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A Friend of the Devil Is No Friend of Mine
Speaking yesterday before the National Association of Manufacturers (can you say “polluters”?), Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH), the new chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, called for scrapping enviro laws that don’t work and for more flexibility in regulations considered onerous by business. Smith said to his industry chums, “You are good stewards, […]
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Drink, Poop, and Be Merry, for Next Year You'll Be Dry
Drinking water and sewage facilities are threatened by the Y2K computer bug, and lax oversight by the feds and industry are to blame, according to a reported released by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Y2K & Society. The report authors, based on surveys conducted by such groups as the American Water […]
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Two for the Show
In their first major joint venture, the Sierra Club and Amnesty International yesterday launched a worldwide campaign to protect environmentalists from harassment, imprisonment, torture, and death. Activists most urgently needing international help, according to the groups, include enviros fighting a gas pipeline project in Burma, an oil pipeline in Chad and Cameroon, the Three Gorges […]
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Step on the Gas
The California Air Resources Board yesterday unanimously approved a new formula for the state’s gasoline that will eliminate the clean-fuel additive MTBE while maintaining strict air quality improvements. The board set 2003 as a deadline to have MTBE removed; most oil companies in the state plan to substitute it with ethanol, a more expensive octane […]
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It's Bloomin' 'ot!
Scientists in England say 1999 will almost certainly be the warmest year ever recorded in the U.K., topping the previous high recorded in 1990 by about a tenth of a degree Celsius. Worldwide, 1999 is on track to be one of the 10 hottest years ever, but not nearly as warm as the blistering years […]
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Chew on This
Mattel, the world’s largest toymaker (think hourglass Barbies and those fun-to-chew-on Fisher-Price figures), has announced that it will begin a major push to make its plastic toys from more environmentally friendly, organically based materials such as oils and starches. The new materials would replace polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and a controversial group of chemicals called phthalates […]
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Kiwis Greener
Victories this week by the New Zealand Green Party, which has won seats in Parliament for the first time, have temporarily thrown the country’s fledgling center-left coalition into flux. The coalition had expected to win a majority of seats, but now has to count on Green support to exert control. The six victorious Greens toasted […]
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OK Coral
The controversial oil drilling platform Brent Spar has become home to large quantities of healthy coral, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. The colonies are a long way from forming coral reefs, but the findings indicate that dismantling rigs after they are decommissioned may not be the most environmentally sound solution, […]
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Baywatch
The states making up the Chesapeake Bay watershed yesterday pledged to cut back runoff of nutrients and sediments into the bay so sharply that it will be removed from the federal “dirty water” list within 10 years. Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D) said that if the states reach the goal to surpass Clean Water Act […]
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Watts Wrong Here?
The Tennessee Valley Authority yesterday approved plans to produce nuclear weapons material in a commercial reactor for the first time in U.S. history, breaching the wall between civilian and military nuclear power. The TVA board voted unanimously to allow the Watts Bar plant in Tennessee to produce tritium as early as 2003, while continuing to […]
