1/27/02
6:05:34 PM
TomPaine.com
This week's Op Ad:
TOTALLY WIRED
Who Should Recuse?
The White House is not the only place in Washington wired to Enron -- the company shared its wealth with some 250 friends on Capitol Hill. Many of them sit on the committees now launching investigations. You don't have to be Ralph Nader to ask: Shouldn't Enron's friends in Congress recuse themselves from hearings?
http://www.tompaine.com/op_ads/opad.cfm?ID=5031
Op-Ad Features:
RECUSE ME!
Conflicts Of Interest In Congress
by John Moyers
If Enron's top 20 Senate friends disqualified themselves, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee would lose 10 of its 23 members. If a $1,000 contribution warranted recusal, no Republicans and just four Democrats would remain on the panel. This is just one committee - and we haven't even mentioned Arthur Andersen, nearly as big a donor as Enron.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5032
Enron-omics 101
A Primer On What Really Happened Before The Fall
by Theresa Amato
Let's stop talking about the fall of Enron in vague terms and get down to the frightening facts -- some stats on how top company executives created their own economics.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5022
REFORM THIS!
Preventing Future Enrons
by Tyson Slocum
Deregulation allowed Enron to become one of the most powerful corporations in the world but also led to its downfall. Here are three steps Congress can take to protect the public in the future.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5025
HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
The Deficit Returns, But Not Unannounced
by Daniel Gross
Surprised by the return of the federal budget deficit? A readily available but little-noted monthly statement from the Treasury Department saw it coming long ago.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5033
BIASED AGAINST PAKISTAN?
Are Op-Ed Pages Judging India And Pakistan Fairly?
by Ahmad Faruqui
As U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell travels abroad and seeks to defuse the crisis between India and Pakistan, leading op-ed pages are blaming Pakistan for the trouble.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5034
The Loyal Opposition
THE ENRON AFFAIR
The Scandalous Attitude Of The Bush Administration
by David Corn
"The Enron failure illuminates the problems and dangers of the Bush administration's we're-all-buds approach toward the corporate community."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5018
And from our CHECK IT OUT! column...
FRONTLINE: REQUIRED VIEWING
Did you see PBS' "Frontline" on January 17, 2002? Ben Loeterman and Hedrick Smith's "Inside the Terrorist Network" is the best reporting we've seen on the events surrounding September 11. By restoring meaning to the phrase "in-depth investigation," Thursday's show exemplifies what journalism can and should be.
So how come The New York Times and the Washington Post ignored the show? Neither one reviewed the program.
Check out CHECK IT OUT!
http://www.tompaine.com/check_it_out/
1/27/02
6:02:14 PM
t r u t h o u t | 01.27
Jennifer Van Bergen | What's Bush got to do..... got to do with it?
http://www.truthout.com/01.27A.JVB.got.2.do.htm
DASCHLE | A New Year of Challenges Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle Delivers the Weekly Democratic Radio Address (Response to Mr. Bush)
http://www.truthout.com/01.27B.Daschle.Radio.htm
GAO Vows to Sue For Cheney Files | Hill Probes Enron Influence on Task Force
http://www.truthout.com/01.27C.GAO.Vows.htm
Powell Asks Bush to Reverse Stand on War Captives
http://www.truthout.com/01.27D.Powell.Bush.htm
Poll Finds Enron's Taint Clings More to G.O.P. Than Democrats
http://www.truthout.com/01.27E.Poll.Enron.GOP.htm
The Woman Who Saw Red | Enron Whistle-Blower Sherron Watkins Warned of the Trouble to Come
http://www.truthout.com/01.27F.Saw.Red.htm
Pentagon Budget Would Be Record
http://www.truthout.com/01.27G.Pentagon.Budget.htm
1/27/02
6:01:10 PM
t r u t h o u t | 01.27
Waxman New Letter Cheney | 'Did the White House Aid Enron?'
http://www.truthout.com/01.27aa.Wax.2.Cheney.htm
1/27/02
5:59:19 PM
BASIC FACTS TO KNOW ABOUT VACCINATIONS
1. Vaccines are toxic.
* Vaccines contain substances poisonous to humans (i.e. mercury, formaldehyde, aluminum, etc.) Vaccine package inserts contain this and other information required by law to be disclosed to the public. Although these inserts are produced for consumers, doctors do not make them available to their patients.
* Vaccines are grown on and contain foreign tissue and altered genetic material of both human and animal origin.
2. Immunization (the act of injecting vaccines) depresses and disables brain and immune function. Honest, unbiased scientific investigation has shown vaccinations to be a causative factor in many illnesses including:
* Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (aka SIDS, crib or cot death)
* Developmental disorders (autism, seizures, mental retardation, hyperactivity, dyslexia, etc.)
* Immune deficiency (i.e. AIDS, Epstein Barre Syndrome, etc.)
* Degenerative disease (i.e. muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, cancer, leukemia, lupus, fibromyalgia, etc.)
3. The high rate of adverse vaccine reactions is being ignored and denied by conventional medicine.
* Prior to 1990, doctors were not legally required to report adverse reactions to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
* Adverse reactions are considered "normal", are ignored or diagnosed as other diseases. Even with this poor system, reported damage is substantial.
* Despite their current legal obligation, less than 10% of doctors report the damage they witness to the CDC.
* Throughout history, many prominent medical and non-medical health professionals around the world have voiced their vehement opposition to vaccination calling it scientific fraud.
4. Mass Vaccination Programs systematically and recklessly endanger the public while disregarding our rights.
* Since vaccination breaks the skin, it is technically a surgery. All surgeries by law require informed consent. Informed consent is rarely attained before vaccines are administered.
* Doctors vaccinate the unwitting and uninformed. The vaccine manufacturers' package inserts which contain biased industry claims and the bare minimum required by law to reveal are not routinely made available to consumers so that they can make a more informed choice.
* Double-talk and unethical enforcement such as threats, intimidation and coercion are used to ensure vaccination compliance.
5. There is no proof that vaccinations are safe or effective.
* There are no control group studies. Authorities consider that "to not vaccinate" is unethical and have refused to study unvaccinated volunteers. If control studies were done according to honest science, vaccination would be outlawed.
* Studies which have been done are not designed to eliminate the examiners bias. Authorities who compile and report disease statistics work closely with and have a vested interest in companies which produce the vaccines. In other industries, this kind of bias is not tolerated. Injuries and deaths in these studies are attributed to anything but vaccination to skew the results and make it appear that vaccines have some merit.
6. Laws allow drug companies to violate the public trust.
* In private vaccine damage suits, information is revealed condemning vaccines as deadly.
* Vaccine manufacturers use "gag orders" as a leverage tool in vaccine damage legal settlements to restrict the plaintiff from disclosing to the public the truth about the dangerous nature of vaccines. Our government has allowed these unethical tactics to be used which jeopardize public welfare.
7. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1987 is a pacifier.
* This compensation program pretends to acknowledge the existence of vaccine damage by making "right" the wrongs done. Nothing in this Act attempts to avert these adverse events from happening in the future.
* This Act is the result of vaccine producers pressuring the government to "immunize" them from private lawsuits which can run an average of $4 million per case.
* The fund is made up of tax added into the cost to the consumer of each vaccine, thereby making vaccine consumers pay for one another's and perhaps their own injury; the vaccine manufacturers have made themselves quite "immune" from accountability. In recent years it has become even more difficult to be compensated through this program due to the parameters for determining vaccine damage changing and coroners now ruling out vaccine damage and charging the parents with Shaken Baby Syndrome.
8. Private insurance companies, which do the best liability studies, have totally abandoned coverage for damage to life and property due to:
* Acts of God * Nuclear war and nuclear power plant accidents * Vaccination
9. Vaccination is not emergency medicine.
* It is claimed that vaccines avert a possible future risk and yet people are pressured to decide on the spot. A doctor's use of fear and intimidation to force compliance is not ethical. Vaccines are drugs with potential serious adverse reactions. Time and forethought should be given before a decision is made.
10. There is no law enforcing vaccination for babies or anyone else.
* Vaccination is linked with school attendance but is not compulsory. Exemptions from vaccinations, although restricted and monitored, are part of every state public health law and can be expanded by public pressure.
* Departments of Health, Education and the American Medical Association personnel profit from the sale of vaccines. They keep the existence of and details about exemptions relatively unknown.
For more information or to obtain a $30 membership packet which documents the facts in this flyer, contact:
Vaccination Liberation - North Idaho Chapter
P.O. Box 1444
Coeur d'Alene ID 83816
More details at:
http://www.vaclib.org/index.htm
http://www.vaclib.org/basic/basicfct.htm
1/27/02
5:44:11 PM
George W. Bush Lies About the WTC Attacks! (Jan 24, 2002)
Bush claims to have seen the first plane crash into WTC live on TV. Is it a lie? An innocent mistake? or a link to a bigger conspiracy?
