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Trent Warfare

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) has promised Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski (R) that his energy bill, which is backed by oil interests, will be one of the first five bills introduced in the Senate this year. A draft of the bill proposes more drilling for oil and gas on federal lands, including the […]

Rage Against the Machine

Betty Krawczyk, a 73-year-old great-grandmother, romance writer, and hero to many Canadian environmentalists, was released from jail yesterday, after a judge ruled that she had served enough of her year-long sentence for protesting old-growth logging in the Elaho Valley in British Columbia. Krawczyk began serving her jail term four months ago just as five loggers […]

Stiff As a Board

Withstanding pressure from automakers, air quality officials in California voted 9-0 yesterday to move forward with a mandate requiring that 3 million electric and low-polluting vehicles be sold in the state over the next decade. The vote by the California Air Resources Board automatically triggers similar mandates in Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York, and affects […]

Put on My Green Swede Shoes

Sweden’s Environmental Minister Kjell Larsson yesterday said that his country — which currently holds the European Union presidency — would push hard during its term to make the E.U.’s regulations on toxic chemicals much tougher. Sweden itself is already taking steps to ban chemicals that accumulate in the body, and Larsson thinks the entire E.U. […]

California, Here We Come, Right Back Where We Started From

As California’s energy woes continue, the Bush administration is considering easing air-pollution rules to make it less difficult to build power plants in the state. On a related note, Bush last week asserted that environmental regulations in the state were “preventing California from having a 100 percent max output at their plants — as I […]

The Davos Is in the Details

Anti-globalization protesters are swarming to the ski resort town of Davos, Switzerland, to demonstrate against the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, an elite group that includes representatives from 1,000 of the world’s largest corporations. Organizers of the meeting, which begins today, say they have given environmentalists, unions, and other activists an unprecedented amount […]

Nothing Could Be Finer Than to Be an Oil Refiner

In one of the first major environmental challenges for the Bush administration, the oil refining industry yesterday announced plans to sue the U.S. EPA over its rule to require cleaner diesel fuel, which was finalized in the last days of the Clinton administration. Bob Slaughter, general counsel for the National Petrochemical Refiners Association, said, “We […]

Jungle Love, Drivin' Me Mad, Makin' Me Crazy

Brazil’s Science and Technology Ministry is disputing the science behind a study published last week in the journal Science that gave a gloomy outlook on the future of the Amazon rainforest. The study said that as little as 5 percent of the forest will remain pristine by 2020 if Brazil proceeds with a plan to […]

Hello, Gale. Goodbye, Trees!

In a blow to environmentalists, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 18-2 this morning to confirm the nomination of Gale Norton for Interior secretary. Republicans and Democrats alike predicted that Norton would easily be confirmed next week by the full Senate to the post. Environmental groups have been lobbying full-bore over the past […]

Oil Things to Oil People

The Bush administration says the California electricity crisis gives weight to its argument that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska needs to be opened to oil and gas drilling as soon as possible to provide more fuel to the country. The Bush team is working with Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski (R) to propose a […]