Are Goopers Drilling For defeat In The West?

Nearly two decades ago, Republicans won the West by linking Democrats to environmentalists, who supposedly cared more for the spotted owl and other favored species than they did for the jobs of loggers or miners. But now, as a boom in natural-gas drilling reshapes the region, Western Democrats have found success recasting environmentalism as a defense of threatened water supplies, fishing spots and hunting grounds. As a result, the party may hold the advantage this fall in the region’s key Congressional races. The simultaneous rise of Western energy production and the Western Democrat is no coincidence.

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Photograph by William Campell

The Rocky Mountain drilling boom has been aided by the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which was once considered a partisan political masterstroke. In providing incentives for energy development, Republicans delivered a profitable gift to an industry that directs most of its campaign contributions to G.O.P. candidates. That gift was sweetened by the Bureau of Land Management, which, under President Bush, has expanded the amount of federal land open to energy development and increased the number of drilling permits.

But the acceleration of energy exploration has split the national Republican Party from local Republicans upset by the downsides of the energy boom. “Republicans created a monster for themselves,” said Rick Ridder, a Colorado-based Democratic consultant. “They put public policy in direct conflict with their base voters.”

In Wyoming’s Upper North Platte Valley, Jeb Steward, a Republican state representative, helped lead the successful 2007 opposition to the B.L.M.’s proposed sale of 13 oil and gas parcels. “We have customs and cultures that have developed over a hundred years based on the utilization of multiple renewable resources — agriculture, tourism, wildlife, fisheries,” Steward said. “When B.L.M. proposed issuing the leases, residents were asking, ‘What does this mean to the lifestyles that we’ve all grown accustomed to?’ ”

One wing of the Bush administration appears to have heard the message. In February, the Environmental Protection Agency asked the Bureau of Land Management to revise its plan to allow nearly 4,400 new natural-gas wells on the Pinedale Anticline in Wyoming, citing ozone pollution from drilling rigs. “We have to balance economic success, energy development and the love that the people of Wyoming have for their special places,” said Gary Trauner, the Democratic candidate hoping to replace Wyoming’s retiring Republican congresswoman, Barbara Cubin.

Energy is also likely to affect politics in two Western states where the offspring of conservation icons are running for Senate. In New Mexico, Representative Tom Udall, a Democrat and the son of Stewart Udall, secretary of the interior under Kennedy and Johnson, may face off against the Republican congresswoman Heather Wilson. Two years ago, Wilson belatedly backed Udall’s bill to limit local drilling after being criticized on the issue by a 2006 election opponent.

In Colorado, Representative Mark Udall, Tom’s cousin and the son of the late environmentalist congressman Morris (Mo) Udall, is running for the Senate against Bob Schaffer, a former Republican congressman who works for a natural-gas company. Colorado has experienced a sixfold increase in drilling permits since 1999, and the B.L.M. has leased a New Jersey-size 5.2 million acres of federal land for new energy exploration in the state. Already a conservative group has broadcast television ads attacking Udall for trying to limit drilling. But election trends suggest that such criticisms may be losing effectiveness.

Of course, a recession — and corresponding fears of job losses — could halt the political shift. At a recent hearing convened by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, industry workers upbraided officials for considering rules that could slow gas drilling along the Colorado-New Mexico border. Century-old anti-government emotions are now aimed at state regulators — and much of the vitriol comes from working-class Democrats.

But can they swing an election? According to Headwaters Economics, a Montana-based research group, the energy sector currently employs only 1.3 percent of the region’s work force. And mining generated just 2.9 percent of all personal income in the five natural-gas-producing Western states in 2006. By contrast, retirement benefits, service jobs and professional industries generated about 55 percent of the region’s income. Many of these sectors have an interest in reducing energy development. After all, retirees, professionals and tourism businesses often come to the region for the open spaces.

“Lots of drilling is great for the industry,” said Headwaters Economics’ associate director, Ben Alexander. “But is it good for the region as a whole?” The political battle for the West will be won by whichever party offers the most convincing answer.

David Sirota is the author of “The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington.”

