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06/02/2006 - Experts: Redirect River
"The 120 million tons of Mississippi River sediment lost to the Gulf of Mexico annually could be redirected into southeastern Louisiana's rapidly vanishing coastal wetlands by diverting the river between Myrtle Grove and Venice in lower Plaquemines Parish, a group of scientists recommended Thursday, the first day of the 2005 hurricane season." Read on in The Advocate.
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06/01/2006 - Studies Potray Tropical Arctic in Distant Past
"The first detailed analysis of an extraordinary climatic and biological record from the seabed near the North Pole shows that 55 million years ago the Arctic Ocean was much warmer that scientists imagined – a Floridian year-round average of 74 degrees." Read on in the New York Times.
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06/01/2006 - Category 5 Foolishness
"Today marks the beginning of the 2006 hurricane season, one that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts will be “above normal,” with four to six major hurricanes expected to form in the Atlantic – storms that could make landfall anywhere from Boston to Galveston." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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06/01/2006 - Earth's Ozone Shield Is Poised for Recovery
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05/31/2006 - 2 Studies Link Global Warming to Greater Power of Hurricanes
"Climate researchers at Purdue University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology separately reported new evidence yesterday supporting the idea that global warming is causing stronger hurricanes." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/31/2006 - Bush Energy Plan Whacks Conservation
"A few years ago a little-known US Energy Department program helped produce a design technology for lightweight cars and trucks that in 2004 alone saved the nation 122 million barrels of oil, or about $9 billion." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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05/31/2006 - Oilfield Cleanup Bill Sent to Governor
"Legislation aimed at cleaning up pollution left behind from oil and gas exploration and production is headed to Gov. Kathleen Blanco's desk for signing into law." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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05/30/2006 - The Greener Guys
"When Timberland, the outdoor clothing company, studies ways to reduce its carbon emissions four years ago, it weighed several options: building a wind farm in the Dominican Republican, buying power generated by renewable resources and setting up a vast bank of solar panels at one of its distribution centers in Ontario, Calif." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/30/2006 - The Trouble With Ethanol
"As ethanol boosterism spreads far and wide – from Bush's bully pulpit to the New York Times editorial page to green-group press releases – a quietly emerging trend is threatening to undermine the biofuel's environmental credibility." Read on in Salon.
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05/28/2006 - State's First Coastal Land Trust Endorsed
"Local and state governments, as well as private charities, should be eligible to accept donated property for coastal restoration projects, according to a legislative panel that oversees conservation issues." Read on in the Houma Courier.
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05/28/2006 - La. Needs Greater Share of Offshore Royalties to Restore Storm Buffer
"With levees unfinished and necessary federal funds to do the job right this time contingent on Washington appropriations, it's hard to feel confident about much as Hurricane Season 2006 gathers energy somewhere over the warming saltwaters of the Atlantic." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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05/27/2006 - Welcome to the Climate Crisis
"For those who have been working for decades to raise awareness about climate change, this is a moment charged with opportunity – and with peril." Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/26/2006 - GAO Report Faults Voluntary Program To Cut Air Pollution
"The Bush administration's voluntary programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by industry have yet to deliver promised results, according to a report issued yesterday by the Government Accountability Office." Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/26/2006 - House Votes to Allow Drilling in Alaska Refuge
"With gasoline prices around $3 a gallon as the Memorial Day weekend approaches, the House again voted Thursday to approve drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/25/2006 - Blanco Will Try to Block Federal Offshore Lease Sale
"Gov. Kathleen Blanco is preparing to file a lawsuit to block the U.S. Government's planned Aug. 17 sale of drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana's coast." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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05/25/2006 - Cleanup Oversight Bill Moves in House
"The House on Wednesday endorsed shifting oversight of cleaning up land contaminated by oil companies from state district courts to a state agency." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/24/2006 - Clinton Lays Out Energy Plan
"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D- N.Y.) said yesterday that the United States should cuts its consumption of foreign oil in half by 2025, and outlined a national strategy of tax incentives, an oil-profits tax and more funds for research aimed at spurring conservation and development of alternative sources of energy." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/24/2006 - Finally Feeling the Heat
"Today “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore's movie about the greenhouse effect, opens in New York and California." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/22/2006 - Battle on Cleanup Bill Looms
"Near the end of a six-hour hearing last week, state Rep. William Daniel asked if lawyers would still get paid under Senate Bill 655." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/22/2006 - In the Northwest, Nuclear Power Take a Hit
"It was ironic – for an explosion. Just as nuclear power begins to emerge as a possible savior from global warming – the co-founder of Greenpeace said last month it might avert catastrophic climate change, a New York Times editorial said last week that it deserves a “fresh look” -- the cooling tower from what had once been the nation's largest nuclear plant is blown to smithereens." Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/22/2006 - Ringo Pushes On With Environment Campaign
"Lake Charles native Jerome Ringo, among the nation's leading environmental activists, was recently listed as one of the 100 Most Influential African Americans by Ebony magazine." Read on in the Lake Charles American Press.
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05/22/2006 - Rising Ocean Temperatures Threaten Florida's Coral Reef
"If global warming summons images of polar bears clinging to shrinking ice floes, this is its face in the Florida Keys: a sun-dappled stretch of shallows along the turquoise reef line, where scientists painstakingly attach russet polyps of regenerated coral to damaged reefs." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/20/2006 - Turned Off by Global Warming
"By now, only someone who has been hiding under a rock would need to see the new Al Gore movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” to learn that global warming is real." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/19/2006 - House Votes Continuation of Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling Ban
"Despite talk of an energy crisis and the need for independence from foreign oil, Congress seems to be in no mood to open more of the country's coastal waters to energy development." Read on in the Houma Courier.
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05/18/2006 - Panel Backs Pollution Cleanup Bill
"A House committee forwarded legislation Tuesday that would let the state Department of Natural Resources oversee the cleanup of thousands of polluted sites abandoned by the oil and gas industry." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/18/2006 - Democrats Offer Alternative to Republican Energy Plan
"Senate Democrats on Wednesday fueled the debate over rising gas prices by introducing an energy bill they said would do more to wean the country off foreign oil than the plan advanced three weeks ago by Republicans." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/17/2006 - Environmental Battles
"The annual appropriations bill for the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency will hit the House floor later this week. This bill always inspires passionate debate over important questions decided in the course of an afternoon." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/17/2006 - Ocean Relief
"The House Resources Committee will today mark up its version of a bill to reauthorize the 1976 law regulating the nation's fisheries: the Magnuson- Stevens Act." Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/16/2006 - Fishery Group Presses Shell
"With one battle behind them and all but won, an environmental group is focusing its efforts on the only open-loop liquefied natural gas terminal licensed for the Gulf of Mexico." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/16/2006 - Justice to Hear Environmental Appeal on EPA Emissions Rule
"The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will review a controversial federal court ruling that environmentalists had said would weaken pollution-control requirements for aging power stations across the country." Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/14/2006 - Chopping Wood
"After a forest fire, is it better to cut down the remaining trees or leave them standing? Perhaps not surprisingly, neither science nor economics has come up with a definite answer to this question: It depends on what’s meant by the word “better.”" Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/13/2006 - The Greening of Nuclear Power
"Not so many years ago, nuclear energy was a hobgoblin to environmentalists, who feared the potential for catastrophic accidents and long-term radiation contamination." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/11/2006 - Entergy Renews Emissions Pledge
"In a move that will help the environment and its bottom line, Entergy Corp. renewed its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during the next five years." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/11/2006 - House Panel Urges Reworking of Leases for Oil Drilling in U.S.-Owned Waters
"Amid a growing uproar over lucrative government incentives for oil and gas producers, the House Appropriations Committee approved a bill on Wednesday that would order the Interior Department to renegotiate about 1,000 leases for companies drilling in the Gulf of Mexico." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/11/2006 - An 'Oil and Gas Governor' Draws the Line
"Environmentalism has never exactly been mainstream in Louisiana. What has been mainstream is a stereotype of those who espouse the cause, basically as tree-hugging, granola-chomping hippies who hail from places like the Northeast and Northwest, not the Deep South. An image that clearly doesn’t call to mind Gov. Kathleen Blanco." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/10/2006 - It's Only $300 Billion
"For the United States, the cost of the Iraq war will soon exceed the anticipated cost of the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement designed to control greenhouse gases. For both, the cost is somewhere in excess of $300 billion." Read on in the Washington Post.
