Energy & Environment: Markey Wants Answers on Rare Earths
• Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., "is pressing the Obama administration for information about alleged Chinese restrictions on the export of rare earth minerals used in defense and energy technologies, warning of threats to U.S. interests," The Hill reports.
• "Three months after BP capped its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico, the state of Louisiana is still building a chain of sand berms off its coast to block and capture oil even as federal officials and many scientists argue that the effort will prove pointless," the New York Times reports.
• An Idaho couple has "sued the state to stop the shipments by Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips" to an oil sands site in Canada, "arguing that the" truck loads delivered there "would threaten the integrity of Idaho's historic portion of U.S. 12, as well as the safety of communities that depend on it as the main road in and out of the area," the Times also reports. "National environmental groups and climate change activists are supporting their efforts, seeing a broader opportunity to stall development of Canada's oil sands, which they denounce as a dirty source of energy. "
• "Combating climate change has long taken a back seat to coal production in West Virginia, but in the hard-fought House race in this state's 1st district, global warming hasn't even made it onto the bus," The Hill reports. "In interviews on Thursday, both the Democratic and Republican nominees for Congress voiced skepticism of the science behind global warming, and the Republican, David McKinley, flatly called concerns about climate change 'an attack on coal.'"
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Bill Eichbaum
Biography provided by participant
In November 1989, Bill Eichbaum joined the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as a Senior Fellow. In January 1990, he became Vice President of the Environmental Quality Program of WWF, and in January 1991, Vice President of International Environmental Quality with responsibilities that included climate change, coastal environmental, Central and Eastern European and the former Soviet Union, and global industrial policy. From April 1995 to September 1997, Bill Eichbaum served as Vice President of U.S. Program of WWF, with responsibilities for WWF's domestic conservation programs, including congressional relations. From October 1997 to April 2000, Bill Eichbaum served as Vice President for U.S. Conservation and Global Threats. From May 2000 to January 2006, he served as Vice President for the Endangered Spaces Program. He was Vice President and Managing Director for WWF's Marine Portfolio from February 2006 to March 2009. He became Acting Vice President, US Government Relations and Vice President and Marine and Arctic Policy in March 2009.
Before joining WWF in 1989, Bill Eichbaum was Undersecretary, Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was also Assistant Secretary of Environmental Programs, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for the State of Maryland, as well as serving in senior environmental management positions in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Department of Interior. He was instrumental in the creation of the Chesapeake Bay Program, including Maryland's Critical Area Commission.
Eichbaum has been an active participant in a number of activities of the National Academy of Sciences, including serving as a member of the Water Sciences and Technology Board and the Marine Board. He is currently Chairman of the Maryland Oyster Advisory Commission and of the Board of the Environmental Law Institute and a member of the Montgomery Sycamore Island Canoe Club. He has recently been the Chairman of 1000 Friends of Maryland and on the Board of the Natural Resources Council of America, and the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES). He has served as an adjunct faculty member of the Marine Sciences Research Center of the State University of New York, Stony Brook. He has also taught at the Law School of the University of Maryland.
Eichbaum is a Co-Founder and a member of the Board of the Moscow Center for Energy Efficiency (CENEf), and was instrumental in the establishment of energy efficiency centers in China, Poland, and the Ukraine. He established the Russia Biodiversity Project located in Moscow, which has evolved into the Russian Programme Office of WWF-International. He was a key participant in the Second and Third International Conferences on Environmental Enforcement held in Hungary and Mexico, respectively.
He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School.
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