TOP STORY
Public-Lands Affairs
Where the presidential candidates stand on public-lands issues
We've heard John McCain and Barack Obama talk a lot about energy and a little bit about climate change on the campaign trail this year, but there hasn't been much discussion about a whole host of other environmental concerns. Where do they stand on road-building and logging in national forests? On hard-rock mining? On funding for national parks? Grist's Kate Sheppard digs into the candidates' statements and platforms on public-lands issues.
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new in Gristmill: Public-Lands Affairs
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TODAY'S NEWS
(Keeps Us) Searching for a Hearty Goal
Wal-Mart lays out more environmental goals for itself, suppliers
Huge-mongous retailer Wal-Mart is back at its favorite activity of all time (besides counting its money and sprawlin', of course): setting environmental goals for itself and its suppliers. At a company confab in Beijing, Wal-Mart execs promised a host of eco-improvements in the next few years. Soon, they said, suppliers will have to be certified by a third party to ensure they're complying with local environmental and labor laws; suppliers will also have to start providing Wal-Mart with information on where all their products come from. Eventually, suppliers will also have to improve their energy efficiency and, by 2012, 95 percent of their products will have to come from factories that receive the highest ratings from Wal-Mart and third-party audits of environmental and social practices. Company spokesfolks also said that all 113 of Wal-Mart's Chinese stores will aim to use 30 percent less energy by 2010. "I don't expect people to immediately jump off their chairs and say this is wonderful," said CEO Lee Scott. "There will be a healthy dose of skepticism on some people's part."
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sources: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Reuters
Begging for Exchange
U.S. agrees to debt-for-nature swap to preserve Peru rainforests
In a bid to preserve some of Peru's biologically diverse rainforests, the United States agreed this week to a $25 million debt-for-nature swap with the country, Peru's second since 2002. Over the next seven years, in exchange for erasing millions of their debt, Peru will fund local non-governmental organizations dedicated to protecting tropical rain forests of the southwestern Amazon Basin and dry forests of the central Andes. "This agreement will build on the success of previous U.S. government debt swaps with Peru and will further the cause of environmental conservation in a country with one of the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet," said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Other debt-for-nature agreements have already been brokered with Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, and the Philippines. This week's swap makes Peru the largest beneficiary of such deals with the U.S., with more than $35 million dedicated to environmental conservation in the country.
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sources: U.S. Treasury Department, America.gov
Tropic Wonder
Hawaii lei's out ambitious clean-energy plans
Hawaii's largest utility has lei'd out plans to help the state source 70 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. Hawaiian Electric Co. has promised to never break ground on another coal plant (yippee!) and will convert existing fossil-fuel generators to local-crop biofuels. Just pour that piña colada in your tank, Hank! "It's not going to be easy," says Sen. Daniel Inouye (D), "but we must do it, because of all the 50 states in the union, our state is the most vulnerable." Currently, 90 percent of the energy used to power all those luaus comes from imported oil and coal. Some of the schemes announced Monday lack cost estimates and are likely a while from fruition, such as a plan for undersea cables to move wind-generated power between islands. But Gov. Linda Lingle (R) promises, "These are not hopes or dreams or wishes; these are our specific plans that we hope to achieve."
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sources: Honolulu Star Bulletin, Honolulu Advertiser, Pacific Business News, Associated Press
see also, in Gristmill: All new Hawaiian homes to sport solar hot water
Pay Dirt
EPA overstates pollution enforcement, says GAO
It's no secret that the Bush administration has slashed fines for polluters: The U.S. EPA issued $137.7 million in penalties in 2007, down from $240.6 million in 1998. But even that level of enforcement is overstated, says a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The EPA publicly reports the penalties it slaps on egregious earth-effers, but doesn't report which fines actually get paid up -- which really calls the effectiveness of the whole process into question, says the GAO. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.), who requested the investigation, would like to take a moment to state the obvious: "The bottom line is that environmental enforcement has significantly declined since the Bush administration took office."
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sources: Reuters, Associated Press
straight to the report: Environmental Enforcement: EPA Needs to Improve the Accuracy and Transparency of Measures Used to Report on Program Effectiveness
Carbon Copy
World needs to get crackin' on CCS, says IEA
John McCain and Barack Obama both like to give lovin' to "clean coal" -- but how much would they be willing to pony up for it? In a new report, the International Energy Agency, assuming that we continue to head into a fossil-fuel-powered future, says that the world needs to invest some $20 billion in carbon capture and storage in the next decade in order to reduce emissions to the extent touted by the G8. Twenty full-scale projects able to grab carbon and hide it away must be running by 2020, declares the report, and a jaw-dropping 10,000 must be up and running by 2050. Meanwhile, in the present, only four pilot projects exist, none of which are at coal plants. The U.S., for its part, axed funding for its only planned large-scale carbon capture project, calling it too expensive. So, uh, anybody have a better idea?
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sources: Earth2Tech, Bloomberg, Reuters, BusinessGreen, Power Engineering
see also, in Gristmill: Government report criticizes U.S. plans for CCS
straight to the report: CO2 Capture and Storage - A Key Carbon Abatement Option
In Brief
Snippets from the news
• Boston waste haulers may lose licenses if they don't offer recycling.
• Dentists back sealants, despite bisphenol A concerns.
• Conservationists factor climate change into land buys.
• Sarah Palin and Joe Biden have strong differences on environment.
• Electronics recycling industry plagued by lax rules and weak enforcement.
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GristTV episode 2: green cleaning tips
Going green doesn't mean giving up on being clean. In our latest GristTV episode, advice maven Umbra Fisk offers up alternatives to chemical-laden cleaning products. Watch it now.
GRIST COLUMNS AND FEATURES
Bale Out
On straw-bale homes
Q. Dear Umbra,
Do you recommend building straw-bale homes? And/or can you insulate an existing home with straw bales on the outside of the home and then finish it using siding, wood, or stucco? I wonder why this renewable, economical, and easily available resource is under used and undervalued ... am I missing something? What do you think?
Leni
Hollywood, Fla.
A. Dearest Leni,
Anyone who has seen a straw-bale home will not be making any of the traditional jokes about the Three Little Pigs. The plastered walls are filled with solid bales of straw at least 14 inches wide, and the houses sit heavily, though beautifully, on the landscape. They are not going to blow down with a simple huff and puff ...
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Read the rest of Umbra's answer.
Coming Thursday: A review of eco-friendly diapers
Grist: Environmental News and Commentary
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