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Tr-Ash Talk: House Buries Coal Ash In Appropriations Bill
We knew this was coming. After the drama this past winter we knew it was likely that the House had something else up their sleeves. Now this. To break it down, both the Senate and the House must consider appropriations bills (that fund government agencies) and the House is up first. There are all types…
Read MoreHouse Appropriators Slash Environmental, Health Safeguards
The 112th Session of the House of Representatives is at it again, doing what they do best: writing legislation to strike and block the clean air and clean water laws that keep us alive and healthy. This morning, the House majority released its spending bill for the year 2012, and not to disappoint those who…
Read MoreGoing Overboard: Q&A with ship pollution activist Gershon Cohen
Earthjustice successfully defended an Alaskan ballot initiative which called for cruise ships to stop discharging waste into Alaska's pristine waters.
Read MoreThis Is Your Brain on Dirty Air… Any Questions?
Remember the anti-drug commercial where illicit drugs (played by butter) fried a brain (played by an egg)? Over the action, a gravelly voice intoned “This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?” Those PSAs were a fixture of my childhood. Now, well into adulthood, I wonder if it is perhaps time for…
Read MoreFriday Finds: Follow the Money
Climate change skeptic awash in oily money A Greenpeace investigation has found that climate change denier Dr. Willie Soon, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, has received more than $1 million in payment from major U.S. oil and coal companies over the past decade, reports the Guardian. Though Dr. Soon denies that any…
Read MoreObama to Science: See Ya After the Elections!
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” – Isaac Asimov In American culture, perhaps no method or form of knowledge is regarded more highly than science. Philosophy and religion are unsettled debates over unknowable questions; art and poetry are the realms of divine inspiration and…
Read MoreClean Power to the People
Once upon a time, a valley known for being so fertile that it could grow much of America’s produce came to be known for something else entirely: air pollution. The people of California’s San Joaquin Valley needed help because the polluted air was making them sick with asthma — at rates three times higher than the…
Read MoreTr-Ash Talk: Coal Ash Making Headlines
A round-up of coal ash in headlines this week: As we wait for the mark-up to begin on Rep. David McKinley’s (R-WV) legislation that would strip the Environmental Protection Agency from using its authority to protect people from toxic coal ash waste, one group is mad as heck at the congressman’s effort to block these health safeguards.…
Read MorePersuasion by Coloring Book
There is a curious technique employed by some companies involved in the resource-extraction game: When you have a controversial activity underway that is getting increasing—and unwelcome—scrutiny from the government and the public, take your case to the under-10 set. Exhibit A today is a coloring book touting the wonderfulness and cleanliness of natural gas. It…
Read MoreUnwanted Green Tourism Slimes Florida
As I write this, half of the 75-mile long Caloosahatchee River in southwest Florida is covered by nauseating green slime. It’s a heartbreaking sight – dead fish wash up along the banks, and waterfront homes have a pricey view of a stinking mess. One dismayed homeowner told me he plans to petition local government to…
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