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05/10/2006 - Limits on Emergency Landfills Advance
"The new landfill in eastern New Orleans that has been decried by local residents as an environmental hazard could be shuttered under legislation that would prohibit emergency openings of dumps to collect storm debris if sufficient landfill capacity exists in the state." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/10/2006 - Senate OKs DNR Cleanup Oversight
"The full Senate Tuesday narrowly approved legislation that would allow a state agency, rather than the courts, to determine how polluted waste sites should be cleaned up." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/08/2006 - A New Landfill in New Orleans Sets Off a Battle
"Block after block, neighborhood after neighborhood, tens of thousands of hurricane-ravaged houses here rot in the sun, still waiting to be gutted or bulldozed." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/08/2006 - The (Recycling) Paper Chase
"That newspapers have a short shelf life can be a humbling thought for a journalist. More comforting is the knowledge that as Americans toss them out, more than three-quarters are recycled – part of a growing trend in paper recycling in general." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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05/06/2006 - Blanco Vetoes Natural Gas Port
"Placing the state’s environment over its economy, Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Friday night vetoed a proposed billion-dollar liquefied natural gas port off Louisiana’s coast because of the impact it might have on the state’s fisheries." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/06/2006 - Pressure Builds to Revive Wind Farm Plan for Nantucket Sound
"The Bush administration and the senior members of the Senate energy committee are urging Congress to revive a proposal for the nation’s first large offshore wind farm, in Nantucket Sound south of Cape Cod." Read on in the New York Times.
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05/05/2006 - Blanco Vows Lease Block
"Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Thursday renewed her threat to stand in the way of an August federal oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico unless the federal government begins to give Louisiana a portion of offshore royalties." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/05/2006 - Pollution Bill Debate Stops for Negotiation
"After two hours of debate Thursday, Sen. Robert Adley abruptly asked the Senate to wait until next week to decide whether the state’s court system or a state government agency should decide how best to clean up land that was polluted by oil companies." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/03/2006 - Blanco May Veto Liquefied Gas Port
"As the deadline nears for Gov. Kathleen Blanco to decide on a natural gas port off the Louisiana coast, administration officials say worries that the port could damage valuable Gulf of Mexico fisheries have not been resolved, setting up a possible veto of the billion-dollar project." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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05/03/2006 - Stream-lined Permits Bill Advances
"A House panel Tuesday advances a bill that would ease approval of air and water environmental permits for low-level polluting activities." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/03/2006 - Federal Study Finds Accord on Warming
"A scientific study commissioned by the Bush administration concluded yesterday that the lower atmosphere was indeed growing warmer and that there was “clear evidence of human influences on the climate system.”" Read on in the New York Times.
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05/02/2006 - DEQ: 3 Landfills to Speed N.O. Cleanup
"Using three landfills, instead of two or one, should speed the cleanup of what remains of the hurricane debris still clogging the greater New Orleans area, state Department of Environmental Quality officials said." Read on in The Advocate.
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05/01/2006 - Each Louisianan Must Take Up Fight Against Litter
"What do a cigarette butt, a hamburger wrapper and this newspaper that you are reading have in common? When strewn on Louisiana’s streets and highways, they become litter and tarnish our communities." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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05/01/2006 - Let Nature Run It's Course
"The fast-approaching 2006 hurricane season raises a troubling question: Is there any way to save not just New Orleans but the wider Gulf Coast from the ravages of more killer storms?" Read on in the Seattle Times.
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04/28/2006 - Panel: Leave Land Remediation to DNR
"A state agency – that landowners do not trust – should determine how best to clean up the mess left on their lands by oil companies, a state Senate committee decided Thursday." Read on in The Advocate.
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04/27/2006 - Coastal Restoration Still on Treadmill
"Waiting for his turn to speak at a coastal restoration meeting Wednesday gave Bryon Griffith time to count. In his 15 years working with the U.S. Environmental Agency’s Gulf of Mexico Program, Griffiths said, he has attended 35 meetings – many of them in that very same room, in the very same hotel, on the very same topic." Read on in The Advocate.
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04/26/2006 - Group Doubts Project Will Cut 'Dead Zone'
"Diversions of river water in Louisiana will do little to reduce the pollution that helps fuel low-oxygen areas in the Gulf of Mexico, according to researchers at a meeting Tuesday." Read on in The Advocate.
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04/25/2006 - Citing Security, Plants Use Safer Chemicals
"At least 225 industrial plants in this country have switched to using less dangerous chemicals since the 2001 terrorist attacks, lowering the risk that people nearby would be injured or killed by toxic plumes, a new study has found." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/24/2006 - A Greener Way to Cut the Grass Runs Afoul of a Powerful Lobby
"Some have automatic transmissions. Drink holders. Electrical outlets. That staple of the American suburb, the law mower, now has many features of a late-model car. But not a catalytic converter, a muscular piece of antipollution engineering. At least not yet." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/24/2006 - Gulf Outlet Unlikely to Close
"There are plenty of reasons offered to get rid of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, the shipping channel carved through wetlands in St. Bernard Parish as a shortcut to the Gulf of Mexico." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/24/2006 - Heating Bills
"A small crop of new climate bills is sprouting up in Congress, and none too soon. Earlier this month, a number of influential energy execs called on Congress to regulate industrial greenhouse-gas emissions. And earlier this week, the EPA quietly released dismal new figures showing that the U.S. emissions are steadily rising." Read on in Salon.
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04/23/2006 - Money Worth Spending
"While Trent Lott is doing cartwheels to glue tourism projects to the emergency spending bill, there is a Katrina-related project that really does deserve to be added to the legislation. It involves restoring coastal wetlands and barrier islands." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/23/2006 - Yelling 'Fire' on a Hot Planet
"Global warming has the feel of breaking news these days. Polar bears are drowning; an American city is underwater; ice sheets are crumbling. Times magazine proclaimed that readers should be worried." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/22/2006 - Lawmakers Back Push to Increase Barrier-Island Awareness
"The state Legislature has been overwhelmingly supporting measures during this session that put an emphasis on barrier islands, those long strips of land that not only beautify the coastline but also protect neighboring communities from the full brunt of storms from the Gulf of Mexico." Read on in the Houma Courier.
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04/20/2006 - Climate Change Will be Significant But Not Extreme, Study Predicts
"Earth will experience significant climate change in the coming century as a result of greenhouse gas buildups, but the more extreme estimates of global warming generated by some studies are unlikely to occur, according to newly published research." Read on in the Washington Post.
