Articles by Grist staff

U.S. Defense Department fighting EPA orders to clean up Superfund sites

Defying environmental law, the U.S. Defense Department has resisted repeated orders lately from the U.S. EPA to clean up some of the nation’s most contaminated places. The DoD/EPA standoff has turned into a bureaucratic pissing match wherein the EPA has asserted its authority to order and oversee cleanup of ultra-polluted Superfund sites the DoD owns, […]

Snippets from the news

• Feds recommend 4,400 new natural gas wells in Wyoming. • New Jersey utilities get MTBE settlement. • States shorten work week to save gas. • Delegates choose not to ban toxic waste exports. • Oil hits record high.

Olympics worsening Beijing water crisis, says report

The Beijing Olympics are putting a strain on already-tight water supplies, says a new report from NGO Probe International. Preparations for the Games have sucked up 52 billion gallons of water above normal consumption this year, in a city that already consumes more water than is naturally supplied. Beijing’s two main reservoirs are at less […]

Whaling commission avoids controversial decisions

Wrapping up its annual meeting this week, the International Whaling Commission decided to defer decision-making on various controversial issues. The IWC took only one vote at the meeting, deciding to disallow Greenland’s request to take a higher quota of humpback whales. It also agreed to research the impact of climate change on cetaceans. But with […]