Latest Articles
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Pork Politics
“Campaign reform” is much too polite a phrase. “Ending corruption” is more like it. I could — and maybe I will — write a column a week from now till next fall’s election counting the ways campaign contributions corrupt our government, destroy our public assets, and rob taxpayers. Today’s example is industrial hog farming. This […]
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EV Come, EV Go?
General Motors Corp. is still committed to manufacturing its EV1 electric cars, the company’s vice chair said yesterday, contrary to reports last week that the company planned to abandon its electric car program to concentrate on vehicles powered by fuel cells and hybrid-electric systems. News that GM was dropping the EV1 had angered some enviro […]
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Cut the Crap
Congress could save taxpayers $50 billion by cutting environmentally harmful projects and subsidies, according to a report released yesterday by the Green Scissors coalition, which includes enviro and government watchdog groups. Among other egregious expenditures of public money, the coalition pointed to subsidies for hard rock mining, fossil-fuel research, and the oil, timber, and sugar […]
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Wizards of Oslo
The Norwegian government announced yesterday that it is giving a 37 percent boost to funding for renewable energy projects, citing a large increase in the number of project proposals. Meanwhile, U.S. environmentalists wish their government had the same foresight. Arizona averages more than 300 sunny days a year, but people working in the solar industry […]
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Greens Against Genes
Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and other enviro and public interest groups are trekking to Montreal, Canada, planning to raise their voices against genetic engineering as U.N. talks on the issue start Monday. Representatives of 134 nations will convene to discuss a proposed Biosafety Protocol, which is intended to establish rules for the international movement […]
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Slackers
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, following its usual pattern, recently missed two deadlines for deciding whether species should be protected under the Endangered Species Act, and enviros are taking the agency to task. In a move that could lead to a marked decline in logging in Northern California, the Environmental Protection Information Center filed […]
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Bradley Nets a New Endorsement
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) on Wednesday endorsed Bill Bradley for the Democratic presidential nomination, accusing Al Gore and the Clinton administration of having “taken a hike” on restoring Northwest salmon runs. Kitzhaber, the first governor to formally back Bradley, says the feds need to stop delaying their deliberations on whether four Snake River dams […]
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Huge Tracts of Land
A number of U.S. enviro groups are pushing plans to preserve and restore vast stretches of land in an effort to combat the “islandization” of wildlife habitat, or the fragmentation of natural land that makes it difficult for creatures to survive and ecosystems to properly function. The Wildlands Project, based in Tucson, Ariz., is at […]
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Gee, an Air Quality Website. Thanks a Lot, Britain.
Britain announced a new strategy yesterday to clean up its air, focusing on changes to the transportation sector such as encouraging the development of cleaner fuels and automotive technology. The government specifically talked up a new air quality website that will provide warnings for people with respiratory problems. Friends of the Earth criticized the government’s […]
