Business Confidentiality Shouldn’t Trump Chemical Safety

A child plays with a baby carrier.

We’re exposed to toxic chemicals day in and day out. Hampered by attacks on almost any effort to get information to the public and to oversee chemicals out in the marketplace, the federal government fails to protect us.

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ACHE Act: A Way to End Mountaintop Removal Mining

An aerial view of Marsh Fork Elementary School in 2006.

Coalfield residents living near mountaintop removal mining sites have long suspected this terrible, destructive practice is hurting our health.
I first started thinking about it during the long fight to replace the Marsh Fork Elementary School, which sat at the foot of a huge mountaintop removal mining site near my home in Peachtree Hollow.

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Disney Building Fake Florida Spring – Really

Ichetucknee Spring.

Now here’s a crazy story that we absolutely are not making up. Disney is building a fake Florida spring for the world to see in its Orlando amusement park.

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Digging Out of the Money Pit to Create a Smart Grid

Transmission lines.

Our aging electric grid is in need of a major renovation to deliver electricity reliably into the next century, and one way or another, that overhaul will cost us a lot of money. The question is whether we throw more money at propping up the old architecture that is designed to deliver electricity from big fossil-fuel fired power plants, or make the forward-looking investments necessary to harness the clean energy that our future requires.

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Tween Wolf Advocate Calls Out Secretary Jewell (Very Politely)

Alyssa Grayson.

Last year in Rhode Island, then-12-year-old Alyssa Grayson approached Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell at an event and boldly handed her a letter asking her to reconsider plans to delist wolves from the Endangered Species Act.

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Louisiana Residents Travel to Texas to Ask for Strong Protections from Big Oil

Overburdened communities in Louisiana traveled to Houston to tell EPA the impact oil refineries have on their health and their lives.

After years of dealing with toxic air pollution seeping into their neighborhoods and homes, residents from all over Louisiana took a bus to Houston to tell EPA their toxic tales. Mary Williams of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice explains why they made the journey.

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Bees Need Help in California — Today

A honey bee alights on a cherry blossom in Oakdale, CA.

The state of our honey bees is in danger. There’s a ghastly bill up for vote before the California Legislature – a bill that would postpone any action by the state’s Department of Pesticide Regulation to ban bee-killing pesticides until 2020.

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Uniontown Prepares to Demand Justice

William Gibbs and his wife live near the massive coal ash dump in Uniontown, AL.

Residents of Uniontown, Alabama prepare for EPA visit to investigate the complaint filed by many of its citizens under the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

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When Lobbying is a Good Thing

The U.S. Capitol building.

Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government. There is bad lobbying and, as I learned, there is good.

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