Environmental Roundup

What’s In Your Water? or How Enviros Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Nuclear Power

By Matt Singer, 5-16-05

It's 9:40 AM. Do you know what's in your water? The Clark Fork Coalition does. The Missoulian reports on the watershed that houses 1/3 of Montana's population. Meanwhile, in the Klamath Basin, conservationists and tribal leaders may be starting the next great Western fight by calling for market rates for electricity used for irrigation, as a means to protect Salmon populations, according to the Idaho Falls Post Register.

On the energy front, The New York Times reports that a handful of prominent enviros have come out in favor of nuclear power as a means of reducing greenhouse gases while the Idaho Statesman reports that the head of Idaho's Water Resources Department is warning of higher temperatures, smaller snowpack, and earlier runoff in that state. The Christian Science Monitor is reporting that oil companies are eyeing more than just ANWR in Alaska.

In wildlife news, Colorado is eyeing measures to protect grouse while Governors Owens, R-Colorado, and Guinn, R-Nevada, use the experience to call for loosening of the Endangered Species Act by giving states a larger role.

The Idaho Falls Post Register calls for conservationists to work Congressman Mike Simpson on a Wilderness Bill that has something for everyone -- enviros, motorized enthusiasts, and developers. Is this yet another true "multiple use" proposal? It appear that it may be.

Finally, Flagstaff voters will be referending tomorrow on a proposal to regulate big box stores. Wal-Mart, a major opponent of the referendum, opposed the referendum with advertisements comparing the proposal to Nazi book-burning. Wal-Mart has since apologized, admitting it was a "terrible" decision to run the ad. Right. Always low standards. Always.

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