Indonesian loggers called terrorists
Indonesia’s environment minister likened illegal loggers to terrorists for rampant deforestation blamed for a devastating flood on Sumatra island. More than 200 people are dead or missing after a flash flood on the western Indonesian island swept away scores of dwellings, many of which served as guesthouses for tourists. Most of the victims were villagers working in the local tourist industry. Longgena Ginting, executive director of Indonesia’s largest environmental group, said that 20% of the national park overlooking Bukit Lawang, was deforested. Unchecked logging in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago with 210 million inhabitants, disrupts the natural absorption and flow of rainwater from the highlands, triggering floods and landslides. (Associated Press)

EPA drops cases against dozens of alleged polluters
The Bush administration has dropped enforcement actions against dozens of coal-fired power plants that were under investigation for violating the Clean Air Act and allegedly spewing thousands of tons of illegal pollutants into the air. The only violations of the old rule that will be prosecuted are seven cases against electric utilities already in court. A provision of the Clean Air Act that requires companies to install modes of pollution controls when they build, expand or modernize plants has been eased. The new plan allows companies to spend 20% of the cost of a polluting unit on repairing and modernizing it before being required to install new controls. (Los Angeles Times)

House exempts Department of Defense from key environmental laws
Tucked away in the defense authorization bill passed by the House of Representatives were Bush administration-sponsored provisions exempting the Defense Department from complying with the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Karen Wayland, acting legislative director for Natural Resources Defense Council stated, “Exempting the Pentagon from these laws will allow the military to threaten whales, dolphins and other marine mammals with sonar and underwater explosives, and destroy the habitat of the endangered birds and mammals that live on the 25 million acres it controls across the country — with next to no environmental review.”(Natural Resources Defense Council)

Rule drafted that would dilute the Clean Water Act
Bush administration officials have drafted a rule that would significantly narrow the scope of the Clean Water Act, stripping many wetlands and streams of federal pollution controls and making them available to be filled for commercial development.
The rule, spelled out in an internal document released to the LA Times by a senior government official, says that Clean Water Act protection would no longer be provided to “ephemeral washes or streams” that do not have groundwater as a source. Streams that flow for less than six months a year would also lose protection, as could up to 20 million acres of wetlands.
Julie Sibbing, a wetlands policy expert at the National Wildlife Federation, said, “It’s like writing off the entire Southwest from the Clean Water Act... . Up to 80 percent to 90 percent of streams in the Southwest would not fall under the Clean Water Act if this rule were to go forward.” (Los Angeles Times)

US to seek support for broad ozone exemptions
The United States and 180 other countries began a weeklong meeting in Nairobi to reconsider the Montreal Protocol, a 1987 treaty eliminating a host of ozone-destroying substances.
Senior American environmental, agricultural and State Department officials have been urging their counterparts around the world to support the exemption of the pesticide methyl bromide. The exemption would cause a substantial increase in American use of the chemical after a long decline.
Critics of the proposed exemptions, led by the European Union, say the American request threatens progress toward repairing the ozone layer, which shields the earth from radiation that causes cancers and other problems.
Marten Barel, a Dutch consultant who develops methyl bromide substitutes in poor countries for the United Nations, said options are safe and affordable.
“For many years I used methyl bromide myself as a fumigator in the Netherlands,” Barel said. “But the government decided to phase it out for safety reasons in the 1980’s. We all complained bitterly, predicting it would be the end of the world for farming. But we did manage to adopt alternatives, and after a couple of years no one wanted to go back.”(New York Times)

Group files lawsuit to block Duke reactor re-licensing
On November 4, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDEL) filed a lawsuit to challenge the license renewal for Duke Energy’s Catawba and McGuire nuclear power stations. The legal petition to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeks to reverse the recent 2-1 decision of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
Diane Curran, BREDL’s attorney who drafted the petition, said: “BREDL has brought this lawsuit for one simple purpose — to obtain complete information about the risks posed by a pair of dangerous nuclear power plants, and what can be done to mitigate the risks. We believe the devil is in the details, and that we and the public are entitled to see Duke’s assessment of the real risks.”
Another major concern is BREDL’s contention that Duke failed to provide an uncertainty analysis regarding station blackout at these two power stations. The suit requests a thorough analysis from Duke rather than a cursory response and affirms that Duke must prove that the McGuire and Catawba reactors can operate with certainty and safety. (Blue Ridge Environmental
Defense League)