Climate Politics

Two Environmentalists Walk into a Bar

Jim Jeffords gets riled up about the environment in a Grist interview

Jim Jeffords. Photo: U.S. Senate. If an environmental action-hero figure is ever made of Jim Jeffords — and if the Independent Vermont senator is willing to be immortalized not only in plastic but also in drag — it will have to be called “Cassandra.” Like Cassandra, Jeffords has a gift for prophecy. Only four months […]

Superfund could be weakened by recommendations from EPA subcommittee

Arsenic in water, mercury emissions, new-source review, Dick Cheney’s energy task force — these are the issues that have elicited the loudest howls of protest about the Bush administration’s environmental record during the past three years. By comparison, the grumbling over Superfund has been remarkably muted. Mountains of toxic waste dot the horizon around Tar […]

Schwarzenegger’s “Green Hummer” plan sparks cultish following

Does this look green to you? The Hummer has come to be associated with a number of things — steroid-addled egomaniacs, over-compensating suburban dads, the highway to global-warming hell, even Monica Lewinsky’s antics in the Oval Office … But eco-friendly driving isn’t one of them. Unless, of course, you travel in the “Green Hummer” underground, […]

Christian leaders challenge Bush’s environmental policy

Almighty God, your word of creation caused the water to be filled with many kinds of living beings and the air to be filled with birds … Thank you for seeds and soil, green stem and air. For fruit on the vine, then falling fruit rotting on the moist ground, then new seed again … […]

Marianne Horinko, high-ranking EPA official, steps down

The language is increasingly familiar: “I’m leaving at this time in order to spend more quality time with my family. … I realize that I need to devote more time and energy to being [a] wife and mom.” Marianne Horinko. Photo: U.S. EPA. Yep, another beleaguered Bush appointee at the U.S. EPA bites the dust. […]

Demetrio do Amaral de Carvalho champions East Timor’s environment

De Carvalho. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize. East Timor is the world’s newest country. Once a Portuguese colony, the tiny Southeast Asian nation covers half of a 300-mile-long coral island. When Portugal withdrew from the island in the mid-1970s, East Timor became a disputed territory, and for decades it was devastated by civil war and Indonesian […]

The Hydrogenator

California Governor Gives a Boost to Hydrogen Infrastructure California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is trying to kick-start the so-called hydrogen revolution. Yesterday, he signed an executive order establishing a public-private partnership aimed at building a network of some 200 hydrogen fueling stations in the state by 2010, at an estimated cost of $100 million. (California […]

New “quiet” snowmobiles in Yellowstone are anything but

A vroom with a view. Photo: Greater Yellowstone Coalition. You might think a winter job in the snowy recesses of Yellowstone National Park would guarantee perks along the lines of, say, peace and quiet. Au contraire. In light of a recent study conducted for the National Park Service, many Yellowstone employees are being advised to […]

An interview with Bush’s point person on species and parks

Craig Manson. Craig Manson is the man President Bush selected to protect America’s critters. And like many top dogs in this administration, he’s not exactly considered a good friend of the environmental community. As assistant interior secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks, Manson implements the Endangered Species Act, determines the direction of the National Park […]