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Duke Energy’s coal-ash spill has utterly ruined a river

by Sylvesterax6 Posted on February 6, 2014

Duke Energy’s coal-ash spill has utterly ruined a river

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Experts have only just started getting a handle on the environmental and health impacts of Sunday’s spill of tens of thousands of tons of toxic coal ash from a shuttered coal plant in North Carolina. But you don’t need to be an expert to see that the spill into Dan River has done a lot of damage.  The pictures, videos, and personal accounts of the spill are astonishing in their grotesqueness. The AP reports:

An Associated Press reporter canoed downstream of the spill at the Dan River Steam Station and saw gray sludge several inches deep, coating the riverbank for more than two miles. The Dan had crested overnight, leaving a distinctive gray line that contrasted with the brown bank like a dirty ring on a bathtub.

[Brian] Williams, a program manager with the Dan River Basin Association, worried that the extent of the damage might not be fully understood for years.

“How do you clean this up?” he said, shaking his head as he churned up the ash with his paddle. “Dredge the whole river bottom for miles? You can’t clean this up. It’s going to go up the food chain, from the filter feeders, to the fish, to the otters and birds and people. Everything in the ecosystem of a river is connected.”

Before the spill, Duke Energy had insisted that its coal-ash dump sites posed no environmental threats. Now the company is still trying to figure out how to plug the gaping hole in a pipeline that allowed coal residue to flood out of holding ponds and into the river. From Bloomberg:

Duke’s priority is to stop the leak, Meghan Musgrave, a spokeswoman for the largest U.S. utility owner in Charlotte, said yesterday in a telephone interview. The rate of spillage declined Feb. 4 after the pond emptied and has fluctuated since then because of rain and repairs, Musgrave said. Duke estimates that the pond contained 992,000 tons of ash and that about 10 percent has spilled, she said.

Here are two different views of the mess the spill created:


Source
NC River Turns to Gray Sludge After Coal Ash Spill, AP
Duke Energy Battles to Halt Leak Amid Coal-Ash Regulatory Review, Bloomberg

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Duke Energy’s coal-ash spill has utterly ruined a river

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Hundreds of scientists urge EPA to reject Pebble Mine

by Collette77S Posted on February 6, 2014

Hundreds of scientists urge EPA to reject Pebble Mine

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Friends of Bristol Bay

Nice spot for a monstrous mine?

You don’t need to be a scientist to realize that allowing a mammoth gold and copper mine to tear up sensitive habitat near Alaska’s Bristol Bay would be a dreadful idea. But being a scientist sure would help you articulate the dangers of the plan — and do so with loads of credibility.

Fortunately, hundreds of scientists with backgrounds in ecology and natural resource-related disciplines have done just that. On Tuesday, 360 of them sent a letter to the EPA calling for the Pebble Mine proposal to be rejected, and thanking the agency for its recent assessment that found the mine would inflict severe damage on waterways, wildlife, fisheries, and Native Alaska cultures.

From the letter:

[W]e are very concerned about the prospect of large-scale mining in the unique and biologically rich watersheds of southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay. …

In our view, the [EPA’s] final Watershed Assessment aptly identifies the outstanding ecological and cultural values at risk from a mine on the scale of the Pebble discovery or from other mine operations that would likely follow. The Bristol Bay area, especially the Nushagak and Kvichak river watersheds, the headwaters of three other pristine rivers, and the largest undeveloped lake on Earth, is one of the most productive landscapes on the continent. Undeveloped watersheds are a rarity throughout the world and Bristol Bay’s watersheds support a world-class salmon fishery, which includes all five salmon species native to Alaska and the largest sockeye salmon runs in the world.

So far, all the EPA has done is release an assessment saying that the Pebble Mine would make a terrible mess. The company proposing to build the mine hasn’t even applied for permits yet.

The cosigners of the letter, as well as activists and concerned Alaskans, are calling for the EPA to be proactive and use its authority under the Clean Water Act to block the mine proposal before it goes any further.


Source
Hundreds of scientists sign letter urging EPA to act against Pebble, Anchorage Daily News

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Is fracking pollution deforming babies?

by Jolie4596sak Posted on February 5, 2014

Is fracking pollution deforming babies?