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=123727&group=webcast
Why did Bush behave so strangely on September 11, 2001?
http://makethemaccountable.com/whatwhen/Q04_BehaveStrangely.htm
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/bushlie.html
Congratulations, America. You have made bin Laden a happy man
We are turning ourselves into the kind of deceitful, ruthless people whom bin Laden imagines us to be.
http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=115680
U.S. Suspends the Transport of Terror Suspects to Cuba
Officials said prisoner flights to Cuba were suspended because the base had run out of space for the time being.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/24/international/americas/24DETA.html
You can click to help remove land mines at http://www.clearlandmines.com
1/27/02
5:40:29 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
U.S. ECOSYSTEMS ALTERED BY NITROGEN POLLUTION
WASHINGTON, DC, January 25, 2002 (ENS) - Much of the nitrogen in ecosystems throughout the United States comes not, as previously believed, from natural sources, but from acid rain and agricultural fertilizers. A study of ancient and unpolluted South American forests promises to upend longstanding beliefs about ecosystems and the effects of pollution in the Northern Hemisphere.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2002/2002L-01-25-06.html
TOXIC WASTE LANDFILLS POSE BIRTH DEFECT RISKS
LONDON, United Kingdom, January 25, 2002 (ENS) - Women living within three kilometers (two miles) of a hazardous waste landfill site have a 40 percent greater risk of conceiving a child with a chromosomal birth defect, such as Down's syndrome, concludes a new study published today in the medical journal "The Lancet."
http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2002/2002L-01-25-03.html
SIBERIAN SNOWS MAY STARVE ENDANGERED LEOPARDS, TIGERS
GLAND, Switzerland, January 25, 2002 (ENS) - This winter's heavy snowfalls in the Primorskii Region of Russia's Far East are likely to reduce the numbers of ungulates such as deer and boar, WWF, the conservation organization, said today at its headquarters here.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2002/2002L-01-25-01.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JANUARY 25, 2002
Enviros Pelt Energy Task Force With Lawsuits
2001 Voters Approved $1.7 Billion in Open Space Funds
Gephardt Calls for Energy Independence Within 10 Years
Hawaii County Opposes Experimental Sonar
Waterbirds Need Distance From Watercraft
$8 Million in Weatherization Funds for Texas, Oklahoma
Jaguars Need Range Wide Protection
Piping Plover Populations Fluctuating
Potato Sterilizers Could Combat Anthrax
For full text and graphics visit:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2002/2002L-01-25-09.html
1/27/02
5:38:28 PM
t r u t h o u t
t r u t h o u t Interview | Senator Harry Reid Should Yucca Mountain Be a Nuclear Waste Dump
http://www.truthout.com/01.26A.TO.Int.Reid.htm
Police Say Former Enron Executive Committed Suicide
http://www.truthout.com/01.26B.Baxter.Suicide.htm
Enron Hearings Open, Focusing on Destroyed Papers
http://www.truthout.com/01.26C.Enron.Docs.htm
Investors Lured to Enron Deals by Inside Data
http://www.truthout.com/01.26D.Investors.Lured.htm
India Successfully Tests Missile
http://www.truthout.com/01.26E.India.Tests.htm
McKinney | Human Rights Under Siege Since 9/11
http://www.truthout.com/01.26F.McKinney.911.htm
A Key Legal Issue How Redistricting Affects Indians
http://www.truthout.com/01.26G.NM.Redistricting.htm
A Trillion Here, a Trillion There
http://www.truthout.com/01.26H.Trillions.htm
1/27/02
5:32:15 PM
Siberian Snows May Starve Endangered Tigers, Leopards
This winter's heavy snowfalls in the Primorskii Region of Russia's Far East are likely to reduce the numbers of ungulates such as deer and boar, WWF, the conservation organization, said today at its headquarters here.
This lack of ungulates in turn threatens the survival of their predators, the Far Eastern leopard and the Amur tiger, species which are themselves critically endangered.
Reports from WWF workers in Far Eastern Russia indicate that ungulates such as Sika deer, Roe deer and wild boars "will likely die en masse from starvation in the coming two months."
"For a long time WWF has been offering to develop an Ungulates Recovery Programme as the basis for long term conservation of the Amur tiger and Far Eastern leopard," says Dr. Yuri Darman, director of WWF's operations in Far Eastern Russia.
"Unfortunately this is still not in place. For the time being, we are taking emergency measures in cooperation with the Wildlife and Game Service to save the ungulates," Darman said.
WWF workers are clearing roads, cutting low hanging tree branches for grazing, and bringing in additional forage. The conservation group estimates $US40,000 dollars will be needed to support these emergency measures to preserve the remaining tigers and leopards.
Snowfalls over the past weeks in the Primorskii Region's southwestern districts have far exceeded the average. The snow is currently up to 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) deep, when for the majority of ungulates living in the area, 0.4 metres (1.3 feet) of snow limits their ability to find food in the forest.
In deer breeding farms, Sika deer are dying from starvation at a rate of up to eight animals a day. Without additional forage, as many as 80 to 90 percent of the wild ungulates living in southwestern Primorskii may die, according to WWF.
The IUCN-World Conservation Union Red Data Book of 2000 lists both the Russian leopard and the Amur, or Siberian, tiger as critically endangered, which means they are facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future.
These big cats inhabit coniferous and temperate broadleaf forests in far eastern Russia, China and North Korea. Primary threats to their survival are habitat destruction for timber and other forest commodities and poaching for traditional medicine.
TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring programme of WWF and IUCN, reports that Russia has become one of the biggest suppliers to the traditional Chinese medicine trade. Exports, mainly to East Asia, include tiger skins and bones. Investigators also found tiger products on sale in Russia's domestic markets.
1/27/02
5:29:31 PM
U.S. Ecosystems Altered by Nitrogen Pollution
Much of the nitrogen in ecosystems throughout the United States comes not, as previously believed, from natural sources, but from acid rain and agricultural fertilizers. A study of ancient and unpolluted South American forests promises to upend longstanding beliefs about ecosystems and the effects of pollution in the Northern Hemisphere.
Ecologists previously thought that nitrogen containing minerals, referred to collectively as inorganic nitrogen, have always been the dominant nutrient in forests worldwide. The study of South American forests, however, showed a sharply different picture: complex, organic compounds are the main form of nitrogen in unpolluted ecosystems.
"It's one of those things where everybody's intuition that they've gotten from studying the world is wrong," said Stephen Pacala, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University. "It's still not clear what the consequences are, but as a pattern it's completely different. You know there have to be lots of implications."
The study, published in the January 24 issue of the journal "Nature," focused on nitrogen, a plant nutrient that plays a critical role in maintaining everything from the health of local waterways to the global climate.
The authors argue that the ecosystems of South America, with their preponderance of organic nitrogen, are a window into the past, showing that U.S. ecosystems were very different before the industrial revolution.
"We traveled in time by traveling to South America," said Lars Hedin, a coauthor of the study and a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University.
Conditions in North America are different from those in South America for two reasons, the researchers said. First, burning fossil fuels produces great quantities of nitrogen and oxygen compounds, which wash out of the air as acid rain.
Second, during World War I the chemist Fritz Haber invented a process for extracting nitrogen from the atmosphere for use in making explosives. The Haber process allowed the mass production of fertilizers, which has fueled a boom in agricultural productivity.
In the remote areas of Chile and Argentina that the researchers studied, there is no fertilizer use and almost no influx of fossil fuel emissions.
The information they uncovered could have far reaching impacts in many areas of ecology, from predicting the pace of global climate change to understanding the consequences of acid rain and agricultural runoff.
"I think it is potentially very important research," said Nico van Breemen of the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands. "It raises points that are fundamental for our understanding of very big global environmental issues."
The findings raise questions about science's understanding of global warming, which is partly caused by fossil fuel burning and increasing levels of heat trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When trees grow and mature they remove carbon dioxide from the air. The ability of trees to grow and absorb more carbon is intimately related to the availability of nitrogen.
"Nitrogen is a sort of master variable," said Steve Perakis, the paper's lead author and a research scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "If we don't get the fundamental elements of the nitrogen cycle right, we can't answer many other ecological questions."
The scientists spent five years preparing experiments in remote Chilean temperate forests and another five years conducting detailed analyses of water in those forests. They also conducted one time tests in a dozen other remote areas in Chile and Argentina to prove that the preponderance of organic nitrogen they observed was not unique to the site they were studying.
At the same time, they repeated their measurements in three U.S. virgin forests, two in the Smokey Mountains and one in Pennsylvania. All of the areas studied contained unlogged primary forests, in ecosystems that have developed in place for 4,000 years to over 20,000 years.
The results suggest that in North America the impact of nitrogen pollution from acid rain and agriculture may be more dramatic in years to come than previously thought.
North American forests are mostly young, recovering from past logging and agricultural clearcutting. Young trees use nitrogen from the soil for growth, serving as a buffer that lessens the impact of nitrogen pollution.
As trees mature, they sequester less nitrogen from the environment. When that happens, more inorganic nitrogen will be available to run off into rivers and groundwater, changing conditions even more from their natural state.
Another interesting finding, said Perakis, was that the nitrogen cycle - the way nitrogen compounds are exchanged between plants, soil, waterways and the atmosphere - in South America is more uniform than it is in the United States.
"We found that even though there were some noticeable variations in South America, they were pretty small compared to the variations caused by air pollution," Perakis explained. "We live in a transient world, a world that's changing because of many human activities, so many systems are responding in unique ways."
1/27/02
5:24:21 PM
Oppose a new energy legislation that would increase smog, global warming, etc.
Here's some information on how to contact senators regarding a bill that is being passed that will not help (and indeed harm) the environment! Please read it and consider writing at least an email to your senator, if not a hand written letter which tends to be more potent.
Thanks, friends and fam!
Ari
From: Kate Abend <sperez@pirg.org>
Hi,
As you may know, some industries and their allies in the Senate are trying to pass energy legislation that would increase smog, global warming, oil spills and radioactive waste production, while rolling back environmental and public health protections.
America deserves a safe, clean, affordable energy future. That's why we're urging the Senate to reject this dirty energy plan and use America's technological know-how to make our cars, homes and appliances more energy efficient.
Follow the link below to a web page where you can e-mail your senators and ask them to support a 40 mpg fuel economy standard for cars and light trucks.
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=218&id4=ES
BACKGROUND
We cannot end our reliance on unstable oil sources by drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other special places. OPEC holds 77% of the world's oil reserves; the U.S. holds only 3%. To reduce our reliance on foreign oil, we must cut our oil consumption overall. Since transportation accounts for two-thirds of all petroleum use, the best way to reduce our dependence on oil is to make vehicles go farther on a gallon of gas. Miles-per-gallon standards enacted in 1975 doubled the fuel economy of American passenger cars and save the U.S. 2.8 million barrels of oil per day. Unfortunately, fuel economy has dropped 7% since 1987 as more Americans buy SUVs and other light trucks, which are allowed to meet lower miles-per-gallon standards than cars.
According to an analysis by the National Academy of Sciences, America has the technology right now to meet a fleet wide fuel economy standard of 40 mpg. Cars, SUVs and other light trucks now consume 8 million barrels of oil every day. Raising fuel economy standards for new cars, SUVs, and other light trucks to an average of 40 miles per gallon over the next 10 years would save nearly 2 million barrels of oil every day by 2012 and 4 million barrels every day by 2020. Four million barrels is more than current Persian Gulf imports and the projected yield from the Arctic Refuge combined. By 2012, the 40 mpg standard would also save consumers $16 billion at the gas pump, create more than 40,000 jobs in the auto industry, and cut global warming pollution from passenger vehicles by 20%.
