Climate Politics
All Stories
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Something Not Wild
The U.S. Forest Service yesterday came out against adding any new wilderness areas to southeastern Alaska’s 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest. The recommendation was a response to a ruling by U.S. District Judge James Singleton, who sided with environmentalists last year in ordering the Forest Service to determine if there were parts of the temperate […]
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Nuclear Power As Fossil Fuel
The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power producer, decided yesterday to restart a troubled nuclear reactor at its Browns Ferry plant in northern Alabama. The reactor has been out of use since 1985, when all three of the plant’s reactors were shut down after engineers discovered that the reactors did not match their […]
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Yuck A-Mounting
In more nuclear news, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham acknowledged yesterday that a proposed nuclear waste depository in Yucca Mountain, Nev., could only handle a portion of the waste that will be generated by commercial power plants and the government in the coming decade. The acknowledgement undercut President Bush’s pro-Yucca argument that radioactive waste should be […]
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Slim Pickins, Whitman
In an apparent effort to diffuse criticism from environmentalists, the Bush administration is considering stepping up legal action against some polluting utility companies. U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman has ordered the agency’s regional enforcement officials to look for companies that have violated the Clean Air Act by upgrading power plants without installing state-of-the-art pollution-control equipment, […]
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Blowing His Top
The Bush administration appealed a federal court decision yesterday that would limit mountaintop-removal mining and asked the judge to clarify that the ruling “should be read as not applying nationwide or to activities other than coal mining.” On May 8, U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II of West Virginia ruled that coal mining valley […]
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Buying the Farm
There might be a severe drought facing much of the nation, but billions of dollars in subsidies is soon to rain down on the bread-basket states, thanks to a farm bill signed by President Bush yesterday. Notwithstanding a White House pledge to wean farmers off of government funding, the bill is expected to cost $190 […]
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Carolina in Their Minds
The Bush administration is unhappy about a new ad campaign attacking its plan to move some 30 tons of plutonium from Colorado to South Carolina for temporary storage. The campaign was launched last week by South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges (D), who opposes the plan, fearing that his state could become the permanent resting grounds […]
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Mountain Mama’s Day
A federal judge ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers yesterday to stop allowing coal companies to deposit tons of dirt and rock from their mountaintop-removal mining operations into streams and valleys. U.S. District Judge Charles Haden II in Charleston, W.Va., also said a move by the Bush administration last Friday to make the “valley […]
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Mr. Yucca
The U.S. House voted 306 to 117 yesterday to move forward with the Bush administration’s plan to store the nation’s nuclear waste under Nevada’s Yucca Mountain. The overwhelming vote — which overrode the veto of the plan by Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn (R) — was expected. Now the battle moves to the Senate, where Majority […]
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Maybe He Makes a Good Cup of Coffee
John Suarez, the Bush administration’s pick for the job of enforcing the nation’s environmental laws, used to work closely with U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman, back when she was governor of New Jersey. Trouble is, that appears to be about his only qualification for enforcing EPA rules. That was the concern expressed by Democratic members […]
