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Abraham Slinkin'

President-elect George W. Bush yesterday nominated outgoing Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) for Energy secretary, a choice that has infuriated enviros. Abraham, who lost his Senate race last fall, tried to abolish the Energy Department while in Congress. Abraham also fought to block higher fuel-economy standards for sport-utility vehicles, lower the federal gasoline tax, and open […]

Guerilla Monsoon

The Colombian army is claiming in a recent report that leftist guerrillas, far-right paramilitaries, and the illegal drug trade are causing ecological disasters within the country. The army says that pipelines blown up by leftists have caused more than 2 million tons of crude oil to pollute 1,625 miles of river in the last 10 […]

Rush More Monuments

Building on his record-setting use of the 1906 Antiquities Act, Pres. Clinton is expected to designate at least five more national monuments, including lands in Montana, California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Enviros have in mind more than a dozen potential monument sites, including the Siskiyou region in southwestern Oregon. But the president’s use of the […]

Chile Today, Hot Tomorrow

The Chilean government and environmentalists are protesting the passage around Cape Horn of a ship carrying about 76 tons of spent nuclear fuel from the U.K. to Japan. Greenpeace Chile fears that the southern route around South America, longer and more treacherous than a trip through the Panama Canal, will become the preferred route for […]

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry

After a decade of debate, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released final standards for labeling organic foods last month, siding with environmentalists and the organic farming industry on nearly every contentious issue. The standards, which will become fully effective in 2002, ban the use of irradiation, biotechnology, and sewer-sludge fertilizer for any food labeled organic. […]

Not Watt! Nit Whit!

In a move that has environmentalists up in arms, President-elect George W. Bush nominated former Colorado Attorney General Gale Norton for Interior secretary on Friday. Norton, a protege of James Watt, Ronald Reagan’s first Interior secretary, was part of an effort under Watt to try to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to […]

A New Year's Pollution-Solution Resolution

Sweden takes big steps to ban chemicals

However environmentally permissive a Republican-controlled U.S. may be, other parts of the world are pioneering attitudes, technologies, and laws that could carry us safely through the 21st century. As this week’s happy example, I offer the new global agreement on POPs, plus Sweden’s even better policy on the same topic. All-natural breast milk — now […]

Hi, Ho, Quicksilver

After more than six years of debate, the U.S. EPA yesterday said it would draft standards to require coal-fired power plants to reduce their emissions of mercury. The National Academy of Sciences has determined that as many as 60,000 babies may be exposed to unhealthy levels of mercury each year because either they or their […]

Gone Fission

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, where a reactor melted down and spewed radiation 14 years ago in the world’s worst nuclear accident, was shut down with a simple flip of a switch today in Ukraine. Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma said, “The world will become a safer place. People will sleep in peace.” Since the 1986 […]