The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington handed
down a major decision Friday, striking down the EPA´s proposal to
loosen the New Source Review section of the Clean Air Act. The
decision is being reported as a slam dunk for environmentalists and the
states that filed the lawsuit, and as an unmitigated setback for the
power industry and the EPA.
Most newspapers covered the story to the nines, but in case you
missed it, here are a few links to some of the best-reported articles I
found: the
Associated Press;
Reuters; the
Washington Post; the
New York Times; the
Christian Science Monitor; and the
Los Angeles Times. And, oh yeah, almost forgot:
Waste News.
So what comes next in this saga? Here are a few off-the-cuff guesses.
The power industry and the EPA will appeal this case all the way to the
Supreme Court if necessary. If for some reason they don´t, or if it does
get that far and they lose, we´ll see a bunch of old power plants
mothballed and new ones built pretty quickly, and along with that, some
(gulp) pretty hefty price increases for power.
And one last prediction: Empire State residents should start thinking
about wrapping their minds around the phrase "Governor Spitzer." They
may be hearing it a lot for the next four years, or some multiple
thereof.
So what happens when a midsize city -- like, say, Buffalo -- goes
all-out with a program to require rodent-proof trash containers?
Why, the beloved little buggers
move to the suburbs, of course. Poor Tonawanda. And
Kenmore. And Amherst. And Cheektowaga.
The moral here, I guess, is that you can count on rats to go where
the easy food pickings are, socioeconomic and demographic factors be
damned. And when a central city upgrades its trash totes, its suburban
satellites had better do likewise, pronto. Either that or get ready for
a big new wave of ... immigrants.
Since we´re (sort of) on the topic of rats and satellites,
let´s end the day with this intriguing
article from the New Yorker. It has to do with a pair of
satellites named Tom and Jerry that were launched four years ago
by NASA and its German counterpart agency Deutsches Zentrum für Luftund
Raumfahrt (be careful pronouncing that last word) to chase each other
cartoonishly around the globe and, in so doing, monitor changes in the
earth´s surface.
And guess what Tom and Jerry are learning? Hint: If you get the vague
feeling that things are heating up, then you´re definitely getting
warmer ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington handed
down a major decision Friday, striking down the EPA´s proposal to
loosen the New Source Review section of the Clean Air Act. The
decision is being reported as a slam dunk for environmentalists and the
states that filed the lawsuit, and as an unmitigated setback for the
power industry and the EPA.