_http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/115726365941810.xml?SSVFH
&coll=1_
(http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/115726365941810.xml?SSVFH&coll=1)
(I apologize if this already was posted -- I was out of town for a couple of
weeks and had access trouble.)
Cindy
***
Anglers, hunters could get burned by biofuels
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Bob Marshall
The Times-Picayune
New Orleans
It's becoming clear that the most important thing hunters and anglers can do
to ensure the future of their sport may be this: Buy a hybrid.
Anyone who doesn't think this nation's drill-first, conserve-later energy
policy isn't the gravest threat to outdoors sports missed this headline last
week: "Iowa Farm Bureau endorses elimination of CRP."
So what do farmers have to do with oil? And what does oil have to do with
the quality of hunting, fishing, camping and boating?
It's really not a long story, nor an old one.
If you drive, you know gas prices have been on a steady climb and are
expected to get even higher. As the oil industry, the wealthiest in the world,
tells us repeatedly, prices are all about supply and demand. The estimates of
future supplies are dropping and the demand skyrocketing, thanks to booming
economies in the world's two most populous nations, China and India. Result:
Plenty of market demand, which means soaring prices.
That's especially painful news for the United States. Not only does our
demand far exceed local supplies, but our imports come largely from countries and
cultures that consider us something lower than zoo dirt -- they actually
want to kill us.
Faced with such dire consequences, you would think our government would
demand conservation. But with so many oil men running the Bush administration, it
has moved in the opposite direction: Increase production, regardless of
consequences, with a ceremonial nod to conservation. That's how two-ton SUVs get
tax credits, while write-offs for hybrids are capped at 60,000 vehicles per
maker.
This philosophy was on display last year in the 2005 Energy Bill, which
removed many of the protections for fish, wildlife, clean air and water that once
governed energy development. It was the slogan at the Bureau of Land
Management, which was told by the administration not to let any fish-and-wildlife
programs interfere with energy production on public lands. The public that owns
those lands, it turned out, has very little to say about how its property
can be misused. Polls might show large majorities of Americans do not want to
ditch environmental protections to increase oil industry profits, but Congress
and the president aren't listening.
Which brings us to those farmers.
Despite what you may have heard on talk radio, 70 percent of the country is
privately owned. That's why the farm bill has long been the single most
important piece of legislation affecting fish and wildlife populations. For almost
20 years that bill has included provisions that encourage landowners to
manage their property in a wildlife-friendly manner. By far the most well-known
and successful feature has been the Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, which
pays farmers to leave acres untilled, usually in areas with highly erodable
soils. CRP has been as popular with farmers as it is with wildlife advocates.
But the nation's failed energy policy may be ruining this program.
It's all about biofuels. Certain plants, such as corn, can be used to
produce ethanol, which can be used to power cars and trucks. Biofuels have three
major advantages over gasoline: They contribute less to global warming, they
lessen our reliance on oil imports from nasty nations, and they can be grown by
private landowners.
To cheers from farm states, Congress will be offering subsidies for crops
that can be used in biofuels. But if those subsidies are higher than the
subsidies paid for wildlife programs such as CRP, it could have a dramatic impact
on fish and wildlife production. Millions of acres currently serving wildlife
would be lost to biofuels.
"We're already hearing that when (CRP) contracts expire, a lot of landowners
will be switching to biofuels," said Lynn Tjeerdsma, of the Theodore
Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. "We could see major progress made over the last
10 years for wildlife lost in a few years. That headline from Iowa really
scares us. There are a lot of farmers who just never liked CRP, taking land out
of crop production."
There are other problems. Biofuel production isn't without its negative
environmental impacts. For example, three gallons of water are required to
convert enough crops into a gallon of ethanol. Although Congress is subsidizing the
construction of a series of ethanol plants across the nation, no one is sure
what the impact will be on local aquifers. Further, there is debate on the
total energy savings; some studies show it takes more total energy -- from
farming to fertilizers to harvesting -- to produce ethanol than the energy the
fuel can produce.
"What we're afraid of is that Congress is rushing into these programs
without giving careful look at the impacts, and without considering fish and
wildlife values," said Jen Mock, with the Association of Fish and Wildlife
Agencies. "We want fish and wildlife to be a partner in this. We've seen what happens
when we try to add fish and wildlife after a program is approved and
running. It's usually not good."
Of course, there's a way to avoid all the anxiety and much of the taxpayer
funding for these programs. Simply raise the vehicle fuel economy standards.
If we put as much emphasis on conservation as we do on production and profits,
we'll reduce our foreign exposure and leave fish and wildlife habitat
largely intact.
So, buy a hybrid.
***
Cindy Hildebrand
[log in to unmask]
Ames, IA 50010
"The autumns of Iowa are somewhat peculiar in their beauty and serenity. The
oppressive summer heat is over by the last of August, and from that time
until the middle of November, the mellow softness of the climate, the beauty and
grandeur of the foliage, the dry and natural roads that cross our prairies,
the balmy fragrance of the atmosphere, the serene sky, all combined, present
to the eye of the traveller a picture calculated to excite emotions of wonder
and delight." (John B. Newhall, 1841)
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