In the news: California emission law likely to get waiver
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OBAMA SET TO ALLOW CALIFORNIA EMISSION WAIVER: Not long after assuming the presidency, President-Elect Barack Obama is expected to grant a waiver allowing California and more than a dozen other states to enforce their own greenhouse-gas emission standards on autos. That would completely change the landscape for vehicle regulation, reports The Times’ Ken Bensinger, and obligate automakers to produce cars that are far more efficient than those called for under current federal standards -- an average of 3 miles per gallon more by 2015, and 7 mpg more by 2020, according to some calculations.
JUDGE HALTS OIL AND GAS LEASES: A judge late Saturday halted the Bush administration’s efforts to open 110,000 acres of federal land in Utah to oil and gas exploration, ruling that the danger of damaging the pristine land required further study before leases were awarded. The leases to the parcels had been auctioned off Dec. 19 in a move that environmental groups said was a last-minute gift to the energy industry before President Bush left office. That auction featured successful bidding by a college student/environmental activist, profiled here by The Times’ Nicholas Riccardi.
PIVEN, SUSHI, MERCURY ... AND THE AWARDS FALLOUT: Three-time Emmy-award winner Jeremy Piven (‘Entourage’) is unlikely to be a contender at this year’s Tony Awards for his recent acclaimed, albeit abbreviated, Broadway run in ‘Speed-the-Plow.’ Despite excellent reviews, the actor cut short his contract and departed the show in mid-December blaming high levels of mercury in his bloodstream. Tom O’Neil of The Times’ Gold Derby blog rounds up the latest here.
ELSEWHERE: American and Australian scientists find some weird new species deep off the coast of Australia; also, further impact of greenhouse gas emissions on deep-sea corals, Reuters reports ... Also in Australia, three shark attacks in two days recently raised concern for human safety, but the human toll on sharks is also noted ... And Canada, home to about two-thirds of the world’s 25,000 polar bears, is contemplating ways to protect them.
-- Steve Clow
