Climate Politics
All Stories
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Worries over federal deficit could dim prospects for energy bill
Oh, the irony. The same week Fortune magazine released a special “Climate Collapse” issue warning its double-starched readers of “growing evidence” that “abrupt climate change may well occur in the not-too-distant future,” Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate have been attempting yet again to push through a controversial energy bill that would only intensify the […]
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Token enforcement of Clean Air Act provision smacks of political opportunism
This election year, U.S. EPA chief Mike Leavitt is playing the part of a Clean Air Act tough guy. Leavitt, left, with Bush, is acting tough. Photo: White House. For three years, the Bush administration and the power industry have been happily entangled in a session of mutual back-scratching — utilities have been generous contributors […]
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Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged
A coalition of more than 60 environmental, civil-rights, and Native American groups have sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing the confirmation of William G. Myers III to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Before serving as the Interior Department’s chief legal officer, Bush nominee Myers was a lobbyist for the cattle […]
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Morose Code
In a move that should mean cleaner air for Washington, D.C., a federal appeals court yesterday rejected the U.S. EPA’s decision to accept a D.C.-area proposal to delay enforcement of Clean Air Act-mandated pollution levels for several years past the act’s 1999 deadline. The area was classified as being in “severe” violation of federal ozone […]
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Let’s Get Fiscal
President Bush’s $2.4 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2005, released today, gives the environment the shaft. The budget does propose funding increases for a handful of high-profile enviro projects (mostly in electoral swing states), including Superfund cleanups, conservation grants to private landowners, maintenance and construction in national parks, and salmon restoration. In many cases, […]
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And Now for Something Completely Different
In sharp contrast to the recently released Bush administration budget, Canada’s Liberal Party government on Monday promised to double spending on contaminated-site cleanups, promote green technologies to increase energy efficiency, and go beyond the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol in curtailing emissions. Over 10 years, $4 billion will be devoted to cleaning up polluted military […]
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Cap ‘n’ Trade Cut ‘n’ Paste
If new rules proposed by the Bush administration to cut power-plant mercury emissions sound like they were written by industry lobbyists, it’s only because, well, they kinda were. The proposal, released by the U.S. EPA on Friday for a 60-day public comment period, contains at least 12 paragraphs lifted almost verbatim from memorandums sent to […]
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Swinging Both Ways
Bush Announces Environmental Money for Swing States A recent flurry of announcements from the Bush administration about proposed funding increases for environmental projects — including salmon restoration and brush clearing in the Northwest, Everglades protection in Florida, and cleanup of the Great Lakes — has some enviros suspicious. Not that they aren’t glad to have […]
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A Breath of Somewhat Fresher Air
Scientists Recommend Solutions to Coming Air-Quality Challenges Though the past three decades have seen substantial progress, concerted action is needed to prevent air pollution from adversely affecting the environment and human health now and in the future, reported the National Research Council of the National Academies, a nonpartisan scientific panel chartered by Congress to assess […]
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Footprint on the Gas
Exxon Responsible for 5 Percent of All Historical CO2 Emissions Since its founding as the Standard Oil Trust in 1882, ExxonMobil and its predecessor companies have been responsible for between 4.7 and 5.3 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. Ever. In the whole world. So claims a report, “Exxon’s Climate Footprint,” drawn from two studies […]
