EARTH News:

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"• an economic meltdown of historic proportions"
"• a car industry crashing, because of a lack of innovation and growth"
"• oil dependence transferring our wealth abroad"
"• an extended military presence in the Middle East"
"• and climate change, which threatens the health of our planet"

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John McCain - Rick Renzi - Jon Kyl - Money - Politics - Federal - Investigation - Phoenix - Arizona - Real Estate - Land - Legislation - Nevada - "FBI interviews Arizona staffers." ... "Federal agents interviewed staffers for likely [2008 Election] Republican presidential nominee [and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain (Ariz. [Arizona]) as part of their corruption case against [Arizona Republican Representative] Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.[Republican-Arizona])." ... "[United States] U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona Diane J. Humetewa and fellow prosecutors disclosed the interviews with aides for McCain and fellow Arizona Republican [Senator] Sen. Jon Kyl in a written response to Renzi’s attorneys, who asked for the contents of the interview to help prepare for Renzi’s upcoming trial, which is scheduled for October [2008]." ... "The aides were interviewed about land exchanges, according to an April letter from Humetewa filed with the U.S. District Court of Arizona late last week." ... "A federal land swap critical to developing a $3 billion copper mine southeast of Phoenix [Arizona] is at the heart of the case against Renzi, who is facing 35 public corruption charges, including conspiracy, money-laundering, extortion and insurance fraud." ... "Renzi is alleged to have told executives for Resolution Copper Mining that he would not support a land deal the mining company was interested in unless they bought his former business partner’s property as part of the deal, according to the [February] Feb. 22 federal indictment." ... "Under the deal, 5,000 acres of non-federal land owned by Resolution Copper were to be exchanged for 3,025 acres of federal land. The federal land sits on a large copper deposit, and the exchange would have allowed mining on land for the first time since a 1954 executive order by [Republican] then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower." ... "Renzi allegedly wanted land owned by a business partner who owed Renzi money to be included in the deal. If the land had been included, prosecutors charge, it would have allowed the business partner to pay a debt to Renzi." ... "Resolution Copper refused to cooperate, but another company, Preserved Petrified Forest Land Investors LLC [Limited Liability Company] of Las Vegas [Nevada], agreed to buy the land. Prosecutors allege this netted Renzi more than $700,000." ... "Renzi twice introduced a land swap bill, in 2005 and 2006, before taking his name off of the measure after the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] raided his family business in April 2007. [Arizona Democratic Representiave] Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.[Democratic-Arizona]) then introduced the legislation on [August] Aug. 1, 2007, along with Arizona [Republican Representatives] Reps. Jeff Flake and John Shadegg, both Republicans, and Democrat[ic Representative] Harry Mitchell (D[Democratic])." ... "Sens. McCain and Kyl introduced companion legislation in the Senate, most recently in July 2007. " (1, 2) -By Susan Crabtree -TheHill.com

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John McCain - Money - Politics - Real Estate - Arizona - Law - Federal - Military - Land - 2008 Election - "McCain Hit Again on Arizona Land Deals." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona] Sen. John McCain's ties to the real estate development arm of his home state's power company continued to prove nettlesome today, as a newspaper reported that McCain secured millions in federal funds for a land acquisition program that benefited the firm." ... "Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that McCain had championed a deal to trade valuable federal land in northern Arizona to a rancher who then enlisted Tempe[Arizona]-based SunCor Development to build as many as 12,000 homes on the property." ... "SunCor's president, Steve Betts, is a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the senator's presidential bid." ... "Today's report, in USA Today, revealed that McCain inserted $14.3 million into a 2003 defense bill to buy land around Luke Air Force Base [Arizona]. SunCor sought the provision as the largest of about 50 landowners near the base. SunCor representatives, upset with a state law that restricted development around Luke, met with McCain's staff to lobby for funding, John Ogden, SunCor's president at the time, told the paper." ... "The Air Force later paid SunCor $3 million for 122 acres near the base, according to the report. It was the highest single land transaction of the private lots purchased by the government -- three times the county's assessed value and twice the military's estimated value." -By Matthew Mosk -WashingtonPost

