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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
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John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama today.
"2008 pres"
6:08:19 PM 
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Dirk Kempthorne and the Bush administration surprised us today by placing the polar bear on the threatened species list. Will this actually drive some climate change research and response? We'll see. From ZDNet: "The U.S. Department of Interior has just listed the polar bear as a 'threatened' species, that is legally and technically different than being listed as 'endangered.' The Feds based their announcement on studies by government scientists. Global warming is reducing Arctic sea ice off the Alaskan and Canadan coasts. This is expected to result in two-thirds of the polar bears disappearing by mid-century. Polar bears depend on polar ice floes to aid their hunting of seals and other under-ice prey. Without the arctic ice sheets the polar bears are not going to be able to find food, according to the predictions. Not every polar bear can live at the city landfill in Churchill on Hudson's Bay."
Harry Fuller: "I spoke briefly with Andrew Wetzler, he's Director of the Endangered Species Project with the Natural Resources Defense Council. He said today's polar bear decision is a watershed event. It means the federal government has now openly acknowledged the effects of global in the Arctic. How big a deal is this? Real big, as in big business. Bloomberg News caters to the moneyed and professional investor. Their headline says it all, "Polar Bear Is First Species Protected Because of Climate Change." And this has happened while Dick Cheney is still in office. Can you foresee what could happen in 2009?
Here's the Interior press release.
"2008 pres"
5:50:27 PM
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Juan Cole: "No sooner had the truce between the Mahdi Army and the US & Iraqi military been signed than it appeared to break down. Clashes broke out Monday night into Tuesday morning between the Mahdi Army militiamen and US troops, leaving 11 Iraqis dead and 20 wounded. The militia also targeted some government ministries with mortar fire."
"2008 pres"
5:46:02 PM
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Congratulations to SquareState.net for being chosen as the Colorado member of the State Blogger Corps for the 2008 Democratic Convention. SquareState is a daily read.
"2008 pres"
5:39:03 PM
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Here's an update on uranium mining in southwestern Colorado from The Cortez Journal. From the article:
More than 6,500 new uranium claims were filed on Dolores Public Lands last year, as prospectors and corporations reacted to a sharp increase in uranium prices by laying claim to the mineral resource. The claims are located on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property administered by the Dolores Public Lands office, primarily in northwest Dolores and southwest San Miguel counties. In Dolores County, uranium claims are up from 396 in 2006 to 5,399 in 2007, the latest year for which data is available. In San Miguel County, claims were at 1,119 in 2006 and 2,633 in 2007. Information for the number of claims filed in Montezuma County was not available Monday, but Dolores Public Lands Manager Steve Beverlin said he did not believe there were many.
Most of the claims filed in 2007 are not active, Beverlin said. He only knew of a couple of claims that were being actively mined, likely those owned by Denison Mines Corp. Denison, the uranium mining company that owns the White Mesa Uranium Mill in Blanding, Utah, opened three mines in San Miguel County in 2007, said Ron Hochstein, president and chief operating officer of the company. "It's new activity," he said. In late April of this year, Denison began shipping material from the new mines, which are underground operations, to the White Mesa mill. This is the first time since 1999 the mill has processed conventional ore, Hochstein said. The mill processes 2,000 tons of ore a day, and Hochstein expects it to produce between 1.4 and 1.7 million pounds of uranium in the form of yellowcake, or U3O8, this year. Last year, the mill produced about 100,000 pounds of uranium from sources known as alternate feedstocks, which are substances like mill tailings from other decommissioned mills and mining sites. The total amount of uranium produced in the United States last year was just over 4 million pounds, Hochstein said. That uranium was mostly produced by in situ uranium mines, which remove uranium directly from the ground, eliminating the ore processing step that mills traditionally perform...
Denison's mines are located in Big Gypsum Valley, and most of the mining claims are on Bureau of Land Management property in that valley and in the Lower Dolores River corridor around Slickrock, Beverlin said...
Global supply of uranium has dropped as old stocks are used up, while demand has steadily increased, Hochstein said. Denison, which runs the only operating uranium mill in the United States, sells its uranium to utility companies in Asia and Europe.
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
"2008 pres"
5:37:47 PM
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Political Wire: "With a week until Oregon's primary, a new Public Policy Polling survey finds Sen. Barack Obama ahead of Sen. Hillary Clinton, 53% to 39%."
Political Wire: "With one week until the primary, a new SurveyUSA poll in Oregon finds Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. Hillary Clinton, 54% to 43%."
Political Wire: "A new Portland Tribune poll in Oregon finds Sen. Barack Obama "has amassed a nearly insurmountable lead" in advance of next week's primary. Obama leads Sen. Hillary Clinton by 20 points, 55% to 35%, among likely Democratic voters."
Political Wire: "A new Quinnipiac poll finds both Democratic presidential candidates beating Sen. John McCain in a general election match up. Sen. Barack Obama beats McCain, 47% to 40%, while Sen. Hillary Clinton is in front, 46% to 41%."
"2008 pres"
5:35:42 PM
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David Roberts (via grist): "It comes as no surprise that the focus is on a cap-and-trade program, something McCain has supported for five years. In fact, there is virtually no mention of any emission reduction policies outside of cap-and-trade -- no efficiency or fuel economy mandates, no electrical utility decoupling, no mention of public transit. McCain obviously retains his conservative allergy to regulation and public spending. There is some discussion of funding research and incentivizing market deployment of new technology, but the details are tantalizingly vague."
Be sure to click through. There is a lot of discussion about McCain's plan, its utility and potential effectiveness. Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link.
Daily Kos: "The plan that McCain offers turns out to be an extremely weak one, one that's even less effective than the completely inadequate Lieberman-Warner Bill...So what is in McCain's proposal that differentiates him from Bush? Not much. In fact, the same article notes that McCain's positions puts him 'slightly right of center' on the climate change issue, which apparently means that McCain is willing to admit that climate change is a problem, but not willing to make any substantive suggestion on how to address the issue. What the Times article doesn't mention is that back in 2000, candidate Bush also said the climate change was an issue and pledged to regulate CO2. It wasn't until after his election that that cuddly, caring, compassionate conservative Bush's positions gave way to the standard GOP line."
"2008 pres"
5:34:45 PM
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From Examiner.com: "Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said Tuesday that he will introduce a bill to slow down moves toward commercial oil shale development in the region. His announcement came the same day that an amendment intended to speed up oil shale development died in the Senate. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., co-sponsored the amendment. Salazar's proposal would provide another year to analyze a plan to open nearly 2 million acres of federal land to development in western Colorado, eastern Utah and southwest Wyoming. It would allow a year for development of a commercial leasing program after the analysis is finished."
More Coyote Gulch coverage here and here.
"2008 pres"
6:28:19 AM
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© Copyright 2009 John Orr.
Last update: 3/15/09; 2:25:24 PM.
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