Unfortunately, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a sham provision that amounts to only a 1 mpg increase in light truck fuel economy. In the next few weeks, the Senate will craft a fuel economy provision for their version of the energy bill. Please help us achieve a smarter, cleaner energy future for America by asking your senators to support a fleet wide auto fuel economy standard of 40 mpg.
Follow the link below to a web page where you can e-mail your senators.
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=218&id4=ES
Sincerely,
Kate Abend State PIRGs Global Warming Associate
http://www.NewEnergyFuture.com
1/27/02
5:21:29 PM
Wendy Gramm and Bush officials to Enron fiasco, Calif crisis
What did the President know, and when did he know it?
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=16285
Wendy Gramm and Bush officials to Enron fiasco, Calif crisis
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=16294
Wendy Gramm and Bush officials to Enron fiasco, California crisis
http://www.citizen.org/hot_issues/issue.cfm?ID=194
After Enron Corp. used its vast web of political connections to win December 2000 passage of commodities trading legislation that helped the company shield its energy trading activities from government scrutiny, California's energy crisis suddenly took a dramatic turn for the worse as artificial supply shortages led to frequent rolling blackouts, according to a new Public Citizen report released Friday.
The legislation reducing government oversight of energy trading was muscled through Congress - without a Senate committee hearing - with the aid of U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas. Gramm was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over the legislation he co-sponsored, but he chose to bypass his committee, and the bill was quietly tacked onto a "must-pass" appropriations bill late in the session. Gramm's wife, Wendy Gramm, also aided Enron's rise to power. As chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, she pushed through a key regulatory exemption on Jan. 14, 1993, just as she was about to leave office. Five weeks later, she joined Enron's board of directors, where she served on the board's audit committee and had access to key financial information about the company.
To read the entire press release, go at
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=983
1/27/02
5:18:57 PM
When War Doesn't End
by Tamara Straus, AlterNet
There are several disturbing lessons in "Bombies," the forthcoming PBS documentary on cluster bombs in the U.S. covert war in Laos. The first is that the wounds of war don't end with peace treaties in the modern era; they continue in the form of undetonated bombs that cover the former killing fields of the world and, in the case of Laos, have taken the lives of 12,000 civilians in the past three decades.
The second is that military technology which initially appears "smart" often proves to be abysmally stupid. Cluster bombs, developed during the Vietnam War and hailed for their ability to effectively disperse submunitions (surface-delivered "grenades" or air-delivered "bomblets"), may indeed increase the radius of destruction over a target. But they also have a high failure rate and hideous post-war repercussions. Twenty to 30 percent of the 90 million cluster bombs dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973 failed to explode on impact and now lay dormant, waiting for a child's hand or a farmer's hoe to set them off. The Laotian moniker for these tennis ball-sized destroyers -- "bombies" -- may sound sweet to the American ear, but the weapons are nothing if not proof of man's capacity to do evil.
"Bombies may be the preeminent symbol of humans inhumanity to other humans," says Fred Branfman, a former U.S. government worker in Laos-turned-political activist who appears in Jack Silberman's documentary. "They were designed to destroy not tanks or trucks but to kill people ... and largely civilians."
War is cruel. Untimely death is tragic. When enemy forces face each other on the battlefield or in the skies above, it is difficult to determine which actions are just or lawful. But in the case of the U.S.'s "secret" war in the mist-shrouded mountains and jungles of Laos -- a neutral country according to the U.S.-signed 1962 Geneva Accords -- it is unquestionable that America waged a highly murderous and mostly ineffectual military campaign.
During the nine years that the U.S. attempted to staunch the flow of North Vietnamese people and supplies moving along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and rid the countryside of Communists, American planes dropped more than 500,000 loads of bombs -- the equivalent of a B-52 planeload of bombs every eight minutes. More bombs descended on Laos than on Germany and Japan combined during World War II, making it the most bombed country in history. At least80 percent of those killed were civilian farmers and villagers. And the U.S. government did this illegally and secretly.
"Everyone talked about Vietnam. Cambodia came under the spotlight. But Laos, it was like it never existed," says Rae McGrath, a bomb demolition expert with the British Army, who received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize and serves as a key talking head in "Bombies."
"I never saw what the target was. Most of the bombs were just a dump," says Lee Thorn, a former Navy operative who loaded cluster bombs on U.S. planes destined for missions over Laos and, in the film, returns to Laos to deliver medical supplies.
"Bombies" is not soft entertainment. It shows interviews with angry, impoverished Laotian villagers. It follows a seemingly endless trail of brightly-colored unexploded bombs -- a kind of perverse Easter egg hunt -- in bamboo trees, school playgrounds, rice paddies, under houses, everywhere. The film makes clear that ridding Laos of cluster bombs is a Sisyphean task. Even with the help of the Mennonites, who have been working to clear bombs since 1975, and agencies like McGrath's Mines Advisory Group, which helps remove more than 100,000 unexploded ordnances every year, Laos will never be a cluster bomb-free country.
One of the most remarkable images in the documentary is of school children, sitting in rows of little wooden chairs, obediently singing the "bombie song," which has lyrics like "Do not touch them. They are not toys." Of the 500 Laotians killed or maimed each year, 43 percent of those who die and 44 percent of those maimed are children. Another unforgettable image is of villagers eating from pots and using spoons made from scraps of bombies, which are the main source of metal in Laos.
Though "Bombies" boldly illustrates the murderous effects of cluster bombs, and focuses on the difficulty of removing them from Laos, the documentary only tepidly addresses the subject of U.S. responsibility, probably because indictments of American foreign policy pretty much guarantee a no-show on PBS. "Bombies" also fails to mention the two treaties -- the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons -- that could force the U.S. from further production and use of cluster bombs. (The U.S. has not signed the Mine Ban Treaty, which does not cover cluster bombs, but it is a signatory to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, which could be interpreted to cover them.)
What the film does effectively address on the U.S. side, though, is the outing of the war before Congress. We see footage of a very young, fairly sober-looking Ted Kennedy, testifying that the bombing created a half million refugees in Laos. Also shown are rousing speeches by Senator George McGovern and Fred Branfman, the young American who documented the effects of bombing and brought them to the public's attention in 1971.
There is a final message in "Bombies" too, however subtlely put across. It is that the story of cluster bombs in Laos has been replicated across the globe. A new generation of bombies has been used in Kuwait, Iraq, the Falklands, Ethiopia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Chechnya and Kosovo.
Today, the United States is also using them in Afghanistan, which even before the Oct. 7 military campaign ranked as one of the world's most heavily mined countries. A recent ABC investigation has found that a significant proportion of cluster bombs falling on Afghanistan to not detonate on impact or miss their targets, and that its manufacturers are well aware of this.
"I think one of the lessons from the [Laotian] war," says Dr. Timothy Castle of the U.S. War College in the film, "is that if you try to use bombing, you probably should think about the long-term consequences, because, particularly with bombies, they are physically going to be there long after the war is over."
Based on the U.S.'s unwillingness to sign international weapons treaties or come up with "smarter" technology, it looks like those long-term consequences will forge a black spot of death and destruction well into the 21st century.
For more information on the use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan and elsewhere, go to this backgrounder from Human Rights Watch at
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/arms/cluster-bck1031.htm
To express your disapproval of the use of cluster bombs and other land mines, go to the Web site of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines at
For showtimes of "Bombies," check listings for your local PBS station.
---
To order the video of the movie Bombies go at
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/bombie.html
Bombies: The terrible aftermath of dropping cluster bombs during the secret air war in Laos and the international campaign to ban them.
57 minutes - US Release Date: 2002
Between 1964 and 1973 the United States conducted a secret air war, dropping over 2 million tons of bombs and making tiny Laos the most heavily bombed country in history. Millions of these 'cluster bombs' did not explode when dropped, leaving the country massively contaminated with 'bombies' as dangerous now as when they fell a quarter century ago.
Bombies examines the problem of unexploded cluster bombs through the personal experiences of a group of Laotians and foreigners and argues for their elimination as a weapon of war. Unfortunately they are still a standard part of the US arsenal and were dropped both in Kosovo and now Afghanistan.
"The United States' insistence on the use of cluster bombs, designed to kill or maim humans, is condemned almost universally and brings discredit on our nation. Even for the world's only superpower, the ends don't always justify the means."
- Former President Jimmy Carter
"The most appalling episode of lawless cruelty in American history is the bombing of Laos."
- Anthony Lewis, The New York Times
Source: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12165
1/27/02
5:15:15 PM
THE MOKHIBER-WEISSMAN COLUMN ON CORPORATE POWER
The multinational corporation is the most powerful institution of our time, dominating not only global economics, but politics and culture as well. The enormous influence of the corporation notwithstanding, the mechanisms of corporate control and the details of corporate abuses remain largely hidden from public perception. The purpose of the column "Focus on the Corporation" is be to rectify this informational shortcoming, to report and comment critically on corporate actions and plans, from particularized abuses to broad trends. Written with a sharp edge and occasional irreverency, the Mokhiber-Weissman column covers:
The double standards which excuse corporations for behavior (e.g., causing injury, accepting welfare) widely considered criminal or shameful when done by individuals;
Globalization and corporate power;
Trends in corporate economic blackmail, political influence and workplace organization;
Industry-wide efforts to escape regulation, silence critics, employ new technologies or consolidate business among a few companies;
Specific, extreme examples of corporate abuses: destruction of communities, trampling of democracy, poisoning of air and water;
Particular issues, such as tort reform, of across-the-board interest to business; and
The corporatization of our culture.
Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman are uniquely well positioned to author such a column. Mokhiber, one of the nation's leading authorities on corporate crime, is the editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter, a legal weekly, and the author of Corporate Crime and Violence: Big Business Power and the Abuse of the Public Trust. Weissman is the editor of Multinational Monitor, the leading source of critical reporting on corporate power. Mokhiber and Weissman have published articles on corporate power in numerous newspapers, magazines, journals and books.
