Although geothermal energy has been used commercially since at least 1818,¹ up until now it has received little public attention as an alternative energy source. The late energy panic has of course changed that situation, and major mineral development corporations are sending scores of field geologists scurrying into the West in search of steam.

The full Supreme Court has upheld the order of Justice William O. Douglas, who in his capacity as Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit stayed further work on the Warm Springs dam project in Sonoma County, California.¹ The stay will remain in effect pending a decision by the Ninth Circuit on the merits of environmentalists' claims that the environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared by the Corps of Engineers was inadequate.

As noted in an earlier ELR Comment,¹ the law regarding awards of attorneys fees to public interest litigants has moved rapidly in the last several years away from the traditional "American rule," which bars the recovery of such fees by a successful litigant.

In a long-awaited administrative decision regarding privately held rights for oil shale development, the Department of the Interior's Board of Land Appeals has invalidated six unpatented oil shale placer mining claims, clearing the way for similar action as to many thousands more. This recent ruling in United States v. Winegar¹ removes a cloud from federal title to millions of acres of public lands and makes orderly and environmentally conscious development of the nation's oil shale resources a bit more likely.

The Department of the Interior appears to be orchestrating a jurisdictional maneuver within the National Wildlife Refuge System that could pose a threat to several rare species and prevent the achievement of the System's goals. The Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service, both within the Department of the Interior, are parrying against each other for exclusive control over five million acres of Wildlife Preserves, while the future of the peregrine falcon, the desert bighorn sheep, the Sonoran pronghorn antelope, and the black-footed ferret hang in balance.

The nation's coastal areas are among its most significant natural resources. Coastal zones include a variety of ecological niches, in either marshy wetlands or beach and rocky areas. Partially submerged lands subject to tidal action are a rich biological factory, providing nutrients for numerous varieties of fish and birds and spawning grounds for the majority of the fish caught commercially off the U.S. coasts.

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969¹ mandated that federal agencies consider the environmental effects of proposed agency action in addition to their primary agency goals. Section 102(2)(c), NEPA's action-forcing mechanism, requires agencies to prepare impact statements on major federal actions that significantly affect the environment.

Two recent developments give rise to optimism in the effort to improve water quality in the southwestern United States. Both the passage of the Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Act of 1974¹ and a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency for the establishment of a salinity control program in that same basin² tackle what has sometimes been considered an insurmountable interstate and international problem.

A pending adjudication of water rights in Colorado offers an encouraging new twist on an old problem. It appears that an assertion of an implied federal reservation of large-scale water rights for Naval Oil Shale Reserve development may preempt the rights of present water users in a manner that will actually benefit water district members and protect the environment of a water-scarce region.

The Ford Administration has not delayed in announcing its environmental policy. In a speech delivered August 15 in Spokane "on behalf of President Ford," Interior Secretary Rogers C.B. Morton indicated that the new Administration will continue the policy enunciated by former President Nixon in July of compromising or delaying environmental controls in order to facilitate accelerated economic growth.¹