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Shutterstock

When frackers operate, they produce pollution that’s been linked to birth defects — volatile organic compounds, benzene, nitrogen oxides, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, among other nasties.

And now new research has found higher incidences of birth defects in babies born near some fracking areas. 

The Colorado School of Public Health funded research by university and state scientists that looked for any correlations between fracking operations and nearby rates of congenital heart defects, neural tube defects, and oral clefts. The researchers analyzed 124,842 births between 1996 and 2009 in rural Colorado and compared them with locations of known fracking wells.

The results, published late last month by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, suggest that being pregnant near a fracking site is a bad idea.

“[W]e observed an association between density and proximity of natural gas wells within a 10-mile radius of maternal residence and prevalence of CHD [congenital heart defects] and possibly NTD [neural tube defects],” the scientists concluded in their paper.

Mothers who lived near fracking hotspots with the most wells were twice as likely to give birth to a baby with a neural tube defect as were those who lived at least 10 miles from the nearest well. Those same mothers were 30 percent more likely to bear a child with a congenital heart defect. Such birth defects are leading causes of infant mortality.

The research revealed a correlation between fracking operations and birth defects, but stopped short of concluding that the frackers are actually causing the health problems. Still, this aligns with previous findings by other scientists, like research we told you about last month, which found that babies born near fracking sites in Pennsylvania were more likely than others to have a range of health problems.

The NRDC’s Miriam Rotkin-Ellman puts the latest findings into context:

This is the first published peer reviewed study realistically examining whether people living near sites where fracking has occurred are experiencing more health impacts. The fact that it found a statistically significant association is very worrisome, especially in combination with early reports of similar findings from a study in Pennsylvania. Although these types of studies can’t tell us definitively that pollution from oil and gas wells is the cause of the elevated birth defects, the findings of this study are like a flashing light saying something is going on here and we need to take action to make sure our most vulnerable are protected. …

This study confirms that there are serious concerns about health risks of living near fracking sites and that much more research is needed to fully understand the risks and how, and if, they can be mitigated. The findings of this study suggest that the explosion of oil [and] gas development in close proximity to people’s homes and without adequate assessment, monitoring, and pollution controls could be resulting in harm to human health.

That’s fracked up.


Source
Birth Outcomes and Maternal Residential Proximity to Natural Gas Development in Rural Colorado, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
New Study Finds Worrisome Pattern of Birth Defects in Fracking Communities, NRDC Switchboard

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Is fracking pollution deforming babies?

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Step right up, Big Coal, for America’s Big Coal Giveaway

by WalkerMcIntyre Posted on February 5, 2014

Step right up, Big Coal, for America’s Big Coal Giveaway

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It’s bad enough that the federal government leases out public lands to private companies to be torn up and mined for coal. Even worse is that the feds are ripping off taxpayers in the process, leasing the coal tracts at way-below-market prices, through a totally inept program, according to a new federal study.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has leased 107 coal-laden tracts of land to mining companies since 1990, recently generating about $1 billion a year for federal coffers. Coal mining on federal land accounts for two-fifths of the 1 billion tons of coal mined every year in the U.S. Less coal is being burned in the U.S. these days, but it still produces about 40 percent of the nation’s electricity. Meanwhile, coal exports are growing.

Auctions for the coal-tract leases attract few bidders, and a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office is the latest reminder that the feds are selling the public short by accepting lowball offers.

Of the 107 coal-tract leases, 96 were sold to the only bidder — often to a company that was already mining for coal nearby:

GAO

The government is under no obligation to accept the lowball bids, but it appears to be doing so anyway because of systemic failures within BLM to properly estimate fair market value. The GAO found that some bureau offices failed to follow procedures, seek independent advice, or consider future market conditions when estimating market value. And when the bureau sold America’s assets at fire-sale prices, it “did not consistently document the rationale for accepting bids that were initially below the fair market value,” according to the report.

“Taxpayers are likely losing out so that coal companies can reap a windfall,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who asked the GAO to conduct the study. Markey’s office estimates that hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars may have been lost to coal companies through these bargain leases.