Find out more at: http://www.corporatepredators.org/
1/27/02
5:12:41 PM
Recuse Me! Congress Bought Off by Enron
As Congress begins to investigate the Enron calamity, you don't have to be Ralph Nader to ask: Who in Congress should disqualify themselves from the hearings? *Plus: "Enron-omics at a Glance."
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12282
CHEMTRAILS - Covert Climate Control? by Will Thomas (Nexus Magazine: Oct-Nov 2001)
For nearly three years, chemtrail observers have hoped an official would step forward to explain the origin and purpose of broad white plumes criss-crossing the skies above a dozen allied nations. Their wait is over...
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/chemtrails.html
1/27/02
5:07:31 PM
Campaign Finance Reform Gets 218 Signatures And Will Go The The Floor Of The House
STATEMENT BY MARTY MEEHAN ON GARNERING 218 SIGNATURES ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM DISCHARGE PETITION
WASHINGTON -- On Thursday, January 24, 2002, 218 signatures were secured on a discharge petition to force a fair debate and vote on campaign finance reform. Congressman Meehan made the following statement:
"The Speaker laid down a challenge for us last July. The challenge was to get 218 signatures on a discharge petition to bring campaign finance reform back to the House floor under a fair rule. We have met that challenge today.
As the Enron storm clouds roll in, the public's tolerance for this soft money system is growing increasingly thin. With each revelation, and with each additional soft money dollar that pours in, it is becoming all the more difficult to defend our current campaign finance system - or stand behind supposed fixes that do nothing or tinker around the edges.
We met the Speaker's challenge; and now, we expect that campaign finance reform will come to the floor quickly under a fair rule like ours. But as we celebrate today, we understand that we're moving to a new phase of what will be a long fight.
We do not underestimate the strength of our opposition. When we get to the House floor, there will be poison pill amendments and sham alternatives to grapple with. That's where we left off in July - and the battle to hold our team together needs to be rejoined.
But I'm more optimistic than I've ever been. Check out today's Enron hearings. The evidence is very much on our side. This soft money system needs to be banished - fast."
xox
Thursday, January 24, 2002
McCain Encouraged by 218 Signatures on House Discharge Petition for Campaign Finance Reform
Washington, DC - U.S. Senator John McCain today applauded 218 Members of the House of Representatives for signing the discharge petition to bring campaign finance legislation to the House floor:
"I'm very encouraged that 218 Members of the House took the courageous and principled action of signing the discharge petition bringing Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform legislation to the House floor for fair and open debate. While I'm cautiously optimistic about the prospects for success, I don't underestimate the determination of opponents of reform. I fully realize we're trying to break both parties' addiction to soft money and it will be a very difficult habit to kick.
"But as the Enron scandal has shown again, until we clean up the way we finance our campaigns and reduce the overwhelming influence of soft money donors, all of us will continue to work under a cloud of suspicion, where the public always assumes that we serve our own interests before the country's."
xox
STATEMENT OF REP. CHRISTOPHER SHAYS (R-CT) ON THE SUCCESSFUL DISCHARGE PETITION FOR THE BIPARTISAN CAMPAIGN REFORM ACT
WASHINGTON - 01.24.02 | "Today, we garnered the 218 signatures needed to bring the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act to the floor of the House. These final signatures put us within arm's reach of enacting the most comprehensive campaign finance reforms in a quarter century.
"I'm thrilled by today's developments. We believe it shows a majority of the House is aware of the corrupting influence of big money in politics. The growing Enron scandal, and the enormous sums of money the company contributed to gain influence, underscores this point.
"Campaign finance reform will finally get a fair vote in the House, where bipartisan majorities have twice approved this legislation. We have our work cut out for us, but I'm confident this legislation will be headed to the President's desk later this year, and I believe the President will sign it into law.
"It's been against the law since 1907 for corporate treasury money and since 1947 for union dues money to be used in campaigns. But both make their way into campaign coffers through gaping loopholes called soft money and sham 'issue ads.'
"Our legislation bans soft money and insists that sham 'issue ads' are covered under campaign law.
xox
HOUSE DEMOCRATIC WHIP NANCY PELOSI WASHINGTON - 01.24.02 | PELOSI STATEMENT ON SUCCESSFUL DISCHARGE PETITION FOR CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
"Today is a cause for celebration. Finally, after so many years of struggle, we will be able to have a fair vote in the House on meaningful campaign finance reform. I applaud Marty Meehan and Chris Shays, as well as Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, for their tireless efforts. Without them, this never would have been possible.
"The collapse of Enron, which has been so catastrophic to so many people who have lost their hard-earned pensions, has demonstrated clearly to the American people the real need for campaign finance reform.
"As the new House Democratic Whip, I am pleased that 94 percent of the Democratic Caucus signed the discharge petition to bring the Shays-Meehan bill to the House floor. I will convene a Whip task force next week to fight any poison pill amendments designed to break apart the bipartisan coalition we have built.
"A vote on the Shays-Meehan bill will give us the opportunity to truly limit money in politics, reduce the influence of special interests, and empower grassroots get-out-the-vote efforts that are the engines of our democracy. We have an opportunity to clean up our act. And indeed we have a responsibility to do so."
xox
WASHINGTON - 01.24.02 | Gephardt Statement on the Campaign Finance Reform Discharge Petition
"This is an important day for American democracy and the American people. The bipartisan House coalition got 218 signatures on the discharge petition to consider meaningful legislation to curb the influence of special interests in Washington. A bipartisan majority in the House has spoken. The will of the House has been heard. It's time for a fair vote on real, bipartisan, campaign finance reform.
"We have worked hard to get to this day. For the past three sessions, the House Republican leadership has refused to consider this legislation, forcing the bipartisan coalition to use the discharge petition to take action on this issue. Now, for the first time in a long time, because the Senate passed legislation last year, we have a golden opportunity to make Shays-Meehan the law of the United States. I applaud Marty Meehan, Chris Shays, John McCain and Russ Feingold for their terrific leadership; we would not have gotten to this point if it weren't for them. Jim Turner led a magnificent effort within our Caucus on this petition as well.
"The House Republican leadership needs to heed the will of the House and the American people. It needs to allow a fair up or down vote on real, meaningful campaign finance reform. The Enron debacle, if nothing else, shows the urgency of making this reform a law. If Enron isn't a case for campaign finance reform, then I don't know what is."
xox
DASCHLE HAILS HOUSE REFORMERS FOR OVERCOMING REPUBLICAN LEADERS' OPPOSITION TO CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
Thursday, January 24, 2002
Following is Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's response to House reformers' success today in collecting enough signatures on a discharge petition to overcome House Republican leaders' opposition and allow a vote on the bipartisan Shays-Meehan campaign finance reform bill. The Senate has already passed a nearly identical bill:
"Thank goodness for the persistence of House reformers. It's regrettable that it took two extraordinary events -- a discharge petition and the Enron scandal -- to clear the way for a vote in the House on campaign finance reform. I hope House Republican leaders will accept the will of the American people and refrain from any further efforts to block campaign finance reform. The days of delay are over."
Source: http://www.truthout.com/01.25A.Cam.F.htm
1/27/02
5:01:03 PM
t r u t h o u t
Campaign Finance Will Go to the Floor of the House Statements : Meehan, McCain, Shays, Pelosi, Gephardt, Daschle
http://www.truthout.com/01.25A.Cam.F.htm
Wide Effort Seen in Shredding Data on Enron's Audits
http://www.truthout.com/01.25B.Enron.Shreadding.htm
Henry A. Waxman | All Enron Cards on the Table
http://www.truthout.com/01.25C.Waxman.Table.htm
Bush Violated Security Laws Four Times, SEC Report Says
http://www.truthout.com/01.25D.Bush.SEC.htm
Democrats Press for Enron Meeting Details
http://www.truthout.com/01.25E.Dems.Meetings.htm
Bernard Weiner | George W. and "The Vision Thing"
http://www.truthout.com/01.25F.Weiner.Vision.htm
Guantanamo Interrogations Begin
http://www.truthout.com/01.25G.Cuba.Begin.htm
1/27/02
4:27:10 PM
Good News Agency
Weekly - Year III, number 2 – 28 January 2002
Managing Editor: Sergio Tripi, Ph. D.
Rome Law-court registration no. 265 dated 20 June 2000
1/27/02
3:59:30 PM
Bush Administration Rolls Back Clinton Rules For Wetlands
By Christopher Marquis
WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 The Bush administration announced today that it would ease some Clinton administration regulations covering wetlands and streams, saying the changes would reduce unnecessary paperwork.
John Studt, chief of the regulatory branch of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the revisions "will do a better job of protecting aquatic ecosystems while simplifying some administrative burdens for the regulated public."
The steps outlined today by the Army Corps angered environmental advocates, who accused the administration of capitulating to the interests of developers and miners and jeopardizing ecologically sensitive areas.
The new rules would streamline the approval of certain development projects by giving more of them a green light under a general nationwide permit. That permit authorizes a developer to proceed < and avoid levels of scrutiny by the public and federal agencies responsible for resource management < if the project is said to have minimal impact on the environment.
Scott McClellan, a White House spokesman, said the Army Corps, which is completing a five-year updating of its permit criteria, continues to embrace a policy that requires developers to replace or set aside wetlands to offset their projects. The policy that there should be "no net loss" of wetlands was enunciated in 1989 by President George Bush and has been embraced by his son.
"The president is fully committed to the `no net loss of wetlands' policy that was reaffirmed today by the Army Corps of Engineers," Mr. McClellan said.
He noted that last week Mr. Bush committed the federal government to co-finance an $8 billion plan to restore the Florida Everglades.
Under the changes announced today, developers will not be required to provide a one-for-one replacement for the acreage affected by individual wetlands projects, as long as that goal is met in the broader region.
Under the Clean Water Act, the Army Corps is responsible for granting permits to anyone who seeks to drain or fill wetlands or streams. Wetlands are viewed as an important filter to the water supply, a rich habitat for plants and animals and a valuable release site for flood waters.
In March 2000, the Clinton administration increased restrictions under the general permit program affecting wetlands, limiting the amount of stream bed that may be disrupted without closer review and demanding closer scrutiny of activities in flood plains.
Those revisions are rolled back under the new approach. The Army Corps makes a new distinction between perennial and intermittent streams and relaxes rules on filling streams that do not flow year-round. It eliminates some restrictions on flood-plain development and gives local officials greater authority to approve surface mining projects.
