It was like the first day of school at the second Clean Water Council (CWC) meeting on Monday. But that wasn’t a bad thing. (more…)

A couple of folks at the University of Minnesota apparently feel the world is just a little too optimistic these days, so they’ve taken it upon themselves to talk smack about the use of perennial, native grasses for producing fuel in an opinion piece that was published in the Star Tribune today. (more…)

Today’s news that an important class of drugs is no longer effective in treating gonorrhea is yet another sign that we’re losing the drug war. But this drug war isn’t roiling in the jungles of Columbia or outstate meth labs. The casualties in this war are all those people who are being treated for infections, and suddenly find the old standby drugs don’t work anymore. The war on modern antibiotics is taking place in all those low-slung confinement buildings that house millions of heads of livestock. The news coverage on how this nation’s number two sexually transmitted disease has evolved into a superbug seems to have missed a key point: large-scale factory livestock farming shares a big part of the blame for developing antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Industrial ag says ending the use of antibiotics as livestock growth-promotants would bring about radical changes in farming. Guess what? Industrial ag is right. (more…)

Here is this week’s update from the capitol by John Tuma:
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High uranium prices spur renewed interest in mining near sacred Black Hills

On April 5th, following an appeal from treaty rights group Defenders of the Black Hills and environmental group ACTion for the Environment, a South Dakota Circuit Court judge ordered the archaeological portion of the first South Dakota uranium exploration permit in some thirty years back to the state’s Board of Minerals and Environment. The ruling was reached after the Board admitted it sent the state archaeologist to evaluate the wrong site. The permit, sought by Canada-based Powertech Uranium Co, is still valid, according to South Dakota Department of Environmental and Natural Resources spokesman Kim Smith, but Powertech has said it will not start exploration until the state archaeologist inspects the correct site. The permit will allow Powertech to drill 155 exploration holes northwest of Edgemont, SD–on the southwest slope of the Black Hills–to recover some 7.6 million pounds of yellowcake. Yellowcake is used in the preparation of fuel for nuclear reactors. Though the Black Hills of South Dakota are considered sacred to many Native American Nations in North America, high uranium prices have sparked renewed interest in South Dakota mining prospects of the mineral. (more…)

The League of Women Voters in Minnesota (a MEP member group) released a study last January on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (800k PDF) that is still worth examining, if you haven’t already.  A local League chapter recently hosted a panel discussion on the report in Park Rapids - both of which offer some interesting insights into the agency and its current culture. 

Here are a few selections from both: (more…)

There are a few hearings related to the Protect Our Great Outdoors package up this week at the Capitol:

Clean Water Legacy is part of the House Environment Finance bill, scheduled for hearing tomorrow (Tuesday) in the House Finance Committee and Wednesday in the Taxes committee.  The funding level is approximately 1/4 of the identified need.

Global Warming is expected to be one of the items addressed in Senator Prettner Solon’s omnibus energy bill (SF 145) and quite frankly I’m prepared to be disappointed.  All indications are that her provisions related to global warming will be weak.  We’ll find out when we see the text I guess.  It looks like the bill will be unveiled Tuesday (likely in the evening) and is the topic of discussion for Thursday’s hearing in the Senate Energy Policy committee.

Let’s hope that the rumors are wrong though and that they pass a standup bill before the Global Warming Day of Action that will bring hordes of Minnesotans to the capitol on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. 

This week’s report from MEP’s Government Relations Associate, John Tuma:

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” 
Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)
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