Articles by Grist staff

A Good Deed

The U.S. took a significant step toward acquiring its 57th national park yesterday when the Nature Conservancy announced that it had signed an agreement to purchase historic Baca Ranch, which borders Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve. Conservationists have long lobbied for national park status for the area, which includes the tallest sand […]

Generally Stalled Motors

General Motors Corp. is not doing nearly enough to improve the fuel economy of its vehicles, according to a report released yesterday. That might not seem like news, but the organization that released the report, the Boston-based Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies, has been consulting with GM for almost 10 years and has been praised […]

Weeping and Railing

Convinced that “potentially significant” environmental problems could be avoided, federal regulators yesterday approved the largest railroad construction project in recent history. The project, a $1.4 billion, 900-mile line linking Wyoming coal fields to the Mississippi River, was okayed after the Surface Transportation Board, a branch of the Department of Transportation, imposed 147 conditions to protect […]

Low-carbon Riders

In a move that could have radical implications for the automobile industry, the California Assembly passed a bill yesterday that would make it the first state to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles as a step toward curbing global warming. Because about 10 percent of the nation’s new cars are sold in California, legislation affecting […]