Articles by Grist staff

This One's Not All Good News, But We're Desperate

Carbon-monoxide levels seem to be steadily decreasing over the eastern U.S., signaling that polices to reduce pollution may be succeeding, according to University of Maryland scientists who published their findings in Geophysical Research Letters. Still, air quality in East Coast cities this summer has ranked among the worst in the 1990s, with levels of ground-level […]

"Darn," Says Company Oil Spokesperson, "Guess We'll Just Have to Raise Prices."

Democrats won a small victory in the Senate yesterday when they blocked an effort to keep oil companies from having to pay increased royalties when they drill on public land. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) tried to let oil companies off the hook by tacking a rider onto the Interior Department spending bill, but Sen. […]

Meanwhile, Baca the Ranch …

A 95,000-acre cattle ranch in northern New Mexico, home to one of the largest wild elk herds in the U.S., is poised to become public land under a deal struck yesterday. After two years of negotiations, the feds agreed to buy the scenic Baca Ranch from a Texas family for $101 million and manage it […]

Fortunately, Most Lithuanians Now Glow in the Dark

Lithuania, the most nuclear-dependent country in the world, announced plans yesterday to decommission by 2005 one of the two Soviet-era nuclear reactors at its Ignalina nuclear power plant. No decisions have been made about how to replace the plant, which currently provides the country with 80 percent of its electricity. The move to shut down […]