Environmental Law

• Scientists: 1 in 4 mammals faces extinction
  AP (October 06, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - Conservationists have taken the first detailed look at the world's mammals in more than a decade, and the news isn't good.
   
  
• AP Investigation: Ike environmental toll apparent
  AP (October 06, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - Hurricane Ike's winds and massive waves destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines. The environmental damage only now is becoming apparent: At least a half million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexic
   
  
• Top court will review who pays for Superfund site
  AP (October 01, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has agreed to decide what share railroads and an oil company should bear of the cleanup of a contaminated industrial site in Arvin, Calif., near Bakersfield, that threatened drinking water supplies.
   
  
• Judge rules against bird waste injunction in Okla.
  AP (September 30, 2008)
  TULSA, Okla. (AP) - A federal judge has denied Oklahoma's request for a preliminary injunction to stop 13 Arkansas poultry companies from disposing of bird waste in the Illinois River watershed.
   
  
• Brazil says Amazon destruction is up sharply
  AP (September 29, 2008)
  RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) - Brazilian officials say the Amazon is being deforested more than twice as fast as last year.
   
  
• Calif. warns people not to flush pharmaceuticals
  AP (September 26, 2008)
  LOS ANGELES (AP) - The state of California has a warning for its 36 million residents: Do not flush pharmaceuticals down the toilet or drain, or they may end up in a river near you.
   
  
• Prospects for nuclear deal uncertain in Congress
  AP (September 26, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - A landmark agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation between India and the U.S. has been a high priority for President Bush and the Indian government, but time is running out as lawmakers wrap up this year's session to campaign for the November elections.
   
  
• Bush wants to expand marine protections in Pacific
  AP (September 26, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush wants to extend environmental protections to more of the Pacific Ocean.
   
  
• Global warming pollution increases 3 percent
  AP (September 25, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - Worldwide man-made emissions of carbon dioxide - the main gas that causes global warming - jumped 3 percent last year, international scientists said Thursday.
   
  
• Spanish judge orders plane crash site cleanup
  AP (September 25, 2008)
  MADRID, Spain (AP) - A Spanish judge on Thursday ordered a cleanup of the site of last month's plane crash in Madrid in which 154 people died, after a newspaper ran photos of clothes and personal effects still strewn on the ground there.
   
  
• Russia suspends Boeing 737 flights after crash
  AP (September 25, 2008)
  MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's aviation authority has suspended all flights aboard Boeing 737s until the airplanes' pilots receive additional training after a recent deadly crash in the Ural Mountains city of Perm.
   
  
• Democrats to let offshore drilling ban expire
  AP (September 24, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.
   
  
• Western cap and trade initiative faces obstacles
  AP (September 24, 2008)
  GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - A new Western regional plan to cap and trade greenhouse gas emissions faces a tough road in state legislatures, where the details still must be worked out.
   
  
• Highlights of offshore drilling, budget measure
  AP (September 24, 2008)
  (AP) - Highlights of a Democratic bill that would lift a moratorium on more offshore oil drilling and provide funding for federal agencies after the 2009 budget year that starts Oct. 1. The bill would:
   
  
• Feds ask to put wolves back on endangered list
  AP (September 23, 2008)
  BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Federal wildlife officials have asked a judge to put gray wolves in the Northern Rockies back on the endangered species list - a sharp reversal from the government's prior contention that the animals were thriving.
   
  
• Solution sought for N.D. power line bird strikes
  AP (September 22, 2008)
  COLEHARBOR, N.D. (AP) - Death comes from above and below for birds on the causeway that separates Lake Audubon from Lake Sakakawea along the Missouri River.
   
  
• Calif. toll road hearing focuses on security
  AP (September 22, 2008)
  DEL MAR, Calif. (AP) - More than 1,000 people turned out Monday at a public hearing over a proposed toll road that would pass through one of Southern California's most popular parks and nearby a world-class surf break.
   
