Climate Politics
All Stories
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Desperately Seeking Snoozin’
Despite mounting evidence that global warming has already begun to exact steep tolls on the environment, the Bush administration told Congress yesterday that it needs up to five years of additional scientific research before it will be ready to formulate a plan to address climate change. Speaking in front of the House Science Committee, Commerce […]
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We Do More Spinning Before 9 a.m. Than Most People Do All Day
It seems the General Accounting Office has been busy of late; in a report completed in May that surfaced yesterday at a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the congressional auditors found little evidence to support the Bush administration’s claims that environmental regulations are interfering with military training. The administration has asked […]
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Simon Says
In an apparent effort to give Republican candidate Bill Simon, Jr., an edge over incumbent Gray Davis (D) in the California governor race, the Bush administration questioned Davis’ commitment to protect his state’s coastline and agreed to work with Simon to end offshore drilling. After visiting the White House yesterday, Simon said he had won […]
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Star Wars
The stars are twinkling over Nevada’s Yucca Mountain — movie stars and pop stars, that is. In the battle over the Bush administration’s proposal to bury high-level radioactive waste below the mountain, the glitterati are siding against the president. Barbra Streisand, Bonnie Raitt, Martin Sheen, Melissa Gilbert, Tim Robbins, Alec Baldwin, Morgan Freeman — the […]
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Money Shaving Steps
Many enviros have suspected for a while that the deregulation of electricity markets is bad for the environment. Now here’s some proof: Spending on energy efficiency programs by North American power companies — the biggest polluters on the continent — dropped by 42 percent between 1995 and 1999, largely because of deregulation. The findings were […]
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Texas Toast
Like John and Yoko, industry and politics in the U.S. have climbed into bed together and just refuse to get out. Nowhere is that more evident than in Texas, homeland of the Bush clan and the most polluted state in the country. Let’s spell it out: Texas is the number one spewer of toxic chemicals […]
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High-tailing it out of there
The Colorado River — the water source for 25 million Americans — is almost certainly on a collision course with a massive pile of uranium slag, according to a report released yesterday by the Department of Energy’s National Research Council. The 12 million tons of tailings, located near Moab, Utah, are left over from a […]
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New Snooze Review
A proposal to alter the New Source Review rule of the Clean Air Act will be announced today, according to the U.S. EPA. The rule requires companies to install state-of-the-art pollution-control equipment when upgrading aging power plants. The utility industry has lobbied intensely against New Source Review, saying it should apply only to extensive, non-routine […]
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When it comes to renewable energy, the DOE is DOA
The question isn’t whether the Bush administration is in bed with the old-school energy industry; most of us have pretty much accepted that Big Oil and King Coal are the current sexy interns in the White House. Nor is the question whether we should be bracing for another oil shock; given the Iraqi oil boycott […]
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Dozing Off
More than 8,500 premature deaths are caused every year by pollution from off-road diesel-fueled equipment not regulated by the federal government, according to a new study by state air pollution control officials. Earthmovers, bulldozers, agricultural equipment, and other such vehicles emit extraordinarily high levels of pollution that have been linked to heart illnesses, asthma attacks, […]
