TagU.S. Congress

The GOP practically asks for another Deepwater Horizon

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The Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in the Gulf five years ago sure exposed a lot of holes in the current system. By that, I certainly mean holes in our system of environmental regulations, as BP was allowed to get away with all kinds of risky cost-cutting maneuvers during the drilling process, right up to the explosion that killed 11 people and spewed more than 4 million barrels of crude oil into...

The Supreme Court’s mercury poisoning

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There’s been a lot of excitement about the U.S. Supreme Court as it wrapped up its 2014-15 session, and understandably so. On Friday, many people took to the streets in celebration when the High Court ruled that same-sex marriage is now legal in all 50 states. In fact, that ruling was held up as a sign that the nine justices were, as a whole, becoming more liberal — building upon two...

Why build a new pipeline when we can’t stop the old ones from blowing up?

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The irony is almost too much to bear. This week, Senate Republicans voted to approve a bill to President Obama’s desk that would mandate the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline — the project that would transport the thick, dirty oil harvested from the tar sands of western Canada across the American prairie to ports and refineries on the Gulf Coast. Opponents are hoping that the...

America’s fracking wars are coming to a head

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America’s fracking wars are coming to a head. Increasingly, everyday people are seeing the risks of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of shale-rock formations to get the oil and natural gas that’s trapped beneath – and they’re deciding they don’t want any part of it. As a result, lawmakers in Washington are taking unprecedented steps to keep angry citizens and aggressive state regulators from...

Landmark ruling in Italy: Cell phones can lead to tumors

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It’s a question that has hovered since people started using mobile phones more than two decades ago: Can your cell phone make you seriously ill? Specifically, can the radiofrequency energy that’s emitted by mobile devices causes cancer, especially brain tumors? There’s been a flood of studies on this subject, many of them reaching contradictory conclusions. That’s led many...

Stuart H. Smith is an attorney based in New Orleans fighting major oil companies and other polluters.
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