Latest Articles
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I Want My TVA
On Earth Day, April 22, the Tennessee Valley Authority will launch a “Green Power Switch” program, the biggest clean energy project in the Southeast. By the end of the year, TVA plans to erect three wind turbines on a reclaimed strip mine, put solar panels at schools and other public sites, and construct a landfill […]
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Isn't it Good, Certified Wood
Consumer demand in Washington state for eco-friendly lumber is surpassing supply, even as a growing number of wood products firms turn to harvesting and selling timber from sustainably managed forests. The state Department of Natural Resources just announced that it would like to have as much as 1.1 million acres of state forestland certified as […]
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Olive This Idea
Spain’s biggest power company, Endesa, is building two plants to generate electricity from olive residues, the leftovers from olive oil production. The plants, due to be completed in late 2001, will produce enough electricity to meet the household needs of 100,000 people, and Endesa may build dozens more. Other planned biomass projects in Spain include […]
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All We Hate Is Dust in the Wind
The Department of Energy is abandoning its plan to build the first U.S. nuclear-waste incinerator in southern Idaho, a change of course applauded by environmental and community groups that had raised a lot of money and waged a high-profile battle against the facility. The DOE announced its decision yesterday as part of an agreement to […]
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National Park and Ride
Yosemite National Park in California would be returned to a more wild, less developed, condition under a plan outlined yesterday by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. The plan — which follows 20 years of battles over the future of the park and is now open to public comment — would scale back parking and remove some […]
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How Will the West Be Won?
In our last column, we promised to put the presidential campaign on the back burner and take a look at some of the key House and Senate races likely to decide control of the 107th Congress, as well some of the competitive gubernatorial contests. Instead of attempting to cover the entire country in one column […]
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Catalogs of Ills
In what appears to be an uncoordinated campaign, three friends have brought me three different mail-order catalogs, asking me to condemn them publicly. At first I resisted, because I prefer to dump on catalogs as a class, rather than singling some out, which might leave the mistaken impression that others are okay. However, three requests […]
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No Way — You Must Be Lion
In an experiment that could herald the future of endangered species preservation efforts, lions this year may give birth to endangered Bengal tigers. A team of scientists, led by Betsy Dresser of the University of New Orleans, has frozen about 170 tiger embryos and plans to implant them in lionesses within the next eight weeks. […]
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Gold Smith?
In a move that heartens enviros, Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.), the new chair of the Senate Environment Committee, has come out against legislative riders, which have been used to undermine environmental protections in recent years. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Smith wrote that he intends to oppose most environmental riders, […]
