Before you celebrate too much ... The Bush administration has already set its sights on another drilling target: the Rocky Mountains. Dozens of petitions to drill on public lands throughout the Rocky Mountain states have been submitted to the White House, which has established a Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining "to expedite the increased supply and availability of energy to our nation," according to President Bush. That's great news for industry reps, who have long lobbied the government to cut the red tape and ease regulatory hurdles to drilling, but bad tidings for environmentalists, who fear the impact on …

Almost 6,000 people will die prematurely from respiratory illness due to emissions from power plants owned by eight utility companies that the Clinton administration sued for violating the Clean Air Act, according to a private report released yesterday. In addition to the deaths, the report predicted that the pollution would lead to 140,000 asthma attacks and 14,000 cases of acute bronchitis. Residents of the Midwest and the South will be hit hardest, and the nation's overall productivity will suffer as well, because Americans will miss an estimated 1.2 million days of work per year due to related health problems. The …

The Senate today effectively voted down Amendment 3132, which would have allowed oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "Effectively," because the issue never actually came up for debate: The Democrats filibustered, and drilling advocates fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to break the blocking tactic and force passage of the measure. All but five Democrats voted against oil drilling, while all but eight Republicans voted in favor. Below, you can see for yourself how your senators voted; a yea vote is in favor of ending the filibuster and, by extension, of drilling in the …

The plot thickens in the controversy over the federal government's decision to ship weapons-grade plutonium from Colorado to South Carolina for temporary storage. Arms-control advocates and Democratic politicians in South Carolina allege that the Bush administration is backing a shipment plan in order to improve the re-election prospects of Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.). Allard, who is in a close race against Democrat Tom Strickland, has made getting rid of the plutonium central to his campaign. Jim Hodges, the Democratic governor of South Carolina, opposes the shipment plan and yesterday accused the White House of blatant politicking: "It seems like the …

In a groundbreaking decision, a San Francisco jury determined yesterday that gasoline containing the additive MBTE is a defective product and that two major oil companies were aware of but did not disclose the additive's dangers when they began marketing it. The lawsuit was brought by the South Tahoe Public Utility District after it discovered that MBTE had seeped into groundwater and polluted a third of the district's drinking-water wells in the late 1990s. MTBE, which causes gas to burn more cleanly, is thought to be a carcinogen. The jury found Shell Oil and Lyondell Chemical (formerly Atlantic Richfield Chemical), …

There's good news and bad news for environmentalists on the personal-watercraft front. On the up side, the National Park Service announced yesterday that it would permanently close five national parks to personal watercraft. Park officials and much of the general public object to personal watercraft in parks, saying Jet Skis and their ilk disrupt wildlife and are noisy and polluting. In less thrilling news, the Park Service ordered eight other parks to re-open their review processes for banning motorized water scooters, potentially setting the stage for the craft to reappear in those parks in the future. Both decisions came one …

More than 220 prominent scientists sent a letter to President Bush today calling for an end to logging on federally owned lands. The scientists, including E.O. Wilson, argued that the economic value of timber from public lands was insignificant compared to the environmental damage from logging, and that taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize timber harvests. The letter, a project of the Sierra Club, read in part, "Timber [from national forests] produces roughly $4 billion per year, while recreation, fish and wildlife, clean water, and unroaded areas provide a combined total of $224 billion to the American economy each …

A $10 million annual fellowship program that provides money to graduate students in environmental science, policy, and engineering has been eliminated by the Bush administration, officials announced late last week. The fellowships, which were part of the U.S. EPA's Science to Achieve Results program, were the only federal monies specifically earmarked to fund environmental studies students. Prior to being axed, the program was supporting 311 students, each of whom received between $30,000 and $34,000 for one to three years, and some 1,350 people had already applied for the 2003 fellowships. The program appears to have gotten lost in the shuffle …

Speaking at the Florida Democratic Party Convention -- widely regarded as the first stop on the 2004 campaign trail -- former Vice President Al Gore attacked the Bush administration on Saturday for favoring corporate America and trashing environmental protections. In his most outspoken speech since the 2000 presidential campaign, Gore decried the return to "the days of deficits and debt, the days of irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy, the days of loosening environmental safeguards to satisfy the polluters." Gore did not say whether he would run for president in 2004, but observers said that if that is his intention, …

Today is tax day in the U.S. (need we remind you?), but not many of your tax dollars will go to support the national park system -- and certainly not enough, conservationists say. The system is suffering from a $4.9 billion backlog in maintenance and improvement projects, a 40 percent shortfall for interpretive and educational services, and a 33 percent shortfall for security and safety. The result? Dilapidated buildings, woefully inadequate research funding, and increasing thievery and poaching of park treasures because fewer rangers are available to patrol vast areas. During his campaign, President Bush promised to eliminate the maintenance …