Month: February 2011

Air-tight, energy-efficient homes kill…

… just hamsters so far, according to this report. But this does make us think of 1970s-era buildings that were built air-tight and then developed sick building syndrome — like the U.S. EPA’s old headquarters at 401 M St., SE, Washington, DC. Watch out for Obama’s weather strippers!

PCB-IVF study fails implantation

Just published online in Environmental Health Perspectives is a study attempting to link failed in vitro fertilization with PCBs. But the researchers ignored the classic multiple comparisons problem. Here, 57 congeners were tested and only one produced significantly elevated dose-dependent odds of failed implantation — less than you’d expect by chance at a 5% error level. Moreover, the association between all PCB congeners and failed implantation wasn’t significant. Finally, the researchers considered no other confounding risk factors for the failed implantation. No wonder this was published in EHP.

Wimp & Sellout Watch No. 7

While we have high hopes that the newly empowered Republican Members of Congress will make every effort to fight the socialization of America, we are also aware that the GOP has an ignominious history of wimping- and/or selling-out, especially on environmental issues. Wimp & Sellout Watch is GreenHellBlog’s effort to spotlight the GOP’s weak links because:

In the 112th Congress, it should take more courage for GOP-ers to retreat than to advance.

Today’s update on potential wimps and sellouts to watch:

House GOP leadership. Greenwire reports,

House Republicans are preparing a two-week government funding bill for debate next week that amounts to a short-term version of the $60 billion in federal cuts they approved last week — but without that longer legislation’s restrictive riders on U.S. EPA and other agencies…

A House GOP aide confirmed that the two-week CR will not include language barring EPA from implementing its politically volatile greenhouse gas emissions rules, its transition to a higher ethanol blend in transportation fuels, its pending limits on water pollution from coal mining operations and other riders that Republicans attached to their seven-month CR before its final passage early Saturday.

Cantor, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and their lieutenants today repeatedly said the newest CR amounts to the GOP’s second attempt to avert a shutdown, compared with the lack of action on a CR in the upper chamber.

“If they walk away from this offer, they are then actively engineering a government shutdown,” Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) told reporters, describing his conference’s new CR as “a commitment to keep the government open” beyond the current funding bill’s expiration. [Emphasis added]

Yeesh…..

Don’t forget to check out previous editions of Wimp & Sellout Watch:

  • No. 6 — Spotlighting Rep. Mike Simpson.
  • No. 5 — Spotlighting Rep. Fred Upton.
  • No. 4 — Spotlighting Rep. Fred Upton.
  • No. 3 — Spotlighting Rep. Mike Simpson.
  • No. 2 — Spotlighting Sens. Lindsey Graham and Rob Portman.
  • No. 1 — Spotlighting Sens. Chuck Grassley, Rob Portman, Lindsey Graham and Scott Brown, and Rep. Fred Upton.

Walmart discounts science on flame retardants

Walmart has announced that, starting June 1, it will begin testing and rejecting its retail inventory for polybrominated diethyl ethers (PBDEs), heretofore used in flame retardants — even though there’s no evidence of harm, plenty of evidence of effectiveness and no government action against PBDEs. The Washington Post labeled this sort of action “retail regulation.”

Bloomberg: PCBs in schools not so dangerous

Faced with a $700 million remediation effort, Mayor Bloomberg says school kids are exposed to more PCBs from a tuna fish sandwich than the light fixtures in city schools. But when cash-strapped New Yorkers turned to local waterways for food in 2009, the Mayor said “common sense” dictated that anglers shouldn’t eat fish from PCB-contaminated water.

NYT: Solar Energy Faces Tests On Greenness

“Just weeks after regulators approved the last of nine multibillion-dollar solar thermal power plants to be built in the Southern California desert, a storm of lawsuits and the resurgence of an older solar technology are clouding the future of the nascent industry.” (New York Times)

Ever thought the greenies are just plain anti-energy?

Fulks: Environmental Issues: What’s Real?

The story of environmentalism is generally portrayed as one of citizens triumphing over evil corporate polluters, of public awareness, science, and affluence working together to solve pressing problems. Continue reading Fulks: Environmental Issues: What’s Real?