A year ago USDA CSREES (Cooperative State Research Extension Education Service) awarded a $4.1 million grant to a group of university researchers for the express purpose of solving the current honey bee health problems confronting the beekeeping industry. Without actually nailing it down, this was a project to look into the current Colony Collapse Disorder malady and, over four years, find out what was going on. But at the same time the grant was to fund an extensive education program for beekeepers, and to develop as much information as possible so beekeepers could keep their bees healthy, and had a place to go for questions ... and answers. Moreover, 25% of the funds were to go to study non-apis pollinators, such as bumble bees, alfalfa leaf-cutting bees and the like. To date, this is the only government money to be distributed to beekeeping researchers to study this problem other than normal budgetary funds to keep the USDA projects up and running.

So what’s happened in a year? I’m glad you asked, because I wanted to know too. So I ventured to the University of Georgia in Athens to visit with Dr. Keith Delaplane, the leader of this large and varied group studying this large and varied problem. ...

With the Republican Part at a crossroads, The Green Conservative – that's Jim DiPeso, policy director for Republicans for Environmental Protection – schools his party in the issues it should be championing to stay relevant.

Climate Change

House Republicans are not acquitting themselves well in the battle over climate legislation. Most are playing political games rather than offering constructive ideas for improving the legislation.

But the climate issue will not go away. The science is solid and the business community is jumping on board the legislation bandwagon. As the late William F. Buckley once noted, “Conservatism implies a certain submission to reality.”

Putting a price on carbon emissions must be the centerpiece of a national climate policy. Republicans interested in working seriously on the issue could start by checking out Congressman Bob Inglis’ proposal to levy a carbon tax and return the proceeds to citizens as payroll tax reductions.

Energy Security

Republicans still not sure about climate change must care about the strategic liabilities of oil dependence and its dangerous implications for national security.

Rising gasoline prices brings usually bring bouts of worry about "peak oil," the idea that petroleum supplies will peak and then inexorably decline, leading to price shocks.

Recent studies have stirred up similar concerns about peak coal. Stop right there. Peak coal? Why would anyone worry about peak coal? Haven't we been told that the U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of coal, with a domestic supply exceeding 200 years?

Maybe not, if new information from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is on the mark. In December, USGS reported the results of its detailed look at the mammoth Gillette field in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, the most productive coal region in the country.

Total coal in place is an estimated 201 billion tons, USGS estimated. That's enough to supply 182 years of domestic use, at current consumption rates.

The news goes downhill from there....