EPA | Grist

Historic game changer

Will EPA veto or regulate the plunder of Appalachia? 1
Posted 19 Oct 2009 3:40 PM In a historic move, Lisa Jackson's EPA threw down the gauntlet on mountaintop removal mining last Friday -- after they had just compromised on another massively destructive mountaintop removal operation.
Will Manchin Defend Coalfield Residents or Absentee Big Coal?

Coalfield uprising leads to arrests at W.Va. gov’s office 6
Posted 19 Oct 2009 2:38 PM As a supportive crowd sang, "This land is your land, this land is my land," seven peaceful sit-in activists were arrested in Governor Joe Manchin's office at the West Virginia state capitol Monday evening. The act of civil disobedience was made in protest of current mountaintop removal coal mining practices.
Shoutin' Down the Army Corps Hearing on Mountaintop Removal

Should the Department of Justice investigate Big Coal bedlam? 1
Posted 14 Oct 2009 12:39 PM While their profits continue to soar amid job losses, Big Coal let loose the hounds of chaos and hatred at last night's Army Corps of Engineers public hearing in West Virginia on mountaintop removal permits.
AEI compares EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to Clint Eastwood 0
Posted 5 Oct 2009 6:41 AM Let me get this straight, the right-wing is now saying it’s bad to be like Clint, the quintessential tough guy hero lionized by conservatives because he’ll do whatever is needed to save human life?
Loo and Behold

As Philadelphia goes, so goes the nation 1
Posted 28 Sep 2009 10:56 AM The City of Brotherly Love has sent the EPA a $1.6 billion proposal for using green roofs, rain barrels, and other eco-tools to prevent the sewage overflow that results from big storms. Will the feds let Philly go with the flow?
forced analogy alert

Why the EPA ‘dissenter’ story needs to die 1
Posted 25 Sep 2009 4:28 PM There's a tempting storyline in suggesting the Obama administration manipulates science to suit its own ideology, just as the prior administration did. But in the EPA suppression story, there's no evidence to suggest this is happening.
Head to Toe

Highs and lows from the world of green fashion 2
Posted 24 Sep 2009 7:34 PM Runway models get a new organic 'do, and the EPA gives North Face a tongue-lashing over antimicrobial shoes.
Plastics, the Silent Obesogens

Can plastics make us fat? 8
Posted 21 Sep 2009 10:26 AM Despite rampant skepticism, the data continue to pour in -- chemicals in some of the most common plastics and household products, things that surround us every minute of the day, are major culprits in the obesity epidemic.
Preserve states’ right to fight climate change 1
Posted 23 Sep 2009 11:20 AM In his Sept. 22 U.N. speech President Obama got it right: the battle to arrest calamitous climate change can be won only if each of us enlists, perseveres, and fights "for every inch of progress."
If you can’t say something helpful, don’t say anything at all 2
Posted 22 Sep 2009 1:50 PM The Washington Post has been editorializing in favor of congressional action to address climate change for more than a decade, but an editorial Monday makes us wonder if they mean it.
Lisa Murkowski’s bid to become a climate outlaw 0
Posted 22 Sep 2009 1:10 PM Why is Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) behaving like an outlaw?
Everything old is nuisance again

Connecticut v. AEP: Public nuisance ruling may boost chances of EPA CO2 regulations 1
Posted 21 Sep 2009 10:35 PM The Second Circuit's recent decision in Connecticut v. AEP, in which a coalition of state attorneys general sued electric power producers to cap and then reduce their carbon emissions, allows the public nuisance case to proceed and gave the environmental plaintiffs virtually everything they wanted. A few aspects of the case stand out (aside from the obviously correct decision that a common-law tort suit is not a nonjusticiable political question). Most importantly, the Court's holding on "displacement," i.e. whether the Clean Air Act "displaces" the common law suit, actually makes EPA regulations somewhat more likely.
CBS’s Declan McCullagh promotes another false CEI attack on clean energy reform 1
Posted 17 Sep 2009 1:40 PM
According to Declan McCullagh, a libertarian blogger who works for CBS Interactive, secret Obama administration documents reveal that the cost of clean energy cap-and-trade legislation would be $1,761 per household -- despite official estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Energy Information Administration of about a postage stamp a day.
EPA revamping rules for toxic releases from coal plants 0
Posted 16 Sep 2009 5:21 AM
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on Tuesday that it plans to revise the existing standards for wastewater discharges from coal-fired power plants. The news came one day after three environmental groups announced they intend to sue the agency for failing to properly regulate such discharges.
Wonkeriffic!

An interview with Jason Burnett, who worked on EPA greenhouse gas regulations 0
Posted 15 Sep 2009 6:00 AM

The following is an interview with Jason Burnett, who worked in the EPA under President GW Bush, wherein we discuss efforts by the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases. Burnett quit the EPA in protest in June 2008, alleging interference from the Office of the Vice President.

The interview is meant as a supplement to the story, "Everything you always wanted to know about EPA greenhouse gas regulations, but were afraid to ask."
With bunnies!

Everything you always wanted to know about EPA greenhouse gas regulations, but were afraid to ask 10
Posted 15 Sep 2009 6:00 AM

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the EPA has the authority and the obligation to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. At a stroke, the politics of climate change were changed. The choice was no longer between legislation or no legislation -- it was between legislation or regulation. One way or another, climate pollution would be controlled by a federal program.

Most experts agree that EPA regulations will be complex and somewhat unwieldy. Industry believes they will be onerous and expensive. Conventional wisdom, at least initially, was that fear of regulation would drive utilities and manufacturers to the bargaining table, changing the dynamic in Congress. EPA was supposed to play the role of the big, silent goon in the corner, tapping his baseball bat in his hand.

That theory isn't holding up too well.
EPA turns the lights on mountaintop removal 1
Posted 11 Sep 2009 3:59 PM
The Environmental Protection Agency made good on its promise today to assert greater scrutiny and "use the best science and follow the letter of the law" with regard to controversial mountaintop removal mining permits in the Appalachian coalfields.
Citizens welcome return to sound science, sanity

EPA to hold 79 mountaintop removal permits for further review 0
Posted 11 Sep 2009 10:26 AM
In a move that pleased environmentalists and coalfield residents in central and southern Appalachia, the EPA recommended that none of the 79 permits associated with mountaintop removal coal mining be streamlined for approval.
Stop In the Name of Law

EPA says pending mountaintop-removal permits would likely violate Clean Water Act 9
Posted 11 Sep 2009 8:04 AM
Very big news out of the Environmental Protection Agency this morning: The agency has determined that all 79 mountaintop-removal mining permits submitted to it for review by the Army Corps of Engineers would violate the Clean Water Act.
Climate Change Schizophrenia

Cash for coal clunkers and anthems for natural gas won’t win this epic battle 12
Posted 2 Sep 2009 11:20 AM
Those of us worried sick over climate change confronted a depressing piece of excellent reporting in Monday's Washington Post.