Environmental Glance
Accounting practices at the Environmental Protection Agency have helped mask how much the Bush administration has slashed penalties against polluters, according to congressional investigators.
A Government Accountability Office report to be released Tuesday says the agency has overstated its enforcement of environmental violations to the public and to Congress by including fines that may never be paid when it tallies penalties.
EPA has been overstating penalties against polluters, congressional investigators say
Alarm sounded after steep fall in tally of common seals around UK
Marine biologists have warned of significant and serious changes in the seas around Britain after detecting a steep and "frightening" fall in the numbers of common seals around the coast.
U.S. moves toward new dumping rules for mining waste
U.S. officials have moved closer to finalizing rules on the disposal of mining waste, a plan environmentalists said gives mountaintop mining companies more freedom to dump debris near rivers and streams.
The current rules were put in place in 1983 but needed to be clarified because of conflicting interpretations, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) said in a statement released on Friday.
After 30 years, EPA toughens lead emission standard
The amount of lead that can be emitted into the air in the United States has been dramatically reduced under a new rule the Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday to protect the health of millions of Americans — especially children — nationwide.
It was the first new rule on airborne lead in 30 years, and came in response to some 6,000 scientific studies since 1990 that show that lead is dangerous to the human body at much lower levels than previously known.
Bottled water has contaminants too, study finds
Tests on leading brands of bottled water turned up a variety of contaminants often found in tap water, according to a study released Wednesday by an environmental advocacy group.
The study's lab tests on 10 brands of bottled water detected 38 chemicals including bacteria, caffeine, the pain reliever acetaminophen, fertilizer, solvents, plastic-making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium. Though some probably came from tap water that some companies use for their bottled water, other contaminants probably leached from plastic bottles, the researchers said.
"In some cases, it appears bottled water is no less polluted than tap water and, at 1,900 times the cost, consumers should expect better," said Jane Houlihan, an environmental engineer who co-authored the study.
Memos tell wildlife officials to ignore global-warming impact
New legal memos by top Bush administration officials say that the Endangered Species Act can't be used to protect animals and their habitats from climate change by regulating specific sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of global warming.
The assessment, outlined in memos sent earlier this month and leaked Tuesday, provides the official legal justification for limiting protections under the Endangered Species Act.
GM crops have fallen into the wrong hands
Then you list ways that GM crops could alleviate hunger and malnutrition. Yes, in the hands of genuinely neutral scientists, they probably would. But GM is firmly in the hands of the type of people who gave us tobacco lies, asbestos lies and weapons-of-mass destruction lies - the type who sought to create wealth by genetically modifying the banks. Should we trust them when they no longer trust each other?
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