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John McCain - Money - Politics - Arizona - Real Estate - Law - Federal - Military - Land - 2008 Election - "Price of power: McCain action helped Arizona land developer." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain secured millions in federal funds for a land acquisition program that provided a windfall for an Arizona developer whose executives were major campaign donors, public records show." ... "McCain, who has made fighting special-interest projects a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, inserted $14.3 million in a 2003 defense bill to buy land around Luke Air Force Base [Arizona] in a provision sought by SunCor Development, the largest of about 50 landowners near the base. SunCor representatives, upset with a state law that restricted development around Luke, met with McCain's staff to lobby for funding, according to John Ogden, SunCor's president at the time." ... "The Air Force later paid SunCor $3 million for 122 acres near the base. It was the highest single land transaction of the private lots purchased by the government — three times the county's assessed value and twice the military's estimated value. SunCor also donated another 122 acres. Alan Bunnell, a spokesman for SunCor's parent company, Pinnacle West Capital, said the donation was meant to minimize the company's tax bill and enhance the value of adjacent property it owns." ... "McCain has long-standing ties to SunCor and Pinnacle West:" ... "• McCain's campaigns have received $224,000 since 1998 from donors connected to Pinnacle West, including $104,100 for his current presidential run, according to a USA TODAY analysis of campaign-finance data compiled by the non-partisan CQ MoneyLine. Donors include employees of Pinnacle West and its subsidiaries, employees' spouses and the company's lobbyists and political committees." ... "• Pinnacle West's Chief Executive Officer Bill Post, vice president and lobbyist Robert Aiken and former president Jack Davis, who retired in March, are fundraisers for McCain's current presidential campaign. SunCor President Steve Betts, who joined the company weeks after the military land deal, is a former campaign lawyer for McCain and has raised more than $100,000 for his current campaign." -By Matt Kelley -USATODAY 

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John McCain - Money - Politics - 2008 Election - Environment - History- Arizona - Nevada - Federal - Real Estate - Land - "McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers]." ... "Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks." ... "When McCain's legislation passed in November 2005, the ranch owner gave the job of building as many as 12,000 homes to SunCor Development, a firm in Tempe, Ariz. [Arizona], run by Steven A. Betts, a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the presumptive Republican nominee. Betts said he and McCain never discussed the deal." ... "The Audubon Society described the exchange as the largest in Arizona history. The swap involved more than 55,000 acres of land in all, including rare expanses of desert woodland and pronghorn antelope habitat. The deal had support from many local officials and the Arizona Republic newspaper for its expansion of the Prescott National Forest. But it brought an outcry from some Arizona environmentalists when it was proposed in 2002, partly because it went through Congress rather than a process that allowed more citizen input." ... "Although the bill called for the two parcels to be of equal value, a federal forestry official told a congressional committee that he was concerned that "the public would not receive fair value" for its land. A formal appraisal has not yet begun. A town official opposed to the swap said other Yavapai Ranch land sold nine years ago for about $2,000 per acre, while some of the prime commercial land near a parcel that the developers will get has brought as much as $120,000 per acre." ... "In an interview, Betts said there is "absolutely no" connection between his contributions to McCain's presidential bids and the deal involving rancher Fred Ruskin and the Yavapai Ranch Limited Partnership." ... "Betts is among a string of donors who have benefited from McCain-engineered land swaps. In 1994, the senator helped a lobbyist for land developer Del Webb Corp. pursue an exchange in the Las Vegas [Nevada] area, according to the Center for Public Integrity. McCain sponsored two bills, in 1991 and 1994, sought by donor Donald R. Diamond that yielded the developer thousands of acres in trade for national parkland." ... "In the late 1990s, McCain promoted a deal in Arizona's Tonto National Forest involving property part-owned by Great American Life Insurance, a company run by billionaire Carl H. Lindner Jr., a prolific contributor to national political parties and presidential candidates." ... "In Arizona, SunCor is a subsidiary of Pinnacle West, the state's largest power company. Betts, as Ruskin described him, "politically is a very powerful guy in the state."" ... "Officials from the company and its subsidiaries have accounted for $100,000 in contributions to McCain's political campaigns over the years, records show." (1, 2) -By Matthew Mosk with contributions by Alice Crites -WashingtonPost

