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Monday, December 20, 2004

Hit and Run: Environment

• What a way to leave EPA: outgoing EPA Administration Mike Leavitt released regulations allowing U.S. farmers who grow certain crops to continue using methyl bromide, a farm chemical that depletes the ozone and causes cancer. The chemical was scheduled for world-wide phase-out under the Montreal Protocol, but the new EPA regs mean a 2 million pound increase in 2005. [AP, NRDC]

• The LA Times reports on the Pentagon's efforts to exempt itself from environmental laws:

  The Defense Department, which has won congressional exemptions from environmental laws in the last two years, now wants to change an internal policy that commits the department to sound environmental practices.

  Since President Bush took office, the Pentagon has won exemptions from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act and seeks exemption from the Clean Air Act and two toxic waste laws.

  A draft of the proposal, which would replace a 1996 directive, eliminates the Pentagon's vow to "display environmental security leadership within DOD activities worldwide." It stresses, instead, the "national defense mission."

  The new proposal replaces a list of concrete responsibilities with vague guidance to the military about how to prevent pollution and guarantee compliance with federal and international laws.

• The Wildlife Society issued a report analyzing the effects of global warming. Wildlife species are migrating in a northward direction in North America because of climate change, and this trend could result in increased extinction rates and other large-scale changes in the ecosystem.

• Devastation in Appalachia: Prominent regional environmental groups were not among those signing onto a “reforestation initiative” for strip-mined lands promoted by the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), despite an OSMRE press advisory suggesting that local environmental groups would be among the signers. Most major regional environmental groups, including Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW), Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, and Save Our Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee had not even heard about the initiative until OSMRE circulated the media advisory and the statement of intent. The groups, while applauding the idea of making every attempt to re-forest already mined lands, are reiterating a call for a moratorium on any new mountaintop removal mining projects. [OVEC]