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Swing State, Sweet Chariots

Texas Gov. George W. Bush traveled to the swing state of Michigan on Friday to attack Al Gore as an enemy of the automobile whose focus on the environment would damage the economy. Bush noted that the vice president cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate in 1993 to raise gasoline taxes and quoted from […]

Leaps and Boundaries

In what would be the first major effort to confront transboundary air pollution since an agreement on acid rain pollution in the 1980s, the U.S. and Canada have drafted a smog-reduction plan for the next decade. Under it, the U.S. would reduce its nitrogen oxide emissions by 36 percent by 2010, while Canada would drop […]

Don't Mess With the Missionary Brand

Keeping track of where genetically modified crops end up is proving to be more difficult than U.S. regulators had anticipated. Exhibit A is the ongoing controversy over food products found to illegally contain StarLink corn, a modified variety not approved for human consumption. In addition to recent recalls of two brands of taco shells, the […]

Loan Wolf

In what could be a precedent-setting move, enviros are suing the U.S. Small Business Administration for aggravating sprawl in the Washington, D.C., area. The Forest Conservation Council and Friends of the Earth say that at least 30 percent of SBA loans in the region over the past three years have financed new construction, much of […]

You Don't Have to Be a Starlink, Baby, to Be in My Show

The U.S. EPA moved yesterday to revoke approval for a variety of genetically modified corn that has illegally made its way into two brands of taco shells, prompting nationwide recalls. The Starlink corn, manufactured by Aventis, had been licensed for use as livestock feed but banned from human food because of concerns that it could […]

If I Had a Hammer, I'd Hammer in Texas

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic candidate for vice president, visited the home state of Texas Gov. George W. Bush yesterday to hammer on Bush’s environmental record, accusing him of endangering the health of Texans by failing to stand up to industrial polluters. Speaking in a poor neighborhood near a petrochemical plant, Lieberman said federal data […]

Oh! for Two

The national League of Conservation Voters endorsed both Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Rep. Rick Lazio yesterday in the New York Senate race. The LCV said Clinton has pledged to fight for the environment, promising among other things to push for ratification of the Kyoto climate change treaty. The LCV praised Lazio for being […]

50 Ways to Love Your Lever

With the help of levers and pedals, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt pulled a 16,000-pound chunk from the face of the Matilija Dam yesterday, a symbolic step toward dismantling the 20-story structure in southern California. Babbitt has been calling attention to the need to take down obsolete dams in the country for the last couple of […]

Let's Buck This Rider

A coalition of 20 health and enviro groups is calling on President Clinton to refuse to sign a budget bill with riders that would, among other things, block the U.S. EPA from lowering the level of arsenic allowed in drinking water. Clinton has said he would veto funding bills with anti-environmental riders, but activists fear […]

I'll Take the Environment for $600, Jim

The environment got the most attention it’s ever received in a presidential debate last night, with much of the focus on global warming. Vice President Al Gore argued that actions must be taken now to combat global warming, and that there would be great economic gains for the U.S. if it were the country to […]