Environmental groups said the administration, under pressure from home builders and coal miners, was reducing its oversight role in the name of slashing bureaucracy.
"It seems like the folks who are dredging and filling in the wetlands have more friends than they used to," said Howard Fox, the managing attorney of Earthfirst, an environmental law firm.
Julie Sibbing, the wetlands lobbyist for the National Wildlife Federation, said the Army Corps had forsaken the goal of achieving no net loss of wetlands.
"This arrogant move demonstrates the Corps' complete lack of respect for our country's natural resources and is another example of how this administration is turning its back on protecting our nation's wetlands," Ms. Sibbing said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/15/politics/15WETL.html?todaysheadlines
1/27/02
3:08:52 PM
Running On Vapor
Fuel Cell Future Shines Bright As Hopes For Battery-Powered Electric Car Dim
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
They're hyped as a long-term savior of the Earth's atmosphere, a technological godsend that will create pollution-free cars and liberate Americans from importing petroleum from unstable countries.
Way down the road, some predict, this energy source could become so compact that a family could power its home by hooking it up to a car sitting in the driveway.
Yet for now, the commercialization of fuel cell engines remains a hydrogen- filled dream, possible only with major government subsidies to pay for an expensive new energy infrastructure. Some wonder if fuel cell technology -- which mixes hydrogen and oxygen to generate pollution-free electricity -- can ever be mass-produced in a vehicle.
Still, its potential is so enchanting that it has inspired automakers, oil companies and the federal government to invest billions into an engine that is 50 percent more efficient than the gasoline-powered internal combustion model it is hoping to replace.
In California, these sometimes competing players have agreed to share their research in a West Sacramento demonstration project. The 2-year-old California Fuel Cell Partnership unites 29 energy providers, automakers and government agencies in a collaborative quest for the magic fuel cell bullet.
Although dozens of fuel cell vehicles are being road-tested, California requires that 10 percent of all model-year 2003 passenger vehicles qualify as zero-emission or nearly nonpolluting. Two percent of those vehicles -- or roughly 40,000 cars -- must be fuel cell, battery-powered electric or other zero-emission rides.
"There's not going to be 40,000 fuel cell cars out there next year because they're too expensive to build now," said Joe Irvin, spokesman for the California Fuel Cell Partnership. "The automakers will find other ways to meet those goals."
NO IMMEDIATE MASS MARKET
In fact, automakers don't expect a decent selection of fuel cell-powered vehicles in showrooms for at least 10 years. By the end of 2003, experts expect owners of large fleets -- such as delivery firms and utilities -- to begin using fuel cell vehicles.
"I think (mass market commercialization) will happen no sooner than 2010," said Toyota managing director Hiroyuki Watanabe.
Privately, others worry that all the rosy futurism about fuel cells sounds eerily familiar. Many of the same predictions were made about battery-powered electric vehicles -- and not many of those rolled into driveways.
But fuel cell cars don't need to be recharged, a chore that helped to sink the battery-powered electrics. Fuel cell cars would be refueled with either a liquid or gaseous form of hydrogen instead.
Automakers have virtually stopped making the electrics for the mass market because they were too expensive to build, didn't have much range and consumers weren't buying them. In their place, hybrid cars -- which combine a gasoline engine and an electric motor -- have emerged as a low-emission alternative until fuel cell technology is ready for the mass market.
FUEL CELL HYPE QUESTIONED
Yet the comparison nagged experts at a recent Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas conference in Sacramento: What makes the hype surrounding fuel cells any different from the predictions about electric cars?
"It may not be that different," said John Wallace, executive director of Ford Motor Co.'s electric-powered Th!NK cars and a fuel cell proponent. "It's not a done deal yet. There is nothing inevitable about fuel cells."
Wallace wasn't being pessimistic, merely realistic.
Experts are still trying to get a consensus on how to fuel the vehicles. Although hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, scientists are trying to determine the best -- and safest -- way to capture and store it.
One option is to pump a gaseous form of the element directly into the vehicle from a pumping station. This would allow the vehicle to be truly emission-free, because, other than water, there would be no waste products created while hydrogen is converted into electricity on board.
The next problem is how to supply hydrogen. At this point, researchers haven't figured out how to transform the gasoline pumps at the corner Chevron into hydrogen refueling stations.
COSTLY REFUELING STATIONS
Hydrogen refueling stations would cost about $470,000 each for the 500 needed to satisfy the first phase of commercialization in California, according to a recent study for the independent California Fuel Cell Partnership.
Some experts say a better option is to create hydrogen on board by extracting it from either methanol, ethanol or a sulfur-free gasoline known as clean hydrocarbon fuel.
The upside to this technology is that it would cost about $70,000 to modify a medium-size gas station into one that could deliver these fuels, according to the Fuel Cell Partnership's consultant. On their own, automakers are testing vehicles that use methanol, petroleum, ethanol and other mixtures to produce hydrogen.
The downside is that this type of fuel would require cars to have an onboard reformer to transform the fuel into hydrogen -- which may add a $5,000 premium to each car, although that cost will decrease as the technology improves.
'CRITICAL DECISIONS'
"If fuel cells are going to happen, then a lot of critical decisions must be made in California over the next few years if these cars are going to come to the showrooms by 2010," said Roland Hwang, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
In October, the partnership decided to use hydrogen created from natural gas as the first fuel source to be tested in its demonstration vehicles. The partnership plans to erect four hydrogen refueling stations around the state by the end of 2003. Honda has already built a solar-powered hydrogen filling station on its Torrance (Los Angeles County) campus.
Slowly but surely, progress is being made. The groundbreaking collaborative effort at the Fuel Cell Partnership -- its roster includes oil companies such as British Petroleum and Air Resources Board officials -- plans to demonstrate and test 70 fuel cell vehicles by 2003.
Yet automakers say they need government subsidies and tax incentives to help commercialize fuel cell engines.
"If society benefits from a technology, then society has to be ready to help support it," said Ford's Wallace. "The public sector needs to support research that is too financially risky for private industry to develop on their own."
BIGGER BUDGET NEEDED
Tom Gross, a deputy assistant secretary with the U.S. Energy Department, acknowledges the need. Gross hopes next year's budget will contain a substantial increase over the $40 million that his department spent on fuel cell research this year. Gross said the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 made the search for alternative fuels more intense.
Not everybody is going full throttle in the drive toward commercialization. In February, General Motors sued the California Air Resources Board over rules that require automakers to produce pollution-free cars by 2003. The automaker said it couldn't meet the requirement without producing dangerously small battery-powered cars.
Moves like that cause some industry observers to wonder if fuel cells are driving down the same dead-end road as battery-powered electric cars did.
"No, this is different from electric cars," said Kateri Callahan. As executive director of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas, she witnessed the rise and plateau of interest in electric vehicles.
"This time, there is a lot more excitement from the automakers on a corporate level with fuel cells," Callahan said. "Plus, this time the oil companies are involved. Before, they didn't want anything to do with electric cars."
FUEL CELLS: ELECTRIC POWER FROM HYDROGEN FUEL
Fuel cells create electricity through an electrochemical process that combines hydrogen and oxygen. Vehicles running on fuel cells would need to be supplied with gaseous hydrogen extracted from a hydrocarbon fuel. This fuel could be natural gas, methanol or even gasoline, depending on the various systems under development. .
-- How fuel cells work
1. Hydrogen fuel is fed into the anode of the fuel cell. Helped by a catalyst, hydrogen atoms are split into electrons and protons. 2. Electrons are channeled through a circuit to produce electricity.
3. Protons pass through the polymer electrolyte membrane.
4. Oxygen (from the air) enters the cathode and combines with the electrons and protons to form water.
5. Water vapor and heat are released as byproducts of the reaction. .
-- Fuel cell stack
The reaction in a single fuel cell produces a very low voltage, so many cells are combined into a stack to produce the desired level of electrical power.
-- Fuel cell car
Reformer Extracts hydrogen from fuel, delivers it to fuel cell stack.
Ballard Power Systems, Fuel Cells 2000, http://www.HowStuffWorks.com
email Joe Garofoli mailto:jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/01/07/MN62748.DTL
1/27/02
2:53:28 PM
Legal System Leaves Bush Unaccountable, Environmentalists Charge
by Stephen R. Miller, Friday, January 25, 2002
With President Bush's first year in office complete, many environmentalists are troubled by the administration's use of the legal system, instead of the legislature, to resolve environmental debates.
Environmentalists charge that the year's most high profile environmental issues reveal that industry lawsuits, closed-door settlement agreements, and bureaucratic wrangling are among the controversial tactics used by the administration to avoid political accountability while rolling back environmental standards.
Earlier this month, a judge ruled that the Bush administration could not open the Bitterroot National Forest for logging without public comment. The administration has appealed the judge's decision.
Industry lawsuits, environmentalists charge, have proven to be a powerful force shaping environmental policy under the Bush administration. "Bush is looking for a way to advance his energy plan in a subtle manner without accountability," charged Earthjustice attorney Abigail Dillen, "and the courts are a way to do that."
Dillen points to a series of lawsuits filed last year that would effectively eliminate the Roadless Rule. The Roadless Rule, issued in the final days of the Clinton presidency, protected nearly 60 million acres of public national forests from commercial logging and road construction. On his first day in office, Bush froze action on this rule, postponing it for further review.
"Let's bag it. Let's go back to the drawing board," said Idaho Attorney General Al Lance earlier this year, expressing the sentiment of many western states and timber companies. Nine lawsuits were soon filed asking the courts to do just that.
Environmentalists accuse the administration of joining the effort to kill the Roadless Rule by failing to put up a strong defense of the rule in court.
In April, a federal district court in Idaho upheld a challenge to the Roadless Rule by Boise Cascade, a large timber company that contributed nearly $30,000 to the Republican party in the 2000 elections. The company's lawyers argued that the legislation was rushed through with little time for review.
The rule was three years in the making, involving 600 public hearings and 1.6 million public comments.
The court agreed with Boise Cascade and ordered the Forest Service to prepare an additional environmental impact statement (EIS) and also issued a temporary injunction blocking implementation of the Roadless Rule.
