Latest Articles

Brand-Name Genes

A coalition of enviro groups yesterday petitioned the Agriculture Department to tighten its regulation of genetically engineered crops, accusing the department of approving new biotech plants without requiring adequate tests to assure that they won’t harm the environment. Plants that are artificially engineered to be resistant to pests could pass along resistance genes to weeds […]

This Makes Us Yak

China has plundered Tibet’s natural resources and severely polluted the region’s environment, according to a report by the exiled Tibetan government based in India. The report, to be presented today to the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, accuses China of uncontrolled deforestation, mining, and dumping of nuclear waste. Forty-six percent of Tibet’s forest cover has […]

Making Radio Waves

Hoping to give a boost to environmental issues in the upcoming elections, the Sierra Club yesterday launched an $8 million TV and radio ad campaign aimed at influencing 17 congressional races. The ads, most of which favor Democrats, will be accompanied by voter guides and fliers to be distributed at community events. Politicians targeted in […]

From Russia With Lumps

The oil and gas that Russia loses each year in leaks and spills could provide enough energy to allow the country to close its nuclear power plants, Greenpeace said yesterday. Between 70 million and 140 million barrels of oil are spilled annually in Russia, out of the approximately 2.1 billion barrels the nation produces, the […]

Bill vs. Bill

Keeping a long-standing promise, President Clinton yesterday vetoed a bill that would have required the Department of Energy to move nuclear waste from commercial reactors around the country to a central site in Nevada before completion of a planned permanent waste repository in the state. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to decide as early […]

A Bunch of Ash Holes

In a setback for enviros, the U.S. EPA yesterday decided against regulating ash and sludge from coal-burning power plants as a toxic hazardous waste. Instead, the agency will merely develop voluntary coal-ash disposal standards that states could choose to follow, such as a recommendation that disposal sites have liners. About 100 million tons of coal […]

A Colorado family welcomes the simple life

Why would Dale Murphy, a senior geologist with Enserch Exploration, leave a $58,000-a-year job in Dallas and take his family to a remote town in Colorado where the employment opportunities range from sorting cherries to working a supermarket cash register? The Murphy family, home on the range. Photo: Lisa Jones. Sanity. He and his wife […]

Bringing Us to Our Ruins

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt suggested yesterday that he will recommend that President Clinton create two more national monuments — one at Soda Mountain in southern Oregon and another at a southwestern Colorado area containing Indian ruins. Under the 1906 Antiquities Act, a president can designate national monuments without congressional approval. Clinton has created five monuments […]

Making Money Hanford Over Fist?

The contractor charged with cleaning up the most dangerous waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state said yesterday that the cost would likely be $15.2 billion, up from an estimate of $13 billion earlier this month, which was up from an original estimate of $6.9 billion. British Nuclear Fuels, the contractor, admitted that […]

There's Gold in Them There Geysers

In a ruling that could give a boost to “bioprospecting,” a federal judge this month upheld a precedent-setting agreement under which a biotechnology company will pay Yellowstone National Park for the right to search its geysers and hot springs for commercially valuable microbes. Some enviros and biotech critics had filed suit to stop the deal, […]