Articles by Grist staff

Someone Set Up Us the Bomb

U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced this week that she is “very comfortable” with the Pentagon’s proposals to exempt the military from a broad swath of environmental regulations. In response to the war in Iraq, the Defense Department has stepped up its longstanding efforts to obtain military waivers for rules ranging from endangered species protections […]

No Exit

A plan by the California Public Utilities Commission to levy an “exit fee” against anyone who stops drawing electricity from the state’s grid — read: alternative energy users — has come under fire by lawmakers, renewable energy producers, and consumers. The proposed exit fee is a holdover from the state’s 2000-2001 energy crisis, when the […]

Hawkeyes on the Prize

Iowa will soon be home to the world’s largest land-based wind farm if MidAmerican Energy Company has its way. The power company plans to erect between 180 and 200 turbines capable of generating 310 megawatts of electricity and powering some 85,000 homes. If approved by the Iowa Public Utilities Board and state lawmakers, the $323 […]

Virgin Rebirth

Meanwhile, wetlands are also a matter of concern in a place that could scarcely be more different from Iraq: the island of St. Croix in the Virgin Islands. The Virgin Islands Indigenous and Endangered Species Act of 1990 specifies that the policy of the territory is to “prevent a net loss of wetlands to the […]