Articles by Grist staff

Shore: Enough

An innovative if controversial bill could protect offshore waters in California from oil drilling by allowing oil companies to swap drilling claims in California for others in the Gulf of Mexico. The legislation, introduced yesterday by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), and John Breaux (D-La.), would convert 40 offshore tracts […]

Going Whole Log

Saying environmentalists and others should have been given a forum to protest new logging rules, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nullified some 100 logging permits yesterday, most of them for southeastern Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. The permits allowed companies to run so-called “logging transfer facilities,” aka timber dumps in estuaries or other coastal […]

Who Ya Gonna Bhopal?

Citing such past tragedies as the poisonous gas leak in Bhopal, India, that killed at least 7,000 people, the United Nations called yesterday for stronger safeguards on the production and storage of hazardous chemicals in developing countries. The call to action came during a U.N. Environment Programme conference held in Cartagena, Colombia, and attended by […]

Going Whole Hog for Conservation

In welcome news for environmentalists, the U.S. Senate approved a farm bill yesterday that would double spending for conservation programs to $22 billion over the next decade. If it becomes law, the farm bill — which also includes provisions to clean up urban drinking water, protect forests from urban sprawl, and conserve wildlife habitat — […]