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04/20/2006 - Not Ouf of the Woods Just Yet
"Our forests are the heart of our environmental support system. And yet, in the 36 years that have passed since the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, we have lost more than one billion acres of forest, with no end in sight." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/19/2006 - New Knowledge Can Help Reduce Gulf Dead Zones
"Researchers are meeting in New Orleans to revisit the problem of dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico – a recurring threat to the Louisiana fishing industry. Dead zones are essentially an unwanted gift from other parts of the nation." Read on in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.
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04/19/2006 - Panel Urges Study of Freshwater Diversion
"Diverting fresh water from the Mississippi or Atchafalaya rivers into south Louisiana marshes requires more thought and effort than just opening up levees and letting nature take its course." Read on in The Advocate.
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04/19/2006 - Business, EPA in Dust-Up Over New Air-Quality Rule
"Health and environmental groups urged the Bush administration this week to adopt tougher air-quality standards for soot and dust than it has proposed, labeling so-called “fine particulates” the “nation’s deadliest pollutant.”" Read on in The Hill.
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04/19/2006 - Scientists Condem US as Emissions of Greenhouse Gases Hit Record Level
"The United States emitted more greenhouse gases in 2004 than at any time in history, confirming its status as the world’s biggest polluter. Latest figures on the US contribution to global warming show that its carbon emissions have risen sharply despite international concerns over climate change." Read on in The Independent.
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04/19/2006 - Tooth Fillings With Mercury Are Held Safe
"Two long-awaited studies have found no evidence that dental fillings containing mercury can cause brain damage or other neurological problems in children, researchers plan to report on Wednesday." Read on in the New York Times.
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04/18/2006 - Hot Air And Free Speech
"Climate change scientists have earned Washington D.C.’s highest compliment – being treated like political threats to those abusing government power. That makes them whistleblowers, however involuntary, and a bureaucratic endangered species." Read on in TomPaine.com.
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04/18/2006 - A Campaign Gore Can't Lose
"Boring Al Gore has made a movie. It is on the most boring of all subjects – global warming." Read on in the Washington Post.
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04/17/2006 - Parks Feel '80 Percent' Squeeze
"The Bush administration has ordered America’s national parks to show that they can function at 80 percent or less of their operating budgets, which is forcing some parks to cut services for visitors as summer approaches." Read on in the Washington Post.
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04/17/2006 - Dead Zone Linked to Farm Subsidies
"Louisiana’s fishing industry faces an uncertain future after the pounding it took last hurricane season, but fishers know one thing is certain: Sometime this summer, a lifeless expanse of water about the size of Connecticut – maybe a little bigger, maybe a little smaller – will form off the state’s coast." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/17/2006 - Reduced Pollution Credited to Skewed Reporting
"Modest improvement reported in the government’s latest analysis of chemical pollutants in American communities may have less to do with real reductions than with the gutting of the public’s “right to know,” environmentalists say." Read on in The NewStandard.
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04/16/2006 - Barrier Island Lose Their Grit
"An LSU Hurricane Center expert said Saturday the Chandeleur Islands, a crescent of sand and shoals east of New Orleans out in the Gulf of Mexico, won’t be offering as much protection from storm surge this year after the beating they took from Katrina last August." Read on in The Advocate.
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04/11/2006 - Growing Landfill Feud in Plaquemines Community
"A hulking mound of trash and debris adjacent to the small community of Oakville in Plaquemines Parish has grown drastically since Hurricane Katrina reduced much of the lower end of the parish to rubble." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/10/2006 - Where Computers Go to Die -- and Kill
"A parade of trucks piled with worn-out computers and electronic equipment pulls away from container ships docked at the port of Taizhou in the Zhejiang Province of southeastern China. A short distance inland, the trucks dump their loads in what looks like an enormous parking lot." Read on in Salon.
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04/10/2006 - Conceding on Climate Change
"On April 4, there was a tectonic shift in the climate change debate during an all-day Senate conference on global-warming policy. A group of high-powered energy and utility executives for the first times issued this directive to Washington: Bring on the carbon caps!" Read on in Salon.
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04/09/2006 - Debate Over Legacy-Site Litigation Could Become Testy
"If there were ever a poster child for so-called legacy sites, the distinction would likely belong to William Dore’s 9,000 acres of marshland in Cameron Parish. He has made a profitable living leasing out his land to oil and gas prospectors, but it has come at a hefty price." Read on in the Houma Courier.
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04/07/2006 - Cities Move to Defend Against Railroad Attacks
"Boston officials envision keeping rail cars carrying hazardous chemicals at least 10 miles away unless the city is their destination." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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04/07/2006 - Council Asks Nagin to Abandon Landfill
"Prodded by widespread community opposition to a proposed construction debris landfill in eastern New Orleans, a unanimous City Council called on Mayor Ray Nagin to drop the idea Thursday and examine other options to dispose of Katrina-related refuse." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/06/2006 - New Case for Regulating CO2 Emissions
"The nation’s big power companies are creating smaller amounts of gases that cause smog and acid rain than they were 15 years ago, but they’re producing more greenhouse gases." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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04/05/2006 - High Levels of Lead Found in N.O. Area
"Fourteen neighborhoods in the New Orleans area have dangerously high lead levels, and one residential neighborhood around the old Agriculture Street landfill has high levels of a cancer-causing petroleum constituent, federal and state environmental regulators said Tuesday, as they released the latest results from contamination tests following Hurricane Katrina." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/05/2006 - DEQ Permit-Expediting Bill OK'd
"Industries that want to open new plants more quickly or expand existing ones can pay higher fees to the state Department of Environmental Quality to expedite the permit process, the Senate said Tuesday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/04/2006 - Climate of Hope
"Earlier this year in San Francisco, I was lucky enough to sit in on Al Gore’s slide show on global warming. It’s the most brilliant articulation of climate science I’ve ever seen." Read on in Salon.
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04/04/2006 - Want Clean Air? Try This
"Environmentalists gained an important victory last month when a federal appeals court rejected a Bush administration effort to amend key provisions of the Clean Air Act." Read on in the Washington Post.
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04/04/2006 - EPA Faces Internal Outcry On Airborne Emissions Plan
"A proposal to revise how the Environmental Protection Agency regulates airborne toxic emissions from industrial plants has sparked an outcry from the agency’s regional offices, with a majority suggesting that the change would be “detrimental to the environment.”" Read on in the Washington Post.
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04/02/2006 - Oyster-Lease Maze Stymies Coastal Restoration
"Maps depicting the thousands of oyster leases in Louisiana have all the appearance of a jigsaw puzzle stretched across the coast. Interlocking boundaries cut sharply across bayous, zigzag through mud flats and crisscross open waters with no apparent logic." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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04/01/2006 - Debris Landfill Put on Fast Track
"A month after a lawsuit prompted the state Department of Environmental Quality to scale back dumping at a landfill in eastern New Orleans, the agency appears to be fast-tracking the permitting process for a new construction debris landfill a few miles father to the east, on the edge of the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/31/2006 - Lawmaker Wants Ethanol at Pumps
"In about two years, you could have the choice of putting an ethanol blend fuel into your vehicle when you pull into a gas station, an option promoted by some as more environmentally friendly." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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03/30/2006 - Feds Urged to Give La. More for Drilling
"A disparate group of individuals on Wednesday told the Minerals Management Service that while Louisiana should continue to play a major role in the nation’s energy production, the federal government needs to open up more offshore areas to drilling and should compensate Louisiana fairly for its role." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/29/2006 - How Environmentalists Lost the Battle Over TCE
"After massive underground plumes of an industrial solvent were discovered in the nation’s water supplies, the Environmental Protection Agency mounted a major effort in the 1990s to assess how dangerous the chemical was to human health." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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03/28/2006 - Offshore Drilling Meetings to Start
"A controversial plan to allow drilling for oil and gas off Florida’s coast will move forward this week as the first public meetings about the plan are held, including one Wednesday in Harahan." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/28/2006 - Vitter Proposes Closure of MRGO
"Describing the deep-draft navigation channel as a “dangerous hurricane highway,” U.S. Sen. David Vitter unveiled a new plan Monday to close the controversial Mississippi River Gulf Outlet that runs along the eastern edge of St. Bernard Parish and is blamed for exacerbating flooding from Hurricane Katrina." Read on in The Advocate.