"The Bush administration planned to implement the Roadless Rule in full in May," said Heidi Valetkevitch, a spokesperson for the Forest Service, "but the administration was prevented from doing so by the judge's temporary injunction."
But this, charges Dillen, was exactly the game plan. "Industry brings a lawsuit, the feds offer a feeble defense, and when the judge rules for industry, the administration says it was the judge that allowed this to happen," she said.
Earthjustice immediately appealed the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where a decision is still pending.
Valetkevitch notes that the Justice Department, which represents the Forest Service in lawsuits, intended to proceed with the Idaho case since the judge only ordered a temporary injunction and the case was not finished. The Idaho court, however, decided to postpone hearings until the appeals court has made a ruling.
The Justice Department has since asked that all related lawsuits be postponed until after the Idaho case is decided by the appeals court. Until that time, Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth is in charge of all decisions regarding logging and road activities. "To date, no requests have come in for approval," said Valetkevitch.
Environmentalists also charge that secret settlements are undermining the public's ability to participate in the decision-making process. They point to the prominent settlement between the administration and industry to postpone the ban on snowmobiling in Yellowstone. The EPA smog rating for winter air in West Yellowstone — where most snowmobiles are rented — is the same as for downtown Los Angeles. A partial ban was to start this winter, with a complete ban imposed in winter 2004. That was overturned when a snowmobile lobbying group started negotiating with the Bush administration.
This spring, the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association (ISMA) filed a lawsuit challenging the findings of an EIS that was the basis for banning snowmobiles in Yellowstone.
"The ISMA thought we didn't have enough information from industry," said Martha Karle, a spokesperson for the National Parks Service. From 1997 to 2001, scientists studied the impact of snowmobiles on America's first national park, and they concluded that snowmobiles were irrevocably harming the land. During that time, the ISMA registered no statement with the National Parks, even though the process was open to all industry and individuals for comment. "The ISMA was welcome to participate in the decision-making process, but they did not do so," said Karle. Despite its years of silence during the first EIS, the ISMA has since called that work "junk science."
The ISMA hired powerhouse lawyer William Horn to represent and lobby for them. Horn was Gale Norton's boss at the Interior Department in the Reagan administration. Now, with Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior in the Bush administration, Horn secured closed-door settlement negotiations for ISMA. The result: The snowmobile ban was postponed indefinitely, and the National Parks Service was told to conduct additional studies before the ban could be reconsidered. ISMA contributed $10,000 to the Republican party in the 2000 elections.
The additional EIS, due to be released in February, contains four alternatives, ranging from a complete ban to an option that would allow limited, guided snowmobile access to the park. A decision is due by next winter.
Equally disturbing to environmentalists is the apparent willingness of the Bush administration to manipulate bureaucratic divisions to achieve its objectives.
Earlier this month, a judge in Montana halted the proposed logging of more than 40,000 acres in the Bitterroot National Forest. The administration had tried to exempt the sale from public comment — which is required by an act of Congress — arguing that Mark Rey, the Department of Agriculture's undersecretary, had approved the deal. The logic was that since Rey doesn't work for the Forest Service — technically, he works for the Interior Department, which oversees the Forest Service — the sale doesn't have to follow the laws that govern that agency.
In the ruling that halted the sale, Judge Donald Molloy noted, "The government concedes that under this logic the Forest Service could completely circumvent the appeals process simply by having the undersecretary or secretary sign any or all controversial decisions. The notion that a signature by the undersecretary transforms the action from a Forest Service business to the business of some other agency is mystical legal prestidigitation [sleight of hand]."
After two weeks of silence, the administration decided to appeal the decision earlier this week.
"This appeal illustrates that the whole Bitterroot controversy has become a pawn in a larger political agenda by the Bush administration to reduce public involvement in these decisions and weaken our environmental laws," Bob Ekey, northern Rockies representative for the Wilderness Society, told reporters Tuesday.
Environmental groups also charge that the Justice Department is abusing the increased security of Sept. 11 provisions to stonewall Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and, in turn, prevent them from playing an active role in environmental decision making.
In October, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a memo that tightened the policy under which the government releases information. Under Attorney General Janet Reno, the policy was to promote disclosure of documents unless it was "reasonably foreseeable that disclosure would be harmful." Ashcroft, in the wake of September's tragedies, changed the policy to one that withholds information whenever there is a "sound legal basis" for doing so. This does not seem like the kind of ruling that could affect environmental policy, but it has.
Last June, Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt gave notice of intent to sue for 10,000 rights of way across federal lands in the state, using an obscure 1866 law to claim that tracks and trails throughout the state should be officially designated as roads. Local environmentalists contend that Leavitt is inflating the extent and importance of these "roads" to disqualify large tracts of federal land from being protected as wilderness. They see it as part of an effort to open wildlands to off-road vehicles and mining.
In June Leavitt began negotiations with Gale Norton about which paths would receive a designation as a road. "What we want to do is resolve the issues without litigation," Norton said while visiting Utah over the summer.
"That means they want to resolve it secretly," said Erich Huber, an attorney who represents environmental groups opposed to the road designations.
"It's a red flag any time the government deals secretly with special interests," the Wilderness Society's Pam Eaton told reporters. "And, in this case, the government's negotiations could easily set a precedent that will turn over control of the public lands to off-road vehicles and extractive industry."
Since June, Huber has filed a number of FOIA requests for information so that environmental groups could know what is being discussed. All requests were flatly rejected. "They refused to give us a single document," Huber said. "The notice of intent to sue had 29 maps attached to it, and they wouldn't even give us those."
By strictly enforcing the FOIA regulations, "They are only allowing the public to participate after the fact," Huber said. He claims this move effectively removes the environmental groups from the negotiations.
Any one of these situations would be enough to rally environmental groups, but they are alarmed that for each prominent example of rolling back policies through the legal system, there are a number of smaller incidences that point toward patterns followed by the Bush administration. For instance:
o In September, citing discrepancies in the treatment of hatchery-born and wild fish, a federal judge removed Oregon coastal coho salmon from the endangered species list. The National Marine Fisheries Service did not appeal the ruling. The endangered species status of the coho salmon was eventually restored by a defense from nonprofit environmental law firms.
o Since winning a reprieve for snowmobiles in Yellowstone, William Horn has also approached Norton to open Big Cypress National Park in Florida to off-road vehicles.
o Last week, the Bush administration announced that it would ease regulations governing wetlands and streams to "do a better job of protecting aquatic ecosystems while simplifying some administrative burdens for the regulated public," according to John Studt, who oversees regulations for the Army Corps of Engineers.
Environmentalists say this is doublespeak for rolling back limits on how much of a stream bed can be disrupted without requiring an additional review. They say the "administrative burdens" to be eliminated are the additional reviews previously required for large stream bed disruptions.
These patterns point toward a decision by the Bush administration to pursue environmental policy through the legal system, which is not politically accountable to the public. "Under this administration," said Buck Parker, executive director of Earthjustice, "the courts have become the forum of choice for rolling back environmental protections."
Before Sept. 11, Bush's record on the environment was a major political weakness, especially for a president who, at the time, was being judged by his domestic policy. Last week, for the first time since Sept. 11, Americans did not name terrorism as their primary policy concern. If this trend continues, domestic issues and the environment could once again become Bush's Achilles' heel. This fall's mid-term elections will be the first test of whether these tactics will continue to receive little notice, or if the public will hold the administration accountable for rollbacks of popular environmental laws pushed through the legal system.
Source: http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/01/01252002/s_46235.asp
1/26/02
1:15:10 AM
Star Wars Protecting Globalization From Above
by Karl Grossman
Marketing Missile Defense
The United States is moving full-speed ahead on a missile defense program with events of September 11th giving a big boost to the scheme. Missile defense, or "Star Wars," advocates maintain the terrorist attack demonstrated the kind of future assault -- the next time around with missiles -- that the U.S. must seek to offset. They also point to the need to protect "US interests and investments" around the globe. Opponents argue the most likely threat to the U.S. continues to be relatively low-tech terrorist attacks, not sophisticated missiles. Star Wars supporters are now riding high.
Meanwhile the troubled aerospace industry is hoping to be shored up by big-ticket defense contracts.
Some $95 billion has been spent on missile defense since Ronald Reagan first advanced the program in 1983, according to the Center for Defense Information (CDI) in Washington. Despite the billions the program has never produced a successful missile system. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and TRW have been the "Big Four" among aerospace corporations receiving program monies. Many billions more will be spent in coming years. All four companies aggressively lobby Capitol Hill on defense spending.
These companies have close ties to the Bush administration, as they did to the Democratic administration that proceeded it. The military machine is alive and well more than a decade after the end of the cold war. This time globalization is the rationale for arms build up -- and some of the same corporations that promoted and profited from the cold war are behind it.
The Star Wars Debate Revived
President George W. Bush cleared a legal path for a renewed missile defense program in December when he advised Russia that the U.S. is withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. September 11th was part of his message as he warned that the threat to both countries came from terrorists and "rogue states".
"We know that the terrorists, and some of those who support them, seek the ability to deliver death and destruction to our doorstep via missile. And we must have the freedom and the flexibility to develop effective defenses against those attacks," Bush said.
On the other side of the debate, Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space, held that "September 11th ultimately is irrelevant" because missile defense is a Trojan horse for the "real objectives" of the U.S. space military program.
"It's never been about defense. It's always been about controlling space, dominating space, denying other countries access to space and the U.S. being the master of space," said Gagnon. "And that isn't a defensive posture."
But others reached a different conclusion.
By September 17th , O'Dwyer's PR Daily was reporting that President George Bush's full $8.3 billion request for missile defense in 2002 "has now gotten new life in the aftermath of the terror attacks."
In the days following the attacks Senate Democrats backed away from a pre-September 11th pledge to cut the amount by $1.3 million and agreed to remove a provision requiring the administration to seek Congressional approval to spend money on activities that would violate the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
Media commentators widely interpreted the move as an effort to avoid a partisan debate in the middle of a national crisis. And the White House made it clear that opposition to its legislative agenda, on a variety of fronts, would be branded unpatriotic.
Militarizing the Heavens to Enforce Globalization
While the push for a Star Wars program was buoyed by the September 11th attacks, plans for the administration's space military program were well underway when Bush took office.
