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June 2006

EPA Scientists Allege Pressure in Pesticide Tests

Profusion of Oysters on Shoreline Rocks Offers Scientists Hope

Scientists Explain How They Attribute Climate-Change Data

In Navajo Country, a Battle Brews Over Proposed Power Plant

What Cost Climate Change?

GM Sees Ethanol Rising to 10% of U.S. Auto Fuel

EPA Scientists Allege Pressure in Pesticide Tests
The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2006

Washington bureau reporter John J. Fialka reports that EPA union leaders representing "scientists and other specialists" are alleging political interference on use of pesticides "that might be harmful to children, infants, and fetuses." He reports on the group's letter to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, himself a former EPA pesticides official as a civil servant, saying experts "are being pushed to skip steps in their testing." Fialka labels the protest from the union representing some 9,000 EPA employees "unprecedented and a professional rebuke" to Johnson, and he says an agency spokes person says the agency is complying with Food Quality Protection Act requirements. Fialka quotes public Employees for Environmental Responsibility Executive Director Jeff Ruch as saying "the fact that this letter had to be sent at all is an utter disgrace." Fialka reports that the letter to Johnson was sent by local chapters of the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Treasury Employees Union, and the Engineers and Scientists of California.

Profusion of Oysters on Shoreline Rocks Offers Scientists Hope
The Washington Post, June 3, 2006

Good news for oysters in the Chesapeake Bay hasn't come often in recent years, and this piece grabs Saturday front-page play as a potential "discovery that could shift efforts to revive the bay's ailing oyster stocks." Elizabeth Williamson reports on new research in Virginia Beach's Lynnhaven River pointing to "millions of native oysters thriving along shorelines." She reports that the find "suggests that, with the right habitat, the native species can once again thrive – cleaning the bay's water and sustaining annual harvests." The piece deals with research done by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, VIMS, finding, among other things, that the oysters survive better on man-made riprap than on shell reefs researchers had developed for them. She quotes VIMS Professor Rom Limcius, an author of an upcoming VIMS report: "Nature is showing us that there are alternative means for restoring native oysters. We have to grasp the opportunity." Williamson reports that overfishing and disease "have left the bay's Eastern oyster population at about 1 percent of what it was at the dawn of the bay's oyster industry a century ago" and that restoration efforts have largely failed. She reports that the U.A. Army Corps of Engineers now "is basing its plans for a $6.5 million artificial reef on the new research" but notes that "watermen are not sold on the new material, which would make it harder to harvest the shellfish." The VIMS research, she reports, says that the riprap rocks "create hiding places that protect the oysters from predators but still let enough water flow through, bringing algae, which are oyster's primary food."

Scientists Explain How They Attribute Climate-Change Data
The Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2006

How do scientists know what they say they know? "The process seems like a black box," Sharon Begley reports in her regular "Science Journal" column. She takes on climate change to address the question. For instance, she points to the Lawrence Livermore National Lab's respected climatologist Ben Santer as saying that "detection and attribution" studies increasingly help scientists better discern, in her words, "fingerprints of changes that are so physically or statistically anomalous that they couldn't be natural." Different factors affecting climate – human or natural – "have unique signatures," Santer says. Is a hotter sun responsible for a pattern of warming of the seas? Not according to Tim Barnett of Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Is the warming the result of natural, geothermal heat? "Only if the warming were greater on the ocean floor, says Dr. Barnett. It's not." Begley's column merely scratches the surface of the "How do they know?" riddle she leads with. But it's a scratch few other newspapers have even dared enter into. They should.

In Navajo Country, a Battle Brews Over Proposed Power Plant
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 10, 2006

Sithe Global Power and Navajo tribal administrators want to build The Desert Rock Energy Project in northwestern New Mexico, on the country's largest American Indian Reservation. The coal-fired power plant would provide power to 1.5 million homes and expects to provide 1,000 jobs during construction and 400 permanent jobs. "Desert Rock also would pay $50 million each year in taxes and royalties. That's about a third of the tribe's annual budget," writes author Susan Montoya Bryan. Critics to the plan are concerned about the carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, mercury, and arsenic that will contribute additional air pollution. Sithe says Desert Rock represents the next generation of coal-fired power plants designed to cut emissions. There is also concern regarding water the plant would require, and the rebuttal is again advanced technology that uses less water. "The tribal council must approve the lease, but ultimately the Bureau of Indian Affairs would have the last say," writes Bryan.

What Cost Climate Change?
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 5, 2006

A group in Washington State is "part of a $200,000 investigation into the economics of curbing the pollution that causes global warming and into how to respond to its effects, including less water for drinking, irrigation and power production, higher sea levels and less snow in the passes," writes author Lisa Stiffler. The group, made up of scientists, economists, government leaders, and business people, hopes this fall to create a report that will serve as a guide for planning for a warmer Northwest. The anticipated warmer temperature can create challenges, such as warmer water harming salmon, increase risk of forest fires, shorter ski seasons, etc., and opportunities, such as better bass and catfish fishing, more summer activities, and a longer growing season. "The group also is educating its customers about the cause and effect of global warming, reducing the industry's climate-altering pollution emissions and influencing public policy," writes Stiffler.

GM Sees Ethanol Rising to 10% of U.S. Auto Fuel
Bloomberg News, May 19, 2006

Of the approximately 140 billion gallons of vehicle fuel used in the U.S. each year, about 3.9 billion gallons (3%) is ethanol. GM is anticipating that this may increase to 10 percent within five years. However, automakers say that government subsidies are necessary to lower the cost, and mandates are needed to require its use in order to make it economically viable. Since the mid-1990s, U.S. automakers have built about 5 million vehicles that can run on 85 percent ethanol (E85), with 900,000 of the flexible-fuel vehicles planned for production next year. E85 is touted as being less polluting than gasoline and gives better performance. However, it is 25 percent less fuel-efficient and more corrosive than gasoline requiring more expensive fuel lines and fuel tanks. A major drawback is finding service stations that carry the fuel. Only 600 of the 180,000 service stations in the U.S. currently carry it.

June 2006

Environment Writer
Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting
University of Rhode Island
Graduate School of Oceanography
Office of Marine Programs
Narragansett, RI 02882

Tel: 401-874-6211; Fax: 401-874-6485