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Congress Suffers Mass Midlife Crisis
A group of congressional members posed with their surfboards on Capitol Hill yesterday to celebrate the House’s unanimous passage of a bill setting national standards for beach water quality. The bill, now headed for the Senate, would make $150 million available to encourage state and local governments to test coastal waters and warn beach-goers when […]
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Protect Your Willy
The number of orca whales along British Columbia’s coast is on the downswing, prompting Canada to place the animal on its threatened species list. The orcas are suffering from declining stocks of salmon, an important food source, and potentially from whale-watchers, who sometimes follow the whales in groups of up to 100 boats. But because […]
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Damn Logjam
A plan to remove a dam from the Elwha River in Washington to help restore salmon runs seems to have hit another stalemate, even though the feuding parties agree the dam should come down. Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) is insisting that a bill to fund the dam’s removal include a provision stating that no dam […]
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If They Can't Even Agree on This Number …
Utah Rep. Jim Hansen (R) stepped on the toes of environmentalists yesterday, Earth Day, by usurping the bill number that since 1989 has been attached to enviros’ Utah wilderness proposal. Hansen will assign the number H.R. 1500 to his own wilderness bill instead, which would impose a 10-year limit on the amount of time an […]
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Clean, Clean, Clean Up the Mississippi Mud
A diverse coalition aiming to clean up the Mississippi River is asking the feds to put up $1.1 billion over the next ten years for the cause, a 40 percent jump over current spending. The investment could help reverse the buildup of sediment and reduce the flow of fertilizer and other pollutants into the river, […]
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Oh Shenandoah, I Long to See Across You
Vice Pres. Al Gore is marking Earth Day today with a trip to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to announce a new plan that aims to clean up the air in national parks and wilderness areas to pre-industrial-era quality. New regulations will direct states to make notable air quality improvements every 10 years with a […]
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Thank You Soooo Much, Corporate America!
Corporate America is patting its own back today on Earth Day, touting the fact that businesses have spent $1 trillion over the past 30 years on environmental cleanups. “The theme is: ‘Thank business for cleaning up the environment,'” said US Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Frank Coleman. Environmentalists are not buying the talk. “To the extent […]
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Sting Like a Butterfly
Julia “Butterfly” Hill, who has spent more than 16 months living in the branches of an ancient redwood tree that has been slated for logging, will be the “in-tree correspondent” for an environmental cable show. The first episode of “The Thin Green Line” will air today with an interview of Hill by the show’s host, […]
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Great, Danes!
Denmark is giving coal-fired power plants the boot and launching more renewable energy production as it moves to slash greenhouse gas emissions. The nation’s largest energy producer, the Elsam group, will officially close four of its old coal-fired units on July 1. In 1997, 64 percent of Denmark’s total electricity production came from coal; in […]
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Holey Ozone!
The level of ozone-depleting chemicals in the atmosphere is dropping, primarily because of reductions of one solvent, methyl chloroform, which was phased out between 1996 and 1997, according to a report published in today’s issue of the journal Nature. The study indicates that the Montreal Protocol, the 1994 treaty to protect the ozone layer, is […]
