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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and an independent scientific review panel that advises it have conflicting views on whether an important chemical causes cancer. A majority on the review panel believe that there is sufficient evidence to recommend that the chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its salts are "likely" carcinogens, while the EPA had determined that there was only "suggestive evidence."

A new law went into effect last week making Maine the first U.S. state to force manufacturers of televisions and computer monitors to pay for and handle the recycling of their own outdated equipment. Beyond saving money for the local taxpayers who usually bear the brunt of municipal recycling costs, the long-term aim of the law is to give manufacturers an economic incentive to design less-toxic and easier-to-recycle products.

Municipal leaders in Texas’ capital city, Austin, announced the formation of a new coalition of city governments and electric utilities united to lobby automakers to step up production of a new breed of plug-in hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles. These new vehicles would allow drivers to charge up their batteries via wall sockets overnight and make their entire round trip commutes to work the next day using only electricity–and no gas whatsoever.

In what is emerging as a battle royale within the environmental movement, several noted greens have taken sides over the issue of whether or not to allow one of the world’s largest off-shore windmill developments to proceed off Cape Cod near the Massachusetts coastline. In an op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle last week, noted environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. defended his position in opposition to the proposed Cape Wind Project.

At a symposium marking the 35th anniversary of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week, six former agency heads–five Republicans and one Democrat–united in accusing the Bush administration of ignoring serious environmental threats, including global warming.

Following the final hearing of a 20-member bi-partisan Congressional task force charged with assessing the effectiveness of the nation’s most far-reaching environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), House Republicans are calling for a series of fixes that would streamline permitting and reduce red tape on environmental assessments required on federal construction projects.

Government officials from the U.S. and Australia agreed publicly last week at the opening of a two-day climate change summit among Asia Pacific nations that the world’s industrial leaders could be counted on to voluntarily reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) widely thought to be exacerbating global warming.