Following publication of the GAO report on Tuesday, Markey and environmentalists called on the federal government to suspend new coal leases until it can be sure it will get fair prices for them.

Of course, it would be even better for the U.S. to stop coal mining on federal land entirely — something that President Obama might consider were he to take his own rhetoric about climate change seriously.

On that note, here’s how Rolling Stone describes the administration’s muddled coal policy in a must-read article titled “How the U.S. Exports Global Warming”:

With the freefall in domestic [coal] demand, industry giants like Peabody are desperate to turn American coal into a global export — targeting booming Asian economies that are powering their growth with dirty fuel. China now consumes nearly as much coal as the rest of the world combined, and its demand is projected to grow by nearly 40 percent by the end of the decade. “China’s demand,” according to William Durbin, head of global markets for the energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, “will almost single-handedly propel the growth of coal.”

Since Obama took office, American coal exports are up more than 50 percent. … [T]he administration opened up more than 300 million tons of coal in the Powder River Basin to bidding by the coal companies last year. The coal is on government land; it belongs to the public. Yet the leasing practices of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are so flawed that one independent study estimates that taxpayers have been fleeced of $30 billion over the past three decades. In the past, that stealth subsidy to Big Coal at least helped create cheap power for American homes and businesses. Today, the administration has put American taxpayers in the position of subsidizing coal destined to fuel the growth of our nation’s fiercest, and carbon-filthiest, economic rival.

In an era of climatic craziness and growing clean energy capacity, the last thing Americans should be subsidizing is coal mining.


Source
BLM Could Enhance Appraisal Process, More Explicitly Consider Coal Exports, and Provide More Public Information, GAO
How the U.S. Exports Global Warming, Rolling Stone

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Step right up, Big Coal, for America’s Big Coal Giveaway

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U.N. warns us to eat less meat and lay off biofuels, or we’re in for it

by 4q4cv8v Posted on January 27, 2014

U.N. warns us to eat less meat and lay off biofuels, or we’re in for it

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We’re overconsuming ourselves into environmental oblivion.

Farming will eliminate forests, plains, and other wild areas nearly the size of Brazil by 2050 around the world if we can’t mend our agricultural, dietary, and biofuel-burning ways. This unsustainable drive for more growing land will result in rising hunger and more frequent riots as food prices increase.

That’s the salty prognosis in a new report by scientists working for the U.N.’s International Resource Panel.

The amount of farmland has increased 11 percent since the 1960s, as growers struggle to meet growing populations’ ballooning demands for food and biofuel, according to the report. About 1.5 billion hectares, or 3.7 billion acres, is now being used globally to produce crops, and that figure continues to grow. Making matters worse, about a quarter of the world’s soils are degraded, which reduces the amount of crops that can be grown in them.

“Growing demand for food and non-food biomass will lead to an expansion of global cropland; yield growth will not be able to compensate for the expected surge in global demand,” the report states. “Cropland expansion at the cost of tropical forests and savannahs induces severe changes in the living environment with uncertain repercussions.”

What may be hardest for some of the world’s poorest and hungriest residents to stomach is the vast amount of farmland that’s being dedicated to growing crops for biofuels and for animal feed.

“One of our key challenges is overusing agricultural land for growing meat,” said report lead author Robert Howarth of Cornell University. “We don’t need to become complete vegetarians, but to put this into context and to help sustain feeding a burgeoning global population, we need to reduce our meat consumption by 60 percent — which is about 1940s era levels.”

The report lays out the malnourishing consequences of the worldwide shift toward biofuels, which eat into the proportion of croplands that can be used to feed humans. “In light of global efforts to increase food security, markets for food and fuel should be decoupled,” the report says. “This implies, for instance, reducing biofuel quotas.”

If current trends continue, by 2050, when the world population is expected to be greater than 9 billion people, between 320 and 849 million hectares of natural land would have been converted to cropland, according to the report. The upper end of that estimate approaches the size of Brazil. The lower end is twice what the scientists behind the report consider to be safe.

