Climate Politics
All Stories
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Caveat Farmer
Bush Insulates Pesticide Makers from Lawsuits The Bush administration is doing a big favor for pesticide manufacturers by instituting a new policy that will curb farmers’ ability to sue the companies if their products don’t work as promised. In a significant policy reversal, the U.S. EPA has reinterpreted a federal law and now claims that […]
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Suit to Kill
California and Other States to Sue EPA over Greenhouse Gases California intends to sue the U.S. EPA over the Bush administration’s recent decision that the agency doesn’t have the authority to regulate emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, Gov. Gray Davis (D) announced on Friday. Nine other states, including Illinois, New York, […]
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Run Out on a Rail
Senate Rejects White House Proposal to Restructure Amtrak A White House plan to restructure Amtrak was, uh, derailed yesterday by nearly unanimous bipartisan opposition in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. The six-year Amtrak reauthorization bill proposed ending federal operating subsidies for the passenger rail service, opening some routes to private operators, and […]
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The Bush administration lets a profitable energy-efficiency program lapse
As of yesterday, Oct. 1, the most successful program in U.S. history for improving energy efficiency in federal buildings is toast. The demise of the Energy Savings Performance Contracting program is no insignificant matter, seeing as how the federal government is the single biggest energy-user in the nation. Taxpayers spend $4 billion per year to […]
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New Kid on the Block
Democrats Block Vote on Leavitt’s Nomination to EPA As expected, Senate Democrats blocked a committee vote yesterday on President Bush’s nominee to head the U.S. EPA, Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt (R). Though they insisted it was “nothing personal” against Leavitt, Democrats on the Senate Environment Committee, joined by independent Sen. James Jeffords (Vt.), boycotted a […]
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Wolf at the Door
Enviros Sue Feds for Loosening Wolf Protections In an effort to make the western U.S. safe for gray wolves, 17 conservation groups teamed up yesterday to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for downgrading the species’ status from endangered to threatened in April. The coalition argued that the Bush administration was wrong to remove […]
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Nuclear Waste By Any Other Name…
Energy Department Wants to Redefine Nuclear Waste The U.S. Department of Energy is asking Congress for the power to redefine some nuclear waste to allow it to be left where it is or disposed of at low-level radioactive waste sites instead of buried deep underground. The waste in question consists of tens of millions of […]
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The Terminator
Schwarzenegger Suggests that He Might Shut Down California EPA California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) suggested yesterday that he might terminate the state’s environmental protection agency. At a question-and-answer session with voters, Schwarzenegger was asked by a farmer why the state needed Cal/EPA when there was a federal EPA. “What you just talked about is […]
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Strip-tease
Republicans Drop Renewable Requirement from Energy Bill A measure that would require large utilities to produce 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2019 has been stripped out of a big energy bill by Republican congressional negotiators. Yesterday, 53 senators, including eight Republicans, called for the provision to be reinstated, but to no […]
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The Cost Is Clear
Benefits of U.S. Clean-Air Rules Far Outweigh Costs, Report Says The benefits of some major U.S. environmental laws appear to dramatically outweigh the costs, according to a new federal report that is giving environmentalists reason to cheer. The Office of Management and Budget found that tough clean-air regulations implemented over the past decade brought health […]
