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Tr-Ash Talk: Dumping On The Americas
The arrogance and disregard for public health of the Virginia-based power giant, AES Corporation, is stunning. In 2002, AES, one of the world’s largest power companies, built a coal-fired power plant in Guayama, Puerto Rico without a solid waste landfill of any kind. Although the 450-MW power plant churns out almost 400,000 tons of toxic…
Read More"Smell of Death" Described at Clean Air Public Hearings
Environmental Protection Agency hearings today in Philadelphia and Chicago drew crowds of clean air advocates—including a man who described the “smell of death” from a coal-fired power plant in his town. The hearings are focused on a proposal to clean up mercury and other toxic pollution from coal-fired power plants, our nation’s worst polluters. While these citizens are…
Read MoreUnplugged: Energy Guide vs. Energy Star
If you know the difference between the Energy Guide label and the Energy Star label, you are in better shape than many consumers, even many energy-conscious ones. (If you can explain why it makes sense to have three different federal agencies administer two separate labeling programs with names and purposes so similar that even retailers…
Read MoreJessica Alba’s Late Night Internet Habits
In the quiet moments after her two-year-old daughter has gone to bed, actress Jessica Alba scours the Internet in search of how to protect her children from toxic chemicals in consumer products. Like so many other parents, she’s distressed by what she finds: BPA in baby bottles, lead and cadmium in toys, formaldehyde in furniture.…
Read MoreAlarming 'Chart of the Day'
The Arctic Sea Ice Blog earlier this month posted this alarming chart, showing polar sea ice on a downward trajectory. Based on computer models that incorporate observed sea-ice data, the Arctic Ocean could be entirely ice-free during the month of September by about 2016, and could be ice-free year-round by the early 2030s. Are polar bears getting desperate? …
Read MoreWill Deadly Air Pollution Settle in Virginia?
Jamestown, VA is a fixture of American history. Founded more than 400 years ago, it was the first permanent English settlement in what became the United States. Today, not far from there, The Old Dominion Electric Cooperative is looking to make history of a different kind. It wants to build what would be the largest…
Read MoreThe Death Of The Automobile
Friends of the Earth New Zealand has just published a short, dense booklet that no one will want to read but that everyone should. “Cars at the End of an Era–Transport Issues in the New Zealand Greenhouse” by Dr. John Robinson makes a very convincing case that the days of both the private automobile and…
Read MoreLife, Liberty and the Right to Breathe
Nobody gets through a day without breathing. Not executives in the coal-fired power and cement industries, which are polluting our air daily. Not the legion of lobbyists they hire to patrol the halls of Congress in defense of dirty air. And not the members of Congress who, hand-in-hand with these special interests, are marching the…
Read MoreColorado Roadless Areas on the Chopping Block (Again)
Colorado is the most populous, developed state in the Rocky Mountain West. Despite all the cities and towns, highways, oil rigs and second homes, about 4.4 million acres of roadless national forest remain. And that’s in addition to the 3 million-plus acres of existing wilderness. These roadless lands – which safeguard clean water, wildlife habitat and recreation –…
Read MoreTr-Ash Talk: EPA Delays Leave Americans at Risk
Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released final assessment reports that detail the structural integrity of 38 coal ash dams. The agency began inspecting coal ash dams in May 2009, and EPA contractors have, to date, completed assessments of 228 dams. Of these 228 coal ash dams, EPA inspectors gave a rating of “poor” to…
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