Articles by Grist staff

Nothing Could Be Finer Than to Clean Up a Refiner

Oil refineries across the U.S. spew an estimated 80 million pounds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air unreported each year, the equivalent of pollutants from 5 million new cars, according to a report by the House Government Oversight Committee’s Democratic staff. Much of the VOC pollution, which is a key ingredient in smog, […]

Single Brown Industry ISO Senator, Morals A-

Lobbyists for polluting electric utilities in the Midwest and South are working hard to find an ally in Congress who could help them get legislative relief from potentially large fines being threatened as part of a government lawsuit. In response, six senators from the Northeast have issued a public warning that they will fight any […]

Club Medfly

The pesticide malathion may have sickened 123 people last year when it was sprayed over two Florida communities to kill crop-eating Mediterranean fruit flies, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday. Rather than spraying only farmland, helicopters and airplanes blanketed large suburban areas with the pesticide. Malathion is used in several states […]

Chinese Dragon Their Heels on Cleanup

In the wake of devastating Yangtze River floods last year, China’s leaders seem to be recognizing that many of their efforts to boost economic growth have been unsustainable and they are gradually working to tackle environmental problems, writes Elizabeth Economy in an op-ed in the South China Morning Post. The leaders have their work cut […]