Some of the news that is fit to print

Enviro-candidates...

Yes, I love Mother Earth.
Find out if presidential candidates do too with this cool site.... http://www.environment2004.org

Save the whales...

Whales Reveal Man's Damaging Impact on Oceans [Reuters]
Sailing the world's remotest seas in search of the awesome sperm whale, the steel-hulled Odyssey has been dredging up some dark secrets about mankind's damaging impact on the oceans.

Endangered ape

U.N. Says Great Apes in Danger Worldwide [AP]
Poachers shoot them. Smugglers sell their babies as exotic pets. Illegal loggers wipe out the rain forests where they live. And civil wars drive them away.

Endangered coats...

Wild Animal Slaughter Surges for Fashion's Sake [Reuters]
The return of fur to the world's fashion catwalks has spelled death to thousands of endangered animals with a boom in demand for their skins, a top wildlife protection officer said on Friday.

Military regs reduced...

Environmental limits on military training reduced [USAToday]
WASHINGTON -- President Bush signed a bill Monday that gives the Pentagon more leeway to sidestep wildlife-protection laws that military planners see as impediments to training.

WP on the Energy Bill...

I had asked about the details of the newly passed energy bill.

There was a fasinating discussion on PBS's News Hour last night during which many of my concerns were confirmed to some degree..
REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D-Mass.): "Although America puts 70 percent of all of the oil which it consumes into gasoline tanks, this bill does nothing about SUVs, which are now about half all the new vehicles sold in America. We're going to continue to become more and more dependent upon imported oil. Does nothing about air conditioners in the middle of the summer, about 70 percent of peak demand for electricity in the south comes air conditioning demand, we do nothing about that."

The WP also has an editorial on the bill today...
Depleted Energy [WP]
TUCKED AWAY in the 1,000-plus pages of the energy bill that a House-Senate conference produced yesterday are subsidies, loan guarantees and other spending measures worth about $100 billion. Where is all that money to go?

There is also an editoral in the WSJ about the pork in the bill.

Energy bill and hybrid vehicles...

I'm trying to find details on what the new version of the energy bill says about hybrid cars.
Here is pretty much the only think I have been able to find so far...

No Home Runs in Energy Bill [WP]
Little Impact Expected for Imported Oil, Pollution, Power Grid
"Negotiators provided a wide range of tax incentives to promote wind power generators, energy-efficient homes and hybrid passenger cars running on gasoline and batteries, and Republicans say these and other conservation measures will produce or save enough electricity between now and 2020 to make it unnecessary to build 130 new 300-megawatt power plants."

The import of the Prius

Is Toyota Prius the Most Important 2004 Model? [MotorTrend Magazine]
Toyota is diligently working to change the automotive landscape. Sure, the numbers aren't big now, but consider this: in Toyota's first full year of business in the U.S., 1957, it sold 287 Toyopets. Two years of similarly anemic sales followed. Toyota withdrew from the market. The Camry was the number-one selling car in America in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2002. Don't let initial small numbers lull you into a sense that everything will remain the same. It won't. Which is why the Prius is so important to the industry.

Redford's enviro-house

Rain Flushes Toilets in Robert Redford Building [Reuters]
In the Robert Redford Building, toilets flush themselves with rainwater -- except for the urinals, which use no water at all -- the floors are made of bamboo and the carpets from hemp.

GM puts off hybrids...

As a hybrid car driver -- I drive a Toyota Prius and I'm looking at getting the new and improved Prius it has always been so disappointing that American car companies just keep building bigger and bigger cars and completely ignore fuel efficiency to any degree. Sad.

G.M. Puts Off Its Hybrids, Letting Ford Go First [NYT]
General Motors has delayed plans to sell a hybrid vehicle similar to the Toyota Prius by two years, until 2007.