WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
Friday, July 28, 2006; Page A08
CDC Backs Army Plan To Destroy Nerve Agent
The Army's plan to destroy deadly VX nerve agent in Indiana and truck the byproduct to New Jersey for treatment and disposal adequately addresses public health concerns, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.
The CDC said the plan is "sufficient to address critical issues" such as potential human poisoning and transportation and treatment of the neutralized VX byproduct. The report said the Environmental Protection Agency found that the plan addressed ecological concerns.
Still, New Jersey Reps. Robert E. Andrews (D) and Frank LoBiondo (R), who oppose the plan, said the CDC report did not definitively say it was sound.
Andrews said the CDC's conclusions were based on "the rosiest of scenarios, the best-case assumption."
Col. Jesse L. Barber, project manager for the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency's Chemical Stockpile Elimination Project, praised the report.
"We will continue to destroy the nation's chemical stockpile in a manner that is safe to the American public and will not adversely impact the environment," Barber said.
The plan is on hold until the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, finishes a study of the entire operation.
Global-Warming Skeptic Funded by Coal Utilities
Coal-burning utilities are passing the hat for one of the few scientists skeptical that human activity is causing harmful global warming.
Patrick J. Michaels -- Virginia's state climatologist, a University of Virginia professor and senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute -- told business leaders in the West last year that he was running out of money for work. So last week, a Colorado utility launched a campaign to help him, raising at least $150,000 in donations and pledges.
The Intermountain Rural Electric Association of Sedalia, Colo., gave Michaels $100,000 and started the fundraising drive, said General Manager Stanley Lewandowski. He said one company plans to give $50,000 and a third plans to give Michaels money next year.
"We cannot allow the discussion to be monopolized by the alarmists," Lewandowski wrote in a July 17 letter to 50 other utilities. He also called for a counterattack on "alarmist" scientists and former vice president Al Gore's movie about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth."
Michaels and Lewandowski are open about the money and see no problem. Some top scientists and environmental advocates call it a clear conflict of interest. Others view it as the type of lobbying common on many divisive issues.
-- From News Services
