Articles by Grist staff

Small cars gaining popularity in U.S. amid high fuel costs

High gasoline prices and other economic woes have driven car-buyers in the U.S. to purchase smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles lately. Last month, sales of compact and subcompact cars made up about 20 percent of total sales; in the mid 1990s, small cars accounted for only about one in eight cars sold in the country. Sales […]

U.S. EPA to tighten standard for airborne lead

Compelled by court order to review its 30-year-old standards for airborne lead, the U.S. EPA proposed a new, tougher standard this week that would cut allowable lead levels by over 90 percent. True to form, though, the agency proposed a range of standards that exceeded the maximum limit of what its scientific advisers recommended as […]

Bush admin ousts top EPA official over Dow Chemical pollution case

The Bush administration forced out the U.S. EPA’s top Midwest regulator on Thursday, after months of contention over a pollution case involving Dow Chemical, the Chicago Tribune reports. Mary Gade, who was appointed by President Bush in 2006, had been tussling with Dow over plans to get the company to clean up extensive dioxin pollution […]

Snippets from the news

• Another day, another EPA scandal: top Midwest regulator forced out. • All but five of 500 ducks meet their end in a Canadian oil-sands pond. • Does artificial turf pose a health threat? • Economists bash gas-tax holiday idea. • Arctic sea ice likely to set another record low. • Shell pulls out of […]