Climate Politics
All Stories
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Tanks for Nothing
Court Rejects $4 Billion Damage Award for Exxon Valdez Spill A federal appeals court has once again rejected a multibillion-dollar punitive damage award against the company responsible for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil-tanker spill in Alaska. Now thousands of Alaskan fishers, Natives, and others whose lives and livelihoods were disrupted by the disaster will have […]
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Air Devils
Draft Air Rule Could Be a Gift to Polluting Industries Thousands of old, highly polluting power plants and other industrial facilities could get a free pass under a draft air-pollution rule that the Bush administration is expected to put in place before the end of the month. The rule, which represents a big win for […]
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The Pen Is Mightier Than the Geiger Counter
Energy Department Seeks Rule Change on N-Waste Disposal Offshore oil drilling is one area where the Bush administration is trying to rewrite the rules; radioactive waste disposal is another. A month ago, a federal judge ordered the Department of Energy to remove 85 million gallons of liquid nuclear waste from sites in Idaho, South Carolina, […]
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Going Coastal
Bush Administration Rewrites Rules on Coastal Control When it comes to offshore oil drilling, the Bush administration lost the battle but may well win the war. Earlier this year, a federal judge affirmed California’s right to review all offshore development plans, putting an end to efforts by the Bush administration to drill for oil in […]
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Friday in the Park With George
Bush Calls For More National Parks Funding; Critics Remain Skeptical Speaking at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area on Friday, President Bush asked Congress to commit billions more dollars to the national park system, a move his supporters saw as evidence of his environmental commitment and critics called a pointless PR op. The president […]
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Browner-nosing
EPA Nominee Asks Former Agency Chief for Support Mike Leavitt, President Bush’s choice to become the next head of the U.S. EPA, knows that environmentally minded Democrats are going to make his confirmation hearings tough, so he’s getting his ducks in a row. Within a day of his nomination by Bush, Leavitt had called Carol […]
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Can the new PAC on the block unseat Bush in ’04?
With a substantial chunk of money but a minimum of fanfare, environmentalists, labor leaders, feminist organizations, and other left-leaning groups convened last week to launch Americans Coming Together, a new PAC dedicated to defeating President Bush in 2004. The name of the alliance is terrible going on tawdry, but the acronym is apt: If we […]
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Love It or Leavitt
Bush Taps Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to Head EPA In a move that immediately (and predictably) generated strenuous objections from enviros, President Bush yesterday nominated three-term Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt (R) to take the helm at the U.S. EPA. Bush praised Leavitt as a consensus-builder and pointed to his bipartisan work with 13 governors and […]
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The West Swing
Bush Visiting Western States to Push His Environmental Agenda During the next three weeks, President Bush will be making pit stops in a number of Western states both to tout his environmental agenda and to raise big bucks for his reelection campaign. Even though Bush’s advisors consider the environment to be a “second-tier issue,” they […]
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The 411 on 9/11
White House Pressed EPA to Say Air Was Safe After 9/11 In the days immediately following the 9/11 attacks, the White House pressured the U.S. EPA to issue unsupported statements reassuring the public that air quality around ground zero was safe, according to an investigation by the EPA’s inspector general. Also, as a result of […]