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Banks and Coal and the Environment

Published on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 by Inter Press Service

Citigroup, Bank of America Raked Over Coal

by Abid Aslam

WASHINGTON - U.S. environmentalists seeking to turn up the heat on the coal industry, which they blame for a litany of problems, are targeting two banks they say have taken the lead in financing mines.

Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. are the targets of a new campaign launched Tuesday by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN).

The effort also is aimed at shoring up U.S. credibility on climate change in future talks with China and India, which lead the world in burning coal, a principal source of the heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide.

“From cradle to grave, coal is dirty,” said Rebecca Tarbotton, the group’s global finance campaign director.

The banks can expect “a ruckus in the streets” and questions from shareholders but plans do not call for consumer boycotts, Tarbotton said.

To press its cause, RAN has teamed up with the Interfaith Council on Corporate Responsibility, an investment network of 275-plus religious institutions, and organisers of Step It Up, a series of nationwide anti-global warming demonstrations, the next of which is planned for Nov. 3.

The banks had no direct comment on the campaign but told IPS they embraced environmental concerns.

“Citi, together with its clients, environmental organisations and other stakeholders, is taking a responsible and strong leadership position on climate change and is on record as supporting comprehensive efforts to move forward on the complicated issue of climate change,” said Citi spokeswoman Valerie Hendy. “Moreover, we have committed 50 billion dollars, more than any other institution, over the next 10 years for climate-friendly efforts.”

The world’s largest bank received top marks from the Carbon Disclosure Project, an independent organisation that works with shareholders and corporations, for its efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, Hendy added. Citi has promised a 10-percent cut in carbon emissions from its operations by 2011 “and we are investing in climate-friendly enterprises and engaging with our clients on their carbon reduction efforts,” she said.

A Bank of America spokesman said coal remained vital to the U.S. power supply.

“The reality is that, as a country, over 50 percent of the electricity we all consume comes from coal,” said the spokesman, Ernesto Anguilla. “Bank of America is aggressively investing in and financing the development and use of cleaner renewable energies.”

Campaigners said the banks were not doing enough.

Citi’s 50-billion-dollar pledge, made in May, “may seem like a significant commitment [but] it amounts to less than 0.2 percent of the company’s 2.2 trillion dollars in assets,” RAN said.

Last year alone, Citi provided 200 times more financing for “dirty energy” than it did for alternative technologies such as wind, solar, or geothermal power, Tarbotton said.

Likewise, RAN decried as insufficient a recent Bank of America pledge to support eco-friendly businesses and to address climate change. Last year, it added, the firm spent nearly 100 times more money on high-polluting projects than it did on cleaner alternatives.

Electricity generated from coal is the leading cause of global warming in the United States, according to RAN. It also is the largest source of toxic mercury and a top contributor to air pollution, asthma, and ecological destruction.

Coal is abundant: The United States is estimated to have around 200 years’ worth of reserves, mostly under the Appalachian Mountains and in the Southwest. Interest in coal is rising amid increasing demand for energy and pressure to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Already, plans call for the construction of 150 new coal-fired power plants across the country. Citi and Bank of America rank among the top lenders to companies involved in the expansion, according to RAN.

“This new coal rush would add between 600 million and 1.1 billion tonnes of additional carbon dioxide emissions annually and negate nearly every other effort currently on the table to combat climate change,” the group said, adding that each new power plant would have a lifespan of about 50 years.

If the plans are realised, “in the next five years the U.S. coal power sector will exceed India’s and rival China’s,” said Tarbotton.

In consequence, “the United States will have no credibility in trying to get them to clean up their acts,” added Step It Up founder Bill McKibben.

Coal mining is responsible for thousands of deaths each year and the ruin of entire ecosystems and communities, RAN said in a report released to coincide with the launch of the campaign.

Coal companies say they are working to reduce carbon emissions by developing cleaner, more efficient fuel. Their opponents insist that future energy demand should be met by tapping renewable sources that are clean and in infinite supply. Among these are the wind, sun, tides, and heat trapped under the earth.

“We basically have better options,” said Tarbotton.

© 2007 Inter Press Service

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

No One Trusts Bush On Climate Change

No one trusts him on anything. He has shown himself to be either the most incompetent numb-skull on earth or the biggest criminal of our lifetime.