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03/27/2006 - Studies Point to Rising Oceans
"Two new studies show that if global climate change unfolds as predicted, much of Louisiana’s coastline could be under water by the year 2100." Read on in The Advocate.
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03/26/2006 - Bending With the Wind
"For years now a story line in Massachusetts has featured the Kennedy family, enthusiastic environmentalists all, loudly opposing one of the most environmentally progressive schemes in the state’s history." Read on in the Washington Post.
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03/25/2006 - A State Says Makers Must Pay for Recycling PC's and TV's
"Gov. Christine O. Gregoire of Washington yesterday signed into law a bill mandating that electronics and computer companies pay for the recycling of old equipment, enacting the nation’s most far-reaching electronic waste law to date." Read on in the New York Times.
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03/24/2006 - Groups Warn Abour Arsenic in Soil
"The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, in partnership with United Steelworkers of America, on Thursday launched a $35,000 project to remove from 10 eastern New Orleans homes what the center’s director, Beverly Wright, called “contaminated soils” left by Hurricane Katrina’s flood." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/24/2006 - Little Time to Avoid Big Thaw, Scientists Warn
"Global warming appears to be pushing vast reservoirs of ice on Greenland and Antarctica toward a significant, long-term meltdown. The world may have as little as a decade to take the steps to avoid this scenario." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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03/23/2006 - Landrieu Sees Tide Changing on La. Offshore Oil Royalties
"U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said Wednesday that years of political pressure might finally be shifting the federal government toward giving Louisiana a bigger share of royalties for offshore oil and gas that pass through the state." Read on in The Advocate.
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03/23/2006 - New Source Rebuke
"One might hope that after its rebuke last week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the Bush administration would reconsider its efforts to rewrite the rules governing power plant emissions." Read on in the Washington Post.
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03/22/2006 - In the Loop
" A rare coalition of commercial fishermen and environmentalists is facing a critical stage in its fight against offshore “open loop” Liquefied Natural Gas terminals." Read on in the Independent Weekly.
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03/20/2006 - GAO Wants More Rules on Chemical Plant Safety
"Are local chemical plants and refineries prepared to deter or respond to a terrorist attack? That’s a question the federal Department of Homeland Security really can’t answer." Read on in The Advocate.
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03/20/2006 - Court Deals Blow to EPA's Relaxed Rule on Air Emissions
"The US Environmental Protection Agency will probably have to go back to the drawing board now that a US appeals court has said aging power plants and other industrial sites must meet the same federal pollution standards as new plants." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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03/18/2006 - EPA Chief Backs Coast Restoration
"U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administration Stephen Johnson said Friday that the Bush administration is committed to rebuilding Louisiana’s shattered coastline, but offered no new money for an effort expected to cost up to $14 billion." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/17/2006 - Landrieu Trades for Coast Fund
"The Senate narrowly approved President Bush’s $2.8 trillion budget on Thursday, including an amendment that could bring up to $100 billion over five years to Louisiana and other coastal states." Read on in The Advocate.
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03/16/2006 - Monitors: State's Air Meeting Standards
"For the first time in 15 years, the air in Louisiana, in 2005, met all state ambient air toxics standards." Read on in The Advocate.
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03/15/2006 - Freeport to Modify Gas Terminal
"A New Orleans-based energy company said Tuesday it would modify a proposed natural gas terminal off the Louisiana coast to lessen the environmental impact of reheating supercooled gas with 49 billion gallons of sea water annually." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/14/2006 - Sharp Rise in CO2 Levels Recorded
"US climate scientists have recorded a significant rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pushing it to a new record level." Read on in the BCC News.
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03/14/2006 - To Avoid a Red-Blue Divide, Politician Should Think Green
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03/14/2006 - A Climate Change of Heart
"A beleaguered president stubbornly insists on staying the course even as his staunchest allies abandon him. I’m not talk about Iraq, but global warming." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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03/13/2006 - Oil-Royalty Battle Has Difficult History, Future
"President Harry S. Truman offered Louisiana a sweet deal in 1949, an arrangement that state officials are still trying to get the feds to duplicate today." Read on in the Houma Courier.
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03/13/2006 - Why Interior Is Such a Difficult Agency to Lead
"Geographically speaking, no member of the Bush administration has had more impact on or responsibility for the United States than Interior Secretary Gale Norton." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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03/10/2006 - Advisory Panel Urges 12-Foot-Deep MRGO; Officials Seek Inut
"A state advisory commission says the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet should be scaled back from a deep-draft channel to one maintained at a 12-foot depth." Read on in The Advocate.
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03/10/2006 - The River WIld
"Five years ago, after 25 years of chronicling the loss of our coastal wetlands, I stopped believing a cure was on the way. I became a realist." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/09/2006 - Coalition Asks Court to Reject Project
"A student attorney for a coalition of environmental and conservation groups asked a federal appellate court Wednesday to overturn the U.S. Department of Transportation’s permitting of Shell’s proposed liquefied natural gas terminal in the Gulf of Mexico." Read on in The Advocate.
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03/09/2006 - EPA, Auto Industry Reach Deal on Mercury
"Hoping to reduce harmful mercury emissions, the Environmental Protection Agency, the auto industry and environmental groups said Wednesday they have agreed to start a national program to collect mercury switches from scrapped automobiles." Read on in the Environmental News Network.
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03/09/2006 - Gulf Drilling Plan Clears Panel
"A controversial plan to open nearly 3 million acres to drilling in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico cleared an important hurdle Wednesday despite objections from senators from Louisiana and Florida." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/08/2006 - The Planet Can't Wait
"The warnings are coming from frogs and beetles, from melting ice and changing ocean currents, and from scientists and responsible politicians around the world. And yet what is the U.S. government doing about global warming? Nothing. That should shock the conscience of Americans." Read on in the Washington Post.
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03/06/2006 - More Power to You
"With the fight to pry open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge having stalled (at least for the time being), the oil and gas industry and its cronies in Congress are now focused on parts of the outer continental shelf that have been off-limits to drilling for nearly 25 years." Read on in Salon.
