Environment

By Kent Holsinger, Contributing Editor

On March 3, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 opinion in Summers v. Earth Island Institute, et. al.  Plaintiffs, five environmental groups, challenged a 238 acre salvage timber sale in the Seqoia National Forest.  Citing the “proper--and properly limited--role of the courts in a democratic society,” Justice Scalia delivered the majority opinion which held plaintiffs had no standing to challenge the U.S. Forest Service regulations absent a showing of a concrete injury related to a particular project.

By Kent Holsinger, Contributing Editor
Environmental groups have begun submitting petitions and filing lawsuits to list hundreds of species at a time under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  These efforts present a marked and disturbing departure from the usual single-species petitions.  If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), or the courts, act upon these “bulk” petitions, the West could be blanketed with ESA listings of obscure plants, insects and animals before the regulated community can even appreciate the risk. 

By Patrick J. Michaels, Cato Institute
Virtually everyone in Washington now says that some type of global warming legislation is going to pass, either late this legislative season, or, more likely, in 2009. The latter is more probable because all the remaining candidates for President have expressed strong support for some type of legislation limiting carbon dioxide emissions.

By Bob Beauprez
Green-mania has been with us for a while, and in the People's Republic of Boulder you can never be green enough. From what we eat, drink, drive, wear, or use to bathe; saving the environment from the ravages inflicted by mankind is the ultimate 24-7-365 challenge. The current issue of Boulder Weekly explains, however, that greenology is no longer only a calling we must answer every day of our life. Now, we are called to go to the grave green, too.