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  • Hot Job Opportunities

    A concerted push in Florida to forestall global warming could benefit the state’s economy by creating 27,000 new jobs in environmentally friendly industries, according to a study conducted by the Tellus Institute for the World Wildlife Fund. Such an effort would also reduce air pollution in the state by cutting harmful emissions from power plants […]

  • What Kind of Research Are They Doing — Taste Tests?

    Five Japanese ships set sail yesterday with the intent of killing 440 minke whales, under the aegis of a program that allows whaling for scientific research. The whales killed will be consumed as gourmet meat back in Japan. Commercial whaling has been banned since 1986, but Japan has long insisted that the ban should be […]

  • Judge Barks at Feds

    Enviros are entitled to seats on committees that are advising federal officials on trade in wood and paper products, a federal judge ruled yesterday. Six environmental groups had filed suit against the feds, demanding representation on the committees, which are now composed exclusively of industry representatives and which are pushing for the elimination of tariffs […]

  • Emission: Impossible

    The nation’s first super-ultra-low-emission vehicles, described as the cleanest gasoline-powered automobiles in the world, will go on sale in California early next year, the state Air Resources Board said yesterday. The cars — special models of the Honda Accord and Nissan Sentra — have super-efficient catalytic converters that reduce tailpipe emissions to one-eighth the level […]

  • Taxation Without Vexation

    A British plan for a climate change tax to be levied on heavy energy users has been significantly scaled back, from about a 20 percent tax on energy costs to a 10 percent tax, in large part because of complaints from industry. But proposed changes to the climate change tax, set to go into effect […]

  • Well, Well, Well

    New York Gov. George Pataki (R) yesterday set strict new limits for drinking water pollution from the gasoline additive MTBE, responding to growing concerns about its health effects. MTBE makes gasoline burn cleaner and helps reduce air pollution, but it has been found to contaminate wells and water supplies, and a federal panel this summer […]

  • Byrds of a Feather Flock Together

    Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) rallied more than 500 miners outside the Capitol yesterday, complaining that the White House had backed off on its support for a rider that would let strip mining continue on West Virginia mountaintops. A federal judge ruled last month that the controversial “mountaintop removal” mining technique, which uses explosives to take […]

  • The Yellow Haze of Texas

    GOP presidential frontrunner George W. Bush boasts about a law he signed in Texas earlier this year that set voluntary pollution standards for old industrial plants, saying he has done more than any previous Texas governor to clean up industry. But enviros and even federal officials say the new law is far too lax to […]

  • Checkin' of the Sea

    Enviros are launching campaigns to help seafood eaters know which species they ought to avoid and which they can devour without too much guilt. The Natural Resources Defense Council and SeaWeb mounted a successful push last year against the consumption of swordfish because of its declining populations; many restaurants responded by dropping swordfish from their […]

  • Jumpin' Dam Bash, It's a Gas Gas Gas

    In what will be the largest dam removal effort in California, Pacific Gas & Electric announced yesterday that it plans to demolish five small but significant dams on a Northern California stream in an attempt to save endangered salmon runs. Federal and state governments will pay $27 million to help remove the dams, PG&E will […]