EPA in Court and on the Hill

Even as the Environmental Protection Agency tries to convince the U.S. Supreme Court that it shouldn’t be regulating greenhouse gas emissions (see these articles in the LA Times and Boston Globe on yesterday’s high court argument), the agency is backing down from a proposal that would have eased reporting requirements on companies that handle or release toxic chemicals, according to the Washington Post.

Apparently, it took a teeny bit of arm-twisting from Democratic senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez. They threatened to block Bush nominee Molly O’Neill’s confirmation as head the EPA’s Office of Environmental Information if the agency went through with its plan to cut back on annual reporting requirements for the Toxics Release Inventory.

The Post reports that, in response, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson wrote the senators to tell them that he is revising the proposal to keep the annual reporting requirement. “Your perspective on the program is invaluable to us,” Johnson wrote.

Lautenberg said he will no longer hold up O’Neill’s nomination, but will fight any attempts to weaken the toxin-reporting requirements.

“Unlike the last six years, the Bush administration will no longer get a free pass from Congress,” he said in a statement.

Give Peace a Chance

Homeowners’ associations are often equated with hassle. And when you read stuff like this, you can see why.

It’s bad enough that someone could find a wreath in the shape of a peace symbol to be “politically divisive,” but what knucklehead would think it was a sign of the devil?

Supremes to Hear Greenhouse Gas Case

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments tomorrow in Massachusetts v. EPA, in which 12 states and most of the country’s major environmental groups are arguing that the federal government should be regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act.

The EPA is arguing that greenhouse gases aren’t air pollutants, and thus aren’t subject to regulation. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, however, the Clean Air Act defines a pollutant as “a potentially harmful physical or chemical substance emitted into the air.” The states and enviro groups argue that greenhouse gases fit neatly within that definition.

But wait–the EPA and its backers counter that it’s not that simple. They claim the Clean Air Act is “not appropriate for addressing a global problem believed to be caused by . . . a wide range of human activity and natural processes around the world.” The agency goes on to say that, even if greenhouse gases were pollutants, federal regulation would be “premature at best and might cause more harm than good.”

The feds are arguing that a nation regulating greenhouse gas on its own “may bear a substantial economic burden but will receive only a small share of any resulting benefit,” allowing other countries (“particularly developing countries”) to get a “‘free ride’ from expensive regulation self-imposed by other nations.”

And, gee, what a shame it would be for one of the wealthiest countries in the world to shoulder some of the economic burden for reducing greenhouse gas emissions currently being shared by signatories to the Kyoto Protocol. So much for think globally, act locally.

Towering Troubles for Migratory Birds

The LA Times reports that cellphone and television towers are attracting, disorienting and killing millions of migratory birds every year. The birds swarm toward the tower lights, confusing them with navigational stars, then circle the towers in a trance until they either crash into something or drop from exhaustion.

The problem’s gotten so serious, the Federal Communications Commission is considering new tower regulations. Among other things, the FCC is proposing that new and modified towers be equipped with white strobe lights instead of the non-blinking red ones now on most towers, on the theory that red light waves may interfere with the birds’ internal compasses and that blinking lights have a less hypnotic effect on them.

This problem is not new; it also occurred with early lighthouses. However, increased demand for towers to accommodate cellphones and other devices have caused annual migratory bird deaths to climb into the millions.

Just another reason to hate cellphones.

LA Palming Off the Palms?

What could be more emblematic of Southern California than the palm tree? But the NY Times reports that the City of Los Angeles is taking steps to get rid of them, due to the high cost of caring for them.

The plan is to replace old, dying palms (and, apparently, many of them are reaching the end of their lives) with sycamores, crape myrtles and other indigenous trees. Palm trees are not indigenous to SoCal, but were planted there in the 1950s by land barons who considered them a symbol of easy living.

So I guess, as an environmentalist, I should be happy. But as a former resident of the Golden State, I cry “Sacrilege!”

Graphic Novels for Girls

In May, DC Comics plans to launch Minx, a new line of graphic novels aimed at young adult female readers, according to the NY Times. These cartoon novels, which have been marketed primarily to young males in the past, will be written to appeal to teenage girls.

DC will issue six titles in 2007. The stories will be very different from the usual male-oriented tales featuring superheroes, including (in one editor’s words) “teen-girl superheroes who are drawn like Victoria’s Secret models.” Some examples from the new line include stories about a London party girl who solves a mystery, a Korean-American teenager in California who practices martial arts, and a young woman who meets three versions of herself at different ages.

Life as a ‘Ladder of Years’

I’ve read and enjoyed many Anne Tyler books. DINNER AT THE HOMESICK RESTAURANT has always been my favorite. I just finished LADDER OF YEARS and it almost manages to, but does not quite, surpass HOMESICK RESTAURANT as my top Tyler pick.

