President Bush's Environmental Protection Agency will not be regulating carbon dioxide [ark | moreark | more2ark2] under the Clean Air Act [search] as the Supreme Court has ordered. In typical style, the Bush administration has unveiled a plan for the EPA to do so, meeting court requirements, while disavowing any plans for implemention.This is but the final act in an abysmal string of failures to lead on an issue that threatens massive social dislocation and ecological collapse.
The Toxic Texan promised in his first campaign to regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant [search], and quickly reneged when in office. Bush withdrew from Kyoto [search] and then worked for years to obstruct international consensus in his absence. For years his administration has obstructed and censored...
The Bush administration has denied approval for Californias plans to establish stricter vehicle emissions standards [ark | more2ark2 | search ] than federal law to fight climate change. Apparently President Bush and oil oligarchy pals are not satifisfied with scuttling international cooperative measures, and doing next to nothing federally, now they are stopping states from leading on the greatest crisis ever. The announcement was made just after modest, far-off increases in automobile efficiency were signed into law -- national automobile fuel economy standards [search] are to be raised by 40 percent to 35 miles a gallon in 2020. Thus the U.S. is to take 13 years to do what other nations and its own states are trying to do now. It is worse to stop others from acting than to do next to...
So we all know about the coal rush and we saw the over the top ads in the New York Times and the New Yorker, right? Well, everyone was focused on the 151 coal plants that were going to be built in this country and how they were going to lock us into dirty energy sources for the next generation. We got out and organized, fought back, hit hard…and are winning. The plans to build 16 coal plants have been scrapped since May, with dozens of other projects being delayed. In fact, only 121 coal projects are still considered ‘viable’ and 76 ‘uncertain’ of whether they will be built. In a first, Kansas rejected a coal plant due to its role in contributing to Global Warming. Emboldened by Massachusetts vs. EPA, their top regulator acted, even though Kansas does not...
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It looked for a moment there like the EPA was going to do the right thing after 54 scientists wrote to oppose the approval of methyl iodide for use as a pesticide on crops. The chemists noted that methyl iodide (also: iodomethane) is a well-known cancer hazard among people who work in chemistry labs, that it warps DNA, causes miscarriages in lab animals, damages the thyroid and nervous system, and readily turns into a gas or dissolves in water.
But no, they approved it after “a thorough evaluation process,” at rates as high as 175 pounds per acre. Ahem.
I wonder if that evaluation process involved looking at the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for methyl iodide:
May be fatal if inhaled, swallowed or absorbed through skin. Highly toxic. May cause cancer. Possible teratogen....