Latest Articles

Ten-Year Track

Western Republicans are backing a bill that would set a 10-year deadline for Congress to act on wilderness designation proposals, a move that Democrats and enviros say could lead to the degradation of millions of acres of pristine federal land. Presently, the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management can treat areas as if […]

Portland Trailblazers

Oregonians across the political spectrum want their state government to set an example of environmental responsibility and offer incentives to encourage businesses to be more ecologically conscious, according to poll results released yesterday by Portland State University. Sixty-three percent of 500 voters surveyed said they support requiring state agencies to make eco-friendly business decisions, which […]

Now's the time to make the big leap to clean energy

For the burgeoning clean energy industry, these are heady times. Having spent most of its years in uphill struggle, the industry has now climbed to the takeoff point. Wind and solar are the world’s fastest growing energy sources, their costs rapidly curving down toward competitiveness with fossil fuels. Fuel cells that provide clean electricity for […]

Drill Team

Alaska’s GOP congressional delegation is trying to attach a rider to a 2001 budget measure that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The remote 1.5 million-acre coastal plain in Alaska is home to a wide array of wildlife, including caribou and polar bears, and enviros argue that it should be left […]

J'accruise

Fifty-four U.S. environmental groups called on the EPA yesterday to crack down on pollution from cruise ships, with a formal petition that asks the agency to close loopholes in Clean Water Act regulations that allow the ships to dump millions of gallons of pollutants directly into sensitive waters. Cruise ships can legally discharge untreated waste […]

Wasting Their Breath

The House joined the Senate yesterday in approving legislation that would create a permanent storage site for nuclear waste in Nevada, though neither body passed the bill with enough votes to overturn a promised presidential veto. The bill would open the way for thousands of tons of nuclear waste from power plants around the country […]

No Canada Do

Canada’s national park system is in danger of collapsing unless the park service is radically overhauled, according to a report by a high-profile federal panel. The report found that nearly all of Canada’s 39 national parks are suffering from pollution, overuse, invasion by exotic species, and developments such as dams. Most of the park service […]

A Lot of Fuss Over a Blues Guitarist?

Against the backdrop of the Taj Mahal, President Clinton called for greater environmental cooperation between India and the U.S. and pledged nearly $250 million in aid for clean energy projects and technical assistance to help promote clean water and air in the nation. He emphasized the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global […]

Zed, last of his species, in "Things That Go Burp in the Night"

Mountin' Opposition

Twenty-three green-leaning House Republicans sent a letter to President Clinton earlier this month calling on him to stand firm against the destructive practice of mountaintop-removal mining. A federal judge ruled last year that the mining technique, which has decimated a number of West Virginia mountains and buried 500 to 1,000 miles of the state’s streams […]