Conservation Insider Bulletin from Dan Besse, Dec. 21

Conservation Insider Bulletin
Published weekly for the Conservation Council of North Carolina
Conservation News to Peruse & Use
Editor: Dan Besse, earthvote@ccnccpac.org

December 21, 2007

--Around the Globe: Bali Agreement Sets Stage for Next President

--Washington Watch: Congress Passes a Positive Energy Bill; Bush EPA Tries to Block Stronger State Emission Standards; FWS Stops Short on Endangered Species

--Campaign Watch: LCV Presidential Candidates Evaluation; LCV Media Strategy; McCain Surge

--Administrative Watch: A Tale of Two Power Plants


Around the Globe: Bali Agreement Sets Stage for Next President


Overcoming the predictable anti-progress whining of the Bush (theoretically, the American) envoy, the United Nations conference on climate change wrapped up last Saturday with an agreement to step up the fight against global warming. Bush Administration foot-dragging (aided and abetted by China and India) managed to keep specific goal numbers out of the final document, but it was clear that most of the 190 nations participating in the conference view that obstructionism as a transitional problem. The timetable speaks volumes: Negotiators set an end-of-2009 deadline for work on the next step in the updated agreement. Key provisions of this new deal are to include binding emission reductions by industrialized nations, plans by developing nations to control their own growth in emissions, and "positive incentives" for reducing deforestation in developing nations.

If it appears that this sets up the 2008 U.S. elections as the world's foremost showdown on our planet's climate...well, appearances are not always deceiving. We can elect a president and Congress who understand the urgent necessity of reducing our contribution to global warming, or we can witness permanent worldwide climate catastrophe.

Hey, no pressure.


Washington Watch: Congress Passes a Positive Energy Bill; Bush EPA Tries to Block Stronger State Emission Standards; FWS Stops Short on Endangered Species


Congress Passes a Positive Energy Bill: It wasn't as much as it could have been without an opposition filibuster and a veto threat, but for once in a long while Congress actually gave final approval to a energy bill with positive actions of real significance. Most important among them was the first significant required improvement in auto efficiency standards in 32 years. Auto manufacturers will be required by 2020 to achieve an industry-wide average fuel efficiency of 35 miles per gallon (for cars, SUVs, and small trucks). That represents a 40 percent improvement over current requirements. Also included in the bill (which was signed by Bush on Wednesday) were requirements for more energy-efficient lighting, appliances (including refrigerators and dishwashers) and building construction. More controversial among environmental advocates is the bill's requirement for a six-fold increase in the use of methanol as a motor fuel by 2022. Major disappointments to the green side were the removal from the bill of "renewable portfolio standards" for electric utility power generation, and the bill's failure to repeal major tax breaks for oil companies (with much of that savings to have gone to renewable energy research and development).


Bush EPA Tries to Block Stronger State Emission Standards: Oh, no, here we go again. We're in for another round of delays by the outgoing Bush EPA of strong bipartisan efforts from the states to force faster action by auto manufacturers on greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA announced this week that it would deny California's request for a "waiver" to permit it to adopt controls on greenhouse gas emissions in vehicle exhausts. Sixteen other states had adopted California's standards, pending federal authorization. Under the Bush Administration, the EPA had long denied that carbon dioxide was a "pollutant" subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. However, after recent federal court decisions declaring that it IS such a pollutant, that the EPA therefore has an obligation to address it, and that state standards limiting it are permissible, it seemed that the tide had turned. Many observers had expected EPA to check off on the California standards. (After all, the auto industry was likely to sue anyway.) But no—the Bush policy is clearly to fight progress on this front to the bitter end. The latest ironic twist: EPA's administrator used the just-passed energy bill's tightening of auto mileage efficiency standards (also fought by the Bush Administration) as a stated excuse for disapproving the California standards. The spurned states have announced their intent to sue the EPA. We wish them the best of luck, and fast.


FWS Stops Short on Endangered Species: It was just late November when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service acknowledged that seven previous rulings denying higher protected status to threatened species had been "inappropriately influenced" by political pressure from a since-resigned official. This week, lawsuits were filed by conservation groups in federal court asserting that FWS stopped well short of the mark in correcting politically tainted decisions. The actions seek judicial mandates to the FWS to review decisions cutting or denying critical habitat for 13 other species (amphibians, invertebrates, and plants) found in four states (including North Carolina). It is reported that anticipated additional litigation will address another 55 species. (Associated Press, 12/21/07.)


Campaign Watch: LCV Presidential Candidates Evaluation; LCV Media Strategy; McCain Surge


LCV Presidential Candidates Evaluation: The national League of Conservation Voters (LCV) this week released its 2008 Presidential Primaries Voter Guide. The headline: All the Democratic candidates show strong commitment to acting on climate change, while on the Republican side Sen. John McCain stands out as "far and away the GOP candidate most committed to addressing global warming". The LCV Guide discusses the candidates' respective positions and records on climate change issues in more detail, and also "provides the candidates’ lifetime LCV scores, and their positions on key environmental issues such as clean water, roadless national forests, oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and support for Superfund cleanups and environmental enforcement."

LCV president Gene Karpinski said, “After nearly eight years of a presidential assault on environmental protection, the nation demands a new commitment to addressing the single greatest challenge of this generation: global warming. We hope this guide will arm the American people with the information they need to choose our next president – one committed to dramatically reducing global warming pollution, increasing mileage per gallon standards for U.S. cars and trucks, decreasing energy consumption and increasing utilities’ use of clean, renewable sources of energy." The Guide may be found online at http://lcv.org/voterguide/.

LCV Media Strategy: LCV this week also announced an interesting new strategy aimed at strengthening media attention to the issue of climate change. According to Nevin Nayak, director of LCV's Global Warming Project, the nation's most prominent television political reporters have been all but ignoring this critical issue in their questioning of the candidates. By LCV's count, the five most prominent broadcast reporters have during this year's Sunday talk shows and presidential debates interviewed the candidates 126 times and asked them 2,275 questions. Of these, the words "global warming" and "climate change" have appeared in just three questions of 2,275. Whoa. Check out the new LCV website on this topic: www.whataretheywaitingfor.com.


McCain Surge: The McCain candidacy, left for dead after a financial and internal staff meltdown earlier this year, may be on the rebound. His support nationally and in the first primary state, New Hampshire, is on the rise according to recent polls, and he is back in the mix as a leading candidate. Perhaps this will encourage favorable attention to action on climate change; we can certainly hope so.

Administrative Watch: A Tale of Two Power Plants


The proposed new coal-fired power plants in North Carolina (Duke Energy, Cliffside) and southwestern Virginia (Dominion Power) are coming under increasing fire over their potential impacts on national parks and wilderness areas. The Virginia plant could have an enormous impact on the Linville Gorge National Wilderness Area in northwestern North Carolina—not to mention the urban air quality in the Piedmont Triad and even the Research Triangle.

The Cliffside expansion is of concern in relation to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park—and the air quality-challenged Charlotte region as well. Duke argues that the Cliffside plant would actually cut nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and mercury—but conservationists point out that if the plant were being built there from scratch the controls would have to be even tougher. Duke is trying to slide by with weaker controls under a special dispensation from "new source review" that it rammed through the N.C. General Assembly. To Duke's chagrin, the National Park Service and the EPA are still calling foul. On the global warming front, even Duke admits that the proposed new construction would more than double the Cliffside contribution to carbon dioxide emissions. Eleven environmental groups this week wrote to the Duke CEO urging Duke to reconsider and pull the plug on the plant expansion.