American Rivers -Crystal Clear And Beautiful, But Endangered

May 29, 2012 By Jessie Thomas-Blate, Coordinator, Most Endangered Rivers Today is Crystal River Day! The Crystal River appeared as #8 on American Rivers’ 2012 list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers®. Today we are talking about ways to help the Crystal River in order to give it a boost on the road to Wild and Scenic River [...]

Dirty secrets behind the campaign to poison your air

John Walke’s Blog Posted April 23, 2012 in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy By John Walke, Clean Air Director/Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council Sometimes a moment captures dirty, squirming truths like a rat trap. That happened last week in the Senate. The Senate’s clean air subcommittee convened [...]

DEMOS — Yet Another Way NOT To Decrease Gas Prices

Here is a list of things that have a direct impact on current gas prices: oil speculation; increased tensions with, and sanctions on, oil-producing nations like Iran; and high levels of global demand due to economic growth and increased consumption among developing nations. Here is a list of things that do not have an impact [...]

Economic Policy Institute – Report to Congress confirms large benefits, modest costs of new EPA rules

The Office of Management and Budget just posted a draft of its annual report to Congress on the benefits and costs of federal regulations. This official documentation of all major regulations reviewed by OMB includes an individual listing of the benefits and costs of all such rules finalized by the Obama administration through Sept. 30, [...]

NRDC – Nuclear Safety Deferred: U.S. Reactors One Year after Fukushima

In the days that followed the 2011 Great Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami, news outlets around the globe followed the unfolding catastrophe at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant with what seemed like minute-by-minute coverage. The world witnessed the Japanese rescue workers struggling to keep the plant’s nuclear cores from overheating and melting. We saw graphic [...]

Union of Concerned Scientists – In Virginia, the Emperor Has No Clothes

The Virginia Supreme Court rebuffed Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s attempts to access the personal correspondence of climate scientists at Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia. The court’s ruling found that the university does not constitute a “person” and is therefore not subject to the Civil Investigative Demands—essentially subpoenas—issued by the attorney general under the Virginia [...]

Clean Air Watch – EPA to Congress: low-sulfur gas would cost only a penny a gallon

Here is a letter to Congress from the US EPA clarifying the the scope and cost of gasoline changes related to the so-called Tier 3 clean-car program under consideration. This ought to put to rest the oil industry charges that EPA is planning to do more than just reduce sulfur in gasoline levels, and that [...]

Public Citizen – Bringing the heat of reality to a GOP freeze on public safeguards

The U.S. House of Representatives refuses to let up on its quixotic mission to destroy public safeguards. Its latest incarnation is H.R. 4078, the “Regulatory Freeze for Jobs Act of 2012,” a misguided bill that seeks to halt regulatory protections until the unemployment rate is equal or less than six percent. It was the topic [...]

Public Citizen – Nuclear Power: Only Technology That Requires An Emergency Evacuation Plan

Nuclear power is the only technology that requires an emergency evacuation plan. And for unfortunate communities, like those situated near the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, evacuation has meant more than fleeing one’s home. It has meant the death of livestock, contamination of produce and fish, and the realization that returning home won’t be [...]

DEMOS – GOP to Keystone XL: Be My Valentine

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the House and Senate GOP plan to attach an amendment forcing the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to a completely unrelated piece of legislation. This time around, it’s the transportation bill that is getting the Keystone amendment. While killing the worst transportation bill ever offered wouldn’t [...]