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Motor Voters

U.S. Senate Votes Against Increased Fuel Efficiency In a blow to advocates of stricter fuel-efficiency standards, the Senate yesterday voted 65 to 32 against a proposal by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) that would have required cars and SUVs to average 40 miles per gallon by 2015. Instead, the Senate backed an industry-supported proposal to let […]

Bark, but Little Bite?

Asserting that illegal logging causes a host of social and political problems, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday announced the launch of a new U.S. campaign to help developing countries fight unlawful deforestation. “Such blatant disregard for the law weakens governments, encourages corruption, [and] undermines democracy,” Powell said. He pointed to the example of […]

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Mock ‘Em

Instead of preaching about the evils of General Motors’ Hummer H2, with its hulking frame and 10-mile-per-gallon fuel economy, the Sierra Club has launched a new website to mock the mega-SUV: www.hummerdinger.com. “G.M. celebrates Hummer’s state-of-the-art 1950’s engine technology with some of today’s hottest stars,” reads a mock story on the site, which goes on […]

Land of the Rising Sun

Japan, weary of being dependent on imported fuel, has taken a shine to solar power. The nation now produces half of the world’s solar energy and has surpassed the U.S. as the world’s leading producer of solar panels. The Japanese government has thrown its weight behind what it sees as a potentially strong export industry, […]

Ross Freeman, American Rivers

Ross Freeman is staff scientist at the Northwest regional office of American Rivers, a conservation organization that restores and protects river systems nationwide. Monday, 28 Jul 2003 SEATTLE, Wash. As far as I can recall, the last time I had an entirely predictable, no-surprises week was during the tail end of my high school years, […]

Curtain Call of the Wild

The man who cleared the way for the lifting of the Iron Curtain now wants to transform the former cold war border region into a large, multinational nature reserve. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, now president of the environmental group Green Cross International, has joined with a number of European conservation organizations in pushing for […]

Is That Your Final Answer?

The Bush administration surprised clean-air advocates and polluting industries alike on Friday when it announced that the U.S. EPA would reconsider parts of a decision to significantly relax air-pollution rules. In December, the EPA announced “final” revisions to the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review rule — changes that would have allowed tens of thousands […]

So Much for “Go West, Young Man”

The U.S. has long imported French cuisine, Italian fashion, and German cars; now, California wants to import Old World environmental regulations. The Golden State has historically been on the cutting edge of environmental politics here in the U.S., but the European Union, with its strict controls on food, water, and chemicals, boasts even more eco-friendly […]

The Maine Dish

After years of legal wrangling, Maine is finally ending its opposition to the federal government’s decision to list the wild Atlantic salmon as endangered in several of the state’s rivers. Gov. John Baldacci (D) announced yesterday that the state had come to an agreement with the feds and would not appeal a recent court decision […]

Logbook Rolling

Prior to commercial whaling, far more whales thrived in the North Atlantic than previously thought, according to a study published in today’s issue of Science. Earlier studies estimated historical whale populations by combing through logbooks from old whaling ships; the current study was the first to look instead at telltale genetic variations that increase as […]