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Resident Orcas Attacked By Anti-Environment Group
A far right anti-environmental group based in Sacramento, California is trying to get federal Endangered Species Act protections removed from a small extended west coast family group of killer whales. This group of killer whales, or orcas, is known as the southern residents because they spend much of their time residing in coastal waters between…
Read MoreTr-Ash Talk: Legislating Disaster
In the aftermath of a major catastrophe, lawmakers and regulators should be held accountable to create new safety protocols to avert future disasters. Incidents like the Cuyahoga River catching fire and the Exxon Valdez oil spill prompted changes in how we protect our nation’s waters from industrial chemicals. The Buffalo Creek disaster in West Virginia…
Read MoreThe Shiny Scary Truth About Chromium
Chromium shows up in surprising places in modern society—most notably on car bumpers and furniture to improve how they look. Too often, the facilities that do this kind of plating put the carcinogen hexavalent chromium into the air in local communities where they operate. The highly toxic chemical was made infamous by Erin Brockovich’s work…
Read MoreYour Lungs Will Thank Us
Last Wednesday, a group of clean air advocates intervened to protect crucial air safeguards that will curb pollution emitted during oil and gas drilling. Unfortunately the state of Texas and their allies with the American Petroleum Institute and a variety of other state alliances of oil and gas companies are pushing back against these necessary…
Read MoreClimate Change Re-elected As Political Issue
Life doesn’t hand you many second chances to make good on promises. But that’s what the American public, with an assist from superstorm Sandy, has given President Obama: another 4-year opportunity to tackle climate change—the critical environmental issue of our time. He’s now talking about the issue again, after two years of near-silence, and just…
Read More180 Seconds Of Coal Ash Pollution
Four years ago, a small Tennessee town woke up to a nightmare. A nearby coal ash pond that held back more than a billion gallons of toxic waste collapsed, sending a flood of ash and dirt right through their doors. In the weeks and months that followed, an entire nation began to see the magnitude…
Read MorePatriot Agrees To End Mountaintop Removal Mining
Yesterday, one of the nation’s top coal companies, Patriot Coal, announced that it is getting out of the business of mountaintop removal mining. The decision comes out of a settlement with several Appalachian community groups—West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Sierra Club, represented by Appalachian Mountain Advocates—requiring Patriot to clean up toxic selenium…
Read MoreFracking's Dirty Air Secret
Last week, supporters of the controversial drilling practice know as fracking held a rally in Denver. According to media reports, one booster drew laughs from the crowd when he said that fracking’s economic benefits would eventually “trickle down to attorneys [and] doctors.” Colorado doctors are probably already seeing increased business because of fracking, but not…
Read MoreUnplugged: Sunstein Likes Standards Blocked By His Office
Either he has finally seen the light, or he just has a lot of nerve. In a Sunday New York Times editorial about the impact of Hurricane Sandy and steps the U.S. should take to address climate change, former White House “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein argues, quite rightly, that cost-benefit analysis frequently justifies aggressive steps…
Read MoreAs Sandy Victims Shiver, America Must Stay Alert
While for many in the country, thoughts of Hurricane Sandy are being replaced by thoughts of the election, football, or the Thanksgiving holiday, for the tens of thousands of people in New York and New Jersey, survival and their families’ well-being are still the urgent thoughts. Two weeks after the storm, more than 68,000 people…
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