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Exclusive—You Read It Here First!
The Bush administration, highly placed sources have revealed exclusively to Tom’s Turn, is putting the final touches on one last, sweeping reorganization of the federal environmental bureaucracy. Elements of the plan include: Selling the national parks in order to reduce the national debt and prop up the investment banking system and hedge fund operators. Existing…
Read MoreAmid Rebellion and Chaos, EPA Chief Must Resign
Six years after the head of the Environmental Protection Agency resigned because of political interference, almost every EPA employee is begging the current administrator to quit—as in, quit letting politics drive agency decisions. The 10,000 employees publicly accused Administrator Stephen L. Johnson of ignoring their advice as well as scientific principles in his eagerness to…
Read MoreThe Importance of the Number 350
Bill McKibben is on a crusade. He wants to pound the number 350 into the heads of everyone on the planet, including yours. Three fifty is the amount of carbon in parts per million that the atmosphere can handle safely without warming up and melting glaciers, raising the sea level, bringing on killer storms, destroying…
Read MoreHow About a Green Stimulus Campaign?
Writing this on St. Pat’s Day, the holiday that turns thoughts to subjects green. And isn’t green all the rage! My friend and colleague Terry Winckler just sent around an email that allows you to order your TV viewing habits by green content, should that be appealing. On a slightly related note, I just received…
Read MorePassing the Buck
I’m not one to write about internal affairs very often, but there was a West Coast celebration last Thursday evening (March 6) you might enjoy hearing about. The occasion was an event to honor Buck Parker, who served as the Executive Director here at Earthjustice for the past 10 years, as he passes the reins…
Read MoreProfiles in … Cowardice?
Global warming is clearly one of the pre-eminent environmental challenges of our time. Yet, when some federal regulators are presented with an opportunity to meet the challenge, they prefer to do nothing.
Read MoreKnow Thine Enemy
I have a simple rule of thumb to decide how to vote on the ever-more-complicated, ever-more numerous propositions that infest the ballot here in California come election time. It is this: Anything that is supported by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is something that I will enthusiastically vote against. The late Mr. Jarvis and a…
Read MoreWyoming Gags on Natural Gas
The movie "Three Kings" (1999), which follows a trio of American soldiers involved in the first Gulf War, contains an apt, if heavy-handed, metaphor about America’s dependence on oil: an Iraqi torturer forces the black goo down an American prisoner’s throat, making him gag. In Sublette County, Wyoming, life is now imitating art. Picturesque Pinedale,…
Read MoreSpeaking Truth of Power
Once upon a time, in a far-away rectangular state, there was a power source so pure it left no waste and would never run out. And from it sprang the modern environmental movement, not to welcome it, but to kill it dead. Not quite the fairy-tale ending, eh? But the proposed Echo Park Dam, using…
Read MoreRenzi Getting Just "Deserts"
Sometimes, not often enough but sometimes, the bad guys get their just deserts. (And yes, that’s deserts not desserts in case you wondered. But I digress.) We’re speaking today of a congressman from southern Arizona named Rick Renzi. Mr. Renzi, a Republican and chairman of John McCain’s Arizona campaign, persuaded Congress to enact a nefarious…
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