Climate Politics
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The Few, the Proud, the Exempt
Defense Bill Will Exempt Military from Species-Protection Laws The U.S. military may be having trouble achieving its goals in Iraq, but at least it’s getting what it wants on Capitol Hill: exemptions from key environmental laws. President Bush today is scheduled to sign a $401 billion defense authorization bill that includes provisions exempting the military […]
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Stall’s Well That Ends Well
Opponents Block Vote on Energy Bill in Senate A massive and highly controversial energy bill stalled out in the Senate this morning, when its supporters fell two short of the necessary 60 votes to end debate on the legislation. Those in favor of the bill, which has already been passed by the House, argue that […]
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Slope on a Rope
Bush Administration Opens Alaskan Land to Drilling Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge isn’t on the oil-and-gas chopping block under the terms of the current behemoth energy bill, but the rest of the state isn’t quite as lucky: The Bush administration will announce today that it plans to open 8.8 million acres of Alaska’s North Slope […]
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A breakdown of the Senate vote to end debate on the energy bill
A massive energy bill backed by the Bush administration stalled out in the Senate this morning, when its supporters failed to garner the necessary 60 votes to end debate on the legislation. Only 57 senators voted to halt debate; 40 voted to keep it going. Those in favor of the bill, which has already been […]
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How many international environmental treaties can one administration sabotage?
From just about anywhere you are on the planet, the city of Punta Arenas, Chile, is very, very far away. Perched on the banks of the Strait of Magellan, Punta Arenas is bounded on the north by the ice fields of Patagonia, a place that the combined forces of nature and the outdoor-gear industry have […]
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Do I Smell Bacon?
Congress Refuses to Interfere with California Clean-Air Regulations One trouble with pork-barrel politics: Sometimes your colleagues decide you’re acting like a pig. That may be what happened yesterday, when congressional negotiators tossed out Sen. Kit Bond’s (R-Mo.) spending-bill amendment, which would have prevented California from requiring catalytic converters on small engines, such as those found […]
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Bush administration floats new plan that would gut wetland protections
It’s close to a nightmare scenario and at the very least it’s a very bad dream.” That’s how Jim Murphy, wetlands and water resources counsel at the National Wildlife Federation*, characterized a draft-stage rewrite of a Clean Water Act rule, which was leaked to The Los Angeles Times by a top government official earlier this […]
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Warm Planet, Cold Shoulder
Bush Met in London by Environmental Protestors Protesting the U.S. government’s refusal to address the problem of global warming, environmental demonstrators gave President Bush a less-than-warm welcome yesterday as he arrived in London for a state visit. Up to 600 people noisily marched to the U.S. embassy to criticize Bush’s rejection of the Kyoto Protocol […]
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Hasta La Vista, Regulations
Schwarzenegger Puts a Hold on Pending Environmental Regulations California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) was in office only a few hours before throwing a wrench into a number of environmental-protection efforts by placing a hold on all pending state regulations in order to review their potential impact on the state’s business climate. Affected rules include building […]
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Fishing for Answers
Bush Administration Admits Role in Klamath Fish Die-Off The Bush administration has finally admitted to its role in last year’s die-off of more than 34,000 chinook and coho salmon in the Klamath River basin, which straddles the Oregon-California border: The massive fish kill was caused at least in part by the government’s diversion of water […]