Published on Saturday, September 29, 2007 by Reuters

Bush Draws Fire at Climate Talks

WASHINGTON - Some of the world’s biggest greenhouse polluters took aim at President George W. Bush on Friday, calling him “isolated” and questioning his leadership on the problem of global warming.

Bush, who convened the two-day meeting of the 17 biggest emitters of climate-warming gases, stressed new environmental technology and voluntary measures to tackle the issue.

“Our nations have an opportunity to leave the debates of the past behind and reach a consensus on the way forward and that’s our purpose today,” Bush told an audience that included delegates from Europe, Japan and Australia as well as fast-growing developing countries such as China and India.

But his speech did little to dampen doubts from participants and environmentalists that the climate session at the State Department would help advance crucial U.N. talks in Bali, Indonesia, in December.

“It is striking that the (Bush) administration at the moment in the international conversation seems to be pretty isolated,” said John Ashton, Britain’s climate envoy. “I think that the argument that we can do this through voluntary approaches is now pretty much discredited internationally.”

Bush’s rejection of mandatory limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that warm the planet is at odds with the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and with many who attended on Friday.

“Our message to the U.S. is this: what they placed on the table at this meeting is a first step, but is simply not enough,” South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said in a statement. “We think that the U.S. needs to go back to the drawing board.”

The United States has long been the world’s biggest greenhouse emitter but at least one study this year put China in the lead. Given the U.S. role in contributing to the problem, van Schalkwyk said the United States should contribute its “fair share” to a solution.

LOOKING TOWARD BALI

By mid-2008, Bush said heads of state of the biggest emitting countries should set a long-term target to fight climate change and that there should be “a strong and transparent system for measuring our progress toward meeting the goal we set.”

That drew a muted response from delegates, according to Yvo de Boer, the special U.N. envoy on climate change.

De Boer said he found Bush’s speech “encouraging” because it acknowledged the urgency of the issue.

But asked to predict the outcome of the Washington meeting, de Boer replied, “The very strong indication I got is that people said, ‘This is a very interesting discussion but we need to continue it after Bali.’”

In fact, delegates applauded when Bush stressed this meeting was meant to lay the groundwork for the Bali conference. Some critics have questioned whether the Bush administration was attempting to get around the U.N. climate process with its own set of meetings.

At the meeting’s conclusion, James Connaughton, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and chairman of the conference, described “very vigorous discussion” and said the parties were committed to continuing the talks among the big emitters as a contribution to U.N. climate negotiations.

There was no consensus document. Instead, Connaughton offered a chairman’s summary: “I think different participants would emphasize different aspects of the summary so this is merely my attempt to capture the sense of the meeting.”

Bush said a long-term goal for reducing global warming was needed but that each nation should design its own strategy. He suggested a global clean-technology fund could be led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, to be financed by global contributions.

The Bali talks will aim to launch a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that set limits on industrial nations’ emissions. Its first phase ends in 2012. (Additional reporting by Caren Bohan)

© Reuters 2007.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

More Bad News From The Arctic

Sea Ice Is Getting Thinner

Science Daily — Large areas of the Arctic sea-ice are only one metre thick this year, equating to an approximate 50 percent thinning as compared to the year 2001. These are the initial results from the latest Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association lead expedition to the North Polar Sea.

Amphipods below the sea-Ice.
(Credit: Photo: Florian Breier/Alfred Wegener Institute)

Fifty scientists have been on board the Research ship- Polarstern for two and a half months, their main aim; to carry out research on the sea-ice areas in the central Arctic. Amongst other things, they have found out that not only the ocean currents are changing, but community structures in the Arctic are also altering. Autonomous measuring-buoys have been placed out, and they will contribute valuable data, also after the expedition is finished, to the study of the environmental changes occurring in this region.

“The ice cover in the North Polar Sea is dwindling, the ocean and the atmosphere are becoming steadily warmer, the ocean currents are changing” said chief scientist Dr Ursula Schauer, from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research part of the Helmholtz community, when commenting on the latest results from the current expedition. She is currently in the Arctic, underway with 50 Scientists from Germany, Russia, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, the USA, Switzerland, Japan, France and China, where they are investigating ocean and sea-ice conditions.

