Articles by Grist staff

Nasty chemicals used in oil and gas drilling go largely unregulated

Toxic chemicals pumped underground to break up seams of rock and increase oil and gas production have a fun nickname: fracking fluids, short for fracturing. (Go on, say it: frack!) But the fun stops there. Fracking fluids go largely unregulated, despite millions of gallons of use and hundreds of reported spills each year. Thanks to […]

Science orgs plead for more funding for severe-weather preparation

More floods, storms, and droughts are a-comin’, and the U.S. lacks funding to predict and prepare for ’em, say eight scientific organizations. The groups, including the American Geophysical Union and American Meteorological Society, made a plea Wednesday for Congress and the next U.S. president to double the current budget for climate research and forecasting between […]

Colorado utility voluntarily shuts down two coal plants

Two coal-fired power plants in Colorado will be shut down — not because green groups sued like crazy to make it happen, but because a utility volunteered. Citing concerns about public health and greenhouse-gas emissions, Xcel Energy asked permission of state regulators to close its coal plants, and regulators have approved the plan. Xcel becomes […]

Snippets from the news

• Lease sale held in Gulf of Mexico. • First half of 2008 coolest of last five years. • Nations meet to talk climate in Ghana. • Shareholder resolutions related to climate change doubled over last five years. • Five Midwest states violated air-pollution standards. • Southwest getting less rain.