It’s earth day, friends. We might have spent our time here on the blog talking about oil hitting $75/barrel (as Environmental Action reports).

We might have discussed the Wall Street Journal’s celebration of a job well done (Earth Day Mission: Accomplished).

Instead, we send you to the good folks at Daily Kos for their ever insightful and interesting reflections on Earth Day 2006.

In case you haven’t seen it, Time Magazine ranked Senator Allard one of the five worst Senators in the country. Given its generally conservative reporting, we don’t think Time was evaluating the Senator on the basis of his environmental record, but he probably earns a similar position on the conservation list as well. We want to give credit where it’s due, and the Senator on occasion supports important initiatives, but on the whole Senator Allard has been as hostile as they come having earned a whopping 5% on the League of Conservation Voters' environmental scorecard. On the Endangered Species Act, for example, the Senator is a co-sponsor on Crapo’s atrocious “gut the Act” bill now (thankfully) languishing in the Senate’s Finance Committee. This is an important enough issue to him, in fact, that it’s been living on his home page for some time now.

We’ve got details of the Crapo bill on our Endangered Species Act Defense Campaign page.

Coloradolib was among the bloggers who picked up the story.

In case you don't know, Senator Lincoln Chafee - the Republican Senator from Rhode Island - is one of the Senate's great conservation champions. On the Endangered Species Act, for example, where a party line vote in the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee might well mean the end of the Act as we know it, Senator Chafee has so far stood with the Democrats in refusing to support a damaging bill. For his deep commitment to a conservation ethic shared by Republican icon Teddy Roosevelt he has earned the enmity of his party and a challenger in the Republican primary.

If you didn't hear National Public Radio’s Living on Earth interview yesterday you can listen to it or read the transcript on Living on Earth web site.

Last night the Senate passed, by unanimous consent, an Endangered Species Resolution declaring May 11, 2006 as Endangered Species Day. Although it’s largely symbolic, of course, it’s still good news, and pro-conservation symbolism is important in its own right. The purpose of “Endangered Species Day” is to encourage schools to set aside a few hours for students to learn about what endangered and threatened species live in their state, why they are endangered and what can be done to help. It will also encourage organizations, businesses and agencies to collaborate on educational information and appropriate ceremonies and celebrations of endangered wildlife recovery success stories. We’ll be giving some thought over the next few weeks as to what we might do to support Endangered Species Day in Colorado and welcome any suggestions.

The resolution’s bipartisan cosponsors included:

Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE)
Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-RI)
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)
Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI)
Senator Carl Levin (D-MI)
Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT)
Senator Jack Reed (D-RI)
Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME)