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Air Plan Takes Off

The Chinese government has launched a big millennial campaign to clean up Beijing, with an eye toward the possibility of winning the right to host the Olympics in 2008. More than 1,000 industrial enterprises in the city belch out soot and help give Beijing some of the most polluted, dangerous air in the world; under […]

Suit Case Closed

In an important victory for enviros, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday upheld the right of citizens groups to sue alleged polluters under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and other environmental laws even though any financial damages would be paid to the federal government. Business groups and conservative legal organizations had asked the court […]

What's Good for G.M. Is Good for the Country?

General Motors has dropped its EV1 electric car from production, announcing yesterday that it is shifting its focus to vehicles powered by hybrid fuel-electric systems and fuel cells. At the North American International Auto Show yesterday, the company unveiled a fuel-cell version of its Precept concept car that gets 108 miles to the gallon. GM […]

Brother, Can You Spare Us This Nickel?

The U.S. Energy Department is backing away from a plan to sell its huge stock of nickel left over from nuclear weapons manufacture, acknowledging that it may be too radioactive to put on the open market. In August 1997, the department announced a plan to sell 6,000 tons of nickel this year and another 10,000 […]

What's Good for G.M. Foods Is Bad for the Country

The U.S. government isn’t likely to require labels on genetically modified foods, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said Monday. “I, at this stage, do not see any of what I call mandatory or regulatory activities taking place from the government which will order anybody to do anything with respect to these issues, whether it’s labeling […]

Clinton Paper Moons Enviros

The Clinton administration announced yesterday that it has appealed a federal judge’s order that enviros be named to two panels advising the U.S. trade representative on wood and paper products. In November, Pres. Clinton gave lip service to making the trade process more open to environmentalists’ input. Can you say “two-faced”? The federal judge ruled […]

Timber Tantrumzania

Rampant illegal logging is threatening ecological disaster in Tanzania’s pristine forests, according to a recent report by the International Development Research Center in Canada. Police have begun to set up patrols on major roads in an effort to halt the movement of illegal logs, and authorities are trying to get local communities living near forests […]

Prez Models His Teddy

Pres. Clinton designated more than a million acres of land in Arizona and California as national monuments yesterday, doubling the size of the protected areas around the Grand Canyon. Under the 1906 Antiquities Act, Clinton was able to create three new monuments and expand an existing one without getting congressional approval. Standing against the photo-op-ready […]

The Meter Is Cunning

Puget Sound Energy in Washington will soon begin testing a web-based system for controlling home energy use that could help eliminate the need for new power stations in the region. Some 200 homes in the Kent area will be outfitted with devices that allow residents to control their furnaces and water heaters while they are […]

This Plastic, It's Fantastic

Cargill and Dow Chemical are teaming up to make a biodegradable plastic from renewable resources such as corn or wheat instead of from petroleum. The companies say their joint venture, branded NatureWorks, is ready to go into full-scale commercial production, putting the companies at the front of a race among agriculture and chemical firms to […]