The Issue
Environment
Farms and ranches cover more than half of all land in the United States. EWG works to keep the land productive and to protect soil, water and wildlife.
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The Latest on Environment
Two stories from the weekend worth reading, at the Salt Lake Tribune and Living on Earth, highlight a nascent conservation movement in response to the federal government's poor Western land management strategy.
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An October 6 investigation by the Christian Science Monitor finds that 27 states are taking the lead on environmental protection issues in cases where they feel the federal government is either acting wrongly, slowly or not at all. Will this trend become the norm?
Read MoreThe National Institutes of Health are launching a study that will follow 100,000 American children from birth to adulthood in the hopes of pinning down possible environmental causes of many common diseases.
Read MoreThe New York Times has the article, but since they buried the lead, head over to Washington Monthly for the real story on Bush's speech - lip service to conservation efforts while Congress puts its muscle into more drilling.
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Straight from the Jackson Clarion-Ledger: E-mail sent to various U.S. Attorney's offices: SUBJECT: Have you had any cases involving the levees in New Orleans?
Read MoreThe federal government is about to make a deal to give a few hundred California farmers control of more water than Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego combined use in a year — at pennies on the dollar of the price paid by urban water users.
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Policy needs to change at the federal and state levels. For decades, federal transportation dollars have gone overwhelmingly to road projects. State transportation spending has also favored roads over transit. "We built the national highway system in the 1950s to protect us from Cold War threats," said Wiles. "But the world has changed and the threats to our security have changed. We need to change our transportation system to reflect 21st century security needs."
Read MoreAs the Senate considers the energy bill, the major issue is energy independence. Industry and administration sources have long argued that the key to breaking our addiction to foreign oil and gas is opening our public lands to more drilling. "We've taken large chunks of the country and put it off limits to any kind of exploration or development," Vice President Cheney told a town meeting in Arkansas last year. "Large parts of the Rocky Mountain West are off limits."
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In his April 22 broadcast, conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh claimed that the federal government spends as much on environmental protections as it does on defense and homeland security. Said Limbaugh: “We’re spending as much on environmental protections as we are on defense and homeland security. And, yet when there’s a crisis of deficits, do you ever hear anybody say, ‘We need to reduce our expenditures on the environment?’ No, they always focus on the military.”
Read MoreA new investigation of spending patterns by state departments of transportation finds that commuters' federal gas taxes are being diverted to far-flung rural and exurban areas within their states, rather than relieving taxpayers' commutes through expanded commuter mass transit options.
Read MoreResidents of predominantly non-Anglo or poorer neighborhoods in California are much more likely to breathe harmful levels of airborne soot and dust than residents of more affluent or white neighborhoods, according to state and federal data analyzed by Environmental Working Group (EWG).
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Pollution from airborne soot and dust causes or contributes to the deaths of more Californians than traffic accidents, homicide and AIDS combined, according to a new report released today by Environmental Working Group.
Read MoreA new computer investigation by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), using data generated by Texas and other state governments, shows Texas Gov. George Bush has the worst anti-smog record in the country.
Read MoreView and Download our full report here: A Few Bad Apples
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Californians are unknowingly spreading fertilizers made from toxic waste to farm fields and home gardens, according to state and independent tests. Even though these products may exceed state standards defining hazardous waste, the State of California is proposing new rules that would legalize the practice of "recycling" toxic waste.
Read MoreGroup Touts Federal Action Against Dirty, Coal-Burning Plants
Read MoreView and Download the report here: English Patient
Read MoreThe Clinton Administration's new clean air proposal is an important move forward, but must be strengthened substantially to save the lives of some 40,000 Americans who will continue die prematurely each year even after the new standard is in place, according to a series of reports released today by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a Washington DC based nonprofit research organization.
Read MoreOn June 17, the Corps formally proposed to extend some wetlands permits for 5 years, and to add several new permits with the potential for significant environmental damage. One of the new permits would automatically approve many sand and gravel mining operations in wetlands, streams and lakes--operations that can harm water quality and damage fish and wildlife habitat.
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