Caterpillars, ecosystem services, beef tallow, CO2 standards

brought to you by Sasha Paris  

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine.  

Human Ecology in Action.

Obama ordered the EPA to "reconsider" allowing states to set their own vehicle efficiency-and-CO2-emissions standards, and the Transportation Department to raise car fuel-efficiency standards by 2011. [This Sunday article says he "will" but on Monday he did.] (New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/us/politics/26calif.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

The EPA suspended approval of a new coal-power plant in South Dakota (Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZTtfqEwJpHQ&refer=home

After cutting short Maine's scalloping season last week, the government has responded to local outcy and reopened it in some areas (Bangor News).
http://bangornews.com/detail/98116.html

The USDA plans to establish an "Office of Ecosystem Services and Marketing," largely to reward farm and forestry operations for doing things deemed to provide not-previously-commodified "natural assets." (Environmental Protection magazine)
http://www.eponline.com/articles/70313/

US marine policy possibilities for the near future (Grist).
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2009/1/29/15292/0161

Calgary, Alberta is trying out diesel fuel mixed with local waste beef-tallow. Not everyone is pleased. (CBC)
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/01/29/beef-biofuel.html

Caterpillars called "army worms" are undergoing a disastrous [to humans] population boom in Liberia. Not much included on ecological reasons or consequences, but I thought it worth sharing. (Associated Press)
http://news.aol.com/article/caterpillar-infestation-in-liberia/317187