Climate Politics
All Stories
-
Snowmobefuddlement
Judge Issues Yet Another Reversal of Yellowstone Snowmobile Ban An already-confusing winter for tourists and tour operators in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks got more muddled yesterday, when a federal judge overturned severe restrictions on snowmobiling in the parks. For those of you keeping score at home, a quick rundown of the story so […]
-
Natural Gas, Unnatural Allies
Unlikely Coalition Opposes Bush’s Plan to Drill in New Mexico New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) is leading an improbable coalition of enviros, ranchers, hunters, and property-rights activists in a fight against the Bush administration’s plans to drill for natural gas in the Otero Mesa area of New Mexico, a vast and largely untouched expanse […]
-
When Irresistible Cuts Meet Immovable Pork
Senate Republicans Flailing as They Try to Push Through Energy Bill Senate Republicans are having a bad week. A proposal to push the energy bill through Congress by attaching it to the more popular and pressing transportation bill was roundly rejected yesterday. President Bush told Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on Monday that he […]
-
Bush nominates eco-hostile lobbyist to federal appeals court
My, oh, Myers. Photo: DOI. Environmental advocates are bristling over President Bush’s nomination of William G. Myers III to the San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, calling Myers the most anti-environment judicial candidate the president has ever put forward. With rhetoric like that being thrown about, don’t be surprised if Myers becomes the […]
-
Not By the Air of My Chinny-chin-chin
States Expect Clean Air Act Changes Will Increase Pollution Most state environmental officials expect that changes to Clean Air Act rules proposed by the Bush administration would lead to higher air pollution, according to a survey conducted by the General Accounting Office upon the request of Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.). The […]
-
Linkin’ Mercury
New Study Reveals More Babies at Risk From Mercury Roughly 630,000 of the 4 million children born annually in the U.S. are at risk of impaired motor function, learning capacity, memory, and vision due to high levels of mercury in their bloodstreams, revealed a U.S. EPA analysis released yesterday, which doubles the previously estimated number. […]
-
Worries over federal deficit could dim prospects for energy bill
Oh, the irony. The same week Fortune magazine released a special “Climate Collapse” issue warning its double-starched readers of “growing evidence” that “abrupt climate change may well occur in the not-too-distant future,” Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate have been attempting yet again to push through a controversial energy bill that would only intensify the […]
-
Token enforcement of Clean Air Act provision smacks of political opportunism
This election year, U.S. EPA chief Mike Leavitt is playing the part of a Clean Air Act tough guy. Leavitt, left, with Bush, is acting tough. Photo: White House. For three years, the Bush administration and the power industry have been happily entangled in a session of mutual back-scratching — utilities have been generous contributors […]
-
Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged
A coalition of more than 60 environmental, civil-rights, and Native American groups have sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing the confirmation of William G. Myers III to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Before serving as the Interior Department’s chief legal officer, Bush nominee Myers was a lobbyist for the cattle […]
-
Morose Code
In a move that should mean cleaner air for Washington, D.C., a federal appeals court yesterday rejected the U.S. EPA’s decision to accept a D.C.-area proposal to delay enforcement of Clean Air Act-mandated pollution levels for several years past the act’s 1999 deadline. The area was classified as being in “severe” violation of federal ozone […]
