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Old Coal Kings

Two senators from big coal-producing states are trying to thwart plans to mothball a coal-fired power plant that heats the U.S. Capitol and replace it with a system that uses cleaner natural gas and fuel oil. Capitol architect Alan Hantman had proposed the upgrade to the plant, which is among the most polluting facilities in […]

A Green and Pleasant Iceland

British supermarket company Iceland, the first supermarket chain to ban genetically modified foods, announced yesterday that it is investing more than $13 million in a push to make organic produce available to customers at prices comparable to those of foods grown with pesticides. Iceland has made deals to buy nearly 40 percent of the world’s […]

Snow Job?

About 160 U.S. ski resorts, including the nation’s 20 largest, have pledged to work on greening the ski industry by conserving energy and water and restricting sprawl. The resorts yesterday unveiled a first-of-its-kind “Sustainable Slopes” charter that lays out dozens of rules governing resort management and construction of new facilities. The charter calls for high-density […]

Trump L'oil

French citizens are calling for the government to crack down on oil tankers that travel through French waters, reacting to a devastating December 1999 spill that dumped 19,000 tons of oil off the nation’s Atlantic coast. The accident, which some are calling France’s own “Exxon Valdez,” could cost some $1 billion in cleanup expenses and […]

Oh, Blast!

Underwater noise or explosions caused healthy beaked whales to beach themselves in the Bahamas in March just as the Navy was conducting underwater tests in the area, according to a report released yesterday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The report does not say outright that the Navy sonar tests or explosions caused the […]

The Powers That Won't Be

The German government and energy companies today reached an agreement to shut down the nation’s 19 nuclear power plants by about 2020. The deal, which comes after more than 18 months of contentious negotiations, fulfills a pledge made by the governing coalition of the Social Democratic and Green parties to phase out nuclear energy. Still, […]

Wait a Minute There, Buster

Aides to Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) got a bit of a shock last Saturday when they logged onto the website of Maria Cantwell, one of Gorton’s Democratic challengers, and saw a goofy photo of their boss posing with “Buster the Salmon,” a costumed protestor who dogs Gorton at campaign events over his refusal to support […]

Micheal Phillips, Aquarius Underwater Laboratory

Michael Phillips is a scuba technician and archaeological diver for Tidewater Atlantic Research in Washington, N.C. He is the operations and communications specialist at Aquarius, where a team of six aquanauts will spend nine days in the underwater laboratory 63 feet below the ocean’s surface in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Thursday, 15 Jun 2000 […]

Crime Me a River

It will soon be a crime to harm salmon or steelhead in some urban areas in the Northwest. The National Marine Fisheries Service is planning to announce rules to that effect next week, a follow-up to last year’s listing of fish runs in Washington’s Puget Sound and Oregon’s Willamette River under the Endangered Species Act. […]

Many Happy Returns

Europeans would be able to return their outdated electrical goods to the products’ manufacturers under a new law proposed by the European Commission yesterday. The proposal aims to cut down on heavy metals and other pollutants in municipal waste by requiring manufacturers to take back electrical goods and recycle at least 60 to 80 percent […]