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Oil - Corporations - Air - Environment - Ground - Water - Safety - Health - Science - Politics - "Chevron, 11 Oil Companies to Pay $423 Million in MTBE Lawsuits." ... "Water suppliers in 17 states will collect $423 million from Chevron Corp. [Corporation], BP Plc [Public limited company] and 10 other oil companies as part of a settlement of contamination claims involving the gasoline additive MTBE." ... "The suits claim the oil companies contaminated wells and underground aquifers across the country by adding methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, to gasoline as a way to reduce air pollution. They claim the oil companies hid information showing MTBE would cause ``massive'' contamination." ... "The settlement was filed yesterday with U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin in New York, who is presiding over the 59 settled lawsuits brought by 153 municipalities. The six oil companies and refineries that didn't settle include Exxon Mobil Corp. [Corporation], the world's biggest publicly traded oil company, according to Robert Gordon, a lawyer for the plaintiffs." ... "The municipalities ``will use the money to continue to treat water so that it is safe and pure,'' Gordon said in a phone interview." ... "MTBE reduces air pollution by making gasoline burn more completely in a car's engine. MTBE discharged into the air contaminates groundwater through rainfall. The additive has been banned in many states." ... "Estimates of the cost to treat contaminated water in the U.S. have reached $30 billion." ... "Scheindlin denied a request by the oil companies to dismiss the suits in 2005." ... "``Innocent water providers -- and ultimately innocent water users -- should not be denied relief from the contamination of their water supply if defendants breached a duty to avoid an unreasonable risk of harm from their products,'' Scheindlin said at the time." ... "The case is In Re: MTBE, 00-cv-1898, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). " -By David Glovin -Bloomberg

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Water - Infrastructure - Human - Health - Safety - Enforcement - Environment - Underground - Money - History - Weather - Animals - Plants - "Aging systems releasing sewage into rivers, streams." ... "America's aging sewer systems continue to dump human waste into rivers and streams, despite years of fines and penalties targeting publicly owned agencies responsible for sewage overflows, a Gannett News Service analysis shows." ... "The analysis of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data found that since 2003, hundreds of municipal sewer authorities have been fined for violations, including spills that make people sick, threaten local drinking water and kill aquatic animals and plants." ... "DATABASE: Sewer treatment plant reports by state[.]" ... "Local governments across the USA plan to spend billions modernizing failing wastewater systems — some of which are more than 100 years old — over the next 10 to 20 years, EPA, state and local sewer authority officials said." ... "Those improvement efforts face a huge challenge mitigating problems in what the EPA estimates to be 1.2 million miles of sewers snaking underground across the USA." ... "Waste gurgles from manholes and gushes down streams and rivers somewhere in the USA almost every day, the EPA estimates." ... "Gannett News Service analyzed enforcement and compliance records compiled by the EPA and state regulators from January 2003 to February 2008." ... "The analysis found that at least one-third of the nation's large, publicly owned sewage treatment systems were the subject of formal enforcement actions by the EPA or state regulators for sewage spills or other violations. Those enforcement actions included fines as well as orders to fix problems or expand treatment capacity. Fines totaling $35 million were assessed against 494 of the nation's 4,200 municipal facilities that treat at least 1 million gallons of sewage daily, the analysis shows." ... "An EPA 2004 report to Congress estimated that 850 billion gallons of storm water mixed with raw sewage pour into U.S. waters every year from older, combined sewer systems that were designed to overflow in wet weather. These combined systems, built by cities in the 19th and early 20th centuries, are now considered antiquated and a threat to public health and the environment, according to the EPA and environmental groups." ... "The EPA's 2002 Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure Gap Analysis reported the nation's municipal sewer authorities' capital needs to meet clean water requirements from 2000 to 2019 ranged from $331 billion to $450 billion. Based on that data, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies now puts that range at $350 billion to $500 billion for the next 20 years, association spokeswoman Susan Bruninga said." -By Larry Wheeler and Grant Smith with contributions by Robert Benincasa and Dan Klepal -USATODAY

