Climate Politics
All Stories
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Making Arsenics of Themselves
A new study released yesterday by an advisory panel to the U.S. EPA undercuts one of the Bush administration’s main reasons for revoking a tougher standard for arsenic levels in drinking water. When EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman rejected the standard, she said the Clinton administration hadn’t adequately considered costs when arriving at the standard. […]
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The Kratzer-Jammin' Kid
Two new U.S. government reports raise big concerns about a Bush administration plan to cut federal environmental enforcement staff by 8 percent and shift resources to the states. A report by the U.S. EPA’s inspector general found that states are doing a poor job of monitoring and punishing water polluters. A report by the General […]
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Parris in the Summertime
As a last hurrah, Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D) says he will push for new restrictions on development along Maryland’s coastal bays. He says he will introduce a bill to preserve the wetlands and protect water quality in the next legislative session –which will be his final one in office — and he expects the […]
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Holding Schregardus in Low Regardus
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said yesterday he would join with U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to block President Bush’s nomination of Donald Schregardus to be the U.S. EPA’s chief enforcement officer. Schumer said he would use parliamentary tactics to stall the nomination until the Bush administration indicated whether it would withdraw from Clinton-era lawsuits […]
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Low CEQ IQ
U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman told the New York Times Magazine that U.S. President Bush in January hadn’t heard of the White House Office on Environmental Quality, the executive branch office responsible for enforcing the National Environmental Policy Act and coordinating the environmental policies of federal agencies. Whitman said that when Bush offered her […]
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Send My Schregardus to Broadway
If the Bush administration withdraws from Clinton-era pollution lawsuits against power plants in the Midwest and South, Northeast states that also sued the plants will have a hard time continuing with the cases. The states don’t have the resources of the federal government, and they would have trouble building cases against plants more than 400 […]
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Don't Be a Hog
Factory hog farms, as well as the cattle and poultry industries, are pressuring the U.S. Congress to pass a bill that would use taxpayer dollars to help the farms pay for cleaning up their environmental messes. The U.S. EPA is considering costly regulations to reduce pollution from the livestock operations — and the industries don’t […]
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Mighty Morphin' Power Rearrangers
Not wanting to provoke another attack from environmentalists, the Bush administration said yesterday that it would delay announcing its plan for overhauling regulation of aging power plants and instead include the plan as part of a more comprehensive package of clean-air policy options in September. President Bush had ordered the U.S. EPA to reassess the […]
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Rocky Mountain Low
Hoping to give himself a green sheen, President Bush traveled to Rocky Mountain National Park yesterday to engage in trail work for a few minutes and talk about character. “There’s a grand vision embodied in these mountains,” he said. “And the vision is that we can teach our children right from wrong.” He also criticized […]
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Spreading Like Wildfire
The Bush administration and governors from Western states agreed yesterday to the outlines of a 10-year plan to reduce the risk of wildfire, but postponed until next spring discussion on how the plan would be implemented. In the past, fire authorities focused on suppressing fires that had already begun. The new plan focuses on better […]
