Long before the race for resources in the Arctic reached its current fevered pace, the eight nations of the region, when forming the Arctic Council, committed to working together to safeguard and protect the fragile Arctic environment. Although there will be fanfare when ministers, including U.S. Secretary Kerry, sign an...

It's been a long two years with the 112th Congress. In that time, House leadership has often tried to "help the economy" by wiping away our basic public health and environmental protections -- in the process putting thousands of Americans at risk of disease and death from exposure to toxic...

World leaders are arriving here in Rio to address some of the most daunting issues facing our planet. To be sure, the myriad problems we now face because we haven't taken more action to address global warming and sustainable development can seem daunting: droughts in Africa; sea level rise in...

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and best wishes for the New Year! If Representative Boehner and the Republicans in the House of Representatives have their way, 8,100 of us won't live to see the next one.

At the urging of lobbyists for the chemical manufacturers, refiners, paper mills and other big...

Continued negotiations on track to standstill; holding up budget bill: GOP's unrelenting demands to inject unrelated political riders into federal spending bill

As the threat of a total federal government shutdown hangs over the country, leaders in Congress and the White House continue eleventh-hour emergency negotiations to reach a compromise...

Judy Bonds' life teaches us how to fight harder

In this line of work, we are lucky to meet and work with a lot of heroes, people who stand up against all odds for the health of their communities, who sacrifice for the greater good of their brothers and...

There is no reason to beat around the bush: the November election results are a setback in our progress towards a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable planet.

At a time when the world desperately needs leadership from the United States, voters have installed in the House of Representatives those who have...

EPA prepares move against those who pollute at our expense

Too often in the last two decades, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has gnawed big polluters like a toothless tiger. But 20 years after Congress endowed the agency with new tools to protect people from dangerous air pollution, the...

Report from agency's Inspector General exposes unlawful delay

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has fallen far behind in one of its most important responsibilities: to protect the American public from toxic air pollutants. The New York Times recently reported on a new study from the agency's...

President Obama must turn words into action on clean energy

"The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now."

President Obama's words, delivered from the Oval Office on Tuesday night,...

Vote down Sen. Murkowski's resolution to bail out big polluters

Yesterday the White House took a firm stand against an effort to undermine the 40-year-old Clean Air Act, reverse a Supreme Court decision, and block the federal fuel efficiency standards that were finalized this past spring, which will reduce the...

Life-saving Clean Air Act protections are not bargaining chips

Last week, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) released a long-awaited discussion draft of their climate and energy bill, the American Power Act. Among the bill's big giveaways to polluters was a surprise invitation to exempt dirty old power...

In wake of gulf oil spill, Obama must protect Arctic Ocean

In just two months, Shell Oil could do in America's Arctic Ocean what British Petroleum has done in the Gulf of Mexico -- drill an environmental time bomb without being able to defuse it or deal with the consequences...

Cartoon-style confrontation in Hawaii is no laughing matter

In a popular Simpsons episode, the diabolical Mr. Burns builds a giant disc to eclipse the sun and force Springfield's residents into round-the-clock reliance on electricity from his power plant. It's pitch-perfect cartoon sarcasm, but with a...

It's time to break industry stranglehold on clean water legislation.

A year ago, the 111th Congress looked like a friend to those who care about clean water. I praised Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Ben Cardin (D-MD) and others back then for introducing legislation that would restore teeth...

Historic litigation may shine light on toxic ingredients

Do household cleaners contain ingredients linked to asthma, nerve damage and other health effects? Manufacturers aren't telling, but Earthjustice attorney Keri Powell may have uncovered the key to their pursed lips.

While investigating a potential legal strategy, Keri found buried in...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski is on a mission, legislative guns blazing, to shoot holes through the Clean Air Act—one of our nation's strongest and most successful environmental laws. If she prevails, we may lose one of the best tools we have to reduce global warming pollution. Senators may have...

Today, as world leaders, led by President Obama, struggled deep into the night on a plan to fight climate change, a handful of U.S. senators at home were trying to sabotage U.S. climate action. In league with long-time climate science deniers in Congress, they launched an effort to keep the...

U.S. leadership on global warming threatened by compromise in Congress

Becoming a grandfather is cause for celebration, unless you're a coal-fired power plant.

Coal plants that predate the Clean Air Act have become the mules of air pollution--set in their ways and not liable to change. Exploiting their...

An ocean continues to wait for change

In the Arctic waters surrounding Alaska, George W. Bush is still president, but Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has the chance to inaugurate a new regime.

Shell Oil recently got the green light from the Department of Interior to drill next summer...