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Yucc’d Up Beyond All Recognition

Yucca Mountain Provokes Yet More Controversy The perpetually beleaguered Yucca Mountain federal nuclear-waste storage facility has become even more beleaguered. Try to stay with us: First, last week a federal appeals court ruled that the government had erred by failing to follow a National Academy of Sciences recommendation to plan for safety from radiation leaks […]

Comity Central

Fish Restoration Deal Model of Cooperation In a process marked by an eerie lack of lawsuits or public invective, a broad collection of divergent stakeholders — including state and federal agencies, local governments, more than 20 conservation groups, Portland General Electric, and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation (whew!) — have come to […]

The Teflon Precedent

DuPont to Be Fined for Toxic Chemical in Teflon The U.S. EPA has announced it will levy a substantial fine — perhaps the largest environmental fine in U.S. history — against chemical giant DuPont, charging the company with illegally concealing evidence that a chemical used to make Teflon endangered its employees and the public. The […]

Get Your Stinking Paws Off Me, You Damn Dirty AEP!

EPA Adds Charges to Lawsuit Against Power Company The U.S. EPA notified American Electric Power Co. today that it will be adding a new set of violations to its complaint — set to be heard in federal court in mid-2005 — that the company violated new-source review provisions of the Clean Air Act by updating […]

Methyl Addicts

U.S. Seeks Another Exemption from Methyl-Bromide Ban Over the past year, the U.S. requested and received a one-year exemption from the Montreal Protocol’s provision banning the use of ozone-depleting pesticide methyl bromide, sparking international controversy. International controversy, however, is like crack to the current administration, so here we go again: At international talks this week, […]

The Thin Green Line

Whistleblowing Chief of Park Police Fired Seven months after suspending her for speaking out about increased safety risks in national parks due to underfunding and under staffing, the Interior Department has fired U.S. Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers. Though she was pressured by her superiors last year to conceal the fact that patrols were being […]

The Ride of Your Life

Erin Simmons, an advocate for healthy oceans, answers questions

If Everybody Had an Ocean With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I am West Coast organizer for Oceana. What does your organization do? What, in a perfect world, would constitute “mission accomplished”? Oceana campaigns to protect and restore the world’s oceans. Currently, our North American offices are focused on two major campaigns, “Stop Destructive […]

News Happens

Interesting Stuff That Transpired During Our Publishing Break We’re back, rested, and raring to go! While we were gone: The public comment period on the U.S. EPA’s proposed new mercury regulations ended, with a record of nearly 540,000 comments received, overwhelmingly supporting tougher rules. In other EPA news, the agency promised to reconsider its controversial […]

Tigris, Tigris, Burning Blight

Iraq’s Once-Mighty Tigris River in Sad Shape Iraq’s Tigris River is horrendously polluted and may be poisoning Iraqis, but no one is sure just how bad the problem is — the near-total lack of security is preventing environmental researchers from properly testing the water. The decline of the once-mighty Tigris, which flows through the so-called […]