Enviros Blast Obama’s Choice for Office of Surface Mining

Another controversial Obama appointment

This time, environmentalists are angered with Obama’s choice for Office of Surface Mining Reclamation, and Enforcement.

Enviros Blast Obama’s Choice for Office of Surface Mining – ENS

For the past 17 years Pizarchik has been engaged in Pennsylvania’s mining program, first as legal counsel and then as the director of the Bureau of Mining and Reclamation.

During his tenure at Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Mining and Reclamation, says [Jeff] Ruch [Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility], “Pizarchik has hewn a solidly pro-industry line on topics such as acid mine drainage, subsidence from longwall mining and using mining slag as valley fill.”

Rare sockeye salmon get boost at Redfish Lake, Idaho

450 sockeye salmon into the lake near Stanley, Idaho-

Rare salmon get boost at Redfish. Sockeye released into lake after second summer of high returns. By Jon Duval. Idaho Mountain Express Staff Writer.

“no one has seen a sight like this since 1956. . .”

I wish I could have been there. Wonderful! I hope every year from now on there will more spawners and smolt in the lake that bears their name.

Photo of Redfish Lake from nearby mountains before the mountain pine bark beetle epidemic.

Wind Turbines and Bird Kills

Federal Law Enforcement’s Double Standard on Bird Deaths

Robert Bryce writes about the enormous disparity in federal law enforcement between a bird killed in a wastewater tank versus the increasing number of birds falling victim to Wind Energy.

Wind Turbines and Bird Kills – via Counterpunch :

When it comes to protecting America’s wildlife, federal law enforcement officials have a double standard: one that’s enforced against the oil, gas, and electric utility sectors, and another that exempts the wind power sector from prosecution despite years of evidence involving hundreds, even thousands, of violations of two of America’s oldest wildlife-protection laws.