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03/06/2006 - N.O. Spots Are Testing Positive for Toxins
"A litany of environmental and health unknowns hangs over the region more than six months after Hurricane Katrina, from 46 potential hot spots of contamination and the continuing cleanup of 8 million gallons of spilled oil, to health care workers raising the alarm over a spike of Legionnaires’ disease." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/06/2006 - La. Wetlands Gouged by Storms
"Six months after Katrina, the mark left on the natural world by last year’s blockbuster hurricane season is a complex mix of more fish and shrimp, less habitat for them to live and breed in, and millions of gallons of oil possibly lost forever in south Louisiana’s marshes." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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03/03/2006 - Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Melting Rapidly
"The Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as 36 cubic miles of ice a year in a trend that scientists link to global warming, according to a new paper that provides the first evidence that the sheet’s total mass is shrinking significantly." Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/28/2006 - Americans Are Cautiously Open to Gas Tax Rise, Poll Shows
"Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to a higher federal gasoline tax, but a significant number would go along with an increase if it reduced global warming or made the United States less dependent on foreign oil, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll." Read on in the New York Times.
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02/28/2006 - The Forest Service Is Dead; Long Live the Forest Service!
"In 1982, Earth First!er Dave Foreman used form letters to blitz the U.S. Forest Service with administrative appeals, blocking over 100 timber sales that threatened roadless areas in several Western states." Read on in Grist Magazine.
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02/26/2006 - Hill Action Could Kill Planned Wind Farm, Backers Say
"A proposal before Congress that would limit the construction of wind turbines near shipping lanes could effectively doom plans to build the country’s first offshore wind farm near Massachusetts, the project’s supporters say." Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/26/2006 - Katrina/Rita's Message Clear: Buffer Needed
"Almost six months after Katrina hit and less than 100 days until the next hurricane season, latter-day Jeremiah and author Mike Tidwell offered blunt assessment of New Orleans efforts to repopulate and rebuild." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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02/24/2006 - Diversionary Tactic
"When the Corps of Engineers cut the ribbon on the Davis Pond Diversion in 2002, corps officials weren’t shy about touting it as a project that would help rebuild Louisiana’s eroding coastline." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/23/2006 - Panel Proposed for Post-Hurricane Issues
"If there was ever a time for a Select Committee on Coastal Restoration and Flood Control in the Legislature, it would seemingly be now." Read on in the Houma Courier.
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02/23/2006 - Landfill Dumping to Slow Under Deal
"The dumping of construction debris at a recently reopened city-owned landfill in eastern New Orleans will be drastically pared, thanks to a series of developments this week." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/23/2006 - Safety of Post-Hurricane Sludge Is Disputed
"Floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina deposited arsenic, lead and petrochemical compounds across greater New Orleans in amounts that are potentially dangerous to human health despite federal and state assurances that the sludge is safe, according to a new study based on Environmental Protection data." Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/22/2006 - Senator Urges Locals to Step Up Fight for Coast Money
"U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu told a room filled with local business leaders and elected officials that she will gain federal authorizations for the parish’s hurricane-protection project, but a steady stream of federal money from offshore energy revenue is necessary to make such projects a reality." Read on in the Houma Courier.
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02/21/2006 - A Test of US Authority Over Waterways
"When June Carabell and her business partners decided to build condominiums on wetlands in Michigan’s Macomb County, they knew they were in for a challenge." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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02/21/2006 - Finger-Lickin' Bad
"A person driving through the South might notice the chicken houses dotting the hills and flatlands. He might marvel at the larger ones, as long as a football field. He might react to their gagging stench for a moment, and then forget as he travels on." Read on in Grist Magazine.
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02/21/2006 - Offshore Drilling Backers Smell Victory
"For decades, drilling for oil and natural gas off of much of the U.S. coastline has been off limits." Read on in the Washington Post.
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02/19/2006 - LNG Expansion in La. Faces Hurdles
"A dispute between industry and conservation groups has helped cool the push for the construction of liquefied natural gas terminals in the Gulf of Mexico, but there are a number of other economic factors affecting the development of the highly touted tonic for the nation’s energy crunch." Read on in The Advocate.
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02/18/2006 - Right Move on MR-GO
"The Louisiana Legislature hasn’t done much right in the ongoing special session, but at least lawmakers are in accord on one important issue: the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/17/2006 - La. Delegation Seeks Coastal Funds
"Louisiana members of Congress are introducing long-sought legislation that would provide up to $2 billion a year to the state for coastal restoration and hurricane protection." Read on in The Advocate.
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02/15/2006 - Coastal Losses Greater Than Thought
"Southeastern Louisiana’s natural storm buffer took an unprecedented blow from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that was even worse than previously reported, with 118 square miles of coastal marsh converted into open water, a new federal report says." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/15/2006 - Coastal Protection Suggestions for La. Aired Out
"A mix of federal, state and local government officials and representatives of industry and environmental organizations began Tuesday drawing a conceptual map of Louisiana’s future coastline, peppering it with levees, freshwater diversions and wetlands rebuilding projects." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/14/2006 - Conferees Debate State's Hurricane Protection Options
"Comprehensive hurricane protection for southern Louisiana will require multiple lines of defense, speakers at a coastal-protection conference in Lafayette said Monday." Read on in The Advocate.
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02/13/2006 - 'Toxic Soup' Concern --All Hype?
"When Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, people predicted a life-threatening “toxic soup.” It never formed." Read on in The Advocate.
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02/11/2006 - Congress's Duty on Energy
"Senator Pete Domenici told a recent gathering of experts that if Congress is going to do anything useful this year about the two big energy-related questions of our time – oil dependency and global warming – it will have to focus on “four or five big things” instead of the usual laundry list of tax breaks, subsidies and modest research programs." Read on in the New York Times.
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02/10/2006 - Debate Renewed as Soil Retested
"Another round of testing on sediments deposited by Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters have turned up toxic petroleum products, pesticides, lead and arsenic at multiple locations in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/10/2006 - Report Criticizes N.O. Landfill
"The Federal Emergency Management Agency faces a “high risk of future environmental liability” if it continues to use the controversial Old Gentilly Landfill in New Orleans, a new report says." Read on in The Advocate.
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02/09/2006 - Plan Seeks Oil Drilling Off Florida
"Just days after President Bush called on the nation during his State of the Union speech to lessen its dependence on foreign oil, the federal government announced plans to open up more federal waters for oil and gas exploration—including an area 100 miles south of the Florida Panhandle, over which Louisiana now has greater authority." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/08/2006 - Evangelical Leaders Join Global Warming Initiative
"Despite opposition from some of their colleagues, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming, saying “millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors.”" Read on in the New York Times.
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02/06/2006 - New EPA Soot Limits Faulted by Scientists
"The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulations on soot were criticized Friday as too weak by scientists advising the agency and as too politicized by health advocates said Democrats." Read on in the Environmental News Network.
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02/05/2006 - Alternative LNG Cooling Systems Touted as Safer for Sea Life
"Companies that have proposed building offshore liquefied natural gas terminals in the Gulf of Mexico have long insisted that they cannot be economically competitive unless they’re allowed to use hundreds of millions of gallons of seawater a day to convert their super-cooled product into a useable fuel." Read on in the Mobile Register.
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02/05/2006 - Louisiana's Stick
"Louisiana’s leaders have made a strong case for getting a larger, fairer share of offshore oil royalties for the state; so far, though, reason and persuasion haven’t worked with Congress or the Bush administration." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/05/2006 - Wetlands' Importance Often Overlooked
"Everyone who enjoys seafood, drives a car or uses natural gas to heat a home should be worried about the future of Louisiana’s wetlands." Read on in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.
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02/05/2006 - LEAN Meets to Prioritize Session Goals
"Closing the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet is one of the top priorities among things that should be done during upcoming legislative sessions, participants in a Louisiana Environmental Action Network meeting decided Saturday." Read on in The Advocate.
