Climate Politics
All Stories
-
It’s Not a Gas, Gas, Gas
In a rare disagreement with his oil and gas buddies, President Bush is resisting pressure to institute a tax break that would pave the way for a 3,600-mile pipeline to carry natural gas from Alaska to the lower 48 states. The administration supports construction of a “commercially viable” pipeline, according to a position paper sent […]
-
Brown Study
The Bush administration will announce today the details of its 10-year plan to study climate change and determine whether human activity or natural occurrences are causing the Earth’s atmosphere to heat up. The Climate Change Science Program will compile expertise from 13 federal agencies that collectively spend $4.5 billion on climate-change related programs; it will […]
-
Parks Stuck in Neutral
The Bush administration defended itself yesterday against charges of neglecting the national park system, saying it has spent billions to maintain and repair parks around the country. According to U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, $2.9 billion has been spent on a maintenance and repair backlog and 900 related projects have been completed; in addition, she […]
-
Clear and Present Danger?
For months, the U.S. EPA has withheld findings indicating that President Bush’s proposed “Clear Skies” legislation would lead to more pollution-related deaths than a bipartisan Senate bill to fight air pollution, and that the bipartisan bill would not be much more costly than Clear Skies. A leaked copy of the EPA’s data showed, among other […]
-
Clear Skies Looking Dirty
One of President Bush’s most ambitious environmental proposals is in jeopardy — the goal of cutting mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants 46 percent by 2010. Many in the utility industry are complaining that such a requirement, which is part of Bush’s “Clear Skies” legislation, would cost far more than expected and could force some […]
-
Read U.S. EPA Deputy Administrator Linda Fisher’s letter of resignation.
Linda Fisher, second in command at the U.S. EPA, resigned from her post as deputy administrator on June 26, 2003, just one day before her boss, Christie Whitman, stepped down. Like Whitman, Fisher cited her family as her reason for leaving, but Beltway scuttlebutt suggested that she was upset at being passed over to head […]
-
Fisher Cuts Bait
U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman officially stepped down today — and she wasn’t alone. The agency’s second-in-command, Linda Fisher, unexpectedly resigned as well, leaving the EPA without an obvious leader until a permanent successor is nominated and approved, a process that is expected to take many months. Like Whitman, Fisher expressed pride in the work […]
-
Donkey Kick
The Bush administration received a serious dressing-down in absentia last night over its misbegotten environmental policies, as five of the nine Democratic hopefuls aired their own green views during a League of Conservation Voters forum held in Los Angeles. Rather than detailing the differences in their own positions, most of the candidates who were present […]
-
Back to the Yellowstone Age
The Bush administration has asked the United Nations to remove Yellowstone National Park from a list of endangered World Heritage sites. “Yellowstone is no longer in danger,” wrote the Interior Department’s Paul Hoffman in a letter to the World Heritage Committee. There’s just one snag: The park staff disagree with Hoffman, saying Yellowstone still faces […]
-
What I Did With My Summer Vacation
Looking for a good summer camp? A weeklong environmental activist training camp being held this week in Montana’s Bitterroot National Forest might be for you. Sponsored by Greenpeace, the National Forest Protection Alliance, and other, like-minded environmental organizations, the camp is teaching some 70 participants the finer points of civil disobedience. The camp is designed […]