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People - Health - Environment - Trees - Global - Earth - Science - Politics - Book - North Carolina - "Caring for planet increasingly tied to faith groups." ... "Abraham sits at the oaks. Deborah holds court under a palm tree. Moses speaks to a bush." ... ""I would say connecting this to the Bible is important for some people," said Dr. Matthew Sleeth, a former hospital chief of staff who couldn't shake the faces of patients with seemingly increasing environment-related illnesses. So he quit his job, gave away half his belongings and began spreading the word on the urgency of people paying more attention to the environment." ... "Pointing out the symbolism of trees in Scripture has helped Sleeth link faith with personal responsibility. His book, "Serve God and Save the Planet: A Christian Call to Action," is in its seventh printing. Sleeth also has a prominent role in the publication of an upcoming "green Bible."" ... ""The change has come when people who are strong in their faith, who might be against it," Sleeth says of the deterioration of the Earth, "then go look at the Bible with this in mind and they see a different story."" ... "The statewide faith and environment conference that Sleeth will co-headline at Catawba College in Salisbury [North Carolina] this month grew out of a meeting among Greensboro [North Carolina] houses of worship at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. Participants tried to broaden the conversation between the scientific and faith-based communities." ... ""When people realize that there is this direct tie between our own faith and being good stewards of this Earth," said John Wear, founding director of Catawba's Center for the Environment, "then it gives them a purpose that didn't exist before."" -By Nancy McLaughlin -News-Record.com

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CenterForTheEnvironment.org

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Stephen Johnson - Corporate - Government - Politics - Fetal - Human - Health - Science - Environmental - Safety - Enforcement - Emergency - Wildlife - Soil - Water - Law - Manufacturing - History - Michigan - Illinois - "EPA's top Midwest regulator forced out: Mary Gade, based in Chicago [Illinois], says [Republican President] Bush administration made her quit over Dow Chemical case." ... "The Bush administration forced its top environmental regulator in the Midwest to quit Thursday after months of internal bickering about dioxin contamination downstream from Dow Chemical's world headquarters in Michigan." ... "In an interview with the [Chicago] Tribune, Mary Gade said two top officials at the U.S. [United States] Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington stripped her of her powers as regional administrator and told her to quit or be fired by June 1." ... "Gade said she had told the agency she would resign her position, based in Chicago [Illinois]." ... "For the past year, Gade has been locked in a heated dispute with Dow about long-delayed plans to clean up dioxin-saturated soil and sediment that extends 50 miles beyond its Midland, Mich. [Michigan], plant into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron." ... "Gade, a former corporate attorney appointed by Bush in September 2006, invoked emergency powers last year to force Dow to clean up four hot spots of dioxin, including the largest amount of the cancer-causing chemical ever recorded in the United States." ... "In January, Dow urged officials at the EPA's [Environmental Protection Agency's] headquarters to intervene after Gade broke off negotiations intended to renew the terms for a more comprehensive cleanup. Neither side would reveal details, citing confidentiality agreements, but Gade said Dow resisted taking steps needed to protect human health and wildlife." ... "Though regional EPA administrators typically have wide latitude to enforce environmental laws, Gade drew fire from officials in Washington last month after she sent contractors to test soil in a Saginaw [Michigan] neighborhood where Dow had found high dioxin levels." ... "She said top lieutenants to Stephen Johnson, the national EPA administrator, repeatedly questioned her aggressive action against Dow, which long ago acknowledged it is responsible for the dioxin contamination but has resisted federal and state involvement in cleanup plans." ... "Dow dumped dioxin-contaminated waste into the waterways for most of the last century. The chemical, which is so toxic that it is measured in trillionths of a gram, was a manufacturing byproduct of the Vietnam-era herbicide Agent Orange and other chlorinated herbicides." ... "Company documents show Dow knew by the mid-1960s that it could make people sick or even kill them." ... "Citing years of independent studies, the EPA says dioxin can cause cancer, disrupt the immune system and alter fetal development." ... ""We have a responsibility to make sure people are living in a healthy and safe environment," Gade said. "This problem has been out there for more than 30 years, and it's unconscionable that action hasn't been taken."" (1, 2) -By Michael Hawthorne -ChicagoTribune 

