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Does the Gulf Coast oil drilling disaster mean a gas drilling disaster could happen here? Opponents of natural gas drilling in this region think so. They point to the environmental nightmare to reiterate their call for a moratorium on exploration of the gas-rich Marcellus shale, which sits beneath Sullivan and Ulster counties and Pennsylvania. Right now, permits could be issued by year's end, once the state releases new regulations for the controversial horizontal drilling method of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Related Stories VIDEO: Fracking ProtestWould drilling for gas in Sullivan affect Orange County?Upper Delaware River named 'most endangered' Pennsylvania bans...

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future. George Bernard Shaw Change What did Obama mean when he promised change? He did say it was “Change you can believe in”, but that doesn’t clarify anything. You can believe in change but not understand or agree. Many understood or at least hoped he meant a change to something completely new. Most were more limited and partisan wanting anything but Bush; a view reinforced by Obama’s rhetoric on the campaign trail. Politicians using words or phrases in vague ways that appear full...

WASHINGTON — Congress on Wednesday set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness - from California's Sierra Nevada mountains to the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. The legislation is on its way to President Barack Obama for his likely signature. The House approved the bill, 285-140, the final step in a long legislative road that began last year. The vote came two weeks after the House rejected the bill amid a partisan dispute over gun rights. The measure was brought up again in the Senate and approved last week, setting up Wednesday's vote. The bill...

State health officials need a reality check, a good dose of common sense, public relations training and a lesson in, … well, … feces, especially now that the entire island has become one big toilet that Mother Nature just cannot seem to flush. That of course is thanks to a combination of seven weeks of flash flooding and more than 50 million gallons of raw sewage spewing out of manhole covers, force mains and sewage pipes all around the island. And let’s not forget the 10 years with former Mayor Jeremy Harris in charge of flushing the $100 million sewer...

Nearly 50M Gallons Of Sewage Spill Into Waters Off Waikiki. Leave your name or hometown blank if you do not want it published. KITV-TV 7:15 p.m. HST March 30, 2006 HONOLULU - The massive Waikiki sewage spill has hit nearly 50 million gallons through the Ala Wai Canal and into the ocean, city officials said. State and city crews continued to check the ocean waters near shore and off shore on Thursday. At Ala Moana Beach Park, the Health Department tested oxygen levels and for salinity. "Salinity was still low, indicating there's still a lot of fresh water," said Josh...

BUSHAfter straining relations with major European allies and the United Nations over war in Iraq, Bush has shifted his foreign policy focus to the spread of democracy by pushing a Greater Middle East Initiative that would aim to resolve the region’s political, economic and social problems through democratic reform. The president, criticized for the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, is also pursuing a policy that seeks to unravel the black market in nuclear components and block programs in North Korea and Iran, countries he has labeled an “axis of evil” along with prewar Iraq. KERRYWhile insisting...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is currently promoting a new book, Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy. Kennedy argues that the Bush administration is rolling back decades of environmental laws and regulations. Yet according to the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA), this accusation is patently untrue. "While it is true the Bush administration is not trying to ram through a host of new environmental regulations, it is absurd to suggest they are rolling anything back," said NCPA Senior Fellow...

The Right Conservative Position On The Environment By Robert Locke FrontPageMagazine.com | November 2, 2001 THE WAR ON TERRORISM is rightly dominating ideological discussion, but it would be a mistake to forget other issues. While public attention is elsewhere, ideological shifts can occur which will burst into prominence when terrorism, inevitably, recedes as an issue. Sad irony or no, these attacks have given conservatives an enormous boost; we should use this opportunity to clean up our act on issues where we do poorly with the public. If we do this, we can establish a serious electoral lock on this country...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Most people in Mexico City had never seen anything like this: day after day of panoramic views of distant volcanos through crystalline skies. Unusually windy weather and decades of anti-pollution measures brought the cleanest smog-season air in the capital since officials started keeping records in the mid-1980s. At least 61 days met "satisfactory" standards for ozone levels in the metropolitan area in the first five months of the year, which included much of the annual March-July smoggy season. There were only 80 such days all of last year. Airplanes overhead sometimes seemed so close you could...

RONALD REAGAN, SAGEBRUSH REBEL, REST IN PEACE by William Perry Pendley July 1, 2004 "I am," former Governor Ronald Reagan proudly proclaimed in 1980, "a Sagebrush Rebel." Reagan's common cause with westerners besieged by a host of federal agencies came as no surprise. Forty-four percent of California, which Reagan governed for eight years, is managed by those agencies; thus, he saw hubris, hyperbole, and humor whenever a federal employee declared, "I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help you." When Ronald Reagan was sworn in, he became the first president since the birth of the modern environmental movement...

