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Cheney Wanted to Delete Major Parts of Environmental Testimony

7/8/2008

WASHINGTON — Seeking to play down the effects of global warming, Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed to delete from congressional testimony references about the consequences of climate change on public health, a former senior EPA official claimed Tuesday.

           The official, Jason K. Burnett, said the White House was concerned that the proposed testimony last October by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might make it tougher to avoid regulating greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere.

           Burnett's assertion, which he made in a July 6 letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, conflicts with the White House explanation at the time that the deletions reflected concerns by the White House Office of Science and Technology over the accuracy of the science.

           Burnett, until last month a senior adviser on climate change at the Environmental Protection Agency, wrote that Cheney's office was deeply involved in getting nearly half of the CDC's original draft testimony removed

Rogue River dam in Southern Oregon to come down

7/4/2008 The Associated Press

GOLD HILL, Ore. (AP) — A contractor has begun removing a water-diversion dam upstream of Gold Hill on the Rogue River.The Gold Hill Dam, also known as the Ideal Cement Diversion Dam, was built just before World War II to send water to a power house.

The National Marine Fisheries Service identified it as one of the worst threats to salmon and steelhead passage on the Rogue and told the city to remove it.Starting Friday, the work is expected to change the river's behavior. The Rogue Valley Council of Governments urged boaters to avoid the stretch on certain days and to call staff member Craig Harper for information.

On the Net:

Dam removal schedule:

http://www.rvcog.org/mn.asp?pgNR_Gold_Hill_Dam#Schedule

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-25/121519044420250.xml&storylist=orlocal

Judge Orders Fisheries To Use 'Best Science' On Coastal Coho

Portland, OR  October 10, 2007

        A decision by a federal judge in Portland may mean Oregon will have another protected fish species by December.

        Tuesday's decision by Judge Garr King found that federal plans not to protect coastal coho ran afoul of requirements under the Endangered Species Act for good science. Jan Hasselman is the winning attorney with Earthjustice.

         Jan Hasselman: “The court ordered the National Marine Fisheries' Service to issue a new decision within 60 days which is based on the 'best science'. So we expect that when they look at the right science, that the species will be listed again.”But Hasselman says it's possible that federal scientists could try to find other research that would support their decision not to not list coastal coho as threatened.  Or the feds could try to get the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene.

         In conjunction with Oregon scientists, federal officials decided last year not to list the coastal coho. That decision followed a complicated legal history over jurisdiction, and the role of hatchery fish in recovery.

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