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Interior Department Ignores Coal's Link to Climate Change
In the not-too-distant past, Interior Sec. Ken Salazar issued a bold call to action for his department. With authority over hundreds of millions of acres of public lands and the vast majority of coal, oil, and gas owned by taxpayers, he stated that his department would be “taking the lead” in protecting the nation’s wildlife and…
Read More#Right2Breathe Recap: EPA Defends Bush-era Loophole
(Clean air is a life saver, which is why Earthjustice is working to ensure that polluters don’t stand in the way of safeguards against air pollution. Here’s a round up of some recent news in the ongoing campaign to protect our Right to Breathe.) Use the #right2breathe hashtag on Twitter to track campaign updates. EPA Defends Hazardous…
Read MoreTr-Ash Talk: EPA’s Blind Spot
(Barb Gottlieb of Physicians for Social Responsibility contributed to this report.) Just three weeks ago, after a study found chromium, a toxic heavy metal, in tap water in 31 of 35 U.S. cities tested, the Environmental Protection Agency issued new guidelines recommending that all public water utilities test their drinking water for hexavalent chromium or…
Read MoreCongress v. The Environment: The Attack Begins
(A powerful faction in the new Congress has allied with industry to weaken our nation’s most basic environmental laws. Earthjustice will report on this expected barrage of legislative attacks as they occur.) Today, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) introduced an offensively overreaching “Dirty Air Act” that is the first of many anticipated attempts to make Congress the…
Read MoreChevron Gives Up On Coal to Liquid Fuel
Finally admitting the unprofitably of turning coal into motor fuel, Chevron announced on Friday that it was officially getting out of the business
Read MoreEnergy Efficiency Champ Scott Harris Leaving DOE
We at Earthjustice are dismayed that a champion of energy efficiency, Scott Blake Harris, will be leaving his post at the U.S. Department of Energy. Harris, the department’s General Counsel, made the enforcement of energy efficiency standards for household appliances and commercial equipment a priority at DOE, and essentially built the department’s enforcement program from…
Read MoreFriday Finds: The Longest Swim
Polar bear swims hundreds of miles in effort to survive In a testament to the rapidly deteriorating conditions that polar bears face in a changing climate, researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey recently discovered a polar bear that swam nonstop for more than 200 hours and 400 miles, reports the BBC. The epic journey in…
Read MoreAnd the Oscar Goes To…
I don’t want to jinx anything, but we’re positively thrilled to see GASLAND—the truth-telling/irreverent film about toxic gas drilling—get an Oscar nod for best documentary. If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for? It’s readily available on DVD. And there are more and more community screenings being organized every week. Apparently industry’s…
Read MoreReframing the Climate Change Debate
Whether or not the United States addresses impending climate change hinges largely on the marketing message driving the discussion. Last night, President Barack Obama made his best pitch to reframe the climate change debate, casting it through the prism of a Works Progress Administration-style plan for achieving a clean energy future. While Obama’s idea of…
Read MoreTr-Ash Talk: OMB Must Protect Health, Not Industry
(This is the latest in a weekly series of 50 Tr-Ash Talk blogs discussing the dangers of coal ash. Earthjustice hopes that by December 2011, the third anniversary of the TVA coal ash spill, the EPA will release a coal ash rule establishing federally enforceable regulations ensuring the safe disposal of this toxic waste.) Today, the House…
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