Environmental Politics

As GOP primary candidates compete with claims over who can destroy more US government agencies, a small problem arises: they could not do what they promise.

"Having left Congress after an embarrassing 2007 arrest, former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) has quietly reemerged in Washington as a lobbyist working on behalf of the coal industry. According to his federal filings, Craig has registered to wheedle his former Capitol colleagues on the obscure but critical issue of mine safety."

"In light of just-passed federal legislation, a chemical industry group is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to change course on its assessment of the most potent form of dioxin, a pollutant that causes cancer and is linked to reproductive problems. Such a move by the agency could drag out completion of the assessment, which has been underway for 20 years."

"US President Barack Obama would have until late February to act on TransCanada's application to build the controversial Keystone XL crude oil pipeline under legislation expected to be approved by Congress on Friday."

"OTTAWA — Contamination of a major western Canadian river basin from oilsands operations is a 'high-profile concern' for downstream communities and wildlife, says a newly-released 'secret' presentation prepared last spring by Environment Canada that highlighted numerous warnings about the industry's growing footprint on land, air, water and the climate."

A conservative GOP freshman congressman from Ohio, Bill Johnson, has been attacking federal surface-mining regulation for costing jobs. It advances him politically. The only problem is that it does not seem to be true.

All along the Mississippi-Missouri river system, floodplains have been reclaimed  as farmlands. Often government agencies like the Corps of Engineers must make agonizing choices between these two beneficial uses.

Can southwest Alaska make money from its rich mineral deposits without destroying the Bristol Bay fishery that is currently an economic mainstay?

"The Justice Department is helping British authorities in an investigation into the hacking of climate scientists’ emails, which caused an uproar among skeptics of global warming when they were released two years ago."

"The tobacco industry is accused today of misleading smokers over the safety of additives in cigarettes."