But there is hope. Here are some highlights from the report:

[G]ross expansion of croplands by 2050 could be limited to somewhere between 8 per cent and 37 per cent, provided a multi-pronged strategy is followed for meeting the food, energy and other requirements of the global economy. …

The authors believe global net cropland area could safely increase to up to 1,640 million hectares by 2020. While they recognize there is still great potential in increasing yields in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, the authors highlight new opportunities to steer consumption towards levels of sustainability, particularly in high-consuming regions.

[T]he improvement of diets to enhance efficiency in biomass use and its substitutes, delinking the biofuels and food markets, the reduction of food loss and waste, the control of biomaterials consumption; with improved land management and restoration of degraded land, may allow us to save 161 to 319 million hectares of land by 2050.

Oh, and one more big-ticket item: We need to stop wasting so much damned food! “Reducing unsustainable demand can be achieved in a number of innovative ways,” the report says. “This includes aiding consumers to cut out wasteful and excessive consumption behaviors, improving efficiency across the life-cycle of agricultural commodities, and increasing the efficiency with which land-based resources are used.”


Source
Assessing Global Land Use: Balancing Consumption with Sustainable Supply, International Resource Panel
U.N. report sounds alarm on farming land-use crisis, Cornell Chronicle

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Illinois petcoke rules coming, but not as fast as governor wants

by TerryQnhtwe Posted on January 25, 2014

Illinois petcoke rules coming, but not as fast as governor wants

By

Josh Mogerman

Last month, Chicago proposed rules that would crack down on big, filthy, uncovered piles of petroleum coke , or “petcoke.” Now the state of Illinois is following suit, though its process isn’t moving along as quickly as Gov. Pat Quinn (D) had been hoping.

Residents of Chicago’s Southeast Side have been complaining for months about looming deposits of petcoke, a byproduct that piles up as refineries process growing amounts of Canadian tar-sands oil. The petcoke blows up from piles along the Calamut River and contaminates nearby homes and neighborhoods, spurring worries about health problems.

As the Associated Press reports, “Quinn proposed rules last week to require terminals that store the petcoke to immediately install dust-suppression systems and prevent storm water runoff. He also wanted operators of petcoke and coal terminals throughout Illinois to fully enclose piles within two years.” And he told the Illinois Pollution Control Board that he wanted these requirements pushed through as emergency rules.

Unsurprisingly, the companies that would like to continue lazily adding to their uncovered petcoke piles cried foul. “The Emergency Rulemaking does not meet the legal standard of ‘emergency,’” wrote attorneys for Kinder Morgan Terminals in a filing opposing the new state rules. “The Board is not permitted to bypass the regular rulemaking procedures unless a true emergency situation exists.”

This week, the pollution control board sided with the polluters. From the AP again:

An Illinois pollution panel on Thursday rejected proposed emergency rules to control piles of petroleum coke along Chicago shipping channels, saying Gov. Pat Quinn and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency failed to prove there was an imminent threat to public health and safety. …

[I]ndustry officials called Quinn’s action “regulatory overreach” because Chicago’s health department and aldermen already have proposed rules and petcoke handlers have taken steps to prevent the material from blowing around again. Plus, at least one handler already has said it’s willing to build structures to enclose its piles.

Oh, well, if a single handler claims it is willing to voluntarily enclose its nasty piles, then there’s really no emergency — and no need for any new rules. Right?


Source
Pollution board denies Quinn’s petcoke regulations, The Associated Press

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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U.S. and Canadian safety officials are freaked out about exploding trains

by MaritaMontefior Posted on January 24, 2014

U.S. and Canadian safety officials are freaked out about exploding trains

By

PHMSA

This is what federal transportation safety officials from both the U.S. and Canada sounded like on Thursday: “Aaahhhh holy crap trains are exploding all over the place!”

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada issued simultaneous pleas to regulators on Thursday, calling for urgent reforms amid the spiraling spate of fiery accidents involving oil-hauling trains. Such trains have been exploding in flames and spilling their loads following derailments on the continent’s aging train tracks. Just this week, a train pulling six cars of oil derailed on a Philadelphia bridge, though fortunately there was no fire or oil spill.  

