Articles by Grist staff

Dollars Without Sense

Privatizing Forest Service Jobs Would Cost More, Study Finds A Bush administration plan to privatize hundreds of U.S. Forest Service jobs, from wildlife biologists to safety officers, would cost taxpayers more than continuing to pay federal employees, a new agency study has found. Under the Bush plan, as many as one-fourth of all 40,000 USFS […]

Can’t Get a Piece of the Rock

British Insurance Companies Would Not Cover Farmers Growing GM Crops The general public in the U.K. is deeply opposed to genetically modified crops, and now British farmers have yet another reason not to grow them: No one will insure them. A study by the agricultural organization Farm found that none of Britain’s five major insurance […]

Nuclear Holler Costs

Nuclear Weapons Facilities Vulnerable to Terrorists, Whistleblower Says Nuclear weapons facilities in the United States are vulnerable to terrorist attacks, according to a whistleblower who recounts his tale to reporter (and Grist contributor) Mark Hertsgaard in the November issue of Vanity Fair. Until September 2001, federal employee Rich Levernier was in charge of coordinating simulated […]

Live MTBE-Free or Die

New Hampshire Sues 22 Oil Companies Over MTBE Pollution In a first-of-its-kind move by a state, New Hampshire filed suit against 22 oil companies yesterday, blaming them for contaminating drinking water with the fuel additive MTBE. The companies added the chemical to their gasoline to make it burn more cleanly, but it has leached into […]