Climate Politics
All Stories
-
Made to Border
Mexico and the U.S. shook hands Friday on a 10-year agreement to fight pollution along their shared 2,000-mile border, while some enviros contended that without money behind the deal, it won’t make a real dent in the region’s many problems. The intent is to reduce air pollution, protect water supplies, and prevent pesticide contamination in […]
-
Something Smells Fishy
The Bush administration is proposing changes to its salmon-protection strategy that critics say would endanger salmon while boosting logging in the Pacific Northwest. As it now stands, federal rules prohibit timber sales and other activities on public lands unless officials can demonstrate that fish would not be harmed. Under revisions proposed this week, officials would […]
-
The feds are backing nuclear power — in the name of the environment
It’s a long-held tenet of U.S. environmentalists that nuclear power is bad news. Critics argue that the clean-air benefits of nuclear reactors are far outweighed by the consequences of uranium mining and radioactive waste storage — not to mention the damage that could result from an accident at an atomic power station. Now more than […]
-
Dyna-shore
In a triumph for Golden State environmentalists, the Bush administration decided yesterday against asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn two lower court decisions upholding California’s right to review proposed offshore drilling projects along its coast. Gov. Gray Davis (D) hailed the decision, noting, “The future of California beaches is now where it should be […]
-
Everybody Wants to Play the Fuel
Sports utility vehicles, vans, and pickup trucks will be subject to slightly more stringent fuel-economy standards under a new rule released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Beginning in the 2007 model year, auto manufacturers will have to attain a fleet average of 22.2 miles per gallon for those vehicles, together classified as “light […]
-
Best Western
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has become a household name, but who’s ever heard of the Western Arctic Reserve? Lots of folks will over the coming months if the Campaign for America’s Wilderness gets its way. The Washington, D.C.-based group is trying to pin a new name onto the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska as part of […]
-
Urban Bright
In a groundbreaking move, New York state has developed guidelines for ensuring that low-income and minority neighborhoods are not disproportionately subjected to environmental health risks by developers. The environmental-justice guidelines were drafted by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to limit the ability of developers to build unpopular and potentially hazardous projects in communities that […]
-
Light Truck at the End of the Tunnel
What’s in a name? In the case of “car” versus “light truck,” the name means a lot — so the auto industry and environmentalists are watching closely as the Bush administration begins redefining cars and trucks as it revamps fuel-economy standards. Currently, light trucks are subject to far weaker gas-mileage requirements than passenger cars, a […]
-
Petroleum Jelly-legs
U.S. petrochemical plants pose security risks to millions of Americans and could be targets of terrorist attacks, but the government has no idea how secure the plants are from such attacks, according to an audit released last week by the General Accounting Office. The audit found that both U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman and Homeland […]
