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Gwich'in to Drill?
Some tribes and lawmakers are criticizing environmental groups for continuing to represent Native Americans in a simplistic, self-serving way as model caretakers of the Earth. David Lester, a Creek Indian and executive director of the Council of Energy Resources Tribes, says, “Environmentalists are using the Indians the way the French and English used Indians in […]
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What Recession?
What’s with all the talk about national energy security and a recession? American consumers aren’t listening to the worrywarts — they’re out there doing their patriotic duty, lining up to buy SUVs at a record clip. Sales in November were up 13.7 percent last month from the year before. In fact, so far this year, […]
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Suit Up
Two environmental groups launched the first legal assault on the Bush administration’s energy policy, suing to overturn last September’s sale of 12 new oil and gas leases by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in southern Utah. The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance claim that BLM officials violated the National […]
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Nuclear and Present Danger?
With allies in the White House and energy issues on everybody’s mind, the nuclear power industry was on something of a roll this summer. Now, the momentum has shifted. David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said, "Sept. 11 has been the biggest challenge to nuclear power since Chernobyl." Elected and […]
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Reserve Judgment
Concerned about threats to Africa’s remaining rainforest, the New York City-based Wildlife Conservation Society has been forming closer ties with logging companies. The group believes that in some cases, working hand-in-hand with loggers is the best way to protect what’s left. Last year, the group helped negotiate a deal that traded away 260 square miles […]
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Sony-side Down
Sony said yesterday that it would replace the peripheral cables for 1.3 million PlayStation 1 consoles destined for sale in Europe, in response to environmental concerns raised by the Dutch government earlier this week. A European Union rule forbids the sale of products that contain more than 0.01 percent cadmium; the Dutch say the cables […]
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Once More Out of the Breach
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said this week that it would recommend against breaching four hydroelectric dams on the lower Snake River in Washington state to help restore salmon populations. The agency’s stance on salmon restoration, which is shared by the White House, is that it would be less disruptive to communities in eastern […]
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Cod Peace
Concerned that some fish populations are bottoming out, the European Commission has proposed deep new cuts in fishing quotas. For example, cod catches in the Kattegat strait between Denmark and Sweden would be reduced by 60 percent; haddock catches in the Irish Sea by 52 percent; and sole in the North Sea by 25 percent. […]
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The Dredge Great-Scott Decision
U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman said yesterday that her agency would order General Electric to spend almost $500 million to dredge PCBs from the upper Hudson River. In doing so, Whitman disregarded a multi-million-dollar P.R. campaign by the giant company claiming that dredging would not improve the river’s health. Enviros, who had feared that […]
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Tree? No Thanks, I'm Trying to Cut Back
Indonesia said this week that it would tighten its forestry laws to rein in illegal logging. Under the new rules, companies will lose their licenses to log in 2003 unless they can prove they are managing forests sustainably. Enviros cheered the change, though it remains to be seen just how the theory will translate into […]
