Past efforts to regulate toxic and polluting waste from oil and gas drilling operations were thwarted when back-room industry pressure subverted the law and science that justified it. Today, history may be about to repeat itself.
"Federal mine safety regulators quietly warned lawmakers just two weeks before the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster about serious enforcement lapses, including incomplete inspections and inadequate enforcement actions, according to a previously unpublished report to Congress."
"As prices for agricultural land surge across America’s grain belt, regulators are warning that a new real estate bubble may be forming."
Republicans and some coal-state Democrats are trying to stop EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, saying it will hurt jobs. But several economists point to evidence from past history and other nations which suggests that the exact opposite is the case.
The theme of the 2011 AESS Conference, hosted by the University of Vermont in Burlington, is "Confronting Complexity."
"Corn-based ethanol is the renewable fuel environmentalists love to hate. But as turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa has sent oil prices soaring, U.S.-made ethanol is making a comeback."
"Most plastic products, from sippy cups to food wraps, can release chemicals that act like the sex hormone estrogen, according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives."
"A fungus under control for 50 years is back and ravaging wheat crops in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Once it gets in a field, it corrodes the stalks, turning them shades of brown and red that gives the disease, wheat stem rust, its name. Farmers can do little but harvest what's left, sometimes losing 60% of their crop."
"It’s clear that Agent Orange was 'very widely used' in Ontario for more than three decades and may have been used in other provinces and territories, the Ontario government said Monday."
"A plan by almost 200 countries to step up efforts to fight climate change is set to miss a March deadline for starting work on a green fund to help developing nations, delegates said on Wednesday."
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