Adam Dilts

March 30, 2007

Interior Inspect General reports that science is being trampled

The U.S. Department of Interior (Interior) Inspector General recently reported to Congress that the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks violated Interior rules when she disclosed internal agency documents to industry lobbyists. The report further warned that policy goals often influenced the scientific findings underpinning Interior decisions, calling into question the legal viability of these determinations.

Felicity Barringer, Report Says Interior Official Overrode Work of Scientist, N.Y. Times, Mar. 39, 2007, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/washington/29environ.html?ref=science.

San Francisco bans plastic bags

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors passed the nation's first municipal ordinance banning plastic checkout bags at large supermarkets and large chain pharmacy stores. Plastic bags are particularly difficult to recycle. Under the ordinance, plastic bags will be replaced by either compostable bags made of corn starch or recycled paper bags. Currently, an estimated 180 million plastic bags are distributed to shoppers each year in San Francisco.

Charlie Goodyear, S.F. First City to Ban Plastic Shopping Bags, S.F. Chron., Mar. 28, 2007, available at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/28/MNGDROT5QN1.DTL&hw=bags&sn=002&sc=469.

Fish & Wildlife thinks about protecting listed species less

A recently leaked U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service memorandum is raising concern among environmentalists who fear the document may signal future changes to regulations implementing the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Among the possible changes are a limit to the number of species that could be protected and a curtailing of the acres of wildlife habitat to be preserved. It proposes shifting authority to enforce the ESA from the federal government to the states, and would dilute legal barriers that protect habitat from sprawl, logging or mining. The Bush Administration has countered that this merely a stale draft of proposed policy changes with regard to the ESA.

Rebecca Clarren, Inside the secretive plan to gut the Endangered Species Act, Salon, http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/27/endangered_species/index_np.html

Leaked document available at http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/swcbd/PROGRAMS/esa/pdfs/4RegulationSynthesis.pdf

Federal Court: Corps illegally allowed mountaintop removal mining

A federal judge in West Virginia ruled Friday that the Army Corps of Engineers illegally issued permits for four mountaintop removal mines without adequately determining whether the environment would be harmed. The valley fill permits held by Massey Energy Co. were successfully challenged the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and two other environmental groups.

A.P., Judge blocks mountaintop mine permits, MSNBC, Mar. 26, 2007, available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17796407/.

Ohio Valley Envtl. Coal. v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng'rs, 2007 WL 902097 (S.D.W.Va. 2007).

See also, Andy Gilberston, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Indicates Changes Likely in the Endangered Species Act, News Article, Vt. J. Envtl. Law., Mar. 30, 2007, http://www.vjel.org/news/2007.03.30 Gilbertson.htm.

House passes gas emission restrictions for diesel ships

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed legislation (H.R. 802) to cut emissions from ships powered by diesel fuel. The bill gives the U.S. Coast Guard and Environmental Protection Agency authority to develop and enforce emission limits on the thousands of domestic and foreign-flagged vessels that enter U.S. waters each year.

Reuters, U.S. House of Representatives OKs Bill To Cut Ship Pollution, Envtl. News Network, Mar. 27, 2007, http://www.enn.com/anim.html?id=1695

H.R. 802 (2007), available at http://thomas.loc.gov/ (search HR 802).