Around the Web

BP bowing out of ANWR lobbying group
BP is pulling out of the lobby group aimed at opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska to oil drilling, it emerged last week. The lobby group Arctic Power is likely to feel the loss of BP’s prestige rather more than their annual $50,000 dollar membership fee, since, as the Anchorage Daily News rather casually reveals, Arctic Power, an openly political group committed solely to campaigning for drilling in the ANWR,already receives $3.5m a year from the state…Read more.
http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/2224426p-2292142c.html

Bush to allow logging in protected forests
Still on US environmental protection, Bush is continuing to roll back decades of forest protection laws by permitting logging in protected nature areas and reducing the public’s right to object to ‘forest management’ plans. Read more.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,850199,00.html

450 jobs go at BAE Systems
BAE Systems is shedding 450 jobs from its factory in Brough, near Hull. The company says the redundancies are due to a lack of orders for its Hawk ‘trainer’ aircraft. Bad news for the workers, but surely a fall in demand for aircraft regularly converted for combat use and internal repression can only be good news for everyone else. Read more.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2522909.stm

Fat-cat pay deals under attack - from shareholders
Story from the Guardian business pages on how shareholders are getting pissed of with boards awarding themselves huge rises and massive share options, particularly at hotel company Six Continents (they’re the ones turning your favourite country pubs into identikit nightmares). However, thhis isn’t a story of activist shareholders acting in the interests of economic fairness - we’re talking about big institutional investors who want a bigger slice of pie themselves…Read more.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,850311,00.html