Dear Umbra, I hope you can answer this or direct me to someone who can. I am a member of the local Williamson County Democratic Party. I would like to print up a leaflet to distribute to the public at our next gathering on April 26 and 27 that shows just what the present Republican administration has done to our environment. Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. TracieRound Rock, Texas Dearest Tracie, I'm afraid I'm answering this too late to help with your public gathering -- but I know you'll have more before the …

This March, the Denver Broncos football team agreed to spend $40 million on a seven-year contract with its new quarterback, Jake Plummer. Since winning two Super Bowls at the end of the 1990s, the Broncos have struggled just to make the playoffs. At his introductory press conference, Plummer predicted, "Winning a Super Bowl is what I believe we are going to do here." Denver: the mile dry city. Photo: NREL. Meanwhile, the state of Colorado is looking for its silver bullet. After an unprecedented boom in growth and tourism during the 1990s, the state is suffering an unprecedented three-year drought. …

A number of the U.S. EPA's best-trained pollution cops are being taken away from their normal crime-busting duties and put to work as bodyguards, chauffeurs, and even gofers for EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. Frustrated EPA enforcement managers anonymously report that this practice disrupts high-stakes investigations into violations of environmental laws. Agents have been ordered to do everything from return a rental car for Whitman's husband to sit at a restaurant table to hold a dinner reservation. "To have agents of this level of training acting as a valet service for a sub-Cabinet administrator is a misuse of taxpayer funds," said …

An automobile company lobbying for stricter emissions standards? It might sound like an unlikely tale, but not when the bottom line is at stake. General Motors is pressuring the South Korean government to impose tougher standards for diesel emissions than it is currently considering. Here's why: The automaker is trying to increase the competitiveness of its Korean affiliate, GM Daewoo. GM Daewoo won't have any diesel cars ready by 2005, when Seoul plans to impose moderate emissions standards, but by 2006, it will be ready to sell cars that meet far stricter standards. If the company can convince the government …

Massachusetts Democratic Senator and 2004 presidential contender John Kerry is honoring Earth Day today by calling on the federal government to protect the human and ecological health of poor and minority communities through strengthening its commitment to environmental justice. In a speech this afternoon, Kerry demanded the creation of a new environmental justice position at the U.S. EPA, a system for monitoring childhood asthma and other diseases influenced by the environment, and "environmental empowerment zones" -- poor and minority areas where development decisions would be subject to strict federal and local review. Kerry is a longtime supporter of environmental causes …

A newly released, two-year study of the federal Clean Air Act's New Source Review rules criticizes the Bush administration for taking steps to weaken clean air protections and calls for tighter regulations for older coal-fired power plants. New Source Review requires owners of power plants and other polluting facilities to install state-of-the-art emissions-control devices when upgrading plants; the congressionally commissioned report found that the rules have helped clean up new factories but have not succeeded in reducing pollution from older, dirtier plants. The study called for a new, performance-based standard that would force older plants to shut down within 10 …

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Major American corporations may be getting off easy on environmental regulations in the U.S. these days, but they're being forced to toe the line in Europe. Rules adopted this year will require all electronics manufacturers doing business in European Union countries to eliminate use of lead, mercury, and other heavy metals from their products, and makers of electronics and appliances to pay to recycle their goods at the end of their useful lives -- changes that U.S. companies say could cost them hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Also in the works are E.U. laws that would encourage energy …

The Bush administration has been discreetly gutting environmental protections by encouraging industry groups to sue over rules and then settling those lawsuits on terms favorable to industry, enviros argue. Using such tactics, the administration has allowed more logging in Northwest forests, curtailed protections for roadless lands and potential wilderness areas in the West, and reopened national parklands to snowmobiles. "In the guise of settling lawsuits, federal officials have retired to the backroom to work out deals that sacrifice our old-growth forests, salmon, and clean water for the sake of clear-cutting our public lands," said Patti Goldman of Earthjustice, a public-interest …