Climate Politics
All Stories
-
On a Roll Back
Turning up the heat on Republicans in the final weeks before the U.S. elections, Democrats and environmentalists are requesting documents from the U.S. EPA detailing the Bush administration’s effort to roll back clean-air regulations on older coal-fired power plants and refineries. But EPA officials have refused to pony up the evidence, and Sen. James Jeffords […]
-
Gutter Politics
At the same time that is it seeking to rollback the Clean Water Act and other historic environmental legislation, the Bush administration is cracking down on sewage spills in Portland, Ore., and other major cities. Municipal leaders in Portland accuse the administration of selectively punishing areas that are traditional Democratic strongholds, but the U.S. EPA […]
-
Sen. Wellstone Killed in Plane Crash
U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) was killed today along with seven others in a plane crash in northern Minnesota. Wellstone, 58, was one of the most outspoken liberals in Congress; he opposed the use of force in Iraq and was a longtime ally to environmentalists, earning a near-perfect 96 percent lifetime score from the Washington, […]
-
No Respect
In a report released yesterday, the Governmental Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate accused the Bush administration of “a predetermined hostility” toward environmental regulations initiated by former President Clinton. The withering 90-page assessment of President Bush’s actions questioned the legality of a 60-day freeze, issued hours after Bush took office, affecting all pending federal environmental […]
-
The Eagle Has Landed — With a Thump
The U.S. Department of Defense would be permanently exempted from an international law protecting more than 850 species of migratory birds, under a tentative agreement reached between negotiators from the House and Senate and disclosed by environmental groups yesterday. The negotiations began after the Bush administration complained that the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act interfered […]
-
A Dehli-cate Balance
Delegates from around the world are meeting in New Delhi, India, today for the latest round of international talks on climate change. In part because the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions — the United States — has rejected the Kyoto Protocol, the meeting is focusing on ways to adapt to climate change rather […]
-
Great Lakes Minds Think Alike
The U.S. government has pledged to spend billions of dollars to restore the Florida Everglades — and now the Great Lakes states are trying to figure out how they can get a piece of the federal pie, too. For more than a year, the governors of the eight states have been meeting to formulate a […]
-
Staircase Closed
Former President Clinton acted within his authority when he created new national monuments during his final year in office, a federal court ruled Friday. The ruling was a victory for environmentalists and a blow for property-rights advocates and others who had challenged seven of the 15 monument designations in court. The Circuit Court of Appeals […]
-
Security: Blank It
In the name of keeping sensitive information out of the hands of terrorists, the Bush administration has restricted access to a broad range of scientific research — removing Internet links, deleting information from websites, and even requiring federal librarians to destroy a CD-ROM about public water supplies. The information lockdown is making it tough for […]
-
Boston Z-E-V Party
Massachusetts is preparing to adopt California’s ambitious zero-emission vehicle legislation, which would require 10 percent of cars and trucks sold within the state to produce no pollution. For the moment, though, the U.S. government is still bickering internally over whether California’s legislation is legal. Earlier this month, the Bush administration said California had overstepped its […]
