Articles by Grist staff

Making History

Historian-in-the-news Stephen Ambrose has pledged to donate $250,000 to help remove an aging dam near Missoula, Mont., at the confluence of the Clark and Blackfoot rivers, and clean up the 6.6 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment behind it. The Milltown Dam and its reservoir constitute the terminus of the nation’s largest Superfund site and […]

She’s Breaking Up, She’s Breaking Up

The proposed reorganization of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which is currently in federal bankruptcy court, could spell bad news for thousands of acres of pristine landscape in the Sierra Nevada. Right now, PG&E is supervised by the California Public Utilities Commission, whose regulatory structure requires strict environmental protection and encourages public access to the […]

Long Live King County

How far would you go to stop urban sprawl? That’s the question of the hour in King County, Wash., where a private anti-sprawl proposal is pushing the conservation envelope on several fronts. At issue is a proposed $185 million purchase of second-and third-growth forest just east of Seattle. The land purchase by the Evergreen Forest […]

Witless for the Prosecution

The Bush administration decided yesterday to continue prosecuting owners of aging coal-run power plants and oil refineries that upgraded their facilities without installing pollution control devices, as required by new source review regulations. The decision was based on the recommendation of the Justice Department, which said the Clinton administration had acted reasonably in filing the […]