Environmental Politics

"Last week, the Whatcom County Council in northwestern Washington voted to buy six new SUVs for the local Sheriff's Department and introduced its annual road construction plan. These were significant developments in this sleepy rural enclave of scarcely 200,000 people, but nothing compared to what's on the horizon: A proposal to build the largest coal export terminal on the West Coast, capable of annually shipping a whopping 48 million tons of Montana and Wyoming coal to Asia."

"SAN FRANCISCO -- Saying that the West Coast must lead the way in battling climate change, the governors of California, Oregon and Washington, along with the premier of British Columbia, signed an agreement Monday committing the Canadian province and the three states to coordinate global-warming policies."

Attacking the science behind environmental health and safety rules has long been an industry tactic. The American Council on Science and Health, a leader of the charge, has for years claimed that it is not an industry shill but an independent science organization. But it doesn't disclose its funders. Now documents reveal most of its funding comes from industries who stand to profit from its claims.

"The Energy Department is tightening its control over the Bonneville Power Administration in the wake of a scandal over BPA's illegal hiring practices."

"Officials at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have been busy meeting with chemical and energy companies in recent days, ahead of the expected release of new biofuel standards."

"Federal regulators may be able to assert Clean Water Act jurisdiction over more waters and wetlands than are now protected on the basis of a draft scientific study that links all streams and certain wetlands with larger, downstream navigable waters, attorneys and policy analysts say."

"The State Department has agreed to begin providing an environmental group with records of communications with various outside lobbying firms and other parties seeking approval of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline."

"AMSTERDAM -- Russia will not accept an international arbitration process under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea at which The Netherlands is seeking the release of the Dutch-flagged Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and its crew."

"WASHINGTON — In an effort to spur lackluster sales of electric cars, California, New York and six other states said on Thursday that they would work jointly to adopt a range of measures, including encouraging more charging stations and changing building codes, to make it easier to own an electric car."

"Monsanto Co. and DuPont Co., among the biggest makers of bioengineered crop seeds, are persuading Washington state voters to change their minds about a proposal to require labels on genetically modified food."