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Bush Oil Plan: Exhibit A

The Supreme Court refused today to hear a case in which the ExxonMobil Corp. contended it should not have to pay $5 billion in punitive damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. The corporation’s lawyers had urged the justices to throw out the penalty on grounds of irregularities during jury deliberations when […]

Nafis Enough

Under the leadership of Nafis Sadik, the U.N. Population Fund has been transformed from an organization that foisted contraceptives on women in order to meet fertility-control targets to one that has as its central mission giving women more power not just over their own fertility but over health care, education, and many other aspects of […]

Royalty Flush

The White House and congressional leaders reached a compromise late last week on a landmark bill that would set aside $12 billion over six years for land conservation. The program, which would be financed in part by oil royalties, would double funding to acquire new federal lands, protect sensitive ecosystems, create urban parks, and preserve […]

How 'Bout One of Those GM Trees?

Got Wood?

After years of being criticized by enviros, the lumber industry is hoping to give its image a boost by spending $45 million on a three-year campaign to promote wood to consumers, along the lines of the dairy industry’s highly successful milk-moustache ad campaign. Working under the umbrella of the Wood Promotion Network, 85 forestry producers […]

They Just Won't Kyoto the Line

Several Republican senators expressed skepticism yesterday that international negotiations on the Kyoto climate change treaty this November would produce an agreement the Senate would ratify. At a Senate hearing, Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) said the treaty would unfairly burden the American economy by forcing reductions in the use of oil and coal. Sen. Chuck Hagel […]

Give This a Whirl

A coalition of 38 businesses and environmental groups, ranging from the Whirlpool Corp. to the Natural Resources Defense Council, called on President Clinton this week to do more to promote energy efficiency. Clinton recently announced that the government will tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help lower home heating oil costs, but the coalition […]

Club Feat

As part of a $3 million October campaign blitz, the Sierra Club announced yesterday that it will run TV and radio ads criticizing the environmental record of George W. Bush in four swing states — Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In one ad, set to start running on Monday, an announcer says, “Al Gore created […]

Have You Herd?

Wildlife organizations this week are trying to increase pressure on the Clinton administration to stop killing bison that leave Yellowstone National Park in the winter in search of food. Monday is the deadline for public comment on the administration’s environmental impact statement on bison management in and around the park, and the National Wildlife Federation, […]

And other words from readers

A number of the following comments on campaign 2000 and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader are responses to a set of letters published previously.   Dear Editor: I read all the letters posted on the Nader-Gore-Bush debate. I had planned to vote for Ralph Nader, but with the benefit of so many other perspectives, I […]