California legislature sells-out the ocean 9/01/2010

In the closing hours of the state legislative session last night, the California Senate failed to pass Assembly Bill 1998, effectively ending the state’s bid to adopt the nation’s first statewide ban on plastic bags. The California Assembly had overwhelmingly passed the bill in June.

The ocean shouldn't be a garbage patch 7/16/2010

For the past three years, Portland has been talking about bags -- plastic bags. Why? Well, consider the problems that plastic causes in the ocean. From 500 miles off the Oregon coast to Japan, the North Pacific is filled with trash. An oceanic current known as a "gyre" slowly stirs this mess into a concentrated area called the Pacific Garbage Patch. It's an area about twice the size of Texas that's a soup of broken down bits of plastic. In this garbage patch, there's more plastic than plankton, the ocean's fundamental food source.

Portland Mayor Sam Adams Pledges Ban on Plastic Bags 7/15/2010

Facing five "bag monsters" and a sea of "ban the bag" T-shirts, Portland Mayor Sam Adams pledged Wednesday to eliminate ubiquitous slippery plastic bags from the city. He declined to say when a prohibition on plastic grocery bags might start, but promised details in a draft ordinance to be released Friday.

Mayor Promises to Act on Banning Plastic Bags 7/14/2010

There is nowhere to sit in city hall. Blame the environmentalists. Over 150 people wearing blue "Ban the Bag" shirts are packed into city council's chambers, turned out by a coalition of green groups who are trying to get Portland, and then the state, to ban single-use plastic bags from grocery stores and corner shops.

Courting Disaster: How the Supreme Court Has Broken the Clean Water Act and Why Congress Must Fix It 2/10/2010

For decades, the Clean Water Act protected the Nation’s surface water bodies from unregulated pollution and rescued them from the crisis status they were in during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Now these vital protections are being lost. This report details the threat to our Nation’s waters by examining dozens of case studies, and highlights the urgent need for Congress to restore full Clean Water Act protections to our waters.

Plug-In Cars: Powering America Toward a Cleaner Future 1/23/2010

America’s current fleet of gasoline-powered cars and trucks leaves us dependent on oil, contributes to air pollution problems that threaten our health, and produces large amounts of global warming pollution. “Plug-in” cars are emerging as an effective way to lower global warming emissions, oil use, and smog. A plug-in car is one that can be recharged from the electric grid. Plug-in cars come in two types: plug-in hybrids that are paired with small gasoline engines, and fully electric vehicles that consume no gasoline at all.