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Fewer Living Through Chemistry?

Much of the post-Sept. 11 anxiety about future acts of terrorism has focused on the threat of biological or nuclear disaster — but an attack on a U.S. chemical plant could do as much or more harm, killing or injuring as many as 2.4 million people. That figure, which comes from a report by the […]

Home Builders, Habitat Wreckers

In what appears to be yet another triumph of industry over everything else, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service announced this week that it would temporarily revoke habitat protection for salmon and steelhead in 150 watersheds, river areas, bays, and estuaries in four western states. The changes, which are part of a series of recent […]

Salem Switch Trial

Thumbing its nose at a reputation for endless rain, Oregon is poised to become the first state to boast solar panels on its capitol building. Next month, about 850 square feet of photovoltaic (PV) panels will be installed on the west wing of the capitol, generating an average of 7.8 kilowatts — sufficient electricity to […]

Girl, You’re Gonna Carry That Wait

In a statement that shed light on internal and external frustrations with the U.S. EPA, Agency chief Christie Whitman predicted yesterday that power companies being sued by the government for polluting would wait to settle those cases until one of the biggest ones — against the Tennessee Valley Authority — was resolved. Environmental organizations and […]

Radio-inactive?

An agreement struck this week between the U.S. Department of Energy and Washington state will restore the original timeline and budget for the cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Following technological delays under former President Clinton and proposed budget cuts by the Bush administration, the cleanup date was pushed back from between 2025 and 2035 […]

Don’t Lose Hope

For marine life, Mt. Hope Bay might be the most inappropriately named place on Earth. In the 13-square-mile stretch of water straddling Rhode Island and Massachusetts, 15 fish species have all but disappeared over the last decade, leading some fishers to describe the area as a dead zone. Some scientists blame the deaths on Brayton […]

Parker De-poseyed

The head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers resigned yesterday after being told he would otherwise be fired for remarks he made criticizing the Bush administration budget proposal. In congressional testimony, Mike Parker, Army assistant secretary for civil works, said the Bush budget for the Army Corps was about $2 billion under what he […]

Lighten Up

How’s this for a good way to scare up a few votes? As debate heats up in the Senate over the energy bill, the White House criticized the Democratic proposal, saying a provision mandating more fuel-efficient vehicles would result in — heaven forbid! — smaller cars and — huh? — more traffic deaths. In a […]

Drills, Spills, and Chills

Meanwhile, in a different corner of the energy debate … A proposal to allow oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge shares the spotlight with fuel-efficiency standards as one of the two most controversial items in the energy bill debate. Controversy over the refuge has turned into a triumph of spin over […]

Dissent Into Madness

Arundhati Roy, India’s prize-winning novelist-cum-environmental activist, was found guilty of contempt of court by her nation’s highest court yesterday. Roy was fined 2,000 rupees (about $40) and given a “symbolic” one-day jail sentence in light of the fact that “the respondent is a woman.” Roy is the author of The God of Small Things, which […]