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Natural Dying Killers

The number of orcas whales living off the San Juan Islands in Washington has dropped 15 percent in the last five years and contamination from industrial chemicals in the region’s orcas are the highest found in any living mammal. Yep, things are looking grim for the killer whale. Environmental groups are expected soon to petition […]

Credit Cads

Okay, give the Bushies some, ahem, credit — the U.S. EPA under President Bush is likely to build on at least one other environmental initiative that gained momentum under former President Clinton. We speak of the market-driven air quality program that lets companies buy and trade pollution credits in certain states. Last week, the EPA […]

They've Got a Little List

One environmental order by the Clinton administration is likely to go unchallenged by the Bush administration: The decision last fall by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service not to add any more animals or plants to the endangered species list until at least the end of this year. The agency said that it had to […]

The Capital Schlepps

The Sierra Club sued the U.S. EPA yesterday for extending the deadline for the Washington metro area to meet federal air pollution limits for ozone. The area missed the original deadline of November 1999, and the EPA granted it a reprieve last month until 2005, without reclassifying the region from a “serious” to “severe” non-attainment […]

We Who Are About to Pollute Cellucci You

Enviros are crying foul that Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci (R) is considering gutting pollution limits for the state’s dirtiest power plants. To great fanfare last May, Cellucci announced a plan under which the plants would have to halve their emissions within three years. But an anonymous source in his administration told the Boston Globe that […]

Speedy Delivery

FedEx Express asked auto manufacturers this week to submit proposals for a commercial delivery truck that has 90 percent less emissions and is 50 percent more fuel-efficient than current models. The delivery giant has been working with the Alliance for Environmental Innovation since the spring of 2000 to figure out how to make its truck […]

Snow Mobilization

Snowmobilers are rushing to Yellowstone this winter to experience what might be the second-to-last year snowmobiles are allowed in the national park. The Clinton administration in December issued a rule to ban snowmobiles in the park by the winter of 2003-04 because of concerns about air pollution, noise, and harassment of wildlife. But Rep. Jim […]

Regulatory Maize

The European Parliament voted yesterday to establish strict rules on the production and marketing of genetically modified foods and pharmaceuticals. Under the rules, companies will have to apply for 10-year licenses to sell genetically modified products and all products will be tracked in a public database marking the locations of crops. A separate bill laying […]

Olive You Just the Way You Are, Except for the Erosion

Olive farming in southern Europe is leading to desertification and other environmental ills, according to a report prepared for the European Commission. The report said that soil erosion is the most serious problem linked to olive farming, and that "inappropriate" methods of weed control and poor soil-management practices are causing big runoff problems, with chemicals […]

This Ain't the Place

Utah is home to the country’s No. 1 air polluter and an enviro study has found that Utah’s Tooele County leads the country in chemical releases that affect child development and learning, reports the Salt Lake Deseret News in an eight-part series on Toxic Utah. Indeed, people across Utah talk about how public safety and […]