Published: Feb 23, 2012
It was the two-headed baby trout that got everyone’s attention. Photographs of variously mutated brown trout were relegated to an appendix of a scientific study commissioned by the J. R. Simplot Company , whose mining operations have polluted nearby creeks in southern Idaho. The trout were the offspring of local fish caught in the wild that
Read original article Topics: Environmental-Policy
Published: Feb 23, 2012
To the Editor: We strongly agree that the United States must restart the development of a spent nuclear fuel repository, using a new, consent-based approach (“ After Yucca ,” editorial, Feb. 16). The central flaw in the Yucca scheme was the federal government’s decision to impose the repository on an unwilling state, Nevada. By
Read original article Topics: Environmental-Policy
Published: Feb 20, 2012
WASHINGTON — Partisan clashes over President Obama ’s proposed tax increases have obscured something remarkable: that the affluent Americans targeted by his policy represent a growing share of his own party’s base. You would not know it from Republican cries of class warfare swirling around Mr. Obama’s new budget, which
Read original article Topics: Environmental-Policy
Published: Feb 19, 2012
We own about 20 acres where we plan to build a vacation/retirement home. Fracking companies have started drilling nearby for oil and gas. As ardent environmentalists, we are opposed to this activity, but that hasn’t stopped the company, and it won’t protect us from any resulting environmental damage. Now the company has offered to pay
Read original article Topics: Environmental-Policy
Published: Feb 19, 2012
AS plans for the Keystone XL pipeline faltered over the last six months, its route through a pristine aquifer in Nebraska proved to be its fatal political flaw. Environmental groups had raised numerous other serious objections: Building the pipeline would lead to a rise in climate changing gases; its environmental review was tainted by conflicts of
Read original article Topics: Environmental-Policy
Published: Feb 19, 2012
James Warren writes a column for The Chicago News Cooperative. Since American politics now meets the Webster’s definition of gridlock, the entire Congress should descend on busy Route 53 at the Cook-Lake county border. There, lawmakers could meet long-dueling parties who may end a 50-year-old policy dispute and show what can happen
Read original article Topics: Environmental-Policy
Published: Feb 19, 2012
Fine atmospheric particles — smaller than one-thirtieth of the diameter of a human hair — were identified more than 20 years ago as the most lethal of the widely dispersed air pollutants in the United States. Linked to both heart and lung disease, they kill an estimated 50,000 Americans each year. But more recently, scientists have been
Read original article Topics: Environmental-Policy
Published: Feb 19, 2012
Before humans conquered snowmaking, ski resorts relied on the vagaries of Old Man Winter. He was not always forthcoming. So in the dry Connecticut chill of 1949-1950, Walter Schoenknecht, the owner of the Mohawk Mountain ski resort, took matters into his own hands. “He trucked in 700 tons of ice,” recalled Arthur Hunt, a forefather of
Read original article Topics: Environmental-Policy
Published: Feb 18, 2012
To the Editor: Your Feb. 14 news article about corporate contributions to environmental organizations, “ Answering for Taking a Driller’s Cash ,” blurred two distinct issues: working with corporations to reduce environmental impacts, and accepting contributions from those corporations. As a result, the article, as originally
Read original article Topics: Environmental-Policy
Published: Feb 18, 2012
In a crucial step toward the ultimate approval of new oil drilling off the North Slope of Alaska, the Interior Department on Friday tentatively approved Shell’s plans for responding to a potential spill in the frigid Arctic waters. Shell still needs to cross several more regulatory barriers before it will be
Read original article Topics: Environmental-Policy