This was reported in the Wall Street Journal last week: BP Amoco PLC is suing to overturn a lower court ruling that awarded the Southern Ute Indian tribe the natural gas rights to its own lands. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case because of BP Amoco's claim that the decision will have an impact on natural gas extraction on 20 million acres of private lands throughout Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Utah. BP Amoco specifically wants the rights to coal-bed methane on land owned by the Southern Ute; the company recognizes the tribe's rights to the coal, but not their rights to the gas produced by the coal beds, which is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion. The energy company's main allies in this suit are state and local governments, who stand to lose tax revenues if BP Amoco can't extract methane as cheaply as possible wherever possible. Colorado's La Plata County wrote a friend-of-the-court brief to support BP Amoco: "The economic forecast of the effect on local government, if this decision remains final, is catastrophic." The county could lose around $100 million in tax revenues over 25 years. On the other hand, the Southern Utes could lose the beauty and purity of their tribal lands, and certainly stand to lose a major victory for their tribal sovereignty rights if the Supreme Court rules against them. A decision is due on the case in June.--Maria Tomchick.

The first edition of the fax newsletter, the China Environment Observer blasted China's dismal environmental record. "Government officials at every level must be forced to stop the pretence of environmental protection, and made to actually do something about it." China possesses a wide-ranging set of environmental laws on its statute books, but rampant official corruption and the doctrine of economic development at all costs have rendered them mostly useless. For their part, Chinese officials have recently vowed to crack down on "unstable elements" in society, forcing another environmental group, the China Development Union (CDU) to close its Chinese operations. It is unclear whether China's scrappy new eco-Observer will survive to publish a second issue.-- Troy Skeels

An Anglo-Dutch vessel destined for a Chinese scrap yard was the target of a Greenpeace protest in Singapore Jan. 11. Greenpeace officials said they were protesting against the carelessness with which ship owners disposed of toxic materials in Asia. "We think ship breaking yards in Asia have very bad circumstances for the environment and for labor and we think the owners of ships are responsible," said Eco Matser, of the Netherlands. "In India, they take out the asbestos with their bare hands and dry them in the sun, releasing a lot of fibers into the air, and then they sell it as asbestos. We think this is very bad." Greenpeace wants ship owners to take toxic materials, such as asbestos and lead, from a ship before sending it for scrap. According to Greenpeace, ship owners "agree with the situation in Asia, that the scrap yards are unacceptable but they say they will continue to send the ships to Asia anyway. They said it has to be solved in the long run with all the shipping people together."--T.S.

Mercury tainted waste dumped in Cambodia by a Taiwanese company (Formosa Plastics) sparked a riot and has Cambodian officials disclaiming all responsibility. One person was killed in the riot in Sihanoukville, 125 miles southwest of Phnom Penh, after the discovery of the waste in December. Four others died during a mass exodus of 10,000 residents fleeing in fear of the waste. The protesters sacked the offices of local officials accused of allowing the 3,000 tons of "cement like" material to be imported for dumping. Cambodian ministers vehemently denied news reports saying they had accepted the material after being paid several million dollars. Reports say that "a substantial amount" of the funds generated went towards the election campaign of Prime Minister Hun Sen. Minister of Environment Mok Mareth said he was not aware of any official approval to import the waste. Formosa Plastics has agreed to remove the waste from Cambodia and send it to Europe or the United States.--T.S.

China has banned logging in eastern Tibet in response to the devastating floods spilling from the Yangtze River in 1998. The ban, which took effect September 1, closes the Chauanxi forest area, which lies in western Sichuan province, part of what is historically the Kham region of Tibet. The official Xinhua news agency said the ban was an attempt to "curb severe soil erosion that exacerbates the threat of floods." Over 3,000 people died and millions more were severely affected in the worst flooding in China since 1954. The "Chuanxi Forest Area" is one of the three largest forests in China and contains vast regions of old growth. Seventy state-run logging companies operate in the area and have between them cut a total of 120 million cubic meters of wood. While logging industry workers are now to be employed to plant and protect trees in the area, some companies have shifted slightly westward and operate inside the Tibet Autonomous Region, where logging restrictions have not been implemented.--T.S.