No more gas in your glass
This Spring, under heavy pressure from Bluewater Network and other anti-MTBE groups, California Governor Gray Davis issued an executive order to phase out the toxic gas additive MTBE in California. Soon thereafter, Bluewater convinced Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to submit a bill to ban MTBE on a national level. In other Bluewater news, six more National Parks (for a total of 21) have banned the use of personal watercraft and the EPA will conduct a study to determine what regulations may be necessary to limit the effect of snowmobiles on the park system.

Climate solutions
Uniting more than 20 years of experience in the fields of global warming, clean energy, transportation and sprawl, the Atmosphere Alliance and the Energy Outreach Center have merged to form Climate Solutions. The new organization aims to combat global warming by making the Pacific Northwest a world leader in practical and profitable solutions. The group's newest report, "In Hot Water", details regional climate change scenarios, the scientific advances on which they are grounded and how global warming threatens the Pacific Northwest's economy, environment and quality of life. Another recent report, "Road Relief," gained regional and national attention for groundbreaking proposals to reduce traffic congestion through tax and pricing shifts. For information or to get involved, contact Rhys Roth or Paul Horton at (360) 352-1763 or e-mail <info@climatesolutions.org> or visit their website at <www.climatesolutions.org>.

Mangrove Action
Project lobbies at Ramsar During the Seventh Conference of Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP 7), the Mangrove Action Project (MAP), in coalition with a number of international NGOs, called for a moratorium on expanded shrimp aquaculture and demanded support for the rights of communities to sustainably manage and conserve their own lands. They also called for the conservation of the Sunderbans in Bangladesh, one of the largest contiguous mangrove forests in the world. Ramsar would not accept language specific to shrimp aquaculture, but allowed the following compromise: "Also urges all Contracting Parties to suspend the promotion, creation of new facilities, and expansion of unsustainable aquaculture activities harmful to coastal wetlands until such a time as assessments of the environmental and social impact of such activities, together with appropriate studies, identify measures aimed at establishing a sustainable system of aquaculture that is in harmony both with the environment and local communities." For more info, e-mail <mangroveap@olympus.net>.

The Campaign to Safeguard America's Waters
(C-SAW) and other clean water groups working in Alaska are excited that the EPA recently denied permission to Coeur d'Alene Mines (Berner's Bay, Alaska) to dispose of tailings at the bottom of Lynn Canal. In an effort to cut costs, Coeur d'Alene hoped to exchange its dry tailings facility (i.e., a mountain of tailings with trees stuck on top), for permission to bury approximately 8000 acres of the bottom of Lynn Canal in mine tailings. While the EPA considers innovative proposals that may not meet the letter of the law, these techniques must have strong community support and be cleaner, safer and cheaper than current methods. Coeur d'Alene's proposal failed both these tests. Without the permit, Coeur d'Alene may not be able to realize a profit in the current gold market and thus have to close up shop. C-SAW offers kudos to the EPA and everyone who helped make sure that the necessary information reached their desks in time.

Amalgamated Arch-Druids of America
In April, EII founder and Chair David Brower was on the road to Eureka, California and Houston, Texas working to weld an alliance between environmental groups and the United Steelworkers of America. The Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment began when Headwaters Forest activists and locked-out steelworkers realized they had a common enemy in corporate outlaw Maxxam and its CEO Charles Hurwitz [EIJ, Summer 1999]. Brower got involved after a late-night meeting with USWA representatives at a bar in Eugene, Oregon and is now the honorary co-chair of the Alliance with USWA Northwest Director David Foster. Brower and Foster are looking for labor and environmental groups to sign onto the Houston Principles for a New Labor Environmental Alliance and are hard at work organizing a cooperative effort to block the proposed expansions of the World Trade Organization that threaten labor and environmental standards.