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02/02/2006 - Many Ways, No Will
"Listening to President Bush’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, you’d think the United States has reached bottom in its addiction to foreign oil and is so desperate to break free that it will take the ultimate step – investing in research—to find a way out." Read on in the Los Angeles Times.
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02/02/2006 - Study: Integrate Coastal Restoration, Levee Work
"Coastal restoration and levee construction should be carefully coordinated in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, according to a report delivered Wednesday to state officials." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/02/2006 - Florida Senators Back Drilling in Eastern Gulf of Mexico
"The battle over drilling for oil and natural gas off the U.S. coast took an unexpected turn Wednesday when two Florida senators said they now support some new exploration and production in the eastern Gulf of Mexico." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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02/01/2006 - Blanco: No Offshore Signoffs Unless La. Gets Royalty Share
"Gov. Kathleen Blanco warned this week that the state would not support future offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico unless Louisiana gets a share of the federal royalties generated by oil production there." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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02/01/2006 - State Subcommittee to Decide Policy for Mississippi River Gulf Outlet
"A subcommittee formed Tuesday by the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration and Conservation will soon begin developing a policy recommendation for the future of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet." Read on in The Advocate.
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01/31/2006 - New Deal Eases Fines for Farms That Pollute
"The Bush administration will exempt thousands of farms that raise poultry, cattle and hogs from heavy fines for fouling the air and water with animal excrement in exchange for data to help curb future pollution." Read on in the New York Times.
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01/30/2006 - La. Coast Crucial for Energy Supply
"The latest report by the Independent Petroleum Association of America ranks Louisiana as a top producer in natural gas and oil among the nation’s 33 producing states." Read on in The Advocate.
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01/30/2006 - Faults Found in La. Land Loss
"Attorney Ben Guelfo remembers being mystified by waves on the surface of the normally tranquil Gladney Pond, which was where Baton Rouge’s Olympia Stadium now stands." Read on in The Advocate.
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01/27/2006 - Ag Street Landfill Case Gets Ruling
"Charging that they engaged in “shocking” behavior by selling poor people homes built atop the former Agriculture Street landfill in the late 1960s and later put a school there, a Civil District Court judge has ordered the city and two other agencies to pay residents and business owners for stress and diminished property values." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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01/27/2006 - Experts: La. Coast Can Be Kept Safe
"Protecting coastal Louisiana from storms isn’t a lost cause, despite public comments by a few scientists who say the state is sinking too fast to save." Read on in The Advocate.
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01/26/2006 - Harmful Teflon Chemical To Be Eliminated by 2015
"Eight U.S. companies, including giant DuPont Co., agreed yesterday to virtually eliminate a harmful chemical used to make Teflon from all consumer products coated with the ubiquitous nonstick material." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/25/2006 - DEQ Replaces Landfill Order
"In a move meant to parry a lawsuit brought by environmentalists, state Department of Environmental Quality regulators have revoked an order they issued a month after Hurricane Katrina that allowed the long-dormant Old Gentilly Landfill in eastern New Orleans to reopen and have replaced it with a new order that more fully explains their reasons for allowing the old city dump to accept waste again." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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01/25/2006 - 'Motley' Crew of Scientists, Others Brainstorm on Restoration
"An informal group of scientists and others is brainstorming ways to integrate coastal restoration with flood protection." Read on in The Advocate.
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01/24/2006 - Data Sought on Royaltiest Paid for Gas
"Lawmakers in both political parties demanded on Monday that the Bush administration address concerns that energy companies may have been underpaying the government for oil and gas they produce on publicly owned land and in coastal waters." Read on in the New York Times.
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01/24/2006 - EPA to Accept Pesticide Tests on Humans
"The Environmental Protection Agency for the first time is establishing criteria for tests by pesticides makers on human subjects." Read on in the Environmental News Network.
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01/23/2006 - Ocean in Peril
"The Bush administration remains in denial about climate change and sometimes treats environmental protection as an inconvenience. Yet there was reason to hope, when the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy issued its report more than a year ago, that President Bush would seize the issue of the dire threat to this country’s coastal waters." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/22/2006 - 'Blue' States Tackling Energy On Their Own
"Democratic-leaning states increasingly are regulating energy use and emissions, working around a GOP-controlled federal government that state officials say has not done enough." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/21/2006 - Close the Case on MR-GO
"Defending the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet after Hurricane Katrina makes about as much sense as sticking up for the quality of airport security on Sept. 11, 2001." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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01/20/2006 - Forecast for Earth in 2050: It's Not So Gloomy
"When researchers scan the global horizon, overfishing, loss of species habitat, nutrient run-off, climate change, and invasive species look to be the biggest threats to the ability of land, oceans, and water to support human well-being." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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01/19/2006 - A New Guest of Wind Projects Across the US
"Out in the dwindling oil fields around McCamey, Texas, where rattlesnakes outnumber people and black-gold gushers once blew their tops, a new energy geyser is blowing – wind power." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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01/18/2006 - Is It Warm in Here?
"One of the puzzles if you’re in the news business is figuring out what’s “news.” The fate of your local football team certainly fits the definition. So does a plane crash or a brutal murder. But how about the changes in the migratory patterns of butterflies?" Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/17/2006 - Oh, Christmas Debris
"Marshland restoration projects that depend on cast-off Christmas trees to slow coastal erosion and capture sediment took a beating in areas hard-hit by Hurricane Katrina, and several parishes are skipping their post-holiday tree collections as storm cleanup takes priority." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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01/16/2006 - New Report Says N.O. Soil Remains Toxic
"Floodwaters receding from Hurricane Katrina left behind a thick coating of sediment over much of New Orleans. A team of scientists is now claiming the layer of gunk is hazardous to your health." Read on in New Orleans City Business.
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01/13/2006 - Engineers Have Qualms About MR-GO Work
"As the man in charge of rebuilding the failed levees along the MR-GO, Col. Louis Setliff knows the Army Corps of Engineers can’t repeat the mistake that allowed Lake Borgne to swallow much of St. Bernard Parish: building the structures out of weak marsh soils that disintegrated in Hurricane Katrina’s surge." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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01/12/2006 - Forest Preserve Help Louisiana
"Louisiana’s coastal region is a Grand Central Station for score of migrating birds that fly over the Gulf of Mexico from Central America, South America and the Caribbean." Read on in The Advocate.
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01/12/2006 - Going 'Hybrid' With Houses
"Last year, hybrid cars reached a turning point. Steep gas prices drove folks to the more fuel efficient part-gas, part-electric vehicles, and this year many of the automakers will offer them in their lineups. With rising energy bills shocking residents across the US, it’s time to ‘go hybrid’ with homes." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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01/10/2006 - Coastal Proposal Is a Two-for-One Idea
"An independent group of scientists and engineers is working on a coastline strategy that could help planners in combining coastal restoration efforts with improved hurricane protection in a “multiple lines of defense” approach for New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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01/08/2006 - MR-GO Goes From Hero to Villain
"It was promoted as one of the great public works projects of its time, a 76-mile shipping channel carved from swamp and wetlands that promised a money-saving shortcut to the Gulf of Mexico." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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01/06/2006 - A GOP Key to Unlocking NEPA
"House Republicans are hoping to rewrite one of the nation’s most sweeping environmental laws –in a way that could change how the government gauges the impact of its actions on the land, sea and air." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/03/2006 - The Enormous US Dam Problem No One Is Talking About
"The landscape of America, at last count, is dotted with 79,272 large dams. Most of them safely deliver bountiful benefits- trillions of gallons of water for drinking, irrigation, and industrial use, plus flood control, recreation, hydroelectric power, and navigation." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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01/03/2006 - States Adopt California's Greenhouse Gas Limits
"The ice-pack runoff from Oregon’s Cascade Mountains powers the state’s hydroelectric plants and irrigates its pear orchards. Those ice packs have shrunk by 30 percent or more in the past 50 years, the state officials believe auto exhaust deserves much of the blame." Read on in the Washington Post.
