Articles by Grist staff

Downward-facing Smog

EPA Announces New Air-Quality Standards and Offenders Today the U.S. EPA made two long-awaited announcements, the first a list of U.S. counties in violation of new, stricter air-quality standards, the second a set of rules meant to improve air quality. Both were the result of legal wrangling stretching back for years, with enviro groups suing […]

You’re Fired!

Fire Panel Says California Must Make Tough Choices Californians must choose which to protect: the developments rapidly advancing into its once-wild hinterlands, or the hinterlands themselves. So said a report released yesterday by a commission formed to develop policy recommendations in the wake of last year’s devastating wildfires in the state. While the report recommended […]

I Smell a Rat

Rat Poison Industry Had Undue Influence on EPA Regs, Say Critics Makers of rat poison were allowed to influence, and in some cases rewrite, two U.S. EPA regulatory initiatives meant to make their products safer, according to environmental and consumer-safety organizations. The first initiative was proposed by the EPA under President Clinton in 1998, when […]

Jeffords’ bid to block EPA appointments could have welcome side effects

Jeffords speaking his mind. Photo: U.S. Senate. Asserting that he was confronting “truly life-and-death matters,” Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) announced last week that as ranking member of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works he would exercise his powers to put a hold on four high-level appointments to the U.S. EPA. “I’m sorry […]