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Proposed fixes to heavily criticized mining legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. James A. Gibbons (R-NV) would still cost Nevada schools more than $120 million, slash up to $100 million per year in taxes currently paid by the mining industry, and leave 350 million acres of public property across the West open to development. As amended, the Gibbons bill allows the purchase of existing mining claims

Some of America's richest agribusinesses are double dipping from U.S. taxpayers' pockets at a rate of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) computer investigation of federal crop and water subsidies to California's Central Valley Project (CVP).

Smoggy air costs Californians more than $521 million a year — a price paid in hundreds of trips to the emergency room, thousands of hospital admissions and millions of missed school days, according to an Environmental Working Group analysis of state data. Smog is also responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Californians of all ages each year and other permanent impacts to children's health. But

As the Texas legislature begins consideration of controversial asbestos legislation that would restrict the legal rights of people injured by asbestos, hundreds of Texans continue to die of asbestos diseases each year.

For decades taxpayers have provided subsidized water to California farmers at rates far below fair market value. When the amount of cheap water delivered to farmers was reduced during the severe drought of the early '90s to protect two species of endangered fish, a group of San Joaquin Valley water districts representing some of the nation's biggest farming operations sued the government for

An analysis of government data shows that the Bush administration, through the sale of oil and gas leases, is quietly working to prevent wilderness designation for thousands of acres of irreplaceable land in Utah that had been considered potential wilderness less than one year ago.

An estimated 19,000 children under age six in Ohio have unsafe levels of lead in their blood, according to a new analysis by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) that identifies high-risk counties and neighborhoods across the state.

Documents obtained by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and a review of court records show that a federal cleanup agreement between Monsanto and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) changed significantly in Monsanto's favor just seven days after Administrator Christine Todd Whitman received a “briefing” she had requested on the company

Telfon-coated cookware poses a hazard when it is heated to high temperatures. EWG tests show that in 2 to 5 minutes on a conventional stovetop, cookware coated with Teflon and other non-stick surfaces can exceed temperatures at which the coating breaks apart and emits toxic particles and gases linked to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pet bird deaths and an unknown number of human illnesses each

Secret tests conducted in 1984 by the DuPont chemical company found a Teflon-related contaminant (C8) in the tap water of the Little Hocking Water Association in Ohio, just across the river from the company's Teflon plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. But the company never told the community, its water utility or state regulators about the tap water testing program, which continued through at

Glacier Water Services, the largest owner-operator of drinking water vending machines in California and the U.S., claims its machines sell “safe, chemical-free water.” But statewide testing found that a third of Glacier machines sold water that failed to meet state standards for a class of chemicals linked to increased risk of cancer and birth defects.

Independent scientific monitoring by the Environmental Working Group found dangerously high concentrations of a partially banned pesticide in the air San Joaquin Valley residents breath. One-third of ambient air monitoring samples detected the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which the federal government has recently banned for home use as unsafe for children but remains the most widely used agricultural

California regulators have failed to order cleanup or take other legally binding enforcement action on more than 90 percent of the thousands of underground fuel storage tanks known to be leaking toxic chemicals into water and soil throughout the state, although many of the leaks were first reported more than 10 years ago, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) computer-assisted

Documents indicate that one of President Bush's nominees for the U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit (which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware) had financial interests that he failed to disclose, yet issued numerous rulings in a major financial fraud case.

State and private laboratory tests show that fertilizer manufacturers routinely add undisclosed amounts of toxic waste to farm and home fertilizers sold in California. These companies buy toxic waste from industrial facilities to obtain low-cost plant nutrients, such as zinc or iron. Unfortunately, such waste streams are often highly contaminated with persistent toxic chemicals, including heavy

The Justice Department and USEPA announced actions against 32 power plants that they claim are operating in violation of the Clean Air Act.

Electricity generation from old, heavily-polluting coal-fired power plants rose 15.8 percent nationwide between 1992 and 1998, an increase big enough to power all the industries, businesses and homes in the state of California for a year. This jump, which was spurred in large part by loopholes in the Clean Air Act and the deregulation of the wholesale electric power market, threatens to erode

n a little-noticed decision earlier this year, the EPA's top scientific committee on children's health declared that protections against the toxic weed killer atrazine in food and water should not be considered safe for infants and children. According to the Office of Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee:

An Environmental Working Group analysis of recently released enforcement records from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) reveals a persistent pattern of “significant violations” of the Clean Air Act (CAA) in five major industries. Hundreds of large facilities in auto assembly, iron and steel, petroleum refining, pulp manufacturing, and metal smelting and refining are threatening

On June 25, 1993, the Clinton-Gore Administration made headlines when it announced a bold new national policy to cut pesticide use in agriculture and make the protection of children the paramount consideration in federal pesticide regulation.

In December, 1997, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) proposed draft national standards for organic agriculture. As part of this proposal, the department invited the public to comment on the idea of allowing application of municipal sewage sludge on land used to grow organic foods. The Environmental Protection Agency's top sludge regulator urged the department to allow “high quality

On Aug. 21, 1997, owners of the Nakama Ranch began fumigating a 90-acre strawberry field in Camarillo, Calif., with methyl bromide. The field is next to the Lamplighter Mobile Home Estates, whose residents, concerned about the dangers of exposure to the acutely toxic pesticide, had appealed to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) to stop the fumigation. DPR denied the appeal

EPA's supplemental notice (1996) and draft Final Rule reflect major concessions made to the industry. The chief consultant for the American Hospital Association (AHA) has referred to the EPA proposal as "painless," acknowledging a reversal in EPA's direction on the rule.