Friday, 24 Aug 2007

No Peaking

Bush administration eases restrictions on mountaintop-removal mining

The Bush administration has given a big thumbs-up to mountaintop-removal mining, the practice of blasting the peaks off of mountains and dumping the rubble into watersheds and valleys. A proposed rule issued today will exempt mining waste from an inconsistently interpreted 1983 rule that disallows mining activity within 100 feet of streams; considering that hundreds of miles of Appalachian streams have been obliterated by MTR mining in the last 20 years, it was basically a technicality anyway. Once officially free to dump mountaintops wherever the hell they please, coal-mining companies can continue to destroy ecosystems and communities in the name of reducing dependence on foreign oil. A 60-day comment period starts today; while officials have indicated that significant changes are unlikely regardless of public input, tell them what you think anyway. Then check out dispatches sent to Grist from writer Gabriel Pacyniak and photographer Katherine Chandler, who are traveling in West Virginia to report on MTR mining.

Lower the Pollution and Back Away Slowly

BP says it will back off from releasing more Lake Michigan pollution

In what's being billed as a victory for environmentalists, oil company BP has said it will back off from dumping more pollution into Lake Michigan. The company had just weeks ago received permission from Indiana state authorities to increase the amount of sludge particles and ammonia it could release into the lake each day. But pressure campaigns from greens as well as from Great Lakes politicians and others prompted BP to rethink its plan, at least for now; the company's promises to pollute less are not legally binding. BP's pollution increase was to accompany a $3.8 billion expansion of its Whiting, Ind., refinery, a plan that the company still intends to go through with, though spokespeople maintain that it is considering possible technological solutions to keep pollution levels from rising. "BP is hearing loud and clear that they need to do something different," said Cameron Davis of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. "The public doesn't want business as usual."


Heading to a food and ag conference in western Massachusetts, Roz Cummins loses herself in a late-summer landscape of maturing crops, fresh fruits, and human miracles. Follow along with her, and score her recipe for the tastiest salad dressing this side of the Berkshires.

Refine! Be That Way!

EPA rejects stricter emissions standards for U.S. refineries

Following a review of the refinery pollution rules it issued in 1995, the U.S. EPA has decided not to improve the 12-year-old rules because the analysis found that "the risks to human health and the environment are low enough that no further controls are warranted." As the EPA sees it, they could do two things: nothing, or maybe consider perhaps requiring refineries to curtail some of the pollution from their storage tanks and wastewater treatment plants. EPA maintains that the do-nothing plan makes sense "because the risks are acceptably low." Greens, however, see it differently. "In the last 12 years there have been numerous studies showing that health risks are greater than we originally thought" in some cases, said Alice McKeown of the Sierra Club. "The scientific evidence shows that these standards are not protective of public health as required under the Clean Air Act." About 90 million people in the U.S. live within 30 miles of a refinery, just not anyone who will be missed by the Bush administration.

Is Our Children Greening?

Students and colleges starting to go green

It's school time again, and you know what that means: pencils, books, teachers' dirty looks, and ambitious eco-minded students. Thanks to the influence of today's yoots -- a generation accustomed to sorting their trash and hyper-aware of global warming -- schools across the country are greening up education. California's Green Campus Program introduces coeds to energy-efficient mini-fridges, recycled ink cartridges, and veggie-based laundry detergent; the program set up a dorm room at University of California-Irvine with eco-products buyable within a 10-minute bike ride from campus. Residence halls are popping up equipped with green touches from low-flow showerheads to garden rooftops to motion detectors that turn off lights in unoccupied rooms. Says GCP's Shyla Raghav, who seems much more mature than we were in college: "We can't continue to have a hotel mentality where every light is left on because we're not paying the bills."