Articles by Frank O'Donnell

Governors rally against dirty Bush car plan

Nothing brings together diverse groups like a common threat. And governors in environmentally progressive states are getting used to banding together against the Bush administration.

Now they've done it again, to protest the "cynical" effort by the Bush Department of Transportation to take away the right of California to set tougher greenhouse gas standards for cars (and the right of other states to adopt the California standards).

The latest assault on states' rights came in the fine print of a proposal this week by the DOT to put into place tougher CAFE standards required by last year's energy act. On page 387 of that proposal, DOT slipped in the killer language: "any state regulation regulating tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles is expressly pre-empted."

Who might like the president’s bogus climate principles

One person undoubtedly taking note of the president's "principles" on climate change is Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio. He is reportedly working on his own weak, coal industry-friendly climate amendment to the Lieberman-Warner bill.

Voinovich reportedly will try to couple such an amendment with related provisions to weaken the Clean Air Act.

Sound familiar?

Bush administration finally responds to Supreme Court case on global warming

The Bush administration finally responded today to the Supreme Court ruling on global warming -- the case the Bush administration lost nearly a year ago.

Unfortunately, the response is a blatant stall tactic cooked up by reactionary groups like the Heritage Foundation.

Public health pitted against polluter pressure

The EPA is about to decide if national health standards for smog should be made tougher. What's at stake is the quality of the air we breathe.

The EPA's independent science advisers unanimously think the standards should be made tougher. So do the EPA's career experts. So do lung doctors and many other medical groups. But big polluters are putting on a smog squeeze. They want the White House to keep the existing standards. And they are urging the Bush administration to break the law by considering costs (code for politics) instead of science.

The EPA is under a court order to make a decision by March 12.

Spokespeople from the American Lung Association, Clean Air Watch, Environmental Defense Fund, and the National Association of Clean Air Agencies are planning a briefing Thursday, March 6, at 12:00 p.m. EST.

Call-in Information: 1-888-206-2266

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