Climate Politics
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Not Sitting on Defense
The U.S. Senate yesterday voted 99-0 to approve a $345 billion anti-terrorism defense bill, after voting 100-0 not to get sidetracked by amendments like one that would have opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) had proposed to add the entire GOP energy bill […]
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Cemental Case
A cement plant in Camden, N.J., shouldn’t be allowed to operate because it may be imposing an unfair pollution burden on a poor, minority neighborhood, a South Camden citizens group argued before a federal appeals court on Tuesday. A lawyer for the group told a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals […]
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First Contami-Nations
Navajo activists plan to rally today and tomorrow against an energy bill before the U.S. Senate that would give $30 million to fund uranium mining on Navajo Nation lands in New Mexico. They say the mining would contaminate the drinking water of more than 15,000 people. Lori Goodman, spokesperson for Dine Citizens Against Ruining Our […]
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They Have Found What They're Looking for
Following a negative environmental report from the California Energy Commission, a major energy firm has ended its plans to build a big power plant seven miles from Joshua Tree National Park. Environmentalists had feared that a new state law to speed power-plant approval, which was created in the wake of California’s energy "crisis" this spring, […]
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Fondest Schregardus
Facing an uphill battle, Donald Schregardus, President Bush’s choice to head the U.S. EPA’s enforcement division, withdrew his name from consideration yesterday. Schregardus told Bush in a letter that it was clear that his “nomination will not be considered by the U.S. Senate in a timely manner.” He was right to think so. Earlier this […]
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Toast of the Town
Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) flew right over the cuckoo’s nest and straight into nutville with his widely mocked decision to add “eco-terrorists” to the list of possible suspects responsible for the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Don Young getting restless. For the unlucky few who missed the Alaska congressman’s appalling […]
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The Ohio Player
Drawing unfavorable attention to President Bush’s choice to head the U.S. EPA’s enforcement program, a preliminary report released yesterday by the agency found that Ohio has done a poor job enforcing air-pollution rules. Bush’s nominee, Donald Schregardus, led the Ohio EPA during most the 1990s. The report said that air inspections, investigations of complaints, and […]
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Has Bush done the environment a favor with his extreme agenda?
Oh, it’s getting fun. As Congress prepares to reconvene next week, the question is not whether the White House will adjust its strategy on the environment, but how. When President Bush and his congressional allies went home for vacations this month, the message they heard away from the Beltway was consistent: The administration’s approach on […]
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National Historic Landfill
In what must be a flub, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton yesterday named a toxic dump in Fresno, Calif., as a national historic landmark. Officials weren’t sure how the landfill was nominated for the prestigious designation. The 145-acre Fresno Municipal Sanitary Landfill is also listed as a Superfund site, with cleanup costs estimated at $38 […]