Prior to being appointed U.S. defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld chaired the Commission to Assess U.S. National Security Space Management and Organization -- known as the "Space Commission." Just days before Rumsfeld was named Pentagon chief, the Space Commission issued a report championing Star Wars.
Before there was a director of "homeland defense," this report spoke about "homeland defense" -- against missiles -- urging an array of military hardware, including space-based weapons systems, to "destroy a missile shortly after launch, before either warhead or countermeasures are released."
The 13-member Space Commission advocated elevating the U.S. Space Command, established by the Pentagon in 1985 to "coordinate" U.S. space military operations, to a "Space Corps" like the Marine Corps, to then possibly to become a "Space Department" at the same level as the Departments of Army, Navy and Air Force.
General Richard B. Myers, current chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, headed up Space Command before being tapped by the Bush Administration for his current post a year ago.
The January 2001 Space Commission report was proceeded by its Long Range Plan, which framed the space missile program in terms of furthering corporate-led globalization and maintaining US economic and political dominance. "The United States will remain a global power and exert global leadership," stated the 1998 plan.
"Widespread communications will highlight disparities in resources and quality of life -- contributing to unrest in developing countries. The global economy will continue to become more interdependent. Economic alliances, as well as the growth and influence of multinational corporations, will blur security agreements. The gap between 'have' and 'have-not' nations will widen, creating regional unrest" the Long Range Plan continued. This worldwide gap between rich and poor, the Space Commission reasoned, would lead to conflicts threatening US dominance.
The Long Range Plan opens by declaring that it has "U.S. Space Command's #1 priority investing nearly 20 man-years to make it a reality. The development and production process, by design, involved hundreds of people including about 75 corporations."
And it subsequently lists these 75 corporations-beginning with Aerojet, Aerospace Corp., BD Systems and Boeing, to Lockheed Martin, Rand Corp., Raytheon, Spaceport Systems International, Sparta Corp., Stella Solutions, TRW Space and Vista Technologies.
Bush Administration Ties to the Aerospace Industry
The Bush administration is intimately linked with the corporate interests behind the missile defense program. Vice President Cheney is a former member of the board of TRW. His wife, Lynn Cheney, was a longtime member of the Lockheed Martin board stepping down only as her husband prepared to take office.
"I wrote the Republican Party's foreign policy platform," Bruce Jackson, vice president of corporate strategy and development of Lockheed Martin, flatly told this reporter in an interview last year, referring to his role as chair of the Foreign Policy Platform Committee at the Republican National Convention where he was a delegate.
Bush's appointee as deputy director of the National Security Council --whom he has also assigned to travel the world to promote the U.S. missile defense program -- is Stephen J. Hadley, previously a partner in Shea & Gardner, the Washington law firm of Lockheed Martin.
"Space is going to be important. It has a great feature in the military," Hadley, speaking as "an advisor" to Bush, told the Air Force Association in a speech during the Bush campaign.
Other Bush administration officials drawn from the aerospace industry include Albert Smith, a Lockheed Martin vice president, appointed undersecretary of the Air Force; Gordon England, vice president of General Dynamics, named Navy secretary; and James G. Roche, retired president of a Northrop-Grumman division, appointed as Air Force secretary.
Campaign Contributions.
Then there are political contributions.
William D. Hartung and Michelle Ciarrocca of the Arms Trade Resource Center have tracked these contributions focusing on what they term the "Big Four" of missile defense -- Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and TRW. These four corporations, which have been receiving 60 percent of government missile defense contracts, have been "making a major political investment," they say.
Their report, Tangled WebThe Marketing of Missile Defense, lists millions of dollars in "soft money donations" and "PAC contributions" to members of Congress in the last several years. The preference has been for money to Republicans, they say. But "the bottom line" is that "both major parties have been bought off."
As a result, "under the leadership of Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and the Democratic Leadership Council, the Democratic Party [was] almost as pro-military as the Republicans throwing billions at missile defense. The answer is to get special interest money out of politics by supporting full public financing of presidential and congressional races."
Other Star Wars critics see the space missile program as a government bail out for the ailing aerospace industry. Missile defense is especially important to Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon "as a medium-to-long term source of revenue and profits to help them recover from recent management and technical problems that have slashed their stock prices in half and reduced their profit margins," according to the Arms Trade Resource Center.
"Our government is being bribed by these corporations pushing for Star Wars," charges Alice Slater, president of the New York-based Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE). "They have absolutely no regard for the safety and well-being of the world. This is almost a cliche about corporate greed--at a grand scale."
On the other side, aerospace corporations say that they are working to protect the U.S. -- more necessary now than ever after September 11th, they stress.
"This notion that space is going to remain a peaceful area in the future is absolutely putting our heads in the sand. It is just a fact of life," emphasized retired U.S. Space Command commander-in-chief, General Howell Estes, to the Colorado Springs Independent in December. "The fact of the matter is man is a warlike being. That's the nature of the beast, and we just can't be naive about it."
Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space sees the Bush Administration's massive military build up in direct competition with funding for social programs.
"Spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Star Wars will take money away from education, programs for women and children, and health care," said Gagnon. "There is a direct link between promoting weapons for space and the destabilization of our communities. People must connect these struggles."
http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=1333
Karl Grossman is professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury. He is the author of Weapons in Space from Seven Stories Press and narrator of the TV documentary Star Wars Returns, from EnviroVideo .
1/26/02
1:12:44 AM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
BROWN IS GREEN
It's a tough life being the environmental coordinator at Brown University in Providence, R.I. First, you have to make sure your socks match, at least during the work day. Then, you have to learn the native language to be able to oversee ECMs with NECo's DSM program. On top of that, whether you're proposing eco-friendly construction for new buildings, more-efficient lighting systems, or a better campus-wide recycling system, you have to dodge complaints that being green isn't practical or won't work. Ah, but the job can be a heck of a lot of fun, writes Kurt Teichert, Brown's green champ, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: A week in the life of Kurt Teichert, Brown University environmental coordinator <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/week/teichert012202.asp?source=daily>
HONDA OF THE BASKERVILLES
Disagreeing with American automakers, Japanese manufacturer Honda told the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee yesterday that raising fuel-efficiency standards for SUVs and other light trucks would not pose a safety threat. The split in the auto industry came to light as the committee discussed whether increasing the standards would make vehicles unsafe by causing automakers to build lighter trucks. Also at the hearing, a representative for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (which doesn't include Honda) raised the ire of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) by saying he couldn't assess whether automakers could raise the fuel efficiency of vehicles by even a single mile per gallon over 10 years. Kerry's response: "Don't you think that renders you sort of silly?"
straight the source: Wall Street Journal, Jeffrey Ball, 25 Jan 2002 <http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB1011914427358886640.htm>
do good: Take action and pledge to buy an eco-friendly car <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/autos.asp?source=daily#pledge>
HOT OFF THE PRESSES
In case you snoozed there for a while, Grist is coming to the rescue by summing up the top climate change stories from last year. For starters, and most important, the world is proceeding with the Kyoto Protocol, despite the Bush administration's decision not to participate. Second of all, the paradigm of global climate change to which we've all resigned ourselves (slow and gradual) was challenged by evidence of sudden and radical climate shifts in the past, with temperatures swinging by many degrees in just a handful of years. Finally, and perhaps most remarkably, China started going green. Wanna know more? Get the skinny from Heat Beat columnist Leonie Haimson, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: This just in -- the year 2001 in sum -- in our Heat Beat section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/heatbeat/thisjustin012402.asp?source=daily>
FISSION ADVISORY?
Native Americans who fished in the Columbia River may have been exposed to much more radiation from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation than previously thought, according to a draft report prepared for the federal government. Earlier research estimating the exposure rates for people living downwind of Hanford assumed that people ate about 90 pounds of fish per year during the 1940s and '50s when radioactive iodine contaminated fish. But the new research suggests that members of tribes along the Columbia may have been eating more than 500 pounds of fish per year.
straight to the source: Seattle Times, Dave Birkland, 25 Jan 2002 <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134395478_hanford25m.html>
do good: Take action to promote nuclear disarmament <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/dogood/toxic.asp?source=daily#blowit>
THIS OLD COAL-FIRED POWER PLANT
Even as the Bush administration works to relax clean-air regulations on coal-fired power plants, New Jersey's biggest energy supplier agreed yesterday to spend $337 million over the next 10 years to cut emissions from two plants. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the settlement between PSEG Power showed a "continuing commitment to enforce vigorously the Clean Air Act." The Clinton administration sued PSEG Power and several other utilities for violating new source review regulations that require owners of older power plants to update pollution-control systems when making other significant improvements to their plants.
straight to the source: Newark Star-Ledger, Tom Johnson, 25 Jan 2002 <http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/jersey/ledger/15ace92.html>
straight to the source: Wall Street Journal, John J. Fialka, 25 Jan 2002 <http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB101191365763900560.htm>
1/26/02
1:08:13 AM
MAKING "Gosford Park" in England seems to have turned Robert Altman against the United States. "When I see an American flag flying, it's a joke," he fumed to the Times of London yesterday. "This present government in America I just find disgusting, the idea that George Bush could run a baseball team successfully - he can't even speak! I just find him an embarrassment." Altman's feeling is so strong, he's thinking of moving to London for good. "I'd be very happy to stay here," he tells the paper. "There's nothing in America that I would miss at all."
Source: Page 6 NY Post
1/26/02
1:06:34 AM
Oppose a new energy legislation that would increase smog, global warming, etc.
Here's some information on how to contact senators regarding a bill that is being passed that will not help (and indeed harm) the environment! Please read it and consider writing at least an email to your senator, if not a hand written letter which tends to be more potent.
Thanks, friends and fam!
Ari
From: Kate Abend <sperez@pirg.org>
Hi,
As you may know, some industries and their allies in the Senate are trying to pass energy legislation that would increase smog, global warming, oil spills and radioactive waste production, while rolling back environmental and public health protections.
America deserves a safe, clean, affordable energy future. That's why we're urging the Senate to reject this dirty energy plan and use America's technological know-how to make our cars, homes and appliances more energy efficient.
Follow the link below to a web page where you can e-mail your senators and ask them to support a 40 mpg fuel economy standard for cars and light trucks.