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Agriculture - Factory - Companies - Poor - People - Nutrition - Health - US -  - World - Biofuel - Air - Soil - Water - Environment - Animals - Plants - Science - "Shortages Threaten Farmers’ Key Tool: Fertilizer." ... "Some kinds of fertilizer have nearly tripled in price in the last year, keeping farmers from buying all they need. That is one of many factors contributing to a rise in food prices that, according to the United Nations’ World Food Program, threatens to push tens of millions of poor people into malnutrition." ... "Rising demand for food and biofuels prompted farmers everywhere to plant more crops." ... "Fertilizer companies are confident the shortage will be solved eventually, noting that they plan to build scores of new factories. But that will probably create fresh problems in the long run as the world grows more dependent on fossil fuels to produce chemical fertilizers." ... "The demand for fertilizer has been driven by a confluence of events, including population growth, shrinking world grain stocks and the appetite for corn and palm oil to make biofuel. But experts say the biggest factor has been the growing demand for food, especially meat, in the developing world." ... "Fertilizer is plant food, a combination of nutrients added to soil to help plants grow. The three most important are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The latter two have long been available. But nitrogen in a form that plants can absorb is scarce, and the lack of it led to low crop yields for centuries." ... "That limitation ended in the early 20th century with the invention of a procedure, now primarily fueled by natural gas, that draws chemically inert nitrogen from the air and converts it into a usable form." ... "Environmental groups fear increased use, particularly of nitrogen fertilizer made using fossil fuels. Because plants do not absorb all the nitrogen, much of it leaches into streams and groundwater. That runoff has long been recognized as a major pollution problem, and it is growing." ... "A barometer of the pollution is the rising number of dead zones where rivers meet the sea. In the Gulf of Mexico, for instance, nitrogen runoff from fields in the Corn Belt washes downstream and feeds plant life in the gulf. The algae blooms suck oxygen from the water, killing other marine life." (1, 2) -By Keith Bradsher and Andrew Martin -NYTimes 

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Government - Environmental - Science - Politics - Human - Health - Law - Air - Ground - Water - Homes - Workplace - Industry - US - Global - Climate - Free Speech - Censorship - "Interference at the EPA: Science and Politics at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency." ... "The U.S. [United States] Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the simple yet profound charge "to protect human health and the environment."  EPA scientists apply their expertise to protect the public from air and water pollution, clean up hazardous waste, and study emerging threats such as global warming. Because each year brings new and potentially toxic chemicals into our homes and workplaces, because air pollution still threatens our public health, and because environmental challenges are becoming more complex and global, a strong and capable EPA is more important than ever." ... "Yet challenges from industry lobbyists and some political leaders to the agency's decisions have too often led to the suppression and distortion of the scientific findings underlying those decisions—to the detriment of both science and the health of our nation. While every regulatory agency must balance scientific findings with other considerations, policy makers need access to the highest-quality scientific information to make fully informed decisions." ... "Concern over this problem led the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) to investigate political interference in science at the EPA. The investigation combines dozens of interviews with current and former EPA staff, analysis of government documents, more than 1,600 responses to a survey sent to current EPA scientists, and written comments from EPA scientists." ... "The results of these investigations show an agency under siege from political pressures. On numerous issues—ranging from mercury pollution to groundwater contamination to climate change—political appointees have edited scientific documents, manipulated scientific assessments, and generally sought to undermine the science behind dozens of EPA regulations." ... "These findings highlight the need for strong reforms to protect EPA scientists, make agency decision making more transparent, and reduce politicization of the regulatory process. Congress, the next president, and the next EPA Administrator must restore independence and scientific integrity to the EPA by:"

• "   * Protecting EPA Scientists: Scientists should be free to report the distortion, manipulation, and suppression of their work without fear of retribution. Congress should pass a whistleblower law that includes protection for scientists. The EPA should adopt a communications policy that lets scientists speak freely to the press about their findings."
• "   * Making the EPA More Transparent: Too many decisions are made behind closed doors with little accountability. The EPA’s scientific findings should be freely available to the public. The EPA should open up its decision-making process to congressional and public scrutiny to help reveal misuses of science[.]"
• "    * Reforming the Regulatory Process: The White House should not change scientific findings in order to weaken, delay, or prevent new public protections."
• "    * Ensuring Robust Scientific Input to EPA's Decision Making: The EPA should review and strengthen how it uses the scientific expertise of its staff and external advisory committees to create policies—especially when scientific input is critical or required by law."
• "    * Depoliticizing Funding, Monitoring, and Enforcement: Problems with funding, monitoring and enforcement also need to be addressed by Congress and the next President to ensure that the EPA