New York Times

February 1, 2008

China and Alcoa Buy Stake in Rio Tinto

By DAVID LAGUE

BEIJING — The state-owned Aluminum Corporation of China joined Alcoa on Friday in taking a 12 percent stake in Rio Tinto. The Chinese company also said it might buy more shares to derail a hostile takeover by BHP Billiton, a merger that China fears could drive up prices for raw materials even further.

Chinalco, as the Chinese company is known, described its $14.05 billion stake in Rio Tinto as China’s biggest foreign investment. The company said it did not intend to make an offer for the rest of Rio but reserved the right to do so if another suitor made a firm bid.

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Super Tuesday State Legislators Challenge Candidates to Restore Great Lakes, Outlaw Water Diversions
LANSING, MICH. (January 31) – Republican and Democratic state legislators from states representing more than a quarter of the delegates at stake on Super Tuesday today called on presidential candidates to commit to funding the restoration of the Great Lakes and to outlawing water diversions.
The Great Lakes states of New York, Illinois and Minnesota represent 457 of the 1,688 delegates up for grabs on Super Tuesday.
State legislators from these states—Rep. Karen May (D-Ill.), Sen.George Maziarz (R-N.Y.), and Sen. Ann Rest (D-Minn.), together with Sen. Patty Birkholz (R-Mich.), chair of the Great Lakes Legislative Caucus, today sent a letter to the leading presidential candidates urging them to support the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact and to implement the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy.
“For state legislators who are on the front lines in the battle to restore and protect the lakes, we have one question for each presidential candidate: ‘Will you use your leadership as President to pass Great Lakes restoration legislation and to outlaw water diversions?’” said Sen. Birkholz of Michigan, which held its primary on January 15th. “We’re looking for
presidential candidates who will not turn their backs on the lakes, because every day we wait, the problems get worse and the solutions get more costly.”

For whole article click here:

2008-0131-prs-rlse-delegates-press-pres-candiates-for-grt-lks-protection.pdf

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John Scram from H&R Block will be giving free tax advice to students and other community members in the Hunt Hall Lobby of Northern Michigan University on Jan. 31 beginning at 7pm.

STUDENTS:

Show your parents you’ve learned a lot this semester. Attend this workshop and find out how you can get more $$$ for you and your parents!!!

2007 NON-PROFIT DONATIONS:

Find out how to make the most of your 2007 charitable donations.

ADDED BONUS!:

All attendees will recieve a voucher that entitles Save The Wild UP to a $25 donation for each new H & R Block customer. So get your taxes filed professionally and donate to Save The Wild UP at the same time!  You can also pick up a voucher at Save The Wild UP’s Third St. office.

The DNR has ONLY made a recommendation and no official action has been taken!

The DNR and Kennecott recently met to discuss the requested information on Kennecott’s Land Use Lease and Mining and Reclamation Plan. According to Tom Wellman of the DNR’s Mineral and Land Management Section, “The DNR has issued a letter to Kennecott…whereby it will recommend an approval of an amended Mining and Reclamation Plan and Surface Use Lease to the Director (Rebecca Humphries) for the February 7, 2008 Natural Resources Commission Meeting.”

The updated agenda for that meeting can be found here. Additional information has been posted on the DNR Kennecott Eagle Project Page.

You can view the Lease request at http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/SurfaceUseLease_186443_7.pdf

Again, this is only a recommendation and no official action has been taken.

We urge anyone who is concerned about this issue to attend the Feb. 7 NRC Meeting at the Diagnostic Center for Population & Animal Health, 4125 Beaumont Road, Lansing

Michelle Halley of the National Wildlife Federation explains, “While DNR staff continues to recommend that Dir. Humpries approve KEMC’s surface use lease request, we urge you to let her know that this policy decision is in her hands. Sacrificing public land as corporate welfare is not acceptable to Michiganders. Please, write or call Director Humphries and urge her to protect our public lands for public use!”

Take Action Now, send an online letter to Dir. Humphies.

OR

Write your own letter and send it to:

Rebecca Humphries- HUMPHRIR@michigan.gov

Lynne Boyd- boydlm@michigan.gov

Mindy Koch- KOCHA@michigan.gov

Teresa Gloden- GLODENT@michigan.gov

Here is an example letter:

“It is my opinion that both Kennecott’s request for the Surface Land Use Lease of 120 acres on the Yellow Dog Plains and the Mining and Reclamation Plan should be denied or thrown out due to their flawed, incomplete, often sloppy and dangerous applications.

