Climate Politics
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The Fabulous Baker Boy
President to bake up crisp decisions, answer environmental issue In an interview with The Wall Street Journal — his first newspaper interview since winning re-election — President Bush pledged to, among other things, renew the push for his long-stalled energy bill and aggressively promote nuclear power, saying he looked forward to “making good, crisp, sound […]
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Embargoing, Going …
Discovery of Cuban oil deposits raises hopes for eased restrictions With the recent hardening of U.S. trade policy toward Cuba, analysts are now speculating that one thing could help ease the restrictions: Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea. Two Canadian companies have discovered oil in Cuba’s waters off the Gulf of Mexico, announced President […]
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Right-wingers exploit tsunami by accusing enviros of exploiting tsunami
Was global warming behind the recent catastrophic tsunami in the Indian Ocean? Of course not. Nor did it cause the Iraqi insurgency, the national debt, or Ashley Simpson’s lip-synching episode. A devastated village in India. Photo: USAID. Global warming is an atmospheric phenomenon caused by a buildup of airborne greenhouse gases, and though it’s expected […]
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An interview with Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists
The Bush administration is gearing up to push for second-term priorities — including an energy bill, power-plant emissions legislation, and amendments to the Endangered Species Act — under a cloud of accusations that it has manipulated federal scientific research on these and other issues to support its agenda. These arguments have been voiced most prominently […]
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Darling Nikki
EPA inspector general making enemies on Capitol Hill Nikki Tinsley, the inspector general of the U.S. EPA, is ruffling feathers in Washington, D.C., these days. A registered independent appointed by President Clinton in 1999, she has developed a reputation for integrity, professionalism, and steely resolve. She views her job not simply as monitoring for fraud […]
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“And Now!” Grinned the Grinch, “I Will Stuff Up the Tree!”
Bush admin overhauls forest management policy The Bush administration unveiled sweeping changes to federal forest-management policy on Dec. 22, while Americans milled through malls and airports, minds dancing with visions of, well, everything but forest management. The changes will “streamline” approval of forest-management plans by eliminating a key provision, long despised by timber companies, that […]
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Bushies gut national forest rules
Three days before Christmas, the Bush administration announced that it's making the biggest overhaul to forest-management rules in some three decades. The news made the front page of today's New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, etc. -- but ya gotta know it'll slip by unnoticed by a great many folks stuck in whited-out airports in the Midwest and teeming malls everywhere else.
It's been a while since the Bushies pulled one of these announce-an-environmental-abomination-when-no-one's-looking stunts, but they returned to the tactic with a real doozy this time.
"A key wildlife protection that has governed federal forest management for more than two decades will be dropped under new regulations announced Wednesday by the Bush administration, and requirements for public involvement in planning for the country's 192 million acres of national forest will be dramatically altered," write Bettina Boxall and Lisa Getter in the L.A. Times.
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With Leavitt on the way out, who’ll be next to head up the EPA?
Leavitt, left, accepts Bush’s nomination to head HHS and leave EPA behind. Photo: WhiteHouse.gov. There were plenty of “Leavitt or leave it” jokes when former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt (R) took the helm at the U.S. EPA just over a year ago. Many insiders didn’t expect him to stay long at the agency, figuring he […]
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It Was a Dark and Stormy Year …
2004 sets records for heat and natural disasters 2004 may be the fourth warmest year on record and the most expensive to date for insurance companies stuck with the tab for cleaning up after natural disasters, according to new data released this week. Extreme weather conditions in many parts of the world, including a record […]