Don’t Blame Mother Nature for the airplane crash

Human activity is indirectly adding large birds to skies near airports-

Don’t Blame Mother Nature for the Crash. The editors. 2 articles. New York Times

Looks like Bush/Kempthorne gutting of ESA will be reversed

Lawsuits and congressional action are likely to void the gutting of section 7 of ESA-

This has already been reported in the comments on one of the threads here;  but for everyone this is what has happened.

California filed suit to overturn the Bush/Kempthorne diminishment of section 7 consultation.

Congress is right now moving to directly overturn this new regulation. Story

Now Oregon has sued as well. Oregon joins lawsuit against feds on endangered species. By Michael Milstein. Oregonian.

Section 7 requires that an agency with a project has to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to see if the project will affect endangered species. Any experience with government agencies tell you that you can’t expect an agency to be honest about the side effects of a project they want to build, carryout or whatever. So you need a neutral party of experts to give an independent judgment. Agencies almost always just hate to get an opinion from the USFWS that their prize project “may jeopardize” an species.

The Bush/Kempthone rule would, among other things, make it so that agencies don’t have to consult.

Columbia River pollutants at unacceptable levels, EPA says

EPA says Columbia River pollution levels “unacceptable risk to people, fish and wildife-

For those not familiar, the Columbia River is the major river of the Pacific Northwest. It and its tributaries drain almost all of Idaho, and Washington states, and western Montana. . . . much of Oregon and British Columbia too, plus the NW corner of Wyoming and a tiny bit of Nevada (where the mercury pollution from gold mines is tremendous).

Columbia River pollutants at unacceptable levels, EPA says. By Scott Learn, The Oregonian

This is the EPA’s first “state of the river” report. This is quite sobering coming from the Bush EPA. It is not a new problem, however. PCBs and DDT are slowly decreasing. Numerous other pollutants are present at unacceptable levels, but the trend isn’t clear.

A great deal of money has been spent trying to conserve and recover samon and steelheads runs. This pollution makes the faltering effort even more difficult.

Link to the EPA report

Ken Salazar promises reform at Interior Department

Salazar’s hearing before Senate Committe-

Sounds like any generic, old school Western Democrat that has been in this “saddle” many times before-

Ken Salazar promises reform at Interior Department. LA Times. By Jim Tankersley

Barack Obama criticized — again — over pick of Ken Salazar as Interior secretary. By Pete Thomas. LA Times.

I should add that there are those who say many of Obama’s cabinet choices will not have a lot of freedom of action because the big decisions will be made by advisors at higher levels closer to the President. This can be good or bad, depending on the advisors, the President and the issue.