Articles by Grist staff

For Never Wild

A coalition of environmentalists has sued the U.S. Department of the Interior over its recent decision to prevent the Bureau of Land Management from considering any more Western land for wilderness designation. Areas set aside for protection under the 1964 Wilderness Act are protected from motorized recreation and most forms of development. In 1996, however, […]

Respect Your Elders

U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced yesterday that the Bush administration put the “citizen” back in “senior citizen” by ending its practice of devaluing the lives of older people when calculating the costs and benefits of environmental regulations. Nicknamed the “senior discount,” the highly controversial computational method involved valuing the lives of those older than […]

Fuel Independent Candidate

Jockeying for name recognition and post position, the candidates for the 2004 Democratic primary are busily trying to stake out the issues that will define them as the election unfolds — and Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman has settled on energy independence. In his first major policy speech, given yesterday to environmentalists, Lieberman declared a goal […]

Smoked Salmon Plan

The Bush administration will have to rethink its salmon-management plan in the Columbia River Basin, following a federal court ruling yesterday that found the current plan inadequate to protect the endangered species and reduce the negative impact of hydroelectric dams. The ruling marks a major triumph for environmentalists and a serious blow to the White […]