Latest Articles
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Life's a Beach and Then You Die
Fourteen whales beached themselves and eight of them died soon after the Navy conducted sonar exercises off the northern Bahamas on March 15. The Navy said yesterday that there was no evidence to link the whale deaths to its sonar tests, but enviros called for the suspension of the exercises. Marine biologist Ken Balcomb of […]
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Jet Blacklist
The National Park Service announced yesterday that next month it will begin banning Jet Skis and other personal motorized watercraft in 66 national parks, seashores, and recreation areas. But the machines will still be allowed in 10 national recreation areas where they are heavily used; 11 other areas will have two years to phase them […]
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Au-Burned
In what may be the final chapter of one of California’s longest and most bitter water battles, the federal government this week bowed to pressure from state officials and all but dropped plans to build the massive Auburn Dam on the American River in Northern California. The Bureau of Reclamation announced that it will abandon […]
