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DISPATCHES
Meet the Beetles
 Raw wood pallets and packing crates arriving on ships from China and other countries sometimes contain nasty little surprises. The Asian longhorned beetle, the emerald ash borer, and other invasive pests bore into the raw wood and arrive undetected at U.S. ports. Often they find their way to urban parks and rural forests across the country, wiping out native trees and vegetation. New U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations require that foreign shippers treat raw wood packaging with either heat or methyl bromide, a potent ozone-depleting chemical. Yet the department's own studies show that even when properly applied, neither treatment reliably kills all pests. The new rule will increase methyl bromide use even though the chemical was to have been phased out by 2005 under the Montreal Protocol, the international treaty to protect the ozone layer. NRDC and four states have sued the USDA over the new regulations in federal court in New York City. The suit claims that because pallets and crates can be made out of bug-proof alternatives, such as reusable plastic, the USDA rules violate the National Environmental Policy Act and the Plant Protection Act. And it certainly doesn't make sense to increase the production of methyl bromide while the rest of the world works to get rid of it.
VICTORY
Dredge With Care
 Newark Bay, an inner bay of New York Harbor, is believed to be contaminated with more dioxin than any other waterway in the world. Yet the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have proposed plowing through this highly toxic sediment in order to open the harbor to larger container ships without properly removing the contamination. Last August, a federal district court in New York City ruled that the agency's 10-year, multi-billion-dollar dredging project was, as NRDC had charged, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The plan ignores how the project might interfere with the cleanup of a Superfund site. Dioxin, one of the most potent chemical carcinogens known, was dumped into the Passaic River, which flows into the bay, by a plant that manufactured Agent Orange during the Vietnam War; Newark Bay was named a Superfund site after NRDC threatened to file suit in 2004.
Save a Buck
Starting this year, homeowners who purchase energy efficient appliances, including air conditioners, water heaters, and furnaces, will get a $300 federal tax credit. And business owners will get a break too. Commercial buildings that reduce their annual energy consumption by 50 percent or more will receive a tax deduction of $1.80 per square foot. The incentives are among the few highlights of the otherwise abysmal Energy Policy Act passed by Congress last year. While these provisions will be in effect only until the end of 2007, NRDC is working to have them extended for another three years. "These incentives will encourage long-term energy savings and pollution reduction nationwide," says David Goldstein, codirector of NRDC's energy program. "They will also reduce demand for electricity and, in turn, demand for natural gas." Learn more about
the tax incentives on the Energy Star website.
VICTORY
Truth in Numbers
 The Tongass National Forest covers 17 million acres in southeastern Alaska and is the world's largest intact temperate rain forest. It was spared the ax last August when a unanimous federal appeals court panel agreed with NRDC and struck down the Forest Service's plan to open 2.4 million acres to logging and development. The court ruled that the government's decision to develop roadless areas in the Tongass relied on an exaggeration of the market demand for the forest's trees -- a doubling of the actual demand, in fact. The court declared the plan illegal because it was based on a substantial factual error. The Forest Service has been engaged in a tug-of-war with environmentalists over the Tongass since the agency introduced its logging plan in 1997, despite a steadily shrinking demand for timber and increasing concerns about regional wildlife. The court's decision not only suspends the logging project and requires the agency to develop a new plan for the Tongass, but also means that the Forest Service will have a harder time persuading an already skeptical Congress to continue taxpayer subsidies for Tongass road building.
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"There is no calamity greater than lavish desires.... And there is no greater disaster than greed."
-- Lao-tzu
When Congress reconvened after last summer's recess, its members came together to face a dramatically changed American landscape. Hurricane Katrina had ravaged the Gulf Coast just days earlier, presenting unforeseen challenges and an unparalleled cleanup job. Unfortunately, the hurricane also opened the door for proposed legislation that would grant exemptions from the Clean Water Act and other bedrock laws designed to protect public health -- crucial in an area hit by the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. NRDC responded to the proposed waivers by bringing Gulf Coast activists and hurricane victims to Washington to lobby members of Congress to maintain environmental protections during reconstruction. As of November, the waivers had not been granted, but 2006 will bring more opportunities for further exemptions to slip into new bills.
Katrina also created quite a stir in energy markets, causing gas prices to soar and spurring debate over the perceived need for additional oil refinery capacity. Representative Joe Barton of Texas, chairman of the energy and commerce committee, offered a proposal to increase refinery capacity by effectively repealing the Clean Air Act's "new source review" process for all industries across the entire country. New source review requires power plants and other industrial polluters to upgrade their emissions controls when they modernize their facilities. Barton's proposal also included more oil subsidies and a provision that would allow some cities to push back their deadlines for meeting federal air quality standards by as many as 10 years. There were enough votes to ax the entire package, even after the new source review provision was cut, but after some ugly arm-twisting maneuvers, the bill passed. More plans to weaken the Clean Air Act are already in the works.
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To take action online on these and other environmental issues, visit NRDC's Earth Action Center.
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Photos: peaches, Kazmierski/Shutterstock; crab, Courtesy of USFDA Seafood Products Research Center; Tongass, Courtesy of the Alaska Rainforest
Illustration: Tina Fong
OnEarth. Winter 2006
Copyright 2005 by the Natural Resources Defense Council
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