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01/03/2006 - Chemical-Data Plan Catalyzes Opposition
"Opposition is growing to a Bush administration plan to change the reporting requirements of a highly successful public information program that collects data annually on releases of toxic chemicals." Read on in The Washington Post.
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01/03/2006 - Close the Hurricane Highway
"The hurricane protection package announced by the Bush administration last month nearly doubled the money committed to levee repairs, but it didn’t address the future of the Mississippi River- Gulf Outlet, and that’s a serious omission." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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01/01/2006 - As 'Brownfields' Clean Up, Ecologists Worry
"In 1999, a jewelry factory in Attleboro shut its doors for the last time, leaving another downtown brick building vacant in the Attleboro region." Read on in the Boston Globe.
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01/01/2006 - Getting Resourceful About Resources
"One question naturally arises when you hear that 67 million more people are on the way: Do we have enough to go around?" Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/22/2005 - No Way Found to Cut Need for Foreign Oil
"The Senate decision yesterday not to allow oil drilling in Alaska’ Arctic National Wildlife Refuge marks the latest failure of lawmakers to form a consensus on a strategy to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/22/2005 - Officials: Offshore Oil Funds Crucial to Hurricane Protection
"Securing a share of offshore oil and natural gas revenues is crucial to Louisiana being able to restore its coastline and build levees strong and tall enough to withstand powerful hurricanes, a coalition of state, parish and congressional officials said Wednesday." Read on in the Shreveport Times.
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12/21/2005 - Melting of Permafrost Threatens Homes and Roads, Scientist Warn
"Global warming could melt almost all of the top layer of the Arctic permafrost by the end of the century. Scientists say the thaw would release vast stocks of carbon into the atmosphere, threaten ocean currents and wreck roads and buildings across Canada, Alaska and Russia." Read on in the Guardian Unlimited.
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12/21/2005 - Proposed Standards for Air Quality Criticized
"The Bush administration proposed a modest tightening of federal air-quality standards yesterday for the first time in eight years, drawing protests from both public health and industry officials." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/20/2005 - Stevens Holds Senate in Session
"It’s an audacious power play, even for Sen. Ted Stevens. The wily and cantankerous Alaska Republican is trying to secure the mother of all pet projects for his state." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/19/2005 - Shellacking the Coast
"There are plenty of culprits from which to choose in assigning blame for the destruction of Louisiana’s marshes: oil companies that carved wetlands to tatters with their exploratory canals, levees that hemmed in the nourishing waters of the Mississippi River, burrowing nutria that left marshes exposed to grass-killing saltwater." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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12/16/2005 - Drilling in ANWR
"It didn’t seem possible that the argument over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge could become any shriller." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/15/2005 - Researchers Doubt Clean-Soil Finds
"Children in New Orleans could face an increased risk of lead poisoning after Hurricane Katrina, which may have triggered the release of large amounts of the heavy metal buried in the soil, a team of Texas Tech University researches reported Wednesday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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12/13/2005 - A Push for Safer Chemical Sites
"Congress is poised to try to pass a law regulating security in and around chemical and petrochemical plants, which security experts say are among the most potentially deadly terrorist targets in the nation." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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12/13/2005 - Arctic Gets an Administration Gusher
"Interior Secretary Gale Norton, campaigning to win oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, had the urgency of a saleswoman falling short of her monthly quota." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/12/2005 - No Talk and No Action
"I’ve been to climate meetings in locales that stretch from Kyoto to The Hague, Mexico City to the Maldives. It would have been awfully easy to get in the old hybrid and drive two hours north to Montreal for the big climate-change confab that wrapped up this weekend – if nothing else, it’s a city I love deeply. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it in the end. I knew it was going to be too painful to watch." Read on in Grist Magazine.
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12/10/2005 - N.O. Area Declared Safe to Live In
"The soil, air and water across the region is mostly free of the toxic contamination once feared to be Hurricane Katrina’s lasting environmental legacy, federal and state officials said Friday, as they declared the majority of the New Orleans area safe to live in work in or visit." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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12/08/2005 - Coastal Restoration Work Gets Go-Ahead
"Construction could begin as early as next year on projects to strengthen a key part of the Lake Borgne shoreline against further erosion and begin the first phase of rebuilding a barrier beach and dune system just south of Empire." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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12/08/2005 - Test on Post-Katrina Muck Yield Little Consensus on Risk
"When hurricane Katrina roared ashore along the Gulf Coast 100 days ago, it stirred up tons of toxic substances, much of which had been stored safely or buried benignly beneath the earth." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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12/08/2005 - Oil Industry Targets EU Climate Policy
"Lobbyists funded by the US oil industry have launched a campaign in Europe aimed at derailing efforts to tackle greenhouse gas pollution and climate change." Read on in The Guardian.
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12/06/2005 - A Fight Over Easing Rules for Reporting Toxic Emissions
"Gracie Lewis is on a crusade to save the Toxics Release Inventory, a trove of federal pollution data vital to helping her – and activists nationwide – win community battles for cleaner air and water." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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12/05/2005 - Climate Official's Work Is Questioned
"Environmentalists are unhappy with the job the lead U.S. climate negotiator, Harlan Watson, has been doing in the ongoing Montreal talks on how to combat global warming." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/03/2005 - Report Accuses EPA of Slanting Analysis
"The Bush administration skewed its analysis of pending legislation on air pollution to favor its bill over two competing proposals, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/01/2005 - Study: U.S. Fisheries Discard 22% of Catch
"American fishing operations discard more than a fifth of what they catch each year, according to a new report by a team of U.S. and Canadian Scientists." Read on in the Washington Post.
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12/01/2005 - Alarm Over Dramatic Weakening of Gulf Stream
"The powerful ocean current that bathes Britain and northern Europe in warm waters from the tropics has weakened dramatically in recent years, a consequence of global warming that could trigger more severe winters and cooler summers across the region, scientists warn today." Read on in The Guardian.
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11/29/2005 - After Kyoto, After Katrina
"Policymakers from around the world are convening this week in Montreal for a summit on global warming, and it’s more evident than ever that the United States needs to be a part of an international strategy toward dealing with the problem." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/28/2005 - Old Ice Gives Clues to Climate Change
"Drilling deep into Antarctic ice, scientists have extended climate history by another 210,000 years. The new results, they say, drive home two key points." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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11/27/2005 - Most Everyone Wants to Close the Shipping Channel
"From engineers to environmentalists, shipping interests to politicians, almost everyone involved in the fight about the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet agrees that shipping channel needs to be closed after it exacerbated Hurricane Katrina’s catastrophic flooding." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/27/2005 - World Leaders to Discuss Strategies for Climate Control
"The nations of the world will meet in Montreal this week to start discussing the next step in combating the global warming problem, hoping to devise a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that was scorned by the Bush administration in 2001. But the United States is saying it doesn’t want to talk." Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/22/2005 - The School of Barack
"Caterwauling over the Iraq War last week brought Congress to a rancorous new low, drowning out calls from both sides of the aisle for a clean and sane energy future." Read on in Grist Magazine.
