Climate Politics
All Stories
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Green Collar Jobs
In an unusually strong gesture of blue-green solidarity, 10 major labor unions called on presidential candidates yesterday to back a decade-long, $300 billion research plan to boost energy efficiency, reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, and preserve jobs. Known as the Apollo Project, the plan calls for the promotion of hybrid and hydrogen cars, energy-efficient […]
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Chop Shop
The environmental policies of the Bush administration are endangering our nation’s woodlands, according to a coalition of environmental groups that yesterday released a list of the 10 most at-risk forests. The coalition, which included Greenpeace and the National Forest Protection Alliance, assessed the risks posed to water quality, endangered species, and old-growth trees. Citing road-building […]
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Wallowing in the Myers
Environmentalists are up in arms over President Bush’s nomination of William Myers III to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Based in San Francisco, the famously liberal court has long been a friend to the environment. But not so Myers, the top lawyer in the Interior Department and a longstanding supporter of ranchers, the […]
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The Endangered Endangered Species Act
The federal Endangered Species Act is so cash-strapped that it is effectively “broken,” the Interior Department announced yesterday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service blamed the financial trouble on the act’s “critical habitat” provision, which requires federal agencies to consult with the USFWS before embarking on any activity in areas set aside for wildlife recovery. […]
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Go, West, Young Man
Jason West, a 26-year-old member of the Green Party, is shaking things up in New Paltz, N.Y., where he was elected mayor earlier this month — an outcome that has the local political establishment in a tizzy. West ran on an ambitious environmental platform that rallied support from many students at the State University of […]
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Data Dumping
Think the U.S. EPA is keeping tabs on water pollution around the country? Think again. The agency’s computer system for tracking and controlling water pollution is outmoded, riddled with bad data, and lacks information on thousands of sources of serious pollution, according to a report released last week by the EPA’s inspector general. Efforts to […]
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Crop Dustup
Speaking before the United States Coast Guard Academy yesterday, President Bush accused the European Union of undermining efforts to end widespread hunger in Africa by banning genetically modified (GM) food. Bush praised “high-yield bio-crops” as key to increasing productivity and ameliorating hunger in developing nations, and claimed the E.U. ban was based on “unfounded, unscientific […]
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A Grist interview with Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean
With George W. Bush boasting perhaps the worst environmental record of any president in U.S. history, it almost goes without saying that any contender in the 2004 election will appear to be an environmentalist nonpareil by comparison. Indeed, nearly every Democrat running for president is advertising himself as just that, and former Vermont Gov. Howard […]
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Whittled Away
U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman handed President Bush her letter of resignation yesterday, citing the desire to spend more time with her family. Whitman, who was frequently at odds with the Bush administration and constantly under fire from conservationists and industry leaders alike, did not mention political differences as a factor in her decision to […]
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Read U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman’s letter of resignation
Christine Todd Whitman sent the following communication to all U.S. EPA employees on May 21, 2003, the day after she resigned her post as EPA administrator. The communication includes her letter of resignation to President Bush, dated May 20, 2003. To All EPA Employees: Yesterday afternoon, I met with President Bush at the White House […]
