Latest Articles

You Got to Know When to Hold ‘Em

Betting comes naturally to Nevadans, but the stakes are high and the odds are poor for a last-ditch effort to keep 77,000 tons of nuclear waste out of a proposed high-level radioactive waste facility in Yucca Mountain. The state’s U.S. senators are about to unveil a multi-million dollar media blitz aimed at swaying the votes […]

Parroty, Not Parody

In the latest disheartening news about the energy task force, documents released Monday night by the Energy Department show that an executive order on energy policy released by President Bush last May was copied nearly verbatim from the energy policy proposed to the administration by oil lobbyists. On March 20, representatives from the American Petroleum […]

Cotton Bawls

In a blow to opponents of genetically modified crops worldwide, India approved commercial production of some GM versions of cotton yesterday. Up till now, the country, the world’s third largest producer of cotton, allowed only a few field trials of genetically engineered crops. But times are changing. In recent years, Monsanto bought several of the […]

Slim Victory for Whitman

The U.S. Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the Clinton administration’s clean air standards for ozone and particulate pollution, ending a five-year campaign by industry groups to have the standards overturned. To the chagrin of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Trucking Associations, and others, the court ruled that the U.S. EPA did not exceed […]

Holy Toledo!

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ordered the operators of nearly 70 nuclear power plants to report back by Friday on whether the reactors at their facilities are safe to keep in operation. The order came after regulators discovered that acid in cooling water had almost burned through a six-inch lid on a reactor in […]

Favor Dis-Spencer

The word is out that U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham met only with energy industry executives and no environmental or consumer groups as he helped to write the Bush administration’s energy policy last year. But only now is the extent of that exclusive access becoming clear. On Monday night, after a court-ordered release of 11,000 […]

A look at the hiring practices at U.S. nuclear power plants

Could the Sept. 11 hijackers have gotten jobs at nuclear power plants? Under the current rules governing nuclear safety, at least some of them could have easily gone to work as janitors, carpenters, computer programmers, or other plant employees, according to Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear safety engineer who works for the Union of Concerned Scientists. […]

How secure are U.S. nuclear power plants?

Roughly 40 miles from the rubble of the World Trade Center, U.S. Navy cutters patrol the chilly waters of the Hudson River. Military planes circle overhead. On the ground, members of the National Guard stand ready. The Indian Point nuclear power station, which churns out electricity to nearly 2 million homes around New York City, […]

There’s a Place in France Where the Anti-nukies Dance

Lionel Jospin, the socialist prime minister of France, could lose his neck-and-neck race for the nation’s presidency to incumbent President Jacques Chirac if Jospin’s environmental allies make good on their promise to pull their support should the prime minister refuse to back a phase-out of nuclear power. The Green Party accounts for about 10 percent […]

Excess Marks the Spot

Representatives of the Haida Nation, a 7,000-member native group living on the Queen Charlotte Islands off Canada’s Northwest Coast, have sued to secure “exclusive right to make decisions about their land” and the surrounding waters. If the high court of British Columbia rules in their favor, the Haida will be able to prevent the government […]