Climate Politics
All Stories
-
Senate Chainsaw Massacre
Senate Passes Healthy Forests Initiative Meanwhile, forest management in the rest of the U.S. is set to change, too, with yesterday’s 80-14 Senate vote in favor of a compromise version of President Bush’s Healthy Forests initiative. Although the vote was somewhat influenced by the fires in California, its effect will be felt well beyond the […]
-
Green Gobblin’
California Fires Could Trigger Massive Changes in Forest Management The devastating forest fires raging across Southern California this week could initiate a change in environmental policy as sweeping — but probably not as desirable — as those ushered in by the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. Forest-management experts say […]
-
Glade Tidings
Judge Agrees to Appoint Expert to Oversee Everglades Cleanup Dealing a blow to both Bush administrations (that is, G.W. in the White House and Jeb in Florida), a federal judge agreed late yesterday to appoint an expert to monitor the $8 billion restoration and cleanup of the Everglades. Environmentalists and a Native American tribe had […]
-
A look behind the Senate’s thumbs-up on Leavitt
It’s no surprise that Mike Leavitt will finally take the helm at the U.S. EPA. But who knew, after all the Democratic resistance to his nomination, that keen political maneuvering on the part of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Jim Connaughton, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, would usher the […]
-
Stating the Obvious
More States Make Strides to Address Global Warming In the absence of any meaningful action on climate change by the Bush administration, more than half of U.S. states are stepping up to address the problem through legislation, programs launched by governors, or lawsuits. In the last three years, state legislatures have approved at least 29 […]
-
It’s My Party, I Can Write If I Want to
Former EPA Chief to Call for Moderation in New Book Christie Whitman, who seemed none too happy during her conflict-laden stint as head of the U.S. EPA, has found a new vocation: author. Whitman has struck a deal with the Penguin Group to publish a book that will call for political moderation instead of hard-line […]
-
Fighting Fire With Hot Air
California Wildfires Put Pressure on Senate to Pass Bush’s Forest Plan The wildfires raging through Southern California are turning up the heat on senators to pass President Bush’s “Healthy Forests” plan, which would limit environmental and judicial reviews of many logging projects in national forests with the stated aim of reducing the risk of fire. […]
-
Airing Out the Dirty Laundry
EPA Official Knew Rule Change Could Hurt Enforcement, GAO Says The top air-quality official at the U.S. EPA was warned repeatedly by agency staffers that changes to the New Source Review rules of the Clean Air Act could undermine enforcement actions against polluting industrial plants, a General Accounting Office report found last week. But still […]
-
Brown Out
Two Enviros Named to San Francisco Power Commission in Political Coup A political coup in San Francisco last week led to two environmentalists being named to the city’s Public Utilities Commission: former Sierra Club President Adam Werbach and Robin Chiang, an architect specializing in eco-friendly design and construction. San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly was serving […]
-
Under African Sighs
Zimbabwe’s Wildlife Suffer Under Political Turmoil Zimbabwe’s corrupt and troubled government is not only making life miserable for many of the country’s people but also for its once famous populations of elephants, rhinoceroses, and other wild animals. By some estimates, up to two-thirds of animals on Zimbabwe’s game farms and wildlife preserves have been killed, […]
