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| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
American Idle
Who needs Superfund when we've got reality TV? |
Joshua Zaffos, Writers on the Range |
19 Jun 2003 |
Soapbox |
| By the end of the year, only $28 million will be left in the U.S. EPA's Superfund account. Superfund pays for the reclamation of abandoned toxic-waste sites, and $28 million barely affords a study just to figure out how to clean up one of the 1,200 deserted dumps wasting away in American communities. Money's tight to fund cleanups of Superfund sites like this one in Pennsylvania. Photo ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, business, energy, politics, pollution and waste, United States, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Give a Hoot, Eh?
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19 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Give a Hoot, Eh? The amount of dangerous industrial contaminants seeping into Canada's environment has risen 20 percent since 1995, according to a report by three environmental organizations that compiled data from industrial polluters. The biggest increase came in discharges into lakes and rivers, which rose 37 percent, while air and land pollution each rose 9 percent. The increase in hazardous pollutan ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, Canada, health, pollution and waste (all these topics) |
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Idle Trucks Are the Devil's Playthings
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16 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Idle Trucks Are the Devil's Playthings New gadgetry at truck stops could help slash pollution from idling big rigs. Most truck drivers across the U.S. leave their vehicles' engines running all night while they're parked at truck stops because it's the only way to keep the heating or air conditioning on while they get some shuteye. Between 840 million and 2 billion gallons of gasoline are burned each year ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, energy, placemaking, United States (all these topics) |
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Light on Their Fleet
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10 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Light on Their Fleet The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to hear a case about whether the Los Angeles area can go beyond the federal Clean Air Act to impose strict anti-pollution rules on buses, taxis, garbage trucks, airport shuttles, and other vehicle fleets. Oil companies and engine manufacturers challenged a rule issued in 2000 by the South Coast Air Quality Management District that requires owne ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, health, placemaking, toxics (all these topics) |
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C02, Too?
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05 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| C02, Too? Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts sued the federal government yesterday to force it to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. The lawsuit, which alleges that the emissions fuel global warming and should therefore be governed by the Clean Air Act, marks the first time a state has sued the government to force it to take action on climate change. The three ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, climate, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, ozone, United States, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Tunnel at the End of the Tunnel
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04 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Tunnel at the End of the Tunnel A coalition that includes the Sierra Club, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, and the Abyssinian Baptist Church is backing a project to build a new tunnel under New York Harbor to reduce truck traffic in the city. The proposed rail freight tunnel would divert almost a million truck-trips per year away from the George Washington Bridge; it is supported by business, l ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, health, New York, placemaking, Sierra Club (all these topics) |
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Air Care
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03 Jun 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Air Care With the feds having fallen down on the job, the California state Senate stepped in yesterday to keep up the fight against air pollution. The state Senate voted to add New Source Review rules to the state's clean-air regulations -- the same type of rules that the Bush administration did away with on a national level in December 2002. The federal rules had required older power plants and fact ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, business, California, energy, politics (all these topics) |
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Plane Text
Advice on driving vs. flying |
Umbra Fisk |
28 May 2003 |
Ask Umbra |
| Hi Umbra, I'm wondering if you have any numbers comparing the fuel efficiency of flying versus driving the average car for the same distance. Also, how does carbon dioxide production compare for the same trip? Steve Loomis, Calif. Dearest Steve, Flight blight? Here's what I can find so far, courtesy of the Rocky Mountain Institute in beautiful Snowmass, Colo. Single-occupancy automobiles produce 0.91 pounds of carbon dioxide per ... |
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| Topics: advice, air pollution, Ask Umbra, cars, fuel efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions, placemaking, travel (all these topics) |
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Give a Hoot, Don't Scoot
On scooters |
Umbra Fisk |
28 May 2003 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dear Umbra, I was thinking of buying a scooter with the idea that (in addition to being fun) I would be using a more fuel-efficient means of transportation on days when the weather was good. Then I got the edition of the Daily Grist telling me how dirty motorcycles are. Now I'm worried: Are scooters the same? I'm talking about a Vespa-type thing. Please tell me that's not as polluting as a Harley! Thanks (even if the answer isn't wha ... |
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| Topics: advice, air pollution, Ask Umbra, fuel efficiency, green living, placemaking (all these topics) |
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Gnarly Davidson
On motorcycles |
Umbra Fisk |
28 May 2003 |
Ask Umbra |
| Dear Umbra, I recently read a claim that "motorcycles produce far more pollution per mile than your typical car, truck, or SUV." Is that true? I've got a friend who's currently making her (bad-ass) way across country on a Harley -- 60 mpg, baby -- and we are both curious about the environmental impacts compared with a car. Billy Brooklyn, N.Y. Dearest Billy, Bad news for your friend and her bad behind. If she's getting 60 miles ... |
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| Topics: advice, air pollution, Ask Umbra, cars, energy, fuel efficiency, green living, placemaking (all these topics) |
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Santi-ugho
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28 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Santi-ugho The city of Santiago, Chile, located in the shadow of the snow-capped Andes Mountains, is blessed with one of the most breathtaking natural surroundings of any urban area on Earth. But from May to September, you wouldn't know it; heavy smog obscures the Andes entirely and lends the word "breathtaking" a different meaning. A poll of Latin American business travelers by the magazine America Economia found that Santia ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, Chile (all these topics) |
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Whittled Away
Read U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman's letter of resignation |
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21 May 2003 |
Muckraker |
| Christine Todd Whitman sent the following communication to all U.S. EPA employees on May 21, 2003, the day after she resigned her post as EPA administrator. The communication includes her letter of resignation to President Bush, dated May 20, 2003. To All EPA Employees: Yesterday afternoon, I met with President Bush at the White House and tendered to him my resignation as Administrator of the EPA, ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, Muckraker, politics, US EPA, water pollution (all these topics) |
