Climate Politics
All Stories
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Ready, Aim, Fire
The Bush administration, U.S. troops, and Iraqi citizens aren’t the only people preparing for war: Employees of American companies that specialize in extinguishing fires from oil wells are also readying themselves for what’s to come. Iraq’s economy, Middle Eastern political stability, and U.S. interests all dictate that the oil industry cannot be a casualty of […]
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New Review Zoo
In a blow to environmentalists, a Democratic effort to delay President Bush’s plan to relax the New Source Review regulations of the federal Clean Air Act was struck down by the Senate yesterday in a 50-46 vote. The postponement effort had been led by Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), who wanted to give scientists six months […]
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I Think That I Shall Never See, a Poem As Lovely As a Job?
Nearly half of the Canadian province of British Columbia could be opened to logging and other commercial interests if the provincial government has its way. In an effort to encourage business and stabilize B.C.’s economic base, the government is proposing to set aside 48 percent of the province, or some 45 million hectares, as a […]
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Grime Doesn’t Pay
Tiny Delaware is getting tough on crime — environmental crime, that is. Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D) and several state legislators want corporate leaders to sign annual sworn statements declaring that their companies are complying with environmental laws; if a company is then found to be in serious violation of such laws, its top management […]
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Black Labs
Private laboratories have been caught faking environmental test results, according to officials in the U.S. EPA and the Justice Department. Companies often use private laboratories to test air, water, soil, petroleum, underground tanks, and other products and indicators; a clean tests yields a certificate of compliance with environmental regulations. David Uhlmann, who heads the Justice […]
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The Coast Is Murky
The California Coastal Commission has been declared unconstitutional by an appellate court, a decision that could result in a significant power shake-up at the entity in charge of managing one of the world’s most popular and politically charged coastlines. At issue is the balance of power on the commission: A majority (eight of 12) of […]
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Calling in the Reserves
The debate over oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been in the limelight a lot lately — but what about energy exploitation in the rest of the state? On Friday, the Bush administration released a report on the likely environmental impact of new drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve, an […]
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The Truck Stops There
In a setback for the Bush administration, a federal appeals court yesterday halted a federal plan to permit thousands of Mexican trucks on U.S. roads, calling instead for environmental reviews that could take up to three years. In November, President Bush approved the entry of 30,000 Mexican trucks per year, citing obligations under the North […]
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Basin and Strange
Since Sept. 11, the Bush administration has claimed that strict environmental laws are hindering oil and gas exploration in the West — thereby compromising national security by forcing ongoing dependence on foreign energy sources. But a new federal study undermines that claim by showing that most oil and gas reserves on Western federal lands could […]
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Range Bedfellows
Energy exploration has been part of Western landscape and culture for decades — but it seems the thrill of the drill may finally be wearing off. As the Bush administration pushes for further exploitation of Western resources (such as coal-bed methane mining in Wyoming and Montana and oil and natural gas drilling in the Rocky […]