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=218&id4=ES
BACKGROUND
We cannot end our reliance on unstable oil sources by drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other special places. OPEC holds 77% of the world's oil reserves; the U.S. holds only 3%. To reduce our reliance on foreign oil, we must cut our oil consumption overall. Since transportation accounts for two-thirds of all petroleum use, the best way to reduce our dependence on oil is to make vehicles go farther on a gallon of gas. Miles-per-gallon standards enacted in 1975 doubled the fuel economy of American passenger cars and save the U.S. 2.8 million barrels of oil per day. Unfortunately, fuel economy has dropped 7% since 1987 as more Americans buy SUVs and other light trucks, which are allowed to meet lower miles-per-gallon standards than cars.
According to an analysis by the National Academy of Sciences, America has the technology right now to meet a fleet wide fuel economy standard of 40 mpg. Cars, SUVs and other light trucks now consume 8 million barrels of oil every day. Raising fuel economy standards for new cars, SUVs, and other light trucks to an average of 40 miles per gallon over the next 10 years would save nearly 2 million barrels of oil every day by 2012 and 4 million barrels every day by 2020. Four million barrels is more than current Persian Gulf imports and the projected yield from the Arctic Refuge combined. By 2012, the 40 mpg standard would also save consumers $16 billion at the gas pump, create more than 40,000 jobs in the auto industry, and cut global warming pollution from passenger vehicles by 20%.
Unfortunately, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a sham provision that amounts to only a 1 mpg increase in light truck fuel economy. In the next few weeks, the Senate will craft a fuel economy provision for their version of the energy bill. Please help us achieve a smarter, cleaner energy future for America by asking your senators to support a fleet wide auto fuel economy standard of 40 mpg.
Follow the link below to a web page where you can e-mail your senators.
http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=218&id4=ES
Sincerely,
Kate Abend
State PIRGs Global Warming Associate
http://www.NewEnergyFuture.com
1/26/02
1:03:54 AM
Wendy Gramm and Bush officials to Enron fiasco, California crisis
http://www.citizen.org/hot_issues/issue.cfm?ID=194
After Enron Corp. used its vast web of political connections to win December 2000 passage of commodities trading legislation that helped the company shield its energy trading activities from government scrutiny, California's energy crisis suddenly took a dramatic turn for the worse as artificial supply shortages led to frequent rolling blackouts, according to a new Public Citizen report released Friday.
The legislation reducing government oversight of energy trading was muscled through Congress - without a Senate committee hearing - with the aid of U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas. Gramm was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over the legislation he co-sponsored, but he chose to bypass his committee, and the bill was quietly tacked onto a "must-pass" appropriations bill late in the session. Gramm's wife, Wendy Gramm, also aided Enron's rise to power. As chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, she pushed through a key regulatory exemption on Jan. 14, 1993, just as she was about to leave office. Five weeks later, she joined Enron's board of directors, where she served on the board's audit committee and had access to key financial information about the company.
To read the entire press release, go at
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=983
1/26/02
1:00:56 AM
THE MOKHIBER-WEISSMAN COLUMN ON CORPORATE POWER
The multinational corporation is the most powerful institution of our time, dominating not only global economics, but politics and culture as well. The enormous influence of the corporation notwithstanding, the mechanisms of corporate control and the details of corporate abuses remain largely hidden from public perception. The purpose of the column "Focus on the Corporation" is be to rectify this informational shortcoming, to report and comment critically on corporate actions and plans, from particularized abuses to broad trends. Written with a sharp edge and occasional irreverency, the Mokhiber-Weissman column covers:
The double standards which excuse corporations for behavior (e.g., causing injury, accepting welfare) widely considered criminal or shameful when done by individuals;
Globalization and corporate power;
Trends in corporate economic blackmail, political influence and workplace organization;
Industry-wide efforts to escape regulation, silence critics, employ new technologies or consolidate business among a few companies;
Specific, extreme examples of corporate abuses: destruction of communities, trampling of democracy, poisoning of air and water;
Particular issues, such as tort reform, of across-the-board interest to business; and
The corporatization of our culture.
Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman are uniquely well positioned to author such a column. Mokhiber, one of the nation's leading authorities on corporate crime, is the editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter, a legal weekly, and the author of Corporate Crime and Violence: Big Business Power and the Abuse of the Public Trust. Weissman is the editor of Multinational Monitor, the leading source of critical reporting on corporate power. Mokhiber and Weissman have published articles on corporate power in numerous newspapers, magazines, journals and books.
Find out more at: http://www.corporatepredators.org
1/26/02
12:55:52 AM
EMS.org Update - Jan. 25, 2002
Cheney Energy Secrets Subject of Lawsuits Friday, the Sierra Club became the third public interest group to file suit in an effort to uncover secrets about Cheney's Energy Task Force. Separate suits were filed in 2001 by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Judicial Watch. The White House officially responded to the NRDC suit this week, denying each of NRDC's contentions.
Thursday, based on comments made by Republican lawmakers, the Washington Post reported that Vice President Cheney may soon yield to pressure from Congress and environmental groups to provide information about who he met with when forming his energy plan. However, according to Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, "There has been no change in the White House position at all."
EMS.org has assembled links to official correspondence, press releases, news and op-eds about the controversy over Cheney's Energy Task Force:
http://www.ems.org/energy_policy/cheney_energy_task_force.html
West Virginians Sue U.S. EPA A Bush-approved anti-degradation plan for West Virginia's rivers does not meet the standards of the Clean Water Act and puts the state's high-quality waters in jeopardy, according to river groups suing the U.S. EPA.
Press release:
http://www.tlpj.org/tlpjf/pressreleases/National_AD_Press_Release.htm
The anti-degradation provision of the Clean Water Act is intended to allow states to protect unpolluted waters. Find out more: http://www.wvecouncil.org/issues/clean_water.html
http://www.ohvec.org/streams10.htm
EMS Updates provide news tips and resources for journalists from Environmental Media Services. You received this email because you signed up for EMS Updates at our website,
1/26/02
12:53:08 AM
RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH NEWS #742
HEADLINES: WHAT'S IMPORTANT?
1/25/02
11:02:52 PM
New at TomPaine.com
MISSING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
Campaign Finance Should Be The Trunk Of Reports on Enron Debacle
by Adam Lioz
"The biggest scandal here is not personal corruption -- it's systemic corruption. It's how the very wealthy decide who gets to run for office in the first place -- and then who wins."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5048
DOWN ON THE FARM:
MODERN DAY SHARECROPPERS
The Dismal Future Of Farming
by Karen Charman
How aggressive agri-giants are turning poultry farmers into bird babysitters and are shaping the future of agriculture in America.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5036
BOTH SIDES NOW
U.S. And Afghan Families Meet
by Laura Flanders
The stories of Afghani families who lost loved ones in the U.S.-led anti-terror campaign didn't show up in the U.S.'s 'paper of record' until Americans who also lost family members went to Afghanistan to meet them.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5049
THREE FISH, TWO FISH, ONE FISH, NO FISH
An Elegy For The Extinct Topeka Shiner
by Ken Midkiff
"We humans have manipulated and changed the waters which were home to this species. In degrading the streams of the Topeka Shiner we have degraded our landscape, our planet, and ourselves."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5043
Book Excerpt
RETHINKING ECONOMIC PROGRESS
The Dow may be up over the past decade, but cod, acquifers, topsoil, fisheries, forests and coral reefs are down
by Lester Brown
In their struggle to understand the world, economists have created a system that is out of sync with the ecosystem that markets depend on.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5023
FEEL NO REMORSE
The Corporate Creed
by M. W. Guzy
Remember The Terminator? It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And that, in brief, describes the modern corporation.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5044
1/25/02
10:58:29 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
OLD MASTERS: OVERLOOKED WOMEN ARTISTS
by Joan Altabe, Gadfly Online
-- Male artists have dominated history's view of centuries past, yet women have long struggled to produce their own artistic work in the face of persecution, and have too long been ignored.
ANTI-CAPITALIST CONVERGENCE IN NEW YORK CITY: JANUARY 31-FEBRUARY 4, 2002
from freezerbox.com and abolishthebank.org
-- Government and corporation leaders are holding this year's World Economic Forum meeting in New York City after being chased out of Switzerland by protesters, but will New Yorkers stand for it?
REALITY VS. HEROISM
by Alexander Cockburn, WorkingforChange.com
-- The violent details of the massacre of civilians in Somalia by U.S. troops have been glossed over for the new movie "Black Hawk Down," and portray the incident as heroic instead of barbaric.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
1/25/02
10:56:13 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
$337 MILLION CLEANS UP TWO POWER PLANTS
WASHINGTON, DC, January 24, 2002 (ENS) - PSEG Power, one of the nation's largest independent power producers, has agreed to spend more than $337 million to install state of the art pollution controls on two of its New Jersey power plants. The agreement settles allegations that the utility company expanded the capacity of the two coal fired power plants without upgrading their emissions control equipment.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2002/2002L-01-24-06.html
EUROPE REVERSES POSITION TO SUPPORT GENETIC ENGINEERING
BRUSSELS, Belgium, January 24, 2002 (ENS) - A manifesto in favor of biotechnology in the European Union issued Wednesday by its executive branch, the European Commission, calls for stronger backing for a sector seen as critical to future competitiveness. The communication proposes adopting "the highest standards of governance" to win over a sceptical public.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2002/2002L-01-24-01.html
JAMAICA IMPOSES RECORD FINES ON TURTLE POACHERS
KINGSTON, Jamaica, January 24, 2002 (ENS) - Her Honour Joyce Bennett today handed down the highest fines ever imposed in Jamaica for an environmental crime when she sentenced the captain and chief mate of the vessel Thunder Ridge for poaching conch and endangered sea turtles. The men were charged under the Wildlife Protection Act, the Aquaculture Act and the Fishing Industry Act.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2002/2002L-01-24-03.html
MURPHY OIL REFINERY MUST CUT SULFUR EMISSIONS
MADISON, Wisconsin, January 24, 2002 (ENS) - Murphy Oil USA "withheld information knowingly and intentionally" from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources when it applied for a permit to modify its refinery at Superior, Wisconsin, and that omission will cost the company at least $12 million, s