Latest Articles

Up the River

New Year’s Day marked a historic moment in the history of Western water wars — the first time the federal government exercised its right to decline California’s request for more than its allotted shared of water from the Colorado River. Thanks to the U.S. Interior Department, cities and agricultural areas in Southern California will lose […]

A Towering Achievement

An Australian power company is planning to build the world’s tallest structure, in the name of a global campaign to encourage renewable energy use. Energy company Environmission plans to construct a solar tower in the middle of the Australian outback that would soar 3,300 feet into the air, or more than twice as high as […]

Flippering Out

In a lawsuit made public late last week, Earth Island Institute and other environmental organizations have sued the U.S. government for relaxing labeling standards for “dolphin-safe” tuna. The suit stems from a decision by the U.S. Commerce Department to classify as dolphin-safe a previously prohibited method of fishing — in which dolphins are encircled with […]

Space Invaders

Red Tape, Brown Results

The Bush administration released yesterday a list of more than 300 federal regulations that could be altered or scrapped in the coming year, including many pertaining to the environment. The list grew out of an announcement made by President Bush in March, when he urged companies to contact the administration “[if] there are nettlesome regulations […]

Mitt’s Catch

Here’s a tidbit of holiday cheer: Massachusetts Gov.-elect Mitt Romney (R) has picked Douglas Foy to fill a key position in his administration, and environmentalists couldn’t be more delighted with the choice. As president of the Conservation Law Foundation since 1977, Foy has been an outspoken advocate of environmentally friendly urban planning. (He’s also made […]

Things That Make You Go Hum-vee

Tax deductions granted by the federal government to small-business owners and the self-employed provide an incentive to purchase oversize, gas-guzzling vehicles like a General Motors Hummer, rather than small, more fuel-efficient cars like the hybrid Toyota Prius. An eligible buyer of a 2003 Hummer H2 could deduct $34,912 of the base price of the vehicle, […]

There Goes the Neighborhood

Despite pressure from the glitterati in Los Angeles, the Ahmanson Ranch, a proposed 3,050-home development project in Southern California, received a crucial vote of confidence from Ventura County supervisors yesterday, when they agreed in a 4-1 vote that the project would effectively balance the region’s housing needs with its environmental concerns. The Ahmanson Ranch project […]

Activists are split on a proposed wind project off Cape Cod

  Look there, friend Sancho Panza, where 30 or more monstrous giants rise up, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and with whose spoils we shall begin to make our fortunes. For this is righteous warfare, and it is God’s good service to sweep so evil a breed from off […]

And other words from readers

  Re: Point. Click. Ignore. Dear Editor: I was appalled that the U.S. Department of Interior is ignoring email appeals now. However, email filtering can be defeated: If the criteria for tossing an email were that it looks just like 80,000 other emails with the exception of the signature, then one can write software to […]