DAILY GRIST, 14 Jan 2005

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DAILY GRIST14 Jan 2005Environmental news from GRIST

MAGAZINE<http://grist.org>1.DON'T MAKE HER MILDLY SCOLD YOU AGAIN!Christie

Whitman's forthcoming book assails GOP's rightward lurchFormer EPA Administrator

Christine Todd Whitman, who hails from a distinguished line of patrician East

Coast Republicans, is not given to unseemly displays of anger or resentment.

But her forthcoming book, " It's My Party Too, " contains pointed (if decorous)

criticism of current Republican Party radicalism and its threat to the party's

long-term viability. When Karl Rove told her that, as head of the EPA, she

would be one of three cabinet officers who would determine Bush's reelection

prospects, she took it as an endorsement of a robust environmental ethic. " As

it turned out, " she says, " I don't seem to have understood Karl correctly. "

Ouch. Read about her dissatisfaction in Muckraker -- today on the Grist

Magazine website.today in Grist: Former EPA chief Christie Whitman offers Bush

admin a mild

rebuke -- in Muckraker<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4039>sign

up: Receive word by email each time a new Muckraker column hits the

scene<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/signmeup.pl?source=daily>2.CLEAR SKIES AND

PRESENT DANGERClean Air Act more effective than proposed Clear Skies bill, panel

saysA new report by the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the Bush

administration's proposed reform of current air-quality standards will

effectively do less to reduce pollution than existing Clean Air Act regulations,

much as critics, including John Kerry (remember him?), charged during the

presidential campaign. The NAS assessment states that the 28-year-old

new-source review rules requiring emissions-reducing upgrades in existing power

plants is more stringent than the cap-and-trade program proposed in the Clear

Skies legislation. Industry groups disagree, as does Will Hart, spokesflack for

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who

says, " It's the same argument we've had before. " Exactly.straight to the

source: Los Angeles Times, Miguel Bustillo, 14 Jan

2005<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4034>straight to the source:

The Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin, 14 Jan

2005<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4035>straight to the source:

San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, John Heilprin, 13 Jan

2005<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4036>3.ME FRED, YOU JANEJane

Goodall's right-hand man has all the right answersFred Thompson, CEO of the Jane

Goodall Institute, says his first encounter with primates -- an orphaned gorilla

and chimpanzee -- changed the way he thinks about the natural world. Now,

through the institute's outreach programs, he works to change the thinking of

others. He answers questions from readers about this ambitious mission, as well

as protecting chimp habitat, dealing with volatile central African governments,

learning from Goodall, and more -- in

InterActivist, only on the Grist Magazine website.today in Grist: Chimp

champion Fred Thompson answers readers' questions -- in

InterActivist<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4033>4.UNCRITICAL

MASSAnti-nuke opposition muted even as U.S. nuclear industry expandsOpponents of

nuclear power in the U.S. have been having a rough time of late

attractingattention to their cause, even as the nuclear-power industry gears up

to build five new reactors by 2015 and as many as 50 by 2050, with enthusiastic

backing from the Bush administration. Concerns over high oil prices, enthusiasm

over the prospect of nuke-plant jobs, and smart, targeted lobbying by nuke execs

have combined to put the industry on its strongest footing in years. Generous

new federal subsidies and the prospect of more in the near future haven't hurt.

Even environmentalists' concerns over carbon-dioxide emissions are contributing

to the nuclear comeback, as the industry can now tout itself as a solution to

global warming. A stumbling block remains that pesky problem of what to do

with spent nuclear fuel. While it seems that fewer communities are fighting the

construction of reactors in their midst, nobody wants the waste.straight to the

source: Forbes, Christopher Helman, Chana R. Schoenberger, and Rob Wherry, 31

Jan 2005<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4038>5.POWER CORRUPTS;

RENEWABLE POWER CORRUPTS RENEWABLYGuantanamo military base to be powered partly

by windWe've got good news and bad news. Bad news first? OK: The U.S. Navy

base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba is the alleged site of government-sanctioned

torture, practiced on suspects whose guilt is at best uncertain, likely to leave

a permanent moral scar on the nation's soul. The good news? It's using

renewable energy! Four large windmills -- two already completed -- will soon

begin providing 25 to 30 percent of the base's power, marking a rare foray by

the U.S. military into clean energy. Once the system,

augmented by new, cleaner-running diesel generators, is fully up and running,

it will represent annual savings of $2.3 million in energy costs and 13 million

pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions. Much of the power goes toward producing

clean water at a desalination plant, part of the base's commitment to being

entirely self-sufficient, lest it sully its, ahem, moral purity by paying for

resources from its communist Cuban neighbors.straight to the source: Los

Angeles Times, Carol J. Williams, 14 Jan

2005<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4037>6.THE KING AND WEGrist

to honor civil-rights leader by taking three-day weekendOn Monday, Grist will

honor Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy by, well, not working. We'll be back

Tuesday with more of the wit and wisdom you've come to know and love, or at

least

tolerate.--------------------------------Also

in GRIST MAGAZINE:Don't Fear the Reapers -- A special series on the alleged

" Death of

Environmentalism " -- in Main

Dish<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4018>Do You Think

Environmentalism Is Dead? -- Share your thoughts -- in

Gristmill<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4032>Sorry, Wrong

Number -- On which plastics to avoid -- in Ask

Umbra<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4028>----------------------\

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