GOP Begins New Push to Delay EPA Rules on Toxic Power Plant Emissions
"Republicans say installing long-overdue pollution controls would harm economic recovery, while advocates claim the rules would create jobs and save lives."
"Republicans say installing long-overdue pollution controls would harm economic recovery, while advocates claim the rules would create jobs and save lives."
"An American Indian tribe's efforts to win access to legal documents relating to the federal government's management of a tribal trust fund received a cool reception at the Supreme Court [Wednesday]."
"In February, the Obama administration declared the Pacific walrus to be at risk of extinction because its Arctic habitat was melting. But it declined to list the marine mammal as an endangered species, saying a backlog of other animals faced greater peril."
BP's response to the Gulf spill disaster often made it seem callous and arrogant. It was a textbook example of how not to do public relations.
"BP Plc filed a lawsuit for more than $42 billion against Halliburton, which cemented the blown-out well which caused the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, after claiming a similar sum from rig owner Transocean."
"Last spring, as BP's unchecked gusher of oil began to spread across the Gulf of Mexico, University of Miami oceanographer Jerald Ault tried to answer the question that was on everyone's lips: What will this do to the Gulf?"
"The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned whether a global warming lawsuit against five big power companies can proceed, with several justices saying the Environmental Protection Agency, not federal judges, should deal with the issue."
"Federal regulators [Tuesday] reopened commercial and recreational fishing in all federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico that were closed to fishing due to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill."
"Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday that the federal government has approved construction of the controversial wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts, which could commence this fall."
Today is the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon blowout that caused a catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. The consequences to people, natural resources, and industries are still happening, and just beginning to be understood. BP is making profits, paying dividends, and having protestors from the Gulf hustled out of its shareholder meetings by police. The tarballs? Security guards patrolling Louisiana public beaches still prevent journalists from filming them. The $20 billion in compensation set aside by BP has not prevented many people from feeling that their lives have been ruined by the event. Elected officials have resumed the chant: "Drill, baby, drill." Now Freedom-of-Information requests have brought to light documentation that the UK government refused to go to war in Iraq without guarantees that BP and other British firms would get a share of the conquered nation's oil.