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11/21/2005 - Levee Board Proposal Killed in House
"The House of Representatives derailed an ambitious proposal to consolidate several New Orleans area levee boards with a vote Sunday evening to deny the bill a committee hearing today, effectively killing the measure of the current special session." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/21/2005 - Republicans' Wild Western Land Grab
"Greens were reveling in victory earlier this month after language paving the way for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on the Outer Continental Shelf was stricken from the House budget reconciliation bill." Read on in Salon.
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11/21/2005 - Landfill Reopening Is Raising New Stink
"Since is reopening six weeks ago after a hiatus of nearly two decades, the Old Gentilly Landfill in eastern New Orleans has quickly become one of the area’s busiest landfills, with as much as 100,000 cubic yards of debris arriving on some days." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/18/2005 - Senate OKs Single Levee Board
"Bolstered by a business group’s lobbying campaign for reform of the Orleans Parish Levee Board, the Senate unanimously adopted a proposal Thursday night that would tear down a fragmented and decades-old levee governing system in the New Orleans area in favor of a state board with authority across parish lines." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/17/2005 - Lawmakers Push Ambitious Hurricane-Protection Plan
"Several lawmakers are pushing what could be the most aggressive hurricane-protection project ever considered by the state, but there’s little hope the proposal will gain momentum in the final days of the special session." Read on in the Houma Courier.
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11/17/2005 - A Cautionary Picture of Water Supplies as Earth Warms
"Mountain snow and alpine glaciers represent key reservoirs of fresh water for some 1.6 billion people worldwide. In 50 years, however, a warming planet is likely to disrupt many of these sources, leaving millions of people scrambling for additional supplies." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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11/16/2005 - Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force
"A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney’s energy task force in 2001 – something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress." Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/16/2005 - MR-GO Plan Gets Mixed Feedback
"A plan to close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet to deep draft vessels received mixed reviews Tuesday when it was presented to the St. Bernard Parish Council by port President and CEO Gary LaGrange and Parish President Henry Rodriquez Jr." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/15/2005 - Coastal-Restoration, Levee Package Gets Senate OK
"Despite concerns from a few lawmakers that a proposed state board would dilute local priorities, the full Senate gave unanimous approval Monday to legislation that would meld coastal-restoration, flood-control and hurricane-protection into one comprehensive effort." Read on in the Houma Courier.
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11/15/2005 - Give & Take
"The Grevelingen estuary was a mortal threat, so it had to go. During the 1953 Dutch flood disaster, the estuary, where the Meuse and Rhine river flow into the North Sea, was a conduit for a storm surge that flowed inland and killed hundreds of people." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/14/2005 - The Inner Life of a City Gets Dragged to the Curb
"Mary Kelly-Swafford never knew mold could come in so many colors until she and her husband, Bert, began to gut their mid-city home." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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11/12/2005 - Floods Give City Chance to Build Smarter
"The destruction of Hurricane Katrina and Rita was not only a wake-up call on the fragile and diminishing health of the state’s coastal marshes, but also offers the city and region a unique opportunity to rebuild along ecologically sensible lines, panelists said at the Recovery and Rebuilding Conference on Friday." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/11/2005 - Panel OKs Blanco Bill for Saving Coast
"Gov. Kathleen Blanco scored an easy victory Thursday, persuading a Senate committee to approve legislation that would require the state to adopt a comprehensive plan for coastal restoration and hurricane protection, including giving the state the power to take over levee boards that do not go along with the plan." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/11/2005 - Health Risks in Wake of Storm Hard to Gauge
"Is it safe yet to live and work in flood-stricken areas? More than 10 weeks after Hurricane Katrina, the answer remains largely unclear, federal health and environmental officials said Thursday, leaving thousands of on-the-fence residents lacking crucial information at a pivotal juncture in the region’s recovery." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/10/2005 - Oil and Grilling Don't Mix
"Senators struck a note of populist outrage when they ordered oil executives to appear before the Energy and Commerce committee to explain high fuel prices and record company profits." Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/10/2005 - Report Gives Not to Plan for Coast
"The proposed 10-year, $1.9 billion federal-state coastal restoration plan should be approved even though it alone is not adequate to reduce Louisiana’s chronic loss of wetlands and coastline, according to a report released Wednesday by a national science and engineering research group." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/09/2005 - Arctic Oil Drilling Goes to House Vote
"For 25 years, environmentalists have staved off drilling in an oil-rich, 1.5-million-acre stretch of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a wilderness that shelters birthing caribou as well as musk oxen and million of migratory birds." Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/08/2005 - Smart Products Can Save the Planet
"Multinational corporations today shoulder an increasing share of social functions once reserved for governments. Trying to save the planet? These days, best to look to car companies like Toyota to develop better products such as the hybrid gasoline/electric car to solve our air pollution woes and reduce our consumption of increasingly expensive fossil fuels." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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11/07/2005 - Mr. Blair's Changing Climate
"According to the British press, the Prince of Wales issued a “gentle rebuke” to President Bush last week. Speaking at a formal White House dinner, Price Charles said that “many people throughout the world look to the U.S. for a lead on the most crucial issues that face our planet.”" Read on in the Washington Post.
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11/04/2005 - Senate OKs More Money to Save Coast
"The Senate on Thursday approved an additional $1.2 billion for coastal restoration and hurricane protection in Gulf states, increasing the total in the budget bill to $1.4 billion." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/03/2005 - Coast Lost 64,000 Acres to Storms
"Hurricanes Katrina and Rita shredded or sank at least 100 square miles of marshland along Louisiana’s fragile coastline, federal scientists announced Wednesday, further exposing the region to powerful storms rolling off the Gulf of Mexico and destroying some of the most productive marine habitat in the country." Read on in the Times-Picayune.
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11/03/2005 - Drilling in ANWR? It's Closer Than Ever.
"Warnings about oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska seem to have had a “boy-who-cried-wolf” quality to them over the years. With a certain regularity, and an eye to keeping their troops fired up, environmental activists raised alarms that soon faded." Read on in The Christian Science Monitor.
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05/02/2005 - NEWS FROM THE FIELD: House Environment Committee
This morning, the House Environment Committee gathered to discuss four bills, ranging from a mercury action plan to tire collection. Find out what happened here.
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04/11/2005 - Antioch Press & Action Packet about Fontenot
After Willie Fontenot's retirement from the Attorney General's office, which was likely linked to an environmental tour he gave to graduate students from Antioch New England, the students and professors on the tour took action. Steve Chase, the Environmental Advocacy and Organizing Program Director, put together press and action information about the incident, including a press release, relevant readings, and actions that one can take for Fontenot, all of which you can find here.
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04/01/2005 - Reinventing Conservation Easements
In the latest Land Lines newsletter, Jeff Pidot addresses conservation easements, which you can read about here.
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03/22/2005 - Red and Blue Joining for Green
“Can green be a bridge between red and blue?” asks the Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Paul Nussbaum. While the country has been divided over many issues since the election, at the state and local level groups on opposite sides of the political spectrum are coming together on such environmental issues as conservation, pollution and endangered species. This could mean a new future for the environmental movement. Read more in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
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02/07/2005 - Environmental Harm Cases Do Not Belong in Class Action Bill
A coalition of national environmental organizations unite to urge Senators to remove pollution cases from the 'Class Action Fairness Act of 2005'. Read the letter here.
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