Topic:
Environment & Energy
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NSR rules must provide certainty
Opinion -When Detroit Edison proposed replacing worn turbine blades at two plants with an improved design that would increase efficiency by 4.5 percent, EPA Region V bureaucrats in May 2000 concluded doing so would not constitute “routine” maintenance. -
Forest Service says ‘no’ to American flag
Opinion -As if attacks on the Pledge of Allegiance weren’t enough, the federal government in July turned its attention to the American flag. Debbie Gaynor, a recreation forester for the U.S. -
Cooking the books for a better environment
Opinion -In early July, the World Wildlife Fund issued a report warning that mankind is strip-mining the Earth so rapidly we’ll be forced to colonize two additional planets by 2050 to support current trends in resource consumption. -
Big wins for Wise Use and property rights
Opinion -The U.S. House of Representatives considered the Interior Department appropriations bill in July, and advocates for access to public lands and private property rights won important victories. Snowmobiles amendment. Reps. -
Wrong-headedness killing the forests
Opinion -When the Hayman Fire—the largest wildfire in Colorado history—first began, the smoke billowed over my office in southwestern Denver. Outside, I could smell the fumes from flames 50 miles away. Worst yet, I could see the ash in the air! -
Jeffords pushes mandatory national recycling plan
Opinion -Get ready to start separating, washing, and storing aluminum cans, if Senator Jim Jeffords (I-Vermont.) has his way. -
Stealing land in the Atchafalaya and Immokalee
Opinion -An American citizen whose land has been condemned by a federal agency or by any governmental entity, especially those receiving federal monies, has significant rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. -
World Summit on Sustainable Development Underway
Opinion -Tech Central Station has a team on location in Johannesburg, South Africa to cover the World Summit on Sustainable Development, August 26-September 4. Jim Glassman and editor-in-chief Nick Schulz are heading the team. -
EPA: Time to Reform New Source Review
Opinion -The Environmental Protection Agency released on June 13 its Report to the President on New Source Review, the part of the Clean Air Act that regulates emissions from new or substantially modified factories and power plants. -
EU ratifies biosafety protocol
Opinion -The European Union took yet another step away from the rational regulation of genetically modified crop plants and foods in late June, when it became the 22nd party to formally ratify the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. -
Sierra Club attacks Ford, SUVs
Opinion -The Sierra Club is an environmental lobbying organization best known for its anti-logging stance, which has contributed to the wildfires devastating hundreds of thousands of acres of forests and wilderness areas. -
Bush retains Clinton-Gore legacy at USFS
Opinion -Another public land squabble is shaping up in “Bush Country” with the announcement that U.S. -
NSR’s Unintended Consequences
Opinion -EPA’s Report to the President on New Source Review contains many case studies illustrating the unintended consequences of NSR. Here are just four examples. -
Government land acquisition: Socialism by a landslide
Opinion -If put to a vote, Americans would likely reject socialism by a substantial majority. -
Did Shark Victim ‘Get What He Had Coming’?
Opinion -A young Australian man was recently killed and eaten by a 20-foot-long great white shark while diving for scallops at Smokey Bay on the Australian West Coast. -
Wildfires Rage across the West!
Opinion -Wildfires are raging across several Western states this summer, quickly rendering 2000’s Year of the Wildfire a mere prelude to this year’s more widespread and more destructive blazes. -
Suckers for junk science?
Opinion -On May 12, 2002, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) published a Federal Register notice rejecting petitions I had filed to remove from the Endangered Species List two species of sucker fish found in the Klamath Basin. -
EPA gives Army Corps green light to dump toxic sludge
Opinion -The Army Corps of Engineers should be allowed to continue dumping toxic sludge into the Potomac River, according to an Environmental Protection Agency document, because the sludge encourages fish to flee the area and its resident fishermen. -
Liberal academic shoots down Precautionary Principle
Opinion -The Precautionary Principle—a popular theory holding that speculative, unproven environmental risks are entitled to primacy in any environmental debate so long as any risks exist—has been harshly criticized in a just-released law and -
The prairie dogs that weren’t there
Opinion -There is no evidence that Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) employees who charged Lin Drake of Cedar City, Utah with violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) ever heard this poem: “Yesterday upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. -
Hollywood hypocrites
Opinion -When people think of Hollywood and politics, they are likely to envision Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, or any of a host of politically active stars waxing poetic about the environment and volunteering their efforts to raise money for the common cause. -
Illinois Supreme Court defends property rights in landmark case
Opinion -In a victory for private property rights, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that taking one owner’s private property and giving it to another for private use is an unconstitutional use of the power of eminent domain. -
Canadian indecision may doom Kyoto Protocol
Opinion -Canada’s drawn-out deliberation over whether to ratify the Kyoto Protocol is threatening to upset a carefully crafted, global environmentalist agenda. -
Supreme Court rules against property owners
Opinion -The United States Supreme Court in April brought to a close 14 years of litigation by Lake Tahoe Basin property owners. In doing so, the Court opened the door to increased restriction of private property by governments at every level.