The U.S. Supreme Court missed a recent opportunity to give landowners, federal regulators and the states clear guidance about which wetlands are under federal control and what actions can be taken to protect and/or develop them.
Coal is critical to electricity production in many countries and the United States is no exception. It is a low-cost source of reliable, baseload power – continuously produced power necessary to keep electricity flowing.
Surging demand for oil in rapidly developing countries like China and India and sustained demand in the United States and the rest of the world has outstripped growth in global production, reducing excess capacity to near zero and pushing oil prices to an all-time high of more than $75 a barrel in April 2006.
The national average price of gasoline is approaching the record high of $3.21 per gallon (adjusted for inflation) set in 1981. [See the figure.] The public is upset, and politicians are scrambling to find ways to reduce the pain of high prices or, failing that, to appease their constituents by investigating, penalizing or punitively taxing oil companies.
Scientific debate continues regarding the extent to which human activities contribute to global warming and what the potential impact on the environment might be. Importantly, much of the scientific evidence contradicts assertions that substantial global warming is likely to occur soon and that the predicted warming will harm the Earth’s biosphere.
Gasoline prices last year never reached the inflation-adjusted peak of the 1980s, but due to a variety of factors they were much higher than Americans have become accustomed to recently. These included strong demand in the United States and several developing nations, production and refining decisions by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and political instability in a number of oil exporting countries.
Subsidized agriculture in the developed world is one of the greatest obstacles to economic growth in the developing world. In 2002, industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) spent a total of $300 billion on crop price supports, production payments and other farm programs. These subsidies encourage overproduction.
President George W. Bush has promoted the ‘Ownership Society’ as a solution to a variety of public policy issues including health care, housing and retirement. This concept can be extended to environmental issues.
One of the most important differences facing a congressional conference committee reconciling the Senate and House versions of the 2005 energy bill is a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that appears in the Senate version but was rejected by the House. It would require all electric utilities selling more than 4 million kilowatt-hours (kwh) per year – which would include all major and many minor electric power systems – to obtain at least 10 percent of their power from "renewable" sources by 2020. In effect the RPS defines renewables by exclusion – sources that are not fossil-fueled, nuclear or hydroelectric. Eligible renewables include windmills, solar power, waste burning, geothermal, landfill gas and exotic sources like the tides.
The manifest benefits of nuclear technology – from radiological medical screening and treatments, to smoke detectors, to electric power generation – have not dispelled the common belief that it is unduly hazardous. Of the many areas in which nuclear technology has been applied, perhaps none has been more damaged by the fear of radiation than nuclear power.
U.S. demand for electricity will increase 50 percent by 2025, according to forecasts in the Energy Information Administration's (EIA) "Annual Energy Outlook 2004." At least 350,000 megawatts of new generating capacity – hundreds of new power plants – will be needed before then.
The ultimate goals of a new "National Energy Policy" should be economic growth and consumer freedom of choice. Unfortunately, versions of the energy bill currently being debated in Congress include some economically harmful proposals designed to appease certain politically powerful constituencies.
National energy policy is a more prominent issue now than at any time since the "energy crisis" of the 1970s. Congress is debating legislation that would create a new national energy policy in response to electric industry deregulation, rising and wildly fluctuating energy prices, deteriorating relations with energy exporting countries, energy implications of the war with Iraq and various environmental concerns.
Over the past 150 years, geologists and other scientists often have predicted that our oil reserves would run dry within a few years. When oil prices rise for an extended period, the news media fill with dire warnings that a crisis is upon us. Environmentalists argue that governments must develop new energy technologies that do not rely on fossil fuels. The facts contradict these harbingers of doom.
World leaders are making critical decisions based upon predictions of General Circulation Models or Global Climate Models (GCMs) that humans are causing global climate change or global warming.
Some past studies have shown that air pollution can aggravate pre-existing lung ailments. But pollution-control advocates are mistakenly citing a study published in the February 2nd issue of The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, to justify ever more intrusive air pollution regulations. The study, which focused on children in southern California, reports that frequent, strenuous, outdoor exercise, combined with high levels of ozone air pollution, can more than triple children's risk of developing asthma. It is also the first work of its kind to conclude that air pollution might actually cause asthma, not just aggravate it.
The Clean Power Act of 2001 (S. 556) is sponsored by Sens. Jim Jeffords, Joseph Lieberman and John McCain. Its supporters say it will reduce emissions of air pollutants from the nation's power plants. However, the inclusion of carbon dioxide (CO2) as one of the "pollutants" to be reduced raises questions concerning the true goal of the bill. Regardless of any other merits of or problems with S. 556, many analysts view the inclusion of CO2 as a regulated pollutant as an attempt to placate environmental lobbyists and certain international allies and to embarrass the president by implementing the Kyoto Protocol without Senate ratification.
Every five years the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) publishes a massive three-volume report on global climate change. The first volume of the newest publication, the Third Assessment Report, reviews the immense body of climate change literature and attempts to present a consensus view of the current understanding of the scientific basis of climate change.
The state of wildlife on the African continent today resembles that of wildlife in the United States in the late 19th century. African wildlife populations are declining as habitat is converted to farming, wildlife is competing with or preying on domestic livestock and wildlife pursuit is increasingly commercialized. But first in the United States and now in Africa, hunters have led the charge to conserve wildlife.
Many environmentalists, citing the adage "better safe than sorry," argue that the "precautionary principle" should govern policy making. By this, they mean that technology should not be used until or unless it can be shown to pose no threat to humans or the environment.
Government land use regulations in the United States discourage landowners from protecting wildlife. This is unfortunate, since private landowners control approximately 60 percent of the land base, and at least 80 percent of wildlife in the 48 contiguous states is dependent in whole or in part upon private land. The biggest threat to wildlife is loss of habitat. Without the cooperation of the private sector, public parks and wildlife refuges will become island ecosystems, and the future of animals existing on these lands will be in jeopardy.
The fires that swept through Los Alamos National Laboratory during June 2000 illustrate much of what is wrong with federal land management. A series of bad decisions the United States Forest Service made concerning a prescribed burn (a fire set to reduce undergrowth and prevent future wildfires) at Bandelier National Monument resulted in a fire that raged out of control. As high winds combined with an overabundance of dead and dying wood, the fire incinerated everything in its path, including 400 homes.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush's environmental record as Texas governor has come under heightened scrutiny for two reasons. First, his record could indicate the types of policies he would pursue as president. Second, his likely opponent, Vice President Al Gore, is closely associated with environmental causes. Gore wrote a book warning of an impending environmental crisis, was chosen as President Clinton's running mate in 1992 largely to garner the environmental vote and is often touted as an environmental leader by groups pressing "green" issues.
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is under fire from both fiscal conservatives and liberal environmentalists – two groups not often on the same side of issues. Fiscal conservatives decry the agency's spendthrift ways and money-losing programs. Environmentalists claim that its logging, mining and grazing programs damage the natural world. Both groups are correct.
Declaring that "The Endangered Species Act works," Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt has announced that within the next two years the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will remove (delist) 33 species from the endangered species list. His claim comes as the ESA is being considered for renewal – the law authorizing it having lapsed in 1992. These 33 delistings will mean that a total of 60 species have been removed from the endangered species list.