  
• Chicago outlines plan to slash greenhouse gases
  AP (September 19, 2008)
  CHICAGO (AP) - Mayor Richard M. Daley has announced a plan to dramatically slash emissions of heat-trapping gases, part of an effort to fight global warming and become one of the greenest cities in the nation.
   
  
• Environmentalists balk at drilling off NJ coast
  AP (September 18, 2008)
  AVON, N.J. (AP) - With oil and gas drilling heating up as an issue in the presidential race, environmentalists and the governor reiterated their opposition to tapping reserves off the state's coast, saying it would endanger the environment and the tourism industry on which New Jersey is so dependent.
   
  
• Philip Clapp, environmental activist, dies
  AP (September 18, 2008)
  AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Philip E. Clapp, a veteran U.S. environmental activist who helped bring high-powered business lobbying to issues like climate change, has died in Amsterdam, the Pew Charitable Trust said Thursday. He was 54.
   
  
• Yellowstone tries to balance cell phones, nature
  AP (September 17, 2008)
  CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - Yellowstone National Park officials, attempting to balance competing demands for cell phone service and preserving the park's tranquility, have released a draft plan to guide the development of wireless services within the park.
   
  
• France: Court probes toxic waste trafficking
  AP (September 17, 2008)
  DUNKERQUE, France (AP) - A French court has opened a judicial inquiry into allegations that steel giant Arcelor and three other companies trafficked in toxic waste, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
   
  
• House to try again - opens debate on oil drilling
  AP (September 16, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - The House has restarted a summerlong debate on expanding oil drilling in Atlantic and Pacific waters that would end a longtime moratorium.
   
  
• Norway pledges up to US$1B for Amazon preservation
  AP (September 16, 2008)
  BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Norway will give Brazil US$1 billion by 2015 to preserve the Amazon rain forest, as long as Latin America's largest nation keeps trying to stop deforestation, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday.
   
  
• Federal study says grizzlies thriving in Montana
  AP (September 16, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - The majestic grizzly bear, once king of the Western wilderness but threatened with extinction for a third of a century, has roared back in Montana.
   
  
• Arctic sea ice melt comes close, but misses record
  AP (September 16, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - Crucial Arctic sea ice this summer shrank to its second lowest level on record, continuing an alarming trend, scientists said Tuesday.
   
  
• Judge throws out Yellowstone snowmobile plan
  AP (September 15, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge has thrown out plans to allow more than 500 snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park this winter.
   
  
• WWF: Melting Arctic adds urgency to climate deal
  AP (September 15, 2008)
  OSLO, Norway (AP) - Data showing Arctic sea ice may reach its lowest level on record this summer underscores the need for governments to speed up talks on a new climate pact, the Worldwide Fund for Nature said Monday.
   
  
• EU committee votes to cut biofuels target
  AP (September 11, 2008)
  BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - EU lawmakers voted Thursday to cut in half an ambitious target for using crop-based biofuels for 10 percent of its road transport needs by 2020.
   
  
• Oklahoma campus hopes to be powered by wind by '13
  AP (September 11, 2008)
  NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - The University of Oklahoma wants its main campus to be completely powered by wind by 2013, a plan the school's president calls one of the largest renewable energy commitments ever made by a public university in the U.S.
   
  
• Oil brokers sex scandal may affect drilling debate
  AP (September 11, 2008)
  WASHINGTON (AP) - A scandal involving sex, drugs and - uh, offshore oil drilling.
   
  
• Australia urged to save Coral Sea animals, history
  AP (September 10, 2008)
  SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - An alliance of environmentalists, marine scientists and former navy officers urged Australia on Wednesday to establish a vast conservation area in the Coral Sea to protect marine animals, reefs and World War II history.
   
  
• Online dating new tool for zoos with rare species
  AP (September 09, 2008)
  COLUMBIA, S.C (AP) - Attention, amorous guys: Killarney's an Australian cutie, but woo her with care.