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Tr-Ash Talk: Mapping Environmental Injustice
From South Carolina to Alabama and all across the country, coal ash—which can leach dangerous toxic chemicals like arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, and selenium into groundwater—is often stockpiled in low-income communities. Coal ash presents risks of both catastrophic spills, like the 2008 TVA coal ash disaster, and more common dangers, like pollution of groundwater used…
Read MoreWhy I Fight For Our Forests: Earthjustice's Kristen Boyles
Q & As with attorney Kristen Boyles, who works to protect our nation's forests and their critical natural resources and wildlife.
Read MoreArsenic-Flavored Baby Food?
House GOP members have been attacking clean air standards by pumping the stalled budget bill up with “riders” that remove the agency’s ability to clean up mercury, dioxins, arsenic and a host of other toxic chemicals from power plants, cement kilns, incinerators and the like. But last week, a group called American Family Voices ran…
Read MoreMonday Reads: The Lost Shipping Container Edition
A sunken steel behemoth provides refuge and life … or not?
Read MoreNot "Having Fun" In Bokoshe, OK
Last week, coal ash coverage went national with a fine segment on ABC World News that told the story of residents in Bokoshe, OK, a small town with a very big coal ash problem. Only 450 folks live in Bokoshe, but as reporter Jim Sciutto discovered, many of them either have cancer or know someone…
Read MoreFriday Finds: Toilet Talk
California flushes carbon emissions down the toilet The California Energy Commission has its head in the toilet, but surprisingly, that’s a good thing. Human waste is a huge pollution problem in the U.S. In fact, Californians alone produced 661,000 dry metric tons of biosolids in 2009. But instead of getting rid of the waste by…
Read MoreKansas Keeps Getting In The Way of Big Coal
After four years of trying, Big Coal’s national ambitions have again bogged down at the Kansas state line. A federal judge this week agreed with Earthjustice that the federal government failed to consider environmental impacts of the proposed Sunflower plant expansion. The government has a financial stake in the plant because of loan arrangements made…
Read MoreObama Says the Cure for Oil Addiction Is More Oil
As oil and gas prices again climb in response to Middle East travails, the phrase “Drill, Baby, Drill” has re-entered the national conversation—but it’s President Obama who did the uttering this time. And it sounds like he means it. Obama mentioned the mantra Tuesday night in a speech about energy independence that came across like the opening…
Read MoreCare About Climate Change, Clean Air? Call Your Senators!
The Senate votes tomorrow on four pieces of legislation that all aim to block or delay Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action to reduce the carbon dioxide pollution of the nation’s biggest polluters. These polluters have convinced their friends in Congress to author a wave of bills exempting them from strong air pollution limits—they are the…
Read MoreCoal Plant Heats Up Chicago Politics
When combined, the Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plants are the largest source of pollution in Chicago, and local residents have been fighting for years for stronger health controls from these plants. Recently, activists with the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO)made a huge step forward when they convinced a local politician to support stronger…
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