Climate Politics
All Stories
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Baby, You Can Drive My Car
A number of the U.S. EPA’s best-trained pollution cops are being taken away from their normal crime-busting duties and put to work as bodyguards, chauffeurs, and even gofers for EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. Frustrated EPA enforcement managers anonymously report that this practice disrupts high-stakes investigations into violations of environmental laws. Agents have been ordered to […]
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Kerry on
Massachusetts Democratic Senator and 2004 presidential contender John Kerry is honoring Earth Day today by calling on the federal government to protect the human and ecological health of poor and minority communities through strengthening its commitment to environmental justice. In a speech this afternoon, Kerry demanded the creation of a new environmental justice position at […]
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May the Source Be With You
A newly released, two-year study of the federal Clean Air Act’s New Source Review rules criticizes the Bush administration for taking steps to weaken clean air protections and calls for tighter regulations for older coal-fired power plants. New Source Review requires owners of power plants and other polluting facilities to install state-of-the-art emissions-control devices when […]
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Europe Paean
Major American corporations may be getting off easy on environmental regulations in the U.S. these days, but they’re being forced to toe the line in Europe. Rules adopted this year will require all electronics manufacturers doing business in European Union countries to eliminate use of lead, mercury, and other heavy metals from their products, and […]
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Gutter Talk
The Bush administration has been discreetly gutting environmental protections by encouraging industry groups to sue over rules and then settling those lawsuits on terms favorable to industry, enviros argue. Using such tactics, the administration has allowed more logging in Northwest forests, curtailed protections for roadless lands and potential wilderness areas in the West, and reopened […]
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Out, Damn Dam!
The Bush administration last week proposed the breaching of a hydroelectric dam near Missoula, Mont. — yep, you read that right. It’s not one of the four dams on the Snake River that enviros want to tear down in order to restore salmon runs, but it’s in the same region. The Milltown Dam blocks migration […]
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Orange Alert
The U.S. military sprayed twice as much herbicide on Vietnam during the war there than previously estimated, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. Relying on previously unexamined military documents and new assessments of dioxin concentrations, the study found that an additional 1.8 million gallons of toxic herbicides, mostly Agent Orange, were […]
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Ever Glad-handing
The federal government is footing half the $8.4 billion bill for restoring the Florida Everglades — so no wonder eight U.S. lawmakers are expressing concern over what they see as the state’s efforts to alter the Everglades Forever Act, which sets the terms of the cleanup. Florida Department of Environmental Protection chief David Struhs is […]
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Wild Thing, I Think I Lost You
In a major blow to wilderness advocates in Utah and around the country, the Bush administration on Friday announced its intention to suspend new wilderness reviews of federal lands in the West and to remove protections from nearly 3 million acres in Utah that had been under consideration for wilderness status. The Interior Department, in […]
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Earth Island of the Blue Dolphin
In better news for enviros, a federal judge has upheld the existing definition of “dolphin-safe” tuna, thwarting an effort by the Bush administration to relax the term to include tuna caught by methods that can harm marine mammals. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson noted in his ruling yesterday that the administration’s efforts to change the […]