Greens vs. the Environment By Terry L. Anderson Hoover Institution | May 6, 2004 In the March 2004 issue of Scientific American, National Aeronautics and Space Administration global-warming expert James Hansen notes that greenhouse gas emissions and global-warming projections are "consistently pessimistic." Hansen suggests that projections do not take into account the lower carbon dioxide and methane emissions that have resulted from technological advancements. He explains that the lower carbon dioxide emissions result from increased energy efficiency following the energy crisis in the 1970s and the lower methane emissions, from technological changes in agriculture. Hansen's concludes on an optimistic note,...

MIAMI (AP) -- A judge refused Thursday to throw out federal charges against Greenpeace for protesting a shipment of Amazon mahogany, setting up a trial that could serve as a test on the limits of political dissent. The Justice Department charged the environmental group under an obscure 19th century law enacted to stop pimps from clambering aboard ships heading for port. The government has never successfully prosecuted an activist organization on criminal charges over protest methods. Although U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan allowed the case to move forward, parts of his ruling could give prosecutors reason to be nervous. "This...

JEJU, South Korea - Island "paradise" countries are increasingly threatened by piles of garbage and sewage they don't have the money or space to dispose of, the United Nations (news - web sites) warned Tuesday at a global environment summit. High-Tech Taxes If you've waited this long, why not file online? Get a move on with E-filing tips and tax site comparisons. The new trend is a health and economic hazard and linked to exploding tourism in places like the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, the United Nations said in a report. Garbage now rates among rising sea levels, overfishing...

Despite the best efforts of historian, Niall Ferguson, to demonstrate the better side of the British Empire (see Empire, Basic Books, 2002) the overwhelming view of the American people to colonialism and imperialism is largely negative. So any charge made against a group, individual or government that involves these words is bound to be resisted strongly by the recipient. At recent events in Washington and New York a broad charge of eco-imperialism has been laid at the feet of the environmental movement. Government officials, aid agency bureaucrats, as well as sandal-wearing greens, are blamed for mass disease and death in...

The Earth as a weapon in 21st Century of Wars By Rahab S Hawa While scientists, governments and concerned groups worry about increased industrial emissions of greenhouse gases and its effects on the planet, the role of the military in climate change has been ignored. ‘When environmental crises occur, it is usually only the civilian economy that is called upon to rectify the balance, while military programmes are rarely taken to task,’ says Dr Rosalie Bertell, renowned scientist and nuclear activist. According to her, the military has got away scot-free from responsibility for polluting the environment and ecological disasters. In...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Politicians hail ethanol, the corn-based gasoline additive, as a boon to the environment and a way to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. But ethanol also comes with its own environmental problems and scientists disagree over whether producing ethanol actually uses more fossil energy than it replaces. The Senate this week will decide whether to double the amount of ethanol to be used in gasoline, to 5 billion gallons a year. Critics say the plan is just one more subsidy for corn growers. Supporters make the case that the proposal is essential to an energy policy that...

A look at ethanol as a gasoline additive: An ethyl alcohol made from fermenting and distilling starches from corn and other crops. Used for wide range of purposes from a gasoline additive to making beer and whiskey. Today, 90 percent of ethanol used in gasoline comes from corn. Researchers hope in the future it can be processed from cellulose biomass (grasses and various plant waste). 2.13 billion gallons were made last year, mainly in five states - Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and Indiana. One bushel of corn yields 2.5 gallons of ethanol. Ethanol is more expensive to produce and transport...

PHILADELPHIA - The versatile turkey has been chopped, pressed and processed into foods as diverse as burgers and bacon. Now a Long Island entrepreneur wants to put a turkey in your tank. Brian S. Appel, chief executive of Changing World Technologies, has developed a process for cooking and pressurizing waste turkey parts - and lots of other things - into a golden liquid that can be refined into heating oil, diesel fuel or gasoline. He has attracted the attention of former CIA Director James Woolsey, who says the process can reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. An adviser to Appel's...

Dihydrogen monoxide is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people every year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHMO, but the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide do not end there. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHMO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance. For those who have become dependent, DHMO withdrawal means certain death. Dihydrogen monoxide: is also known as hydroxl acid, and is the major component of acid rain. contributes to the "greenhouse effect." may cause...

<p>The predictions were chilling: As retreating Iraqi forces blew up an estimated 732 Kuwaiti oil wells at the end of the 1991 Gulf War, some high-profile scientists, led by the late Carl Sagan, warned that the infernos could produce a pall of black soot that would reach the stratosphere, circle the planet and remain aloft long enough to trigger a mini-nuclear winter.</p>