Articles by Grist staff

Poor: Salt on Their Wounds

Minorities and low-income residents in the Indianapolis metropolitan area are at the most risk from toxic chemicals, according to a study released yesterday by the Indianapolis Urban League Environmental Coalition. A non-white Indianapolis resident is 26 percent more likely than the average resident to live within 550 yards of a company releasing toxic chemicals, and […]

Good Clean Fun

Clothes-washing machines are going greener under an agreement unveiled yesterday between the U.S. government and major home appliance manufacturers. By 2007, Whirlpool, Maytag, General Electric, and other companies will make washing machines that use less water and 50 percent less energy than current models. More modest energy efficiency gains will be achieved by 2004. Manufacturers […]

Putin on the Fritz

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday abolished the nation’s environmental protection agency, the State Committee on the Environment, ostensibly to help save money and cut bureaucracy. The agency’s functions will be turned over to the Ministry on Natural Resources, which oversees oil and gas development, logging, and mining. Putin has made it clear that he […]

Court and Spark

The U.S. Supreme Court set the stage yesterday for a landmark environmental ruling by announcing its decision to hear a case that will determine whether the government went too far in 1997 in setting tough national clean-air standards. Last year, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., invalidated EPA standards that could have forced a […]