“We are in the midst of phase of dramatic change in the Arctic, and the International Polar Year 2007/08 offers us a unique opportunity to study this dwindling ocean in collaboration with international researchers” said Schauer. Oceanographers on board the research ship Polarstern are investigating the composition and circulation of the water masses, physical characteristics of sea-ice and transport of biological and geochemical components in ice and seawater. Sea-ice ecosystems in the seawater and on the ocean floor will also be a focus of investigations. Scientists will take sediments from the ocean floor in order to reconstruct the climatic history of the surrounding continents.

Oceanographic measuring buoys were set out in all regions of the Arctic ocean for the first time during this International Polar Year. They are able to drift freely in the Arctic Ocean whilst collecting data on currents, temperature, and salt content of the seawater. The buoys will continuously collect data over and send them back to the scientists via satellite.

In addition, the deployment of a new titanium measuring system which allows contamination free sample collection of trace elements for the first time due to its high effectiveness. These studies will take place within the context of different research projects, all taking place during the International Polar Year: SPACE (Synoptic Pan-Arctic Climate and Environment Study), iAOOS (Integrated Arctic Ocean Observing System) and GEOTRACES (Trace Elements in the Arctic). At the same time, a large component of the work is supported by the European Union Program DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modelling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environment Studies).

Changes in sea-ice

The thickness of the arctic sea-ice has decreased since 1979, and at the moment measures about a metre in diameter in the central Arctic Basin. In addition, oceanographers have found a particularly high concentration of melt-water in the ocean and a large number of melt-ponds. These data, collected from on board the Polarstern, and also from helicopter flights allow the scientists to better interpret their satellite images.

Sea-Ice biologists from the Institute of Polar Ecology at the University of Kiel are studying the animals and plants living in and beneath the ice. They are using the opportunity to investigate the threatened ecosystem. According to the newest models, the Arctic could be ice free in less than 50 years in case of further warming. This may cause the extinction of many organisms that are adapted to this habitat.

Ocean currents

The Arctic Ocean currents are an important part of global ocean circulation. Warm water masses flowing in from the Atlantic are changed in the Arctic through water cooling and ice formation, and sink to great depths. Constant monitoring by the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research over the last ten years have recorded significant changes, and have demonstrated a warming of the incoming current from the Atlantic Ocean. During this expedition, the propagation of these warming events along each of the currents in the North Polar Sea will be investigated.

The large rivers of Siberia and North America transport huge amounts of freshwater to the Arctic. The freshwater appears to function as an insulating layer, controling the warmth transfer between the ocean, the ice and the atmosphere.

The study area stretches from the shelf areas of the Barents Sea, the Kara Sea and the Laptev Sea, across Nansen and Amundsen bays right up to Makarow Bay.

Between Norway and Siberia and up to the Canadian Bay the scientists have taken temperature, salinity, and current measurements at more than 100 places. First results have shown that the temperatures of the influx of water from the Atlantic are lower as compared to previous years. The temperatures and salinity levels in the Arctic deep sea are also slowly changing.

The changes are small here, but the areas go down to great depths, and enormous water volumes are therefore involved. In order to follow the circulation patterns in winter, oceanographic measuring buoys will be attached to ice floes, and continuous measurements will be taken whilst they float along with the ice. The measurements will be relayed back via satellite.

In addition to the ocean currents and sea-ice, zooplankton, sediment samples from the sea floor as well as trace elements will be taken. Zooplankton are at the base of the food chain for many marine creatures, and are therefore an important indicator for the health of the ecosystem. The deposits found on the ocean floor of the North Polar Sea read like a diary of the history of climate change for the surrounding continents. Through sediment cores, the scientists may be able to unlock the key to the glaciation of northern Siberia.

In addition, the members of the expedition will be able to measure trace elements from Siberian rivers and shelf areas, that through polar drift are being pushed towards the Atlantic.

Further information on this project can be found on the German contribution to the International Polar Year website (http://www.polarjahr.de).

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.