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Controversial judge sides against enviros on mercury regs

Janice Rogers Brown is already proving her worth on the federal bench. Last week, she and her colleague David Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia blocked an effort by environmental groups to halt implementation of the Bush administration's much-maligned mercury rules.

Judiciary committee chair to question SCOTUS nominee about commerce clause

Those who read our piece on Supreme Court nominee John Roberts know that one of greens' principle concerns about him is his interpretation of the commerce clause. In short, the commerce clause, which gives Congress the right to regulate interstate commerce, has been broadly interpreted and used as the foundation for a great deal of important environmental legislation. If SCOTUS chooses to interpret it more narrowly, much of that legislation could be challenged. (This is what was at stake in the case of the "hapless toad that, for reasons of its own, lives its entire life in California" -- i.e., doesn't cross state lines.)

Meanwhile: Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is sick and tired of SCOTUS questioning -- nay, mocking! -- the reasoning Congress uses to pass laws. He just sent Roberts a letter saying as much: "members of Congress are irate about the Court's denigrating and, really, disrespectful statements about Congress's competence." Denigrating and disrespectful statements about Congress! Say it ain't so.

In particular, Specter asked Roberts about his his opinion of two cases -- U.S. v. Lopez and U.S. v. Morrison -- that turned on the commerce clause. (Both were narrow judgments finding that Congress had overreached.)

Why should you care about this? Well, Specter says he plans on asking Roberts about this stuff at his confirmation hearings. And that's somewhat surprising -- Republican leadership had been saying that Roberts shouldn't have to answer questions on individual issues. (I'd be curious to find out if Specter is off the reservation about this.) So while ineffectual Democrats will have no luck finding out what Roberts really thinks about an issue central to environmental legislation, Specter might just find out for them.

(You can read more about this, and Specter's letter, on Greenwire if you have a paid subscription, which you probably don't.)

Philanthropic landowner in Chile needs to get Chileans involved

A New York Times article documents the difficulty Douglas Tompkins is having protecting the thousands of square miles of pristine ecosystems he has purchased in Chile. From a historical perspective, what he has done is old hat. Wealthy individuals from Chinese emperors to British Lords have owned nature preserves. The problem is that things begin to unravel once the originator goes to heaven. One example is a private preserve in 1600s Europe that sheltered the last herd of Auroch. Cave paintings of these now-extinct wild cattle can be found in Southern France. Similarly, the last wild European Bison was killed by poachers on a private preserve in 1927 (they have since been reintroduced into the wild from zoos).

It could happen

Fusion too far in the future? Moving to the moon (or Mars) not an option? Nuclear a big fat no? Skeptical about the hydrogen hype?

Enter chemist Daniel Nocera. His goal: create a renewable energy source by using sunlight to separate water into oxygen and hydrogen.

From the AP (via Wired):

There is a beautiful model for this: photosynthesis. Sunlight kickstarts a reaction in which leaves break down water and carbon dioxide and turn them into oxygen and sugar, which plants use for fuel.

But plants developed this process over billions of years, and even so, it's technically not that efficient. Nocera and other scientists are trying to replicate that -- and perhaps improve on it -- in decades.

Here is where he is today:

Nocera has performed the reaction with acidic solutions, but not water yet. The catalyst he used was a compound that included the expensive metal rhodium. To be a practical energy solution, it will have to be made from inexpensive elements like iron, nickel or cobalt.

Good luck Daniel!

Swag the Dog

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China’s hybrid economy leads to inefficiency

This morning's Washington Post proclaims "Electrical Inefficiency A Dark Spot for China." It seems that lighting up the beautiful Bund comes at the expense of blackouts and brownouts in the less glitzy, more industrial parts of the country. But there's a simple solution:

"A lot of China's energy security problem could be solved if you improved our domestic efficiency," said Yan Maosong, an industrial engineering expert at Shanghai University who advises the central government. "From generation to transmission to power usage, in every link of the chain, our energy industry is not very efficient. Top government leaders have not paid enough attention."

Sound familiar?

Also notable was the article's attribution of China's wastefulness to it's hybrid economy -- a hybrid between "communist roots and a free-market future," that is.

… oh, and R.I.P.

In May of last year, we did a story on Freecycle, the spontaneously organized, voluntary, web-based network devoted to enabling people to give stuff away rather than throw it away.

Then in May of this year, we wrote another story, about Freecycle and its growing pains. On the one hand there was a fight to obtain the trademark to the Freecycle name. On the other hand there was controversy about a $130,000 sponsorship from Waste Management, Inc., the largest garbage company in the U.S.

Well, it appears the former fight has been won and the latter money is being put to good use.

Today we received a letter from "media relations" at Freecycle:

Sweet Chile o’ Mine

Two Americans take political heat for preserving Chilean wilderness Douglas Tompkins and his wife Kristine McDivitt own more than 2,000 square miles of Patagonian wilderness, and they’re determined to preserve […]

Nukonomics 101

Efficiency much cheaper than nuke power as way to curb carbon emissions The market economics of nuclear power don’t add up to a climate-change solution, particularly when compared to simple, […]

Ursa Rager

Green groups divided over next moves to protect Yellowstone grizzlies A schism is growing in the environmental movement over Bush administration plans to remove Yellowstone’s grizzly bears from the endangered-species […]