Uncategorized

Hi, Ho, Quicksilver

Debate is brewing over safe levels of exposure to mercury and whether new limits should be imposed on mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants. While most industrial uses of mercury are declining, concentrations of methylmercury, a particularly toxic form of mercury, are increasing in the environment and the food chain. Consumption of fish is the […]

Yes, Trash Can!

At least four commercial ventures are gearing up to make money from biomass power, which uses organic refuse (corn stalks, rice straw, even household food scraps) to produce alcohol-based substitutes for gasoline. Only some 3 percent of the nation’s energy is currently derived from biomass, nearly all of it from burning wood or making ethanol […]

Hold On, There

Enviros are becoming increasingly concerned about the development of “inholdings,” or private land within national parks and national forests. There are about 50 million acres of such land, only a fraction of the total land within park and forest boundaries, and in the past most landowners have kept their areas in a natural state or […]

Meltdown

Take Two Rhinos and Call Me in the Morning

The World Wildlife Fund is campaigning to transform traditional Chinese medicine, working to promote new green standards that would halt the use of endangered species. Although trade in tiger bones, rhinoceros horns, and bear bile is officially banned, the items are still highly sought after as ingredients in traditional treatments. Chinese medicine, which is quickly […]

The Hills Are Dead With the Sound of Mining

On Saturday, the Clinton administration backed off its support for a legislative rider that would permit the dumping of mining waste into streams in West Virginia. Last week, the administration angered enviros by siding with West Virginia Democrats who are pushing to protect the coal industry’s use of a strip-mining technique known as “mountaintop removal,” […]

Soot Suit Riot

To move forward on tough new pollution standards for soot and smog, the EPA will have to argue and win its case before the Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., on Friday turned down the agency’s request for a full appeals court review of a decision by a three-judge panel last […]

Not a Bunch O' Abalone

Some scientists believe that humans have eaten a marine species to near-extinction for the first time. The white abalone, which lives along the California coast and is highly prized by gourmets, was overfished in the 1970s and, though it is now illegal to fish for it, the sea snail’s population is still severely depleted and […]

Dishonorable Discharges

Pres. Clinton announced plans on Saturday to make companies that handle even relatively small quantities of certain toxic materials provide fuller public disclosure when they discharge the potentially dangerous chemicals into the air or water. Clinton talked up the new regulations, which will expand the federal Toxics Release Inventory program on Jan. 1, as a […]

This Chafes!

Eyeing the top spot on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Bob Smith (N.H.) yesterday dropped his flailing, independent bid for the presidency, paving the way for a return to the Republican party and a likely claim to succeed the late Sen. John Chafee (R-R.I.) as chair of the committee. If Smith’s seniority […]