The State of Michigan should expect much higher standards from a self-proclaimed industry leader such as Kennecott. This first proposed mine under the new Part 632 statute and rules sets the tone for all the other mining projects that may follow.

The approval of the surface use lease would set a terrible precedent to utilize public lands for private profit. Let us do it right the first time and make sure Michigan doesn’t create an open-door policy for disreputable mining practices in the Great Lakes State.

Thank you for carefully considering public comment and concern about Kennecott’s request to use our public lands for their proposed Eagle Project and their incomplete and flawed Mining and Reclamation Plan.

Sulfide mining is an extremely risky process, and your efforts to require additional information from Kennecott are necessary for making a fully informed decision and protecting our public lands and Great Lakes. Please consider taking some additional time to thoroughly read the requested information that you recently received from Kennecott.

I urge you to act on behalf of Michigan’s citizens, the future of our precious freshwater resources, and this Great Lakes State. “

Click on links below for news on this story:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080116.wmercury1701/BNStory/National/

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/15071563/detail.html

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Scott Edwards, Informant, 914-674-0622 ext.13

U.S. Energy Company to Face Prosecution for Cross-Border Pollution in Canada:

Citizen Prosecution Brought for Mercury Contamination of St. Clair Watershed

SARNIA, ONTARIO, (January 17, 2008) – A Canadian Court has given the green light for the prosecution of a U.S. energy company. On Wednesday, the Superior Court of Justice in Sarnia, Ontario issued an order directing a lower court to summon DTE Energy to face charges for poisoning the St. Clair River with dangerous amounts of mercury. Michigan’s DTE Energy Company is being charged for its role in polluting the St. Clair River with mercury. Scott Edwards, a Canadian citizen, filed charges last year alleging that DTE Energy’s coal-fired energy complex on the banks of the St. Clair River has been violating Canada’s Fisheries Act for two years.

Detroit Edison, a wholly owned subsidiary of DTE, operates the St. Clair/Belle River coal-fired power plant complex in eastern Michigan. Monitoring data show that these facilities emit significant amounts of mercury each year, with more than half landing locally in Canada and the St. Clair watershed. When the mercury enters the St. Clair River, it spreads throughout the food chain, harmfully altering fish habitat and rendering fish unsafe for human consumption, which is a violation of Canadian fisheries law. Mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin; a single gram of mercury per year is enough to contaminate a 25-acre lake to the point that fish are unsafe to eat.

Currently, both the Canadian and U.S. sides of the St. Clair are subject to highly restrictive fish consumption advisories because of elevated levels of mercury. Native populations along the Canadian side of the river have had their commercial fishing rights stripped away because of the devastating neurological effects on developing fetuses and young children that can result from eating mercury-contaminated fish.

Edwards launched the private prosecution in March of 2007. “DTE has acted with a blatant disregard for the health and welfare of Canadian citizens and Canadian law,” states Edwards. “My hope is that this prosecution will result in significant reductions in DTE Energy’s mercury emissions and a cleaner and safer St. Clair River.” Private prosecutions allow any Canadian citizen to independently prosecute offences in the criminal courts, and potential fines under the Fisheries Act can be up to $1-million a day.

“What makes this even more egregious,” adds Edwards, “is that DTE could stop poisoning local residents with mercury tomorrow if it wanted to.” A U.S Department of Energy-sponsored test of pollution control technology in 2004 reduced mercury emissions at the St. Clair plant by 94%. At the conclusion of the 30-day test, DTE Energy stopped using the mercury control technology and today continues its mercury emissions unabated.

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Scott Edwards is the Legal Director for Waterkeeper Alliance, an international coalition of 172 grassroots environmental groups, and a leading authority on mercury pollution. He is being aided by three other affiliates of Waterkeeper Alliance, Mark Mattson, Doug Chapman and Doug Martz. Mark Mattson is lead investigator and the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, and Doug Martz is the St. Clair Channelkeeper. Doug Chapman, the Fraser Riverkeeper, and Craig Parry, a criminal lawyer based in Ontario, are co-counsel.

Rio Tinto’s chief executive has announced that within the next two years they will replace humans with machines at their Pilbara Mine in Australia.

“In this world remote control “intelligent” drills will dig; driverless trucks will carry the ore to be processed and driverless trains will ferry it to a port to be shipped off to China.”

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