The New York Times explains the reforms that the safety officials are calling for:

According to these recommendations, oil carried on trains should be treated the same way as other dangerous materials like explosives or toxic materials. In those cases, rail carriers perform a more detailed security and safety analysis and look for alternative routes to avoid highly populated areas, iconic buildings, landmarks or environmentally sensitive regions.

Railroads should also be required to develop spill-response plans similar to those that are required from pipeline operators, the recommendations said. Those plans would help emergency workers and could help reduce the impact of any spill. In addition, the safety officials also recommended making sure that hazardous cargo was properly classified. Investigators looking into the Lac-Mégantic accident found that the crude oil in transit had been mislabeled into a less hazardous category. …

Safety officials in both countries also repeated their warnings about the type of tank cars, known as DOT-111s in the United States, that are used to carry crude oil and ethanol. Past investigations found that these tank cars do not provide sufficient protections in case of derailment and are prone to break or puncture too easily.

Absent from the recommendations was the most obvious step we could take: Stop fracking for oil!

The NTSB says crude oil shipments by rail have increased more than four-fold since 2005. It said in a press release that it’s “concerned that major loss of life, property damage and environmental consequences” can happen “when large volumes of crude oil or other flammable liquids are transported on a single train” that crashes or jumps the tracks.

“The large-scale shipment of crude oil by rail simply didn’t exist ten years ago, and our safety regulations need to catch up with this new reality,” NTSB Chair Deborah Hersman said in the statement. “While this energy boom is good for business, the people and the environment along rail corridors must be protected from harm.”

More from the Toronto Globe and Mail:

[Hersman’s] fears were echoed by her Canadian counterpart Wendy Tadros, chair of the Transportation Safety Board, who warned an Ottawa news conference Thursday about serious safety concerns linked to the “staggering” increase in crude shipped on the rails. New safety measures are needed to keep the communities located along rail lines safe, she said. The TSB issued its warning as part of a continuing investigation into the Lac-Mégantic crude-oil rail disaster, which killed 47 people last summer.

Hersman told the Times that “we’ve had a lot of talk” so far about safety reforms for trains that carry oil. “We need to see action.”

See also: Oil spillage from freight trains hit record high in 2013


Source
U.S. and Canada Urge New Safety Rules for Crude Oil Rail Shipments, The New York Times
Canadian and U.S. safety watchdogs warn of oil-by-rail’s risks in push for tighter rules, The Globe and Mail

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Can clean energy replace a shuttered nuke plant in California?

by Bonita2376 Posted on January 23, 2014

Can clean energy replace a shuttered nuke plant in California?

By

spirit of america / Shutterstock

Last year’s decision to close the San Onofre nuclear power plant in Southern California has created a challenge for utilities and utility regulators: How best to replace the facility’s 2,200 megawatts of generating capacity?

The region’s utility is pushing for more fossil fuel power. Environmentalists want a cleaner solution — and the state’s thriving cleantech sector says it could provide just that.

The California Public Utilities Commission is due next month to consider allowing construction of a natural gas–fired plant near the Mexican border. The commission had rejected the plant a year ago, but it’s being reconsidered as part of a mixture of renewable and fossil fuel projects that could help meet the state’s electricity needs in the wake of the San Onofre closure.

Environmentalists and neighbors of proposed new gas plants have been pleading with commissioners for months to reject such proposals. They want more solar, wind, and efficiency to help fill the gap left by lost nuclear power. A clear majority of Southern Californians agree, according to a poll conducted last year.

“There’s all sorts of capacity for clean energy that will be able to take up the slack,” Solana Beach Deputy Mayor Lesa Heebner told La Jolla Patch. “It’s not in [San Diego Gas & Electric’s] financial plan to have solar rooftops in their portfolio as a generator, because they can’t control it.”

And now the state’s cleantech leaders are joining the fight, saying, “We got this.” Here are highlights from a letter that a coalition of renewable energy investors, companies, and industry groups sent to Gov. Jerry Brown (D) this week:

State agencies analyzing how to replace power for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), a 100% carbon-free facility, are considering allowing new fossil fuel plants to be built for a large part of that power. We believe this would be a step backwards for climate, clean tech and the California economy.

