According to an analysis released last week by the Department of Energy (DOE), opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil development would only slightly reduce America’s dependence on imports and would lower oil prices by less than 50 cents a barrel.

An amendment to reinstate the "polluter-pays" principle on Superfund clean-up sites failed to gain enough votes in the Senate last week. Environmentalists are optimistic though that the idea enjoyed bi-partisan support and put additional pressure on the Bush administration to prioritize the health and safety of communities over the bottom lines of corporate polluters.

Citing the conservative gospel of states’ rights and forest fire protection, the Bush administration announced last week that it was replacing the "roadless rule" established by outgoing President Clinton with a new plan that would require state governors to petition the Forest Service to block any road-building in their states for logging purposes. While the controversial Clinton plan had closed off 58 million acres of inaccessible and in some cases pristine Forest Service lands to road building and ensuing timber extraction, the new plan puts the onus on governors—many of whom won office on the merits of their pro-development positions—to keep loggers out.

According to EPA officials, DuPont, the country’s second-largest chemical manufacturer, violated the federal Toxic Substances Control Act from June 1981 to March 2001 by not reporting health risks from exposure to the main ingredient in Teflon, its non-stick cookware coating and carpet protection product.