Climate Politics

Stuck in neutral

According to The Washington Post, U.S. fuel economy is stuck in neutral: despite high gas prices, vehicle fuel economy hasn't improved a whit compared with the previous year.

But wait, it gets worse.

Ooh, That Fiddle Sounds Pretty

G8 leaders dither on energy issues The G8 industrial nations met in St. Petersburg this weekend, focusing on energy security. They agreed to … nothing. Said the group statement: “We recognize that G8 members pursue different ways to achieve energy security and the goals of climate protection.” You could say that. The U.S. and U.K. […]

Big Brother Knows Best

House bill would keep states from setting tough toxics rules House Republicans are pushing legislation that would keep states from setting standards for pesticides and health-threatening industrial chemicals that are more stringent than federal regulations. If passed, the bill could nullify a California ban on brominated fire retardants, for example, and restrictions in San Francisco […]

Alternet for Gore

Alternet readers have voted Al Gore their favored presidential candidate. Between this and the Daily Kos poll, it looks like Gore has the coveted Online Lefty vote locked up, should he choose to enter the race.

Chemical-safety bill moving oh-so-slowly through Congress

An attack on one of the many toxic chemical plants in the U.S. could endanger more than a million people. Environmentalists, security experts, and even the Army surgeon general have been raising the alarm about this threat since Sept. 11, 2001, but Congress has yet to do anything about it. Its latest efforts are being […]

It’ll Coast Ya

Senate hammers out compromise on offshore drilling GOP leaders in the Senate unveiled a compromise yesterday that would allow offshore oil and gas drilling in the eastern and southern Gulf of Mexico, but protect waters within 125 miles of the Florida coast until 2022 and keep the drilling ban that’s been in place in most […]

More House shenanigans

Hm, turns out that Interior Appropriations bill has some nastiness in it too:

The Senate Appropriations Committees has included language in the FY 07 Interior Appropriations Bill to exempt some logging projects on the National Forests from the normal citizen comment and appeal requirements. Section 426 of the Senate Interior Appropriations bill provides that projects "categorically excluded" by the Forest Service do not need to be subjected to public notice, comment and appeal. In recent years, the agency has greatly expanded the size of logging projects that can be "categorically excluded."

Factory farms let off the hook for water pollution, activists say

The Bush administration wants to let factory farms determine whether the animal excreta that oozes from their facilities into waterways should be regulated, environmentalists say — and they argue that the plan, well, stinks. The cow factor. Photo: iStockphoto. Agriculture has long been a top source of water pollution in the U.S., but in the […]

A Bitter Drill

House votes to end moratorium on offshore drilling The House voted yesterday to end the 25-year-old ban on oil and gas drilling off most of the U.S. coast. The highly contentious debate broke down more along geographic lines than partisan ones, as states standing to make money from the drilling largely supported it. Under the […]

‘Cause I’m the Waxman

House Democrat introduces climate bill that would actually help climate For all the buzz about global warming in the U.S. popular press of late, the few pieces of legislation that have made their way to the halls of Congress have been woefully inadequate (of course, even those have failed to pass). But last week, to […]