Replacing SONGS with new natural gas would be a missed opportunity to showcase the clean technologies coming out of California, which are fully capable of solving this decrease in generation capacity without using fossil fuels. Through renewables, energy efficiency, demand response and other smart grid technologies, California can meet all its future energy needs with clean resources.

We say, “Have at it, cleantech.” Here’s hoping that Brown and other officials come to see it the same way.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

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Texans want frackers to stop causing earthquakes

by HalleyR55yl Posted on January 22, 2014

Texans want frackers to stop causing earthquakes

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Shutterstock

Some North Texans who have been enduring a months-long flurry of earthquakes want the shaking to stop — and they believe that means putting an end to a controversial fracking practice.

“Is somebody going to help us?” one resident asked the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates gas and oil drilling, during a hearing on Tuesday. “I’ve heard of tornado alley. I’ve never heard of earthquake alley.”

The dozens of residents who traveled to Austin for the hearing want frackers barred from injecting their wastewater underground at high pressure. Scientists have linked the practice to earthquakes in other regions.

The commission says operations at one injection well in the area were suspended in November after it was found to be operating at unusually high pressure. But the commission says it doesn’t have the power to stop frackers from operating injection wells just because of earthquake risks. Here’s more from the local CBS affiliate:

[G]eneral counsel for the commission Wendell Fowler said inspectors can only start the two to three month process of shutting down a well if there is polluted water, fluid escaping, a change in conditions or the rules. Seismic activity is not one of the criteria.

RRC Chairman Barry Smitherman said injection activity at the wells in question has been less than it was back in 2010. He also made note of a recent paper where some researchers cast doubt on the connection between injection wells and quakes.

The commission said it would hire a seismologist in the coming weeks to investigate the residents’ complaints. But it appears that any real solution would require new state legislation.


Source
North Texans Protest Fracking, Earthquakes At Railroad Commission Meeting, CBS
Railroad Commission reports injection well near Azle shut down, The Dallas Morning News

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Texans want frackers to stop causing earthquakes

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Maine’s loony Tea Party governor signs GMO-labeling law

by dfdedtcf Posted on January 10, 2014

Maine’s loony Tea Party governor signs GMO-labeling law

By

MaineDOE

Maine on Thursday became the second state in the nation to require food manufacturers to put labels on products containing genetically modified ingredients — sort of.

Gov. Paul LePage (R) signed “An Act To Protect Maine Food Consumers’ Right To Know about Genetically Engineered Food,” which mandates the following:

any food or seed stock offered for retail sale that is genetically engineered must be accompanied by a conspicuous disclosure that states “Produced with Genetic Engineering.”

The law would also prevent any products containing GMOs from being labeled as “natural.” That should seem obvious, but big food manufacturers are currently pressuring the federal government to allow them to use such labels on genetically modified foods.

But Maine’s new law has a catch, similar to the catch in a GMO-labeling law passed in Connecticut last month. The Maine law won’t take effect until at least five nearby states adopt similar rules. That’s because the states are unwilling to go it alone in the courts against Big Ag and Big Food. The Kennebec Journal reports:

Proponents of the bill said the provision would quell concerns about an almost-certain lawsuit by industry groups and Monsanto, which vowed to challenge the laws in Maine and Connecticut on the basis that they violate the free speech and interstate commerce provisions of the U.S. Constitution.

Maine Attorney General Janet Mills told lawmakers last year that the bill was almost certain to face a legal challenge, and said she could not guarantee that her office could defend its constitutionality.

The Journal reports that the bill “brought together such factions as libertarian Republicans and liberal Democrats, creating strong support.”

It did more than that: It got approval from “America’s craziest governor,” as Politico called LePage this week, “a man who can make even the most hot-headed conservative talk radio hosts seem reasonable.”

We’ll let you decide whether that’s a good or bad omen for the GMO-labeling movement.


Source
LePage signs bill to label genetically modified food, Kennebec Journal

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Maine’s loony Tea Party governor signs GMO-labeling law

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