Wednesday, 10 Sep 2003

Take It or Leavitt

Hillary Clinton Threatens to Block Bush's Nomination to EPA

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is threatening to create headaches for the Bush administration by blocking confirmation of the president's nominee to head the U.S. EPA, Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt (R). But her beef isn't with Leavitt -- it's with the White House, which has been refusing to pony up answers about how and why New Yorkers were misled into believing that the air quality in Manhattan after the World Trade Center attacks was safe when in fact it wasn't. Grist's new Muckraker column digs up the dirt on the impending Leavitt nomination fight, as well as administration efforts to squelch Greenpeace protests -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

Going Bananas

Philippine Journalists Arrested for Reporting on Illegal Pesticide Use

Four journalists working in the Philippines, including a New York Times correspondent, have been arrested on libel charges because of articles and columns they wrote in 2000 about the use of illegal pesticides at a banana plantation. Also arrested was Romeo Quijano, a professor of medicine at the University of the Philippines and president of the Pesticide Action Network Philippines, who was the main source of information for the journalists' stories. According to Quijano's investigations, 700 residents of a community near the banana plantation were stricken with health problems because of ground and aerial spraying of a number of banned pesticides, considered carcinogenic by the U.S. EPA.

Rove V. Waders

White House Political Maneuvering Could Hurt Northwest Salmon

President Bush lost in Oregon and Washington in the 2000 election, but his team is working to ensure that he fares better in the Pacific Northwest in 2004 -- and that may mean trouble for salmon. Bush's top strategy honcho, Karl Rove, has been making quiet trips to the region and, some say, pressuring federal agencies to loosen protections for salmon and other endangered species because agricultural interests in the Northwest don't want protective measures to interfere with irrigation. Rove's intent seems to be to shore up support from Bush's base: farmers, ranchers, and the timber industry. The Interior Department's inspector general is launching an investigation into whether the White House interfered in the development of water policy in the Northwest. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a presidential contender, also sees something fishy going on here; he charged the Bush administration with acting "as if federal agencies like the Interior Department are a division of the Republican National Committee and at their disposal to give out political favors."

To Everything (Burn, Burn, Burn) There Is a Season

The Numbers Point to a Harsh Year of Forest Fires

It's been a devastating year of forest fires around the world, with blazes wreaking havoc from Portugal to Canada to Australia. The picture hasn't been pretty in the U.S., either. From Jan. 1 through Aug. 20 of this year, 648,768 acres of U.S. national forest land have gone up in flames. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that it will need to spend $773 million on firefighting this year, but Congress has approved only $418 million. The Wilderness Society has rounded up these and plenty more facts about wildfires -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

Take a Bite Out of Grime

New Jersey to Make Polluters Pay for Routine Contamination

New Jersey is getting tough on polluters, and other states may have a lot to learn from the state's approach. New Jersey officials say they will soon begin broadly enforcing a law that requires polluting industries to pay the cost of cleaning up their messes. Sounds like a no-brainer, but critics say the move could drive businesses out of state. In the past, the state has collected damages from industries primarily when there was an environmental catastrophe, such as a big oil spill. Now, New Jersey will break new ground by trying to systematically seek restoration and compensation for damage done to water sources and other natural resources by routine pollution. "Like in other states, our natural resources have been diminished far more by the accretion of smaller environmental insults from various sources of contamination, and it would shortchange the public interest if we write off these claims instead of pursuing them," said Bradley Campbell, the state's commissioner of environmental protection.