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Nothing Could Be Finer Than to Clean Up a Refiner
Oil refineries across the U.S. spew an estimated 80 million pounds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air unreported each year, the equivalent of pollutants from 5 million new cars, according to a report by the House Government Oversight Committee’s Democratic staff. Much of the VOC pollution, which is a key ingredient in smog, […]
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Single Brown Industry ISO Senator, Morals A-
Lobbyists for polluting electric utilities in the Midwest and South are working hard to find an ally in Congress who could help them get legislative relief from potentially large fines being threatened as part of a government lawsuit. In response, six senators from the Northeast have issued a public warning that they will fight any […]
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Club Medfly
The pesticide malathion may have sickened 123 people last year when it was sprayed over two Florida communities to kill crop-eating Mediterranean fruit flies, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. Rather than spraying only farmland, helicopters and airplanes blanketed large suburban areas with the pesticide. Malathion is used in several states […]
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Chinese Dragon Their Heels on Cleanup
In the wake of devastating Yangtze River floods last year, China’s leaders seem to be recognizing that many of their efforts to boost economic growth have been unsustainable and they are gradually working to tackle environmental problems, writes Elizabeth Economy in an op-ed in the South China Morning Post. The leaders have their work cut […]
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Hot Job Opportunities
A concerted push in Florida to forestall global warming could benefit the state’s economy by creating 27,000 new jobs in environmentally friendly industries, according to a study conducted by the Tellus Institute for the World Wildlife Fund. Such an effort would also reduce air pollution in the state by cutting harmful emissions from power plants […]
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What Kind of Research Are They Doing — Taste Tests?
Five Japanese ships set sail yesterday with the intent of killing 440 minke whales, under the aegis of a program that allows whaling for scientific research. The whales killed will be consumed as gourmet meat back in Japan. Commercial whaling has been banned since 1986, but Japan has long insisted that the ban should be […]
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Judge Barks at Feds
Enviros are entitled to seats on committees that are advising federal officials on trade in wood and paper products, a federal judge ruled yesterday. Six environmental groups had filed suit against the feds, demanding representation on the committees, which are now composed exclusively of industry representatives and which are pushing for the elimination of tariffs […]
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Emission: Impossible
The nation’s first super-ultra-low-emission vehicles, described as the cleanest gasoline-powered automobiles in the world, will go on sale in California early next year, the state Air Resources Board said yesterday. The cars — special models of the Honda Accord and Nissan Sentra — have super-efficient catalytic converters that reduce tailpipe emissions to one-eighth the level […]
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Taxation Without Vexation
A British plan for a climate change tax to be levied on heavy energy users has been significantly scaled back, from about a 20 percent tax on energy costs to a 10 percent tax, in large part because of complaints from industry. But proposed changes to the climate change tax, set to go into effect […]
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Well, Well, Well
New York Gov. George Pataki (R) yesterday set strict new limits for drinking water pollution from the gasoline additive MTBE, responding to growing concerns about its health effects. MTBE makes gasoline burn cleaner and helps reduce air pollution, but it has been found to contaminate wells and water supplies, and a federal panel this summer […]
