environmental health
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EPA puts off long-promised coal ash protections
(This post originally appeared at Facing South.) Communities imperiled by poorly managed coal ash won’t be getting help from the federal government any time soon. The Obama administration announced last week that it would not issue long-awaited federal regulations this year after all. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson shared the news in a March […]
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California's cap-and-trade plan is better for environmental justice than the alternatives
Gov. Jerry Brown will move forward with Assembly Bill 32, under which California seeks dramatic steps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
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California’s cap-and-trade plan is better for environmental justice than the alternatives
Gov. Jerry Brown will move forward with Assembly Bill 32, under which California seeks dramatic steps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
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Big energy vs. coal ash regulation
A special Facing South investigation. At her January 2009 confirmation hearing, Lisa Jackson promised to take action on coal ash.Photo: Senate Enviroment and Public Works CommitteeWhen the catastrophic coal ash spill occurred at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston plant in 2008, a quiet debate over how to regulate coal ash had already been going on […]
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Oil spills and human health: Lessons from history
Cleanup crews get the highest exposures to both the oil spill itself and chemical dispersants.Cross-posted from NRDC’s Simple Steps blog. Oil spill clean-up brings workers and volunteers into close contact with chemicals that are known to be hazardous to human health. As we deal with the oil spill in the Gulf, it helps to brush […]
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Gulf of Mexico: from magnificent resource to industrial sacrifice zone
Fire and a vast oil spill, on top of one of the globe’s most productive fisheries. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard The Gulf of Mexico is a magnificent resource: a kind of natural engine for the production of wild, highly nutritious foodstuff. Here’s how the EPA describes it: Gulf fisheries are some of the most productive […]
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Irma Muñoz
Art: Nat Damm Irma Muñoz Founder, Mujeres de la Tierra Baldwin Vista, Calif. Los Angeles native Irma Muñoz, 57, founded Mujeres de la Tierra (Women of the Earth) in 2004, after two neighbors died of cancers that they suspected had been caused by nearby oil wells. Her group organizes women in Southern California to fight for cleaner, healthier […]
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The hazards of using toxic coal ash for land development
Following the disastrous spill of a billion gallons of coal ash waste from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston plant in December 2008, poorly regulated coal ash impoundments like the one that failed have landed in the public spotlight. But other methods of disposing of coal ash waste have gotten less attention — even though they […]
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Louisiana environmental racism case gets hearing from Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
For the first time in history, an international human rights body has agreed to review a case involving allegations of environmental racism in the United States. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will hear a complaint filed by the New Orleans-based Advocates for Environmental Human Rights (AEHR) on behalf of the people of Mossville, […]