Latest Articles

Keeping the Chemical Fires Burning

Army Begins Burning Chemical Weapons in Alabama To the dismay of environmentalists and many community members in Anniston, Ala., the U.S. Army on Saturday started incinerating millions of pounds of chemical weapons stored at an army depot in town, a process expected to take seven years. A federal judge cleared the way on Friday when […]

The 411 on 9/11

White House Pressed EPA to Say Air Was Safe After 9/11 In the days immediately following the 9/11 attacks, the White House pressured the U.S. EPA to issue unsupported statements reassuring the public that air quality around ground zero was safe, according to an investigation by the EPA’s inspector general. Also, as a result of […]

Going Down in Flames

California Bans Flame Retardants Linked to Serious Health Problems In a precedent-setting move, California has become the first state in the nation to ban two flame-retardant chemicals that have been shown to accumulate in the blood of mothers and nursing infants. The chemicals, known as PBDEs, are widely used to coat furniture, electronics, plastics, and […]

A View to a Drill

Bush Administration Seeks to Increase Drilling In Rockies Federal land managers throughout the Rocky Mountain region must look for ways to remove or relax environmental restrictions on oil and gas drilling on federal lands, according to a Bush administration mandate issued yesterday. In the mandate, the Bureau of Land Management calls on its regional officials […]

Special Delivery

UPS and FedEx Look to Cleaner Vehicles What can brown do for you? Go green, apparently. That’s right: United Parcel Service and Federal Express have begun phasing out diesel engines from their combined 100, 000 vehicles in favor of cleaner, less expensive fuels. Today, UPS boasts about 2,000 vans running on alternative fuels, from compressed […]

Trash Cows

South Africa Contemplates Legislation to Reduce Solid Waste Hoping to stem a rising tide of solid waste, South Africa is introducing a new tax on consumer goods designed to discourage trash dumping and promote recycling. The tax would amount to a compulsory deposit on items ranging from bottles and cans to car tires and plastic […]

Good Judgment

Judge Rules Against Utility Company in Federal Clean Air Act Case A utility company in Ohio violated federal clean air laws by failing to install pollution controls when upgrading seven of its power plants, a judge ruled yesterday. The precedent-setting case marks the first time a federal judge has ruled against a utility in one […]

Raze the Alarm!

Conservative Group Sues Bush Administration Over Climate Report Europe is sweltering, Pakistan is flooding, Alaska is melting, and China is in the grips of a devastating drought, but has any of this convinced the skeptics that global climate change is a reality? On the contrary: The conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute sued the Bush administration yesterday […]

A Tern for the Better

Judge Orders Army Corps to Lower Missouri River Water Level In a victory for environmentalists, a federal judge in Minnesota has ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to lower water levels in the Missouri River to protect three endangered species. The ruling represents the latest twist in a 20-year battle that pits enviros against […]

Zuni tribe member Pablo Padilla talks about beating back a strip mine

Earlier this week, Native Americans and environmentalists won a surprising victory when a power company abandoned plans to build a highly controversial coal mine in New Mexico. Zuni Salt Lake. Photo: Zuni Salt Lake Coalition. For 20 years, the Salt River Project, an Arizona-based utility company, had sought to build an 18,000-acre strip mine near […]