Articles by Grist staff

Virginia Slims

One of America’s fastest-growing counties, Loudoun County in Virginia, voted last night to adopt rough development controls and try to keep two-thirds of the county as farmland. The vote by the county board of supervisors removed 83,000 potential homes from county plans and ended support for studying a proposed new highway to connect Dulles International […]

Dude, Where's My Pipe?

Many problems with the U.S.’s vast network of oil and natural gas pipelines don’t get reported or are underreported to the federal Office of Pipeline Safety, and even if major mishaps are reported, the agency rarely fines companies for them, reports the Austin American-Statesman after a yearlong investigation. Past problems that didn’t show up in […]

Schell Game

Even though U.S. President Bush has withdrawn the U.S. from the Kyoto treaty on climate change, Seattle Mayor Paul Schell (D) and four City Council members announced yesterday that Seattle would easily meet what would have been the greenhouse-gas-reduction target for the U.S. under Kyoto. The city promised to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 7 percent […]

Infamous Potatoes

In keeping with her pattern of deferring to the positions of elected officials in the West, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton has recommended that the U.S. Justice Department not appeal a ruling by the Idaho Supreme Court that denies water rights for a federal wildlife refuge on the Snake River. In the past, the U.S. […]