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Farmworker Mother To EPA: We Deserve Protections
This is the second in a two part series on protections for farmworkers from pesticides. Read part one, Pesticides Taking Toll on Farmworkers, and the accompanying special feature, Pesticides: The Workplace Hazard The EPA Is Ignoring. Nobody told Reina Lemus de Zelaya that her job as a farmworker was hazardous not only to her…
Read MorePesticides Taking Toll on Farmworkers
Farmworkers from across the nation come to D.C. to secure safeguards from toxic pesticides
Read MoreDoctor's Orders: Chemicals Need to Frack-off
Avoiding alcohol and caffeine are standard recommendations for a pregnant women. No surprise there! The simple and effective way of keeping infants safe is stripping the environment toxins that cause low birth weight, birth defects, respiratory problems, cancer and fertility problems. Yet the most common substances used to frack for natural gas are cancer-causing agents.…
Read MorePresident’s Climate Plan is Common-Sense
President Obama’s Climate Action Plan promises, at last, a meaningful step toward controlling our carbon pollution.
Read MoreHow OMB Is Ruining the Earth’s Vacation
Tucked into the climate plan that President Obama unveiled today is an incomprehensibly large number that deserves some attention. The president has set a goal that energy efficiency standards for appliances and federal buildings set in his first and second terms combined will reduce carbon pollution by at least 3 billion metric tons cumulatively by…
Read MoreNorth Carolina Coal Ash Pollution and the Frankenbill
There is a running joke in my hometown about the glowing green fish and three-headed salamanders in Lake Julian. Nestled in the center of Arden, North Carolina, and surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, this lake was once the picturesque centerpiece of the quaint Southern town. But thanks to the pollution from Progress Energy’s nearby…
Read MoreEngineers of the San Pedro River
And there’s a surfer among them
Read MoreWill Bold Deeds Follow Bold Words?
President Obama is good at bold words, and he’s delivered quite a few of them on the need for action on climate change in the last nine months. There was his speech upon being re-elected; his 2013 State of the Union (in which he promised to act unilaterally on climate change if Congress wouldn’t); and…
Read MoreStrike Three: CRS Makes Key Call on McKinley’s Coal Ash Bill
In advance of an upcoming vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week, the nonpartisan think tank, Congressional Research Service (CRS), delivered a frank memorandum evaluating HR 2218, the latest effort by Rep. McKinley (R-WV) to prevent the EPA from completing its coal ash rule. CRS exposes HR 2218’s superficial “fixes,” concluding that…
Read More"All of the Above" Fails in Face of Climate Change
In recent weeks we have continued to experience extreme and destructive forest fires, droughts, and floods. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached new and dangerous levels. Despite this, President Obama’s pledge to address climate change with meaningful actions has stalled. Since the stirring words of his Inauguration and State of the Union…
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