Climate Politics
All Stories
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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 […]
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Forests Fired
The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday passed President Bush’s “Healthy Forests” initiative, which would limit environmental and judicial reviews of proposed tree-cutting projects in the name of preventing forest fires. Approval of the initiative came despite a report released last week by the General Accounting Office that found that, contrary to White House allegations, very […]
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Neverglades
In more bad news for the environment, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) yesterday signed into law a highly controversial plan that will delay cleanup of phosphorus from the Everglades by a decade and, critics say, potentially result in the loss of $4 billion in federal funding for the massive restoration project. Bush — who said […]
