9) California Passes Breakthrough Bill to Help Curb Global Warming
Dissatisfied with the Bush administration’s failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, or to take other measures to curb global warming, the California Assembly passed groundbreaking legislation that would require the state to cut back its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020—a reduction of approximately 25 percent.
The new bill, which was hammered out in a deal between the legislature’s Democratic majority and Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and approved by the state Senate the same day, passed in the Assembly by a vote of 47-31.
10) EPA Accused of Weak Environmental Oversight and Harmful Actions
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was criticized repeatedly in 2006 for taking actions that would harm rather than help, for not going far enough to protect public health and the environment, and for bowing to industry pressure.
For example, as many as 24,000 Americans could lose their lives every year because of the EPA’s refusal to follow the advice of medical professionals to tighten U.S. air quality standardsthat control soot, dust and other particulate matter. And according to many experts, a new set of long-awaited fuel economy standards announced by the EPA in 2006 were deemed too weak to be effective.
Other stories in 2006 revealed EPA plans to abandon lead air pollution standards and to give a free ride to some of the worst corporate polluters. The EPA even floated an absurd plan to implement regulations that would supposedly govern the disposal of nuclear waste for the next million years—longer than the human race has worn clothing or known how to make fire.
11) Democrats Take Control of U.S. Congress
American voters concerned about the ongoing war in Iraq and a variety of troubling domestic issues put Democrats in control of the U.S. House and Senate—a situation that will last at least as long as the last two years of the Bush presidency.
Many political observers believe House and Senate Democrats are likely to provide stronger leadership and more progressive action on a wide range of environmental issues.
12) Small Businesses are Large Polluters
Most environmental regulations focus on large businesses or whole industries, but it turns out that small businesses actually generate 60 percent of all commercial waste and cause half of all environmental damage worldwide, according to the European Environment Agency. This information has the potential to change the way governments around the world look at environmental regulation and protection.
See page 1 for more top stories
