants documented to invade and establish native plant communities
in New Jersey. Invasive species threaten the state's agricultural
resources through lost production and marketability for agricultural
products. Nationally, damage from invasive species costs $123
billion annually. For more information on how your state can
curb the spread of invasive species, visit: http://www.serconline.org/invasives/pkg_frameset.html. |
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Vermont
Senate Wants to Ban Some Dish Detergents (Burlington
Free Press 3/11)
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/bfpnews/news/thursday/1000h.htm
Senators in Vermont have approved, by a 27-2 margin, a ban
on dishwasher detergents containing phosphorus. The state
spends millions each year removing phosphates from state waters.
Phosphates cause algal blooms, which in turn clog ponds and
lakes, depriving them of oxygen needed to support life. Going
to the source, say the bills supporters, will save the state
cash and prevent the algal blooms. By one estimate, half of
Vermont's households have dishwashers, and changing the detergent
they use could keep 2 tons of phosphorus out of Lake Champlain,
one of the state's largest lakes and an important source of
recreation and tourism. The two senators opposing the bill
argue that consumers have a right to choose the product that
works best for them, and that "green" alternatives
have a limited market, but admit that phosphorus-free detergents
clean dishes effectively. The bill has been sent to the state
assembly. |
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California
Plans to Regulate Perchlorate (Los Angeles Times
3/11)
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-perc11mar11,1,4570182.story?coll=la-headlines-california
Gov. Schwarzenegger plans to make California the first state
to regulate aluminum perchlorate, a water pollutant found
in rocket fuel, munitions, and fireworks. The pending guidelines
have the Pentagon worried. The military is largely responsible
for perchlorate discharges and its cleanup will cost billions.
Military officials have lobbied Schwarzenegger against regulating
the pollutant, but the wealth of scientific evidence documenting
its dangers, particularly to thyroid production of hormones
in young children, has swayed the administration. The proposed
guidelines would limit perchlorate to 6 parts per billion,
which, says the Sierra Club, is not stringent enough. The
entire lower Colorado River, which supplies water to more
than 15 million people in the Southwest, including Southern
California, is tainted with perchlorate that is leaking out
of a former rocket fuel factory in Nevada. Perchlorate has
also been discovered in lettuce and milk, suggesting that
it is in crops and livestock that receive contaminated water.
Most of the nation's winter vegetables are grown in California
and Arizona with Colorado River water. |
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Maine
Bill Seeks to Relax Pollution Standards (Portland
Press Herald 3/9)
http://www.pressherald.com/news/statehouse/040309oxygen.shtml
Sewage plant operators are backing a bill in Maine that would
relax water pollution standards along 94 percent of the state's
coastline -- a move that could jeopardize the state's lobster
fishery and threaten public health. A wastewater treatment
official said the changes are necessary because certain plants
aren't meeting current pollution guidelines and want to avoid
paying for costly upgrades. Lobsters, and other ocean bottom-dwelling
creatures, cannot survive with low levels of dissolved oxygen,
a condition caused by sewage discharges. Sewage contains bacteria
that can be harmful to human health, as well as phosphates
and nitrates, which cause algal blooms. When the algae die,
the bacteria that feed on them can deplete all the oxygen
in an area of the ocean floor. The lobster stock in southern
New England has suffered considerably from this effect. The
state Department of Environmental Protection has twice before
recommended easing the water quality standards, but this is
the first time such a legislative action has been backed by
the sewage treatment industry. |
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