Climate Politics
All Stories
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
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 […]
-
The Wrath of Grapes
Ban on Biotech Crops Makes the Ballot in a California County Voters in Northern California’s Mendocino County will be the first in the nation with a chance to rebuff growers of genetically modified (GM) crops. Local anti-biotechnology activists gathered enough signatures to secure a spot on the March ballot for an initiative that would ban […]
-
A Low-level Blow
Bush Plans to Loosen Rules for Radwaste Disposal Radioactive waste may be coming soon to a dump near you, brought to you by — you guessed it — the Bush administration. The U.S. EPA is proposing a significant rule change that would let the nuclear industry dispose of low-level radwaste at commonplace dumps and hazardous […]
-
Kill Bill!
Final Version of Energy Bill Is Bad News for the Environment After many weeks of pork-barrel politics conducted behind closed doors, Republican negotiators yesterday released a final version of the first big energy bill to emerge from Congress in more than a decade — and it’s a doozy. The package, which contains loads of subsidies […]
-
Empty Suits
MTBE Producers Would Get Relief from Lawsuits Under Energy Bill Of all the anti-environmental provisions in the energy bill, the one raising perhaps the most ire would limit the liability of companies that produce the fuel additive MTBE, which has been found to contaminate water supplies across the country. Not only would the measure shield […]
