Latest Articles

Whistle Stop

The ombudsman for the U.S. EPA, Robert Martin, is accusing the agency’s administrator, Christine Todd Whitman, of punishing him for opposing an agreement limiting the financial liability of Citigroup for a controversial Superfund cleanup. Martin alleges that Whitman had a conflict of interest in the case because Citigroup is a principal investor in her husband’s […]

Oil the Way

California Gov. Gray Davis (D) reiterated his opposition to offshore oil drilling in his state yesterday and vowed he would fight the Bush administration all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary to stop development of 36 drilling leases granted by the federal government. Because of a moratorium imposed by the first President […]

Fairy Fairy, Quite Contrary

The U.S. Supreme Court refused yesterday to hear a challenge to the protected status of the endangered fairy shrimp, a tiny crustacean that lives in rainwater ponds in California’s Central Valley. The decision was a boon to fans of the Endangered Species Act, but a blow to property-rights advocates, for whom the case was one […]

A Developer’s Wet Dream

The Bush administration weakened protection for wetlands, streams, and swamps across the U.S. yesterday by making changes to the Clean Water Act, despite the objections of the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The changes, which were proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers and approved by the White House, make it […]

Bah-Lomborg!

  We received an unprecedented number of responses to Something Is Rotten in the State of Denmark, our special edition on Bjorn Lomborg’s The Skeptical Environmentalist. As usual, Grist readers were impassioned and opinionated. What follows is a sampling of their letters — largely positive, occasionally scathing, and frequently informative.   Dear Editor: I don’t […]

Xie Whiz!

China’s got a new five-year plan — this one to clean up the country’s terrible air and water pollution. To cut emissions of sulfur dioxide and other major pollutants, the country is spending about $84 billion, or twice the amount spent in the last five years. The initial funding will come from the federal government, […]

No Comment

Here’s the latest bit of unconscionable news from the U.S. Department of the Interior: Interior Secretary Gale Norton failed to submit comments from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service blasting a proposed Army Corps of Engineers plan to relax wetlands protection rules. As a result, the Army Corps will announce its final version of the […]

Hi Ho Sterling, Away!

If the Sterling Mining Company has its way, one of the continent’s largest underground mines could soon be dug beneath the Cabinet Mountains of northwestern Montana, marking the first time that large-scale mining would take place beneath a federal wilderness area. Last month, federal and state officials granted the company a permit to operate a […]

Once There Were Brownfields

President Bush headed to Pennsylvania on Friday to sign into a law a five-year plan to revitalize brownfield sites around the country. Under the plan, which was approved by Congress last month, the feds will allocate up to $250 million per year to states, local governments, and Native American tribes, with the goal of cleaning […]

Its Bark Is Worse, and That Bites

Last month, Mexican officials learned their country is losing its forests at a rate of nearly 3 million acres a year, or nearly twice the clip previously thought; now, they’re blaming the heavy deforestation on impoverished indigenous farmers in Chiapas, who slash and burn the jungle to scrape out their meager living. The long history […]