Climate Politics
All Stories
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Tricky Dick
Critics have long suspected that the Bush administration’s energy policy was the result of very cozy relations with corporations, and now they’ve got the evidence to back it up: Eighteen of the energy industry’s top 25 financial contributors to the Republican Party advised Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force, according to interviews and election […]
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Resigned to His Fate
In the most dramatic move yet relating to the Bush administration’s internal battle over federal clean air policy, a senior U.S. EPA official resigned this week to protest White House efforts to weaken tough emissions standards for power plants and oil refineries. Eric Schaeffer, head of the agency’s Office of Regulatory Enforcement, accused the Energy […]
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Pander-monium
BP, the world’s third-largest oil company, announced last night that it will halt all of its political contributions worldwide. The decision appears to reflect a desire to avoid accusations of influence peddling in the era of Enron, and could set a precedent for other companies. It could also be seen as a triumph for anti-globalization […]
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Shrimp Fried
Under pressure from the Bush administration, a federal judge yesterday revoked the protected status of several hundred thousand acres of Southern California land considered essential for the survival of two imperiled species. U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson called on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to re-assess the economic effects of protecting the land on […]
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Solutia-ns
Chemical giant Monsanto and its spin-off company Solutia are legally responsible for polluting the town of Anniston, Ala., with PCBs, a jury ruled Friday morning. The verdict represents an initial victory for the people of Anniston, but the battle is far from over: Some 3,500 individual claims of illness and financial loss have yet to […]
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Joltin’ Joe
In the most scathing attack on George W. Bush since the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) blasted the president’s environmental record in a speech made yesterday in California. Lieberman, a possible presidential candidate in 2004 and one of 15 senators to be recognized by the League of Conservation Voters for a […]
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Hatching a New Plan
In the first systematic attempt to reform Washington State’s fish-hatchery system — the world’s largest — the Hatchery Scientific Review Group issued a report yesterday recommending the closure of one Puget Sound-area hatchery and alterations for 22 others. The salmon born in Washington State’s 100-plus hatcheries are thought to pose a threat to wild salmon […]
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Plan Nein From Our Space Cadet
And the reaction: At home and abroad, the response to President Bush’s strategy for dealing with global warming was tepid at best. Pointing to counterexamples in Europe, U.S. critics disagreed with Bush’s claim that mandatory emissions limits would damage the economy and said the plan was simply a sweet deal for big business. Sen. Jim […]
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A look at the president’s first year in office
Remember the eager young Naderites? Although it seems like another lifetime, it was only 15 months ago that supporters of the Green Party were telling us, with a sense of foreboding in their cracking voices, that there was “no difference” between presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush. In the Naderite view, both were […]
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Smoke Scream
The levels of pollutants spewed into the air over New York City following the Sep. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center exceeded even those of burning oil wells during the Gulf War, according to a new study released yesterday by scientists from the University of California at Davis. The study, which was the most […]
