Climate Politics
All Stories
-
Respirators Still Needed in Yellowstone
Rolling back a Clinton-era decision that would have banned snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks by the upcoming winter, the Bush administration plans to place no limits on snowmobiles until December 2003 and then to cap the number of snowmobiles at 1,100 per day. For the past decade, the parks have had an […]
-
Green Day
The Green Party says it fared well during last week’s election. The Greens ran 541 candidates for office, mostly at the state or local level. That’s double the number from 2000, according to Dean Myerson, the party’s national political coordinator. Sixty-seven candidates were elected; overall, 171 Greens now sit in office across the country. Another […]
-
Are They Rocky Mountain High?
Another one from the Believe-It-Or-Not Department: Colorado officials want to increase clear-cutting to help solve the state’s drought problem. Removing trees would allow more snow to fall to the ground, where it would run off into streams in the spring, providing enough new water to supply as many as a million families, says Kent Holsinger, […]
-
The Bucks Stop Here
The Bush administration slaps fewer polluters with fines than did the Clinton administration, and those it does nab get far gentler punishments, according to federal records compiled by Eric Schaeffer, the former head of the U.S. EPA’s Office of Regulatory Enforcement. In the first 20 months of the Bush administration, civil penalties plunged nearly 56 […]
-
Back in Black
Now that President Bush has strengthened his hand with a Republican-controlled Congress, his once-doomed energy plan — which would provide $30 billion in tax cuts for the fossil-fuel and nuclear-power industries and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling — stands a good chance of passing. Enviros are pinning their hopes on possible presidential […]
-
Knock the Vote
In addition to suffering a loss at the federal level, the environmental movement came up short in several statewide and local votes on Tuesday. A huge majority of Oregonians voted down an initiative that would have made Oregon the first state to require labeling of genetically modified foods. The Grocery Manufacturers of American, with support […]
-
Abstinence Makes the Heart Grow, but Not Fonder
The Bush administration indicated last week that it might withdraw its support from a landmark international agreement on population over concerns that it promotes abortion. At a U.N. meeting last Thursday in Bangkok, Thailand, U.S. State Department official Louise Oliver said the 1994 Cairo accord included terms such as “reproductive services” and “reproductive health care” […]
-
Bambi Vs. Thumper
The Bush administration’s plan to expand fossil fuel exploration in the West ran into an obstacle Wednesday when a federal judge temporarily blocked the Interior Department from allowing energy prospecting on thousands of acres of public land in Utah. The ruling halted a project by a seismic exploration company to search for oil and gas […]
-
Not With a Bang but a Whimper
The Bush administration’s plan to open federal lands in the western U.S. to oil and gas drilling would produce a measly amount of energy and a massive amount of environmental destruction, according to a Wilderness Society report released yesterday. The proposed drilling areas, which are scattered throughout millions of acres in six Rocky Mountain states […]
-
Whistle While You Work
In a new twist to the Klamath River controversy, Michael Kelly, a biologist with the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, is blowing the whistle on the Bush administration for drafting and approving a water plan that he says provides inadequate protections for endangered salmon. The accusations come after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation rejected water-flow […]
