Republicans Call For Climate Change Action

The Republican Party has a number of outspoken climate change deniers; so, it was a relief to open today’s New York Times and read this headline: “A Republican Case for Climate Action.” I couldn’t read the accompanying op-ed fast enough. Written by four former EPA administrators under Republican presidents, the article immediately said this: We served…

Read More

Should Sea Otters Repopulate Southern California?

They’re not just adorable. They are also key to the health of California’s kelp forests and the many other marine critters that depend on kelp forest habitat.

Read More

Court Cites Goldilocks And The Three Bears On Ozone

The fight to protect communities from the increasingly disturbing effects of ozone pollution rages on. Just last week a federal appeals court gave us a partial victory when it ruled Bush’s 2008 ozone secondary, public welfare standard did not demonstrate how it would protect forests, crops and vegetation from ozone pollution. Unfortunately they also chose…

Read More

Sen. Boxer Specifies Changes to Weak Toxics Law

Yes, there are tons of chemicals we as Americans are exposed to on a daily basis that are dangerous and harmful to our health. Thankfully, some elected officials understand this concern. Wednesday, after she convened a hearing in the Environment and Public Works Committee, Chairman Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said: Now that we have concluded…

Read More

Gulf Residents Agree: Don’t Feel Bad for BP

Recently the oil giant BP placed full-page ads* in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal pitying itself as the real victim in the aftermath of the Gulf Spill. BP claims it is being targeted by “unscrupulous trial lawyers” representing “thousands of claimants that suffered no losses” that “smell big bucks and want…

Read More

It Takes a Good Lawyer To Be a Good Steward

The idea that humans should come first when it comes to our relationship with the natural world traces back to the roots of western culture. For example, in Genesis 1:26, God orders that mankind will “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and…

Read More

Absolutely NO on HR 2218

This week the House will vote on the “Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act of 2013” (HR 2218) sponsored by Rep. David McKinley (R-WV). The bill ruthlessly guts longstanding public health and environmental protections of the nation’s decades-old statute protecting communities from solid and hazardous waste disposal. This shameless industry giveaway creates a giant loophole…

Read More

Senate Stops Antics, Approves New EPA Chief

The partisan antics of a few in the Senate finally halted to allow confirmation of a new and well-qualified Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy. This Senate confirmation means that, finally, after months of political obstruction by the Congressional friends of big polluters, we have a new administrator to deliver the public…

Read More