Articles by Grist staff

Strife of the Party

Germany’s Green Party has abandoned its goal of immediate closure for all the nation’s nuclear power plants, agreeing to a compromise deal under which Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats plan to phase out the nation’s 19 nuclear reactors by 2018. The Greens’ decision came at the urging of its most influential member, Foreign Minister Joschka […]

Not Fine and Not Dandy

For 12 years, the U.S. Department of Energy has neglected to regularly impose fines on contractors running federal nuclear weapons plants and labs when the contractors fail to protect workers and the public from radiation hazards. A 1988 federal law authorizes fines and other penalties, but the DOE has yet to draft all the administrative […]

Agra-vation

In an effort to keep India’s majestic Taj Mahal from turning black because of serious air pollution, the government is clamping down on industry and cars in the city of Agra. One plan to help clean the air is to promote pedal-powered rickshaws, a non-polluting form of transportation that has long been used in the […]

To MTBE or Not To MTBE?

The Clinton administration will announce today that it plans to phase out the use of MTBE, acknowledging that the gasoline additive poses health risks because of its tendency to contaminate groundwater. The Clean Air Act calls for the use of oxygenates such as MTBE in gasoline to help fuel burn more cleanly and release fewer […]