He calls himself the Bag Monster and he says he hopes to scare people into being kinder to Mother Earth.
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Andy Keller is an environmental activist who wants to see plastic bags banned. He stopped at Skyline Park in Denver on Monday afternoon. Keller is traveling the country raising awareness about the environmental dangers of using plastic bags. He says a typical individual uses 45,000 plastic bags during their lifetime.

Keller's costume is stitched together from 500 plastic bags, which is the average number of plastic bags a person uses each year.

He plans to stop in a total of 15 cities that are considering plastic bag legislation. The proposed California law would prohibit on a statewide level large grocers, drug stores, food marts and convenience stores from providing their customers free plastic bags and require a minimum five-cent fee on paper bags. The measure now requires a two-thirds majority to pass to the California Senate floor for final consideration before the legislature adjourns Aug. 31.

Posted by rkelly7854 at 3:28 AM EDT

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According to a CNN reort, the Grand Canyon faces grand challenges from water pollution, air pollution, noise pollution and insufficient funding, warned a report Monday from an independent organization dedicated to preserving the nation’s parks.

This week, as the National Park Service commemorates its 94th anniversary, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) today released a comprehensive report that highlights the opportunities and challenges facing Grand Canyon National Park, as well as policy recommendations for preserving and protecting this national treasure in the future. 

NPCA's new Center for State of the Parks report finds that external threats and funding shortfalls at the Grand Canyon are creating significant problems that if not addressed will complicate and compromise resource protection and management.

What they found is a national park that continues to decline from factors ranging from climate change to mining to aircraft flyovers as well as management of the Colorado River upstream from the canyon.

The report cites $300 million in deferred maintenance and notes that an additional $6.2 million in base funding is needed to support employees “necessary to achieve basic park functions.”

Posted by rkelly7854 at 12:51 AM EDT

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Oil company Valero scored a public relations coup by qualifying its ballot initiative for the November election. Valero, which has a refinery in Benicia, and Tesoro, a Texas-based oil company, are the main funders of a campaign to freeze implementation of AB 32, California’s groundbreaking climate bill.

Proponents of the measure spent $3 million, more than two thirds of it contributed by the two Texas companies and other energy interests, to gather more than 800,000 signatures to place the measure on the ballot. To qualify, the initiative needed 433,971 signatures, equal to 5% of the ballots cast in the 2006 general election.

The California Jobs Initiative is the name of the ballot measure, and it would halt AB 32's capping of greenhouse gases created by businesses—until unemployment drops to 5.5 percent.

With unemployment currently hovering above 12 percent, Valero's effort has inspired everyone from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to activists staking out a Valero gas station in Oakland on Earth Day to castigate the Texas-based company for meddling with California's global warming law.

Weakening AB 32 or suspending it would be devastating for the abilities of local governments to meet their climate goals.

Posted by rkelly7854 at 3:23 PM EDT

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According to a Reuters report, California environmentalists opened fire on Wednesday on a measure approved for the state's November ballot that would roll back a landmark law regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

The measure, certified by California's top elections official for the ballot on Tuesday, would suspend the law until the unemployment rate in the most populous U.S. state, currently more than 12 percent, drops to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters.

The ballot initiative would halt enforcement of the law until California unemployment, now at over 12 percent, sinks to 5.5 percent for at least a year. The "California Jobs Initiative," as it is called, is necessary to protect Californians from financial hardship at a time when they can ill afford it, its backers say.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the law, AB32, in 2006 and it has been a sore subject with many traditional businesses ever since while green technology companies, many investors, and environmentalists have celebrated it as a milestone in regulating pollution tied to climate change.

The law requires greenhouse gas emissions in California to be rolled back to 1990 levels by 2020, which would require substantial investment in equipment at refineries, power plants and factories, heavy use of alternative energy and much more.

The coalition of politicians and environmentalists issued a statement that referenced the environmental destruction brought on by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "It will be interesting to see how Californians react to a local environmental mess in the making that's been bought and paid for by out-of-state oil companies that are already polluting our Golden State," it read.

Posted by rkelly7854 at 12:42 PM EDT

Updated: Friday, 25 June 2010 12:17 AM EDT

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