In this book, Tyler indulges the reader with a “starting over” fantasy. Her protagonist, Baltimore housewife Delia Grinstead simply walks away from her family while they’re vacationing at the Delaware shore and on impulse catches a ride inland to Bay Borough, a small Eastern Shore town chosen at random, where she proceeds (almost on autopilot, it seems) to find a room, a job and a new life.

There’s so much about LADDER OF YEARS that’s quintessentially Anne Tyler: the crazy extended family, who are either still living in or can’t quite separate themselves emotionally from the house in Baltimore where they grew up; the rich complexity of each new character Delia encounters as she sets about beginning her life over “from scratch” in the guise of her new alter-ego, “Miss Grinstead”; the priceless descriptions of people and those odd, funny or uncomfortable moments that occur between them.

Delia’s adventures make an engrossing journey of self-discovery, but LADDER OF YEARS is about choices, and Delia eventually must choose between her old life in Baltimore and her new one in Bay Borough. Unfortunately, the ending comes off a bit too pat and leaves so much unresolved, it took some of the high gloss off this story for me. But it’s still a great read that came so close to being my new favorite Anne Tyler book that I’d give it four stars out of five.

Coping Through Hoping

As a dystonia sufferer, I can tell you that it’s a condition that flat out sucks. All the little things I used to be able to do without effort or thought–well, they require effort and thought now, and usually cause a good deal of pain and spasticity in the execution. Tying my shoelaces, typing this blog entry, cutting a piece of meat–they all require a level of manual dexterity I can barely manage with my left hand. I end up washing my hair one-handed these days, because any movement in the left hand sends it into spasms. I even type one-handed, when the clenching gets to be more than I can bear. There’s no AMA-recognized cure for this, but I’m exploring all sorts of options for managing the condition, in both the traditional and alternative medicine realms. My mood tends to go up and down about these things and lately, it’s been down.

Then I saw this article by Joel Havemann of the LA Times about his struggle with Parkinson’s. Under the headline it reads: “I’ve had Parkinson’s for 16 years, and I know I’m never going to get better. But I still have a life worth hanging onto. And that is enough.” Well, he had me with that opener. I simply had to read on. I wanted to know what this guy’s secret was–what kept him going.

I read with total sympathy about the difficulties he has simply folding his pants. Havemann also described other problems that so far outstrip mine, I look like a wimp for complaining at all. I took comfort in the knowledge that he’s not the religious sort, because I know I’m not. So what’s the secret? He said what kept him going was hope, but not hope in the sense of a Pollyana-ish optimism. He called it a “realistic, look-the-future-in-the-face kind of hope.” I like that. He goes on to say, “Hope, for me, is a state of mind, not focused on a particular prospect but rather attached to something more amorphous, less definable.” Not a chirpy kind of happiness, but a recognition of the possible good things to come.

Anyway, I just want to thank Joel Havemann for writing this article. It’s put a lot into perspective for me and provided food for thought on Thanksgiving.

Robert Altman RIP

Robert Altman’s dead and the film industry is much the poorer for that loss. He made movies that were uniquely and defiantly his own. Even when they misfired, they did so in such an eccentric, interesting way, you could forgive him the gaffe.

You could always tell a Robert Altman film. They were so often studies in well-orchestrated chaos. All those characters rushing about, talking simultaneously or muttering offhand remarks you couldn’t hear for the laughter from the previous line.

His breakthrough movie, “M*A*S*H”, is a good example. He could also make a film replete with big name actors and interwoven plots of labyrinthine complexity, like “Nashville” and “A Wedding”. And he never met a genre he couldn’t bend to his own will. He did it with the cozy Brit murder mystery in “Gosford Park”. He did it with the western in “McCabe & Mrs. Miller”. He even did his own loopy updated version of the hardboiled detective story “The Long Goodbye”. He also took hilarious potshots at his own industry in “The Player”.

There aren’t too many big-name auteurs left in the film biz, but he was definitely one of them. You can read more about Altman and his career in The Washington Post, the NY Times and the LA Times.

OSHA Puts Brakes on Asbestos Warning

The Baltimore Sun reports that an OSHA scientist is being threatened with a 10-day unpaid suspension if he doesn’t retract an advisory bulletin posted online about asbestos in brakes. The scientist, Ira Wainless, has refused, citing dozens of studies, including work at OSHA, that shows asbestos presents a medical risk to mechanics.

Although the head of OSHA and others say the warnings aren’t needed because asbestos is no longer used in the United States, this–well–isn’t exactly true. The Sun reports that OSHA itself has internal memoranda noting the continued use of asbestos brake pads and linings in some domestic automobiles, as well as the risks from asbestos of cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma.

Reminds me of that old saying. “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.” What they don’t tell you is who they’re trying to help.