Our Stories

The Latest by Tom Turner

Author & Historian

June 4, 2009

Let's Fix It

By Tom Turner

Back in my early days at Earthjustice I got into an argument with a colleage that has stuck with me ever since. She (no names) observed that if we—the movement in general—conceded that restoration of damaged ecosystems is possible that we’ll never be able to protect forests, wetlands, parks and the like because developers could …

June 3, 2009

Hummm Baby?

By Tom Turner

And here I thought the bankruptcy of General Motors might start to spell the end of outrageous profligacy. That is to say, news reports that GM would shut down its Pontiac, Saturn, and Hummer divisions and start up a new high-mileage, low-emission model sounded like steps in the right direction. Especially as regards the Hummer. …

June 1, 2009

Snake River Salmon Scuffle

By Tom Turner

The wonderful and valuable High Country News has published a very instructive buttal and rebuttal that arise from an article in the print version of the paper that analyzed the long-running struggle over four power dams built on the lower Snake River in the 1960s. Those dams and their reservoirs have long been criticized by …

May 28, 2009

About Time

By Tom Turner

A press release came across my screen Wednesday afternoon announcing that a judge had found that Glen Canyon dam’s operating scheme is illegal, since it doesn’t do enough to protect endangered fish in the river. That’s putting it mildly. That dam destroyed the most beautiful, spectacular canyon country on the face of the earth. Or …

May 22, 2009

Green Backlash

By Tom Turner

It had to come, such things always do. We speak of a shrill attack on the very idea of green jobs, emanating this time from PERC, a collection of free-market economists and ideologues in Bozeman Montana, that was a source of some of the ideas that informed the Bush administration, especially those of Gale Norton, …

May 20, 2009

Green Will Suffer From California Tax Rejection

By Tom Turner

I worked in the polls on Tuesday, during the special election asking California voters to approve an enormously complicated and controversial set of measures aimed at averting fiscal catastrophe. All but one failed, by nearly two-to-one. The one that passed (by three-to-one) limits lawmakers’ raises. The election itself was a bit of a farce. Turnout …

May 13, 2009

Vain Obstructionism

By Tom Turner

On May 13, Senate Republicans managed to block confirmation of David Hayes to the number two job in the Interior Department via filibuster, with three Democrats (Kennedy, Kerry, Mikulski) absent. Hayes spent eight years in Interior under Bruce Babbitt, one strike against him, defended Secretary Ken Salazar’s decision to yank 70-odd gas leases in the …

May 4, 2009

The Old and the New, Wildlife-Wise

By Tom Turner

Grist, the most valuable daily green news and comment ezine, published a very interesting piece May 4, talking about "old" environmentalism and "new" environmentalism as exemplified by campaigns to protect wolves (that’s the old part) and polar bears (new). Both efforts have news hooks just now, and one, at least, does not display the Obama administration, …

April 21, 2009

Ecopornography Revisited

By Tom Turner

When the going gets tough, call the PR department, and ask it to come up with a spiffy new acronym. It’s a recognized ploy with a long history. Here we go again. The bold, ambitious plans to push solar power plants, windmill farms, and other green facilities is causing a major backlash among industries used …

April 4, 2009

Watery Rant

By Tom Turner

The blaring headline to the San Francisco Chronicle April 3 was all about our continuing drought and upcoming water rationing. This is not exactly news — we’ve been warned for months. What I wrestle with is how to spread the hardship fairly. The remedy the utility company will impose is across-the-board reductions of 15 percent …