Latest Articles
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An argument against Murkowski’s radical attempt to overrule EPA scientists
Today one of my Republican colleagues introduced a proposal to brazenly overturn sound scientific work done by our nation’s leading public health experts and prohibit the Environment Protection Agency from doing its job to protect the health and welfare of the American people. This extremely damaging proposal is a political stunt designed to effectively strip […]
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Supreme Court ruling on elections puts concept of any kind of reform into doubt
In a ruling today, the Supreme Court rolled back campaign finance laws to the pre-Watergate era: Sweeping aside a century-old understanding and overruling two important precedents, a bitterly divided Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. The ruling was a vindication, the majority said, […]
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U.S. feeds one quarter of its grain to cars while hunger is on the rise
The 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels. More than a quarter of the total U.S. grain crop was turned into ethanol to fuel cars last year. With 200 ethanol distilleries in the country […]
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On neighbors & the speed of plasterers
On the wall of many offices of the Fund for Public Interest Research, a spinoff outfit of the state PIRGs which dominates the market for progressive door-to-door and telephone canvasses, there is a framed piece of paper in which I take inordinate pride. It is a blurry copy of a thirty year old mimeographed crew […]
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New Sierra Club chief brings confrontational style to the job
Michael BrunePhoto courtesy Sierra ClubThe Sierra Club’s new leader will come to the job with a record of “environmental agitation” against big industrial polluters. The group announced on Wednesday that Michael Brune, 38, currently head of Rainforest Action Network (RAN), will replace Carl Pope as executive director as of March 15. Brune honed RAN’s strategy […]
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It’s all about independents — and independence
The amazing table above comes from a new Allstate/National Journal/Heartland Monitor poll of 1200 Americans conducted January 3 to 7 . Even after a multimillion dollar disinformation campaign funded by big oil and corporate polluters, the public still understands that the climate bill would help the U.S. economy (unlike their view of the bailout bills […]
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Climate Policy Lessons From France
I loved French President Sarkozy’s carbon tax proposal, so it was disheartening to see it get mauled by lawmakers: “We will not touch households, hauliers or fishermen,” Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told reporters. Industries such as metals and refineries, seen as major polluters, were spared under the earlier tax plan… Borloo announced plans to launch […]
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JP Green House intern dines with construction crew
Five construction workers and I crowd around a covered picnic table outside a run-down little house on the outskirts of Boston. Formerly a 100-year-old neighborhood store called "Jack's Corner Store," the place was abandoned for five years before current owners Ken Ward and Andrée Zaleska purchased it in 2008.
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Coal ash first real test of Obama commitment to health and safety regulation
A critical test of the Obama Administration’s commitment to reviving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is teeing up behind closed doors at the White House. Once again, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is cast in the role of regulation killer, supported by a slew of state and other federal agencies that are polluters […]
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A video for the Gourmet-nostalgic
For those nostalgic for Gourmet Magazine, a group in which I count myself, here’s a kind of cheerful wake: a video symposium (impossible to embed, damn it) on the fallen magazine featuring editor Ruth Reichl, restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, and senior editor Laurie Ochoa. Watch it and chuckle a bit at the earnestness, and weep […]