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A Loophole in the Ozone
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16 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| A Loophole in the Ozone Ending a six-year battle, the U.S. EPA reintroduced proposals yesterday for new standards to combat ozone, which causes smog. At issue in the battle was whether the ozone-pollution controls outlined by Congress in the 1990 Clean Air Act should apply to moderately polluted metropolitan areas. The act divided polluted areas into categories ranging from mild to severe ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, ozone, pollution and waste, United States, US EPA (all these topics) |
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The Milk of Human Kindness
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15 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
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| Topics: air pollution, green living (all these topics) |
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They Otter Be Proud
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13 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| They Otter Be Proud The English otter, a beloved mammal once thought to have all but disappeared from the nation's waterways, is staging an impressive comeback. Otters can now be found in nearly 35 percent of England's rivers and wetlands, a five-fold increase over numbers from 25 years ago, according to survey results released by the government yesterday. Otter populations dropp ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, European Union, United Kingdom, water bodies and marine life (all these topics) |
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The Yellow Haze of Texas
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07 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| The Yellow Haze of Texas Meanwhile, the state of Texas is plagued by its own air-quality issues -- and the state House and Senate are at loggerheads over what to do about it. On Monday, the Senate passed a bill to fund the Texas Emissions Reductions Program, the key component of a federally mandated state anti-smog plan. The bill would raise some $150 million per year for pollution control by raising fees on vehicle title transfers, wh ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, Texas (all these topics) |
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Mexi-can't
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06 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Mexi-can't The U.S. Department of Energy acted illegally when it found that two Mexican power plants would not have a significant impact on the air and water quality in the border region between northwestern Mexico and Southern California, a federal judge in San Diego ruled yesterday. That ruling calls into question the legitimacy of U.S. permits granted to the power companies ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, Department of Energy, Mexico, pollution and waste (all these topics) |
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The Farmer and the Smell
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06 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| The Farmer and the Smell The U.S. EPA could offer large industrial livestock farms amnesty from the federal Clean Air Act and Superfund laws, according to people involved in agency-industry talks. Rather than enforce the laws, the EPA would monitor pollution levels at roughly 30 large hog and chicken operations, a plan environmentalists and former enforcement officials say is far too lenient -- so lenie ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, food and agriculture, toxics, US EPA (all these topics) |
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Golden Brown
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01 May 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Golden Brown California is home to six of the 10 most polluted metropolitan areas in the U.S., according to national smog rankings released today by the American Lung Association. In fact, the top four areas were all in the Golden(Brown) State: Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County, Fresno, Bakersfield, and Visalia-Tulare-Porterfield. Those rankings mask the fact that California's air quality has actually improved on the whole, but ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California (all these topics) |
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Wow We
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30 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Wow We For the second time in the last two weeks, a major utility company has reached a settlement with the U.S. EPA to clean up its act under the New Source Review rules of the federal Clean Air Act. Last week, it was the Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Resources; now, it's We Energies, a Wisconsin electric company that will spend as much as $600 million to upgrade plants and reduce emissions in ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, climate, energy, Michigan, US EPA, Wisconsin (all these topics) |
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Gone With the Flow
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30 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Gone With the Flow The Khasi Hills of northeastern India are one of the wettest places on Earth, typically experiencing torrential rains throughout the monsoon season and laying claim to the world record of 1,000 inches of rainfall in just one year. Now, though, the Khasi Hills are drying up due to environmental changes wrought by pollution, deforestation, the development of in ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, deforestation, India, land degradation, rivers and watersheds (all these topics) |
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Beverly Hills Flop
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29 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Beverly Hills Flop Erin Brockovich, the tenacious eco-crusader made famous by Hollywood, is back in the news: She says that many former Beverly Hills High School students have been stricken with cancer because of exposure to toxic fumes from an active oil field on school property. Brockovich and her boss, attorney Ed Masry, yesterday filed 25 personal injury claims for damages against the city of Beverly Hills an ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, health, toxics (all these topics) |
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Smokestack Heart Attack
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28 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Smokestack Heart Attack Minor increases in urban air pollution can provoke heart attacks, new international research indicates. A study of seven European cities and regions, including London, Madrid, Paris, and Rome, found that when sulfur dioxide levels rose even slightly, hospital visits for coronary problems increased over the following 48 hours. The research, published in the European Heart Journal, is expected to ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, European Union, health (all these topics) |
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Cutting the Cord
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25 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Cutting the Cord Fuel cells and hybrids are hot; electric vehicles are not. That's the word from the California Air Resources Board, which yesterday axed groundbreaking 1990 rules requiring auto manufacturers to sell a fixed number of electric vehicles (EVs) in the state, including 10 percent of cars sold this year. Instead, the board approved more modest regulations that will force car compani ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, cars, electric vehicles, hybrids (all these topics) |
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Monoxy, Oxy, Oxycuted
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24 Apr 2003 |
Daily Grist |
| Monoxy, Oxy, Oxycuted Lest you think environmental news is all gloom, all the time, here's a little pick-me-up: Thanks to the Clean Air Act, the U.S. has all but eradicated carbon monoxide pollution, one of the most hazardous air emissions, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences reported yesterday. In 1971, when the act set federal standards for carbon monoxide, 90 percent of monitored areas vio ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, climate, health, National Academy of Sciences (all these topics) |
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