Chemistry for a sustainable world

In a move destined to have no effect whatsoever on gasoline prices in the near term, and possibly ever, President Bush lifted the ban on offshore drilling. This follows a tradition of disregard for the facts, the science and the truth that has long characterized the administration’s actions.

As reported by By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post Staff Writer: “Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson favored giving California some authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks … before he consulted with the White House and reversed course, congressional investigators said yesterday.”

The story about the Basel Action Network (BAN) vs. 1-800-Got-Junk is supplemented by the following to give a snapshot of where we stand with “good” and “bad” recycling

The EPA should be contributing to public health, sustainability, education on complex environmental concerns, and related issues. I know that its members work hard to do so, but they are often thwarted by management. Bob Grant of The Scientist.com wrote about criticism from Congress over the EPA shutting down or limiting access to [...]

Note: a slightly different version of this article was published previously at BlogCritics Magazine under Sci/Tech.
China is suffering from many environmental disasters in its rush to industrialize, but some of its environmental problems are being addressed. Which is leading the race, industrialization or the environment? I provide some examples that contrast environmental practices [...]

This page (linked to below) describes the numerous problems associated with the highly toxic substance, methyl iodide. Even though EPA and external scientists argued against it, the agency approved methyl iodide for fumigation. This is bizarre and irresponsible behavior, yet again, from the Bush-controlled EPA.
read more | digg story
© James K. Bashkin, 2008
Technorati Tags:epa, [...]

From the New York Times, by Bloomberg News:
“The Environmental Protection Agency ignored the advice of its employees in rejecting California’s request to set rules on automotive (CO2) emissions”.
Senator Barbara Boxer (D, California): “It’s clear that E.P.A.’s own experts told Administrator S. Johnson that California’s case … is solid”
read more | digg story
Technorati Tags:co2 emissions, barbara [...]

Accounting for 12% of CO2 emissions in the US, emissions from aircraft are significant. As reported by Earthjustice and Climate of Our Future, environmental groups are teaming with cities and states to demand rules from EPA to reduce this CO2 impact or an explanation of why the EPA is failing to act.
read more | [...]

In case you missed it, a gentleman named Burl Haigwood kindly left a long and detailed comment, and rebuttal, to my recent post on the health effects of ethanol as a fuel.
Because I do want to debate the issues, I thought it best to reprint his response and my related comments here, since otherwise they [...]

I couldn’t accept a critical comment because (a) wordpress insisted on treating it as spam and (b) they were right: it was linked to what is apparently a spam site (it tried to download software onto my computer without asking my permission). However, I welcome disagreement, so I put the entire, unedited criticism in [...]