Climate Technology
All Stories
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Hot to Rot?
The U.S. EPA announced this week a two-year phase out of an arsenic-based preservative used to pressure-treat lumber against rot and insect damage. The treated wood is popular for use in fences, decks, and playground equipment, and its manufacturers and vendors — including Home Depot and other building-supply stores — currently face a class-action suit […]
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Not Sharky’s Day
The cruel practice of shark-finning — in which the fins are sliced off of living sharks to make soup — has found its way into the heavily protected waters of Egypt’s Red Sea. The discovery of illegal shark-fin fishing in the region has alarmed both environmentalist and tourism operators in the region. Underwater tourism in […]
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Bada Bing!
In a potentially significant breakthrough for the environmental justice movement, New Jersey has become the first state to propose environmental-equity regulations for companies looking to move into minority or low-income communities. The rules, which were drafted by the state Department of Environmental Protection, would feed companies’ plans into a computer model comparing census information and […]
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A Patagonia on the Back
Gearheads have reason to feel smug about their Patagonia fleeces these days. Once again, the company appears among Fortune Magazine’s top 100 places to work in the U.S. — and this time it moved up 17 places in the rankings, to number 41. The company sold $223 million worth of outdoor gear last year, but […]
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Low-carbon Riders
In a move that could have radical implications for the automobile industry, the California Assembly passed a bill yesterday that would make it the first state to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles as a step toward curbing global warming. Because about 10 percent of the nation’s new cars are sold in California, legislation affecting […]
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Cafe Noir
In the latest sad setback for environmentalists in the battle over corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration decided Friday not to increase fuel-efficiency requirements for 2004-model-year pickup trucks, minivans, and sport-utility vehicles. Last year, Congress voted to lift a six-year-old, industry-backed ban that prevented NHTSA from examining fuel-efficiency […]
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She’s Breaking Up, She’s Breaking Up
The proposed reorganization of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which is currently in federal bankruptcy court, could spell bad news for thousands of acres of pristine landscape in the Sierra Nevada. Right now, PG&E is supervised by the California Public Utilities Commission, whose regulatory structure requires strict environmental protection and encourages public access to the […]
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Rey of Sunshine
A controversial Bush administration plan to log trees harmed in fires that raged in the Bitterroot National Forest in 2000 was halted yesterday by a federal judge in Montana. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy also excoriated Mark Rey, natural resources and environment undersecretary for the Agriculture Department, for bypassing a 45-day public appeals process and […]
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Business As Usual
The U.S. government will no longer consider a business’s environmental track record when awarding federal contracts, following the Bush administration’s decision to rescind 11th-hour Clinton-era “blacklisting” regulations. The regulations required a business to have a satisfactory record on ethical, environmental, tax, labor, antitrust, and consumer protection laws to win government contracts worth more than $100,000. […]
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Minority Report
Officials in charge of reviving the Florida Everglades have created an outreach program to encourage minority involvement in the region’s decades-long, multi-billion dollar restoration plan. The $11 million outreach program accords with 2000 legislation that granted federal funding for Everglades restoration and called on the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corps […]
