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Going Down in Flames

California Bans Flame Retardants Linked to Serious Health Problems In a precedent-setting move, California has become the first state in the nation to ban two flame-retardant chemicals that have been shown to accumulate in the blood of mothers and nursing infants. The chemicals, known as PBDEs, are widely used to coat furniture, electronics, plastics, and […]

A View to a Drill

Bush Administration Seeks to Increase Drilling In Rockies Federal land managers throughout the Rocky Mountain region must look for ways to remove or relax environmental restrictions on oil and gas drilling on federal lands, according to a Bush administration mandate issued yesterday. In the mandate, the Bureau of Land Management calls on its regional officials […]

Special Delivery

UPS and FedEx Look to Cleaner Vehicles What can brown do for you? Go green, apparently. That’s right: United Parcel Service and Federal Express have begun phasing out diesel engines from their combined 100, 000 vehicles in favor of cleaner, less expensive fuels. Today, UPS boasts about 2,000 vans running on alternative fuels, from compressed […]

Trash Cows

South Africa Contemplates Legislation to Reduce Solid Waste Hoping to stem a rising tide of solid waste, South Africa is introducing a new tax on consumer goods designed to discourage trash dumping and promote recycling. The tax would amount to a compulsory deposit on items ranging from bottles and cans to car tires and plastic […]

Good Judgment

Judge Rules Against Utility Company in Federal Clean Air Act Case A utility company in Ohio violated federal clean air laws by failing to install pollution controls when upgrading seven of its power plants, a judge ruled yesterday. The precedent-setting case marks the first time a federal judge has ruled against a utility in one […]

Raze the Alarm!

Conservative Group Sues Bush Administration Over Climate Report Europe is sweltering, Pakistan is flooding, Alaska is melting, and China is in the grips of a devastating drought, but has any of this convinced the skeptics that global climate change is a reality? On the contrary: The conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute sued the Bush administration yesterday […]

A Tern for the Better

Judge Orders Army Corps to Lower Missouri River Water Level In a victory for environmentalists, a federal judge in Minnesota has ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to lower water levels in the Missouri River to protect three endangered species. The ruling represents the latest twist in a 20-year battle that pits enviros against […]

The Postman Always Recycles Twice

U.K. to Increase Recycling of Junk Mail 70 Percent Over 10 Years The U.S. has finally got a “Do Not Call” registry to ward off would-be telemarketers — but will it ever get a “Do Not Mail” registry to stem the endless tide of junk mail? Maybe not, but across the Atlantic, the U.K. is […]

Mass Destruction of Weapons

Chemical Weapons Incineration in Anniston, Ala., Delayed Just as local residents were scrambling for gas masks, the U.S. Army announced yesterday that it would delay startup of a controversial chemical-weapons incinerator in Anniston, Ala., until Friday, when a federal judge can consider an environmental group’s request for a temporary restraining order against the facility. The […]

Oh, Fudge

EPA May Have Exaggerated Numbers on Safe Drinking Water The U.S. EPA may have fudged the numbers when it announced in a June report that “94 percent of the population served by community water systems were served by systems that met all health-based standards.” Internal EPA documents suggest that the true number may be markedly […]