Climate Politics

Babbitt, Hawken, and other enviros throw their weight behind Dean

We’ve spent much of our lives working for environmental change — for a response to global warming, for the preservation of biodiversity, for wild places, for family farms. But this winter, we’re working for Howard Dean for president — backing him in the confident hope that his victory will mean that the deep environmental principles […]

Whitman highlights Republican rift on environment

Whitman has her say. On Monday, former U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman published an uncharacteristically opinionated commentary in the New York Times lamenting the Bush administration’s disregard for moderate Republican viewpoints. Though gently worded, the op-ed stands as the closest thing Whitman has made to a confession that she abandoned her post over an […]

They’re Going to Pump You Up

Supreme Court to Review Two Important Environmental Cases In what court-watchers are calling an unusually in-depth review of environmental issues, the Supreme Court is set to hear two cases today with potentially nationwide implications for clean air and water regulations. The first is an appeal by oil companies and diesel manufacturers (supported by the Bush […]

Hasta La Vista, Fishies

Schwarzenegger Cuts Moola for California Marine Reserves Plan In a boon for headline-writers who still haven’t exhausted their Terminator puns, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has put an indefinite hold on planning for a more than 1,000-mile-long necklace of no-fishing marine reserves along the California coast — mandated by a 1999 state law designed to […]

An interview with Interior’s Lynn Scarlett, one of the architects of Bush’s “new environmentalism”

The people who make policy don’t always make headlines. The Bush administration boasts more than a few strong-minded, behind-the-scenes strategists with almost as much influence as cabinet members. Lynn Scarlett is one of them. As assistant secretary of the Department of Interior’s Office of Policy, Management, and Budget, Scarlett helps determine the budgets for all […]

Interior Design

Interior’s Lynn Scarlett Defends Bush’s “New Environmentalism” When it comes to the environment, Lynn Scarlett may be the most influential Bush administration member you’ve never heard of. As an assistant secretary in the Interior Department, charged with analyzing rules and determining budgets throughout the agency, she has significant say over everything from mining to wildlife […]

Down, Down, and Away — It’s Superfund

Superfund Sites to Remain Toxic Due to Lack of Funding According to the U.S. EPA’s inspector general, the Superfund program faces a $175 million shortfall this year; as a result, cleanup will not begin on 11 of the nation’s worst toxic waste sites. Superfund was established in 1980 as an attempt to force polluting industries […]

Mine Every Mountain, Fill Every Stream

Bush Admin. Rule Change Would Give a Boost to Mountaintop Mining Mountaintop-removal mining is poised to get even easier thanks to a rule change proposed by the Bush administration yesterday. Significant chunks of Appalachia have already been devastated by this mining technique, which involves blasting off the tops of mountains to get at coal beneath […]

The National Wink-Wink Convention

Environmental enforcers get out while the getting’s good (and everything else is bad)

When John Suarez, the U.S. EPA’s top enforcement official, resigned on Monday to take a job at a Wal-Mart division, he assured his colleagues and President Bush that the EPA has “been able to provide more compliance assistance to industry than ever before.” The operative wording here, of course, is “assistance to industry,” seeing as […]