The EPA is considering allowing unlimited amounts of perchlorate - a chemical nasty derived from rocket fuel - in US drinking water. It's not the best idea: perchlorate has been linked to metabolic problems in adults, and to developmental disorders in children and fetuses. I've posted more details over at Political Climate:

Having failed to safeguard our water supplies, the EPA is now dragging its heels over providing a solution. Benjamin Grumbles, the agency’s top water-safety official, told Congress this week that the EPA might not decide whether to begin regulating perchlorate until the end of the year - and that even then there was “a distinct possibility” that the agency would stick to its guns and refuse to limit the amount of perchlorate in America’s drinking water.

The EPA says it needs to give its scientists more time to figure out whether perchlorate is actually harmful, and at what levels. That sounds reasonable - but given the agency’s usual disregard for scientific opinion, some greens believe that other factors may be at work behind the scenes. Prime suspect: the Pentagon, which has been lobbying against a federal perchlorate standard for years, hoping to avoid an expensive cleanup of its military and aerospace facilities.

Read more here.

Alaskan residents and green activists have launched another legal challenge to the Bush administration's efforts to open the Chukchi Sea to oil exploration. I've written it up for Plenty's Political Climate blog:

According to their complaint, federal officials gave oil companies the go-ahead to use powerful acoustic devices to test for seismic activity - without waiting for legally mandated reports on the tests’ potential environmental impact.

The tests - which give a whole new meaning to the phrase “oil boom” - involve firing massive air-guns at the Arctic seabed, creating a noise ten times louder than a rocket launch. The din, which can carry for hundreds of miles, is repeated every 10 to 15 seconds, sometimes for weeks or months at a time.

That can have a devastating impact on marine wildlife, particularly mammals like whales, walrus and seals: Nearby animals can be permanently deafened, and thousands more interrupt their feeding and migratory patterns to escape the noise. The Chukchi Sea - home to tens of thousands of marine mammals, including several endangered species of whale - is particularly vulnerable: Its bad weather and choppy waters can make it almost impossible for seismic survey ships to spot and steer clear of marine mammals.

Read the rest here.

I wrote the Today's Papers column for Slate last night; the big news is that Microsoft has abandoned its bid to buy Yahoo, after the two companies failed to agree on how much the internet giant was worth. Get your fix here.

This week saw both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton put in appearances on Fox News. That's angered the netroots - but might win them brownie points with superdelegates, who're keen for the candidates to reach out to moderate and independent voters. I've jotted some thoughts for the Guardian's Comment is free site:

It's unclear quite what the candidates hoped to gain from their Fox interviews. In 2004, only 7% of Fox fans voted for John Kerry, making the network's audience a more reliably Republican constituency than gun owners, white evangelical Christians or even self-defined conservatives. Could it be that the candidates are taking a cue from Operation Chaos and hoping to pick up crossover votes from Republicans whose own party's nomination was wrapped up long ago?

More likely, perhaps, is that the candidates' Fox-fest was designed to send a message to the Democratic superdelegates. An appearance on Fox was bound to be taken as a snub by the netroots - and arguably that's no bad thing, if you're a left-leaning candidate desperate to stake out a claim to the centre ground. In an election that looks likely to be fought and won among independents and moderates, it's more important than ever for Obama and Clinton to convince superdelegates that they are ready and able to reach out to swing voters. Even if that means sleeping with the enemy.

More here.

Nancy Pelosi's efforts to give Congress an environmental overhaul are going slower than she'd hoped, thanks to foot-dragging lawmakers and congressional bureaucracy. I've posted some details over at Political Climate:

Last year, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched a major new initiative aimed at turning Congress into a model of environmental best practice. Some of the changes were small, simple things: Meeting-rooms had their lights rigged to motion detectors, vending machines were ordered to be turned off at night, and a bike share program was set up for staffers. Even the House cafeteria got a face-lift: Freedom fries were swapped for organic arugula and free-range eggs, and styrofoam containers gave way to biodegradable plates and cutlery.

Other changes were more significant - and more controversial. Efforts to install energy-efficient spotlights to illuminate the Capitol dome met with fierce opposition from Republicans, who called the $671,900 project a “ridiculous boondoggle”. The decision to spend almost $90,000 on carbon offsets nearly sparked a full-blown inquiry. And only this week, lawmakers threw an almighty strop over new rules requiring them to trade their taxpayer-funded SUVs and luxury gas-guzzlers for more fuel-efficient models.

More here.

Following John McCain's calls for a summer-long gas-tax "holiday", Hillary Clinton has come out in favor of a moratorium on the federal gas tax. It's a lousy idea that would hinder the fight against climate change, and probably make little difference to the price paid at the pump. I've posted some more details over at Political Climate:

That means that of the presidential hopefuls, only Barack Obama wants the gas tax to remain in place. He’s learned the hard way that gas-tax cuts don’t work: In 2000, with gas prices weighing in at a whopping $2 a gallon, he supported the Illinois Senate’s move to slash the state’s 6.25 percent gas tax.

The state’s moratorium was politically popular, but achieved almost nothing. Gas prices fell by just 3 percent, meaning that a hefty chunk of the tax relief went straight to oil companies. Less than a third of Illinois motorists said the tax cut had made them better off. And over six months, the state lost $175 million in revenues, prompting then-Gov. George Ryan to beg lawmakers to reinstate the tax. (In the end, Obama was among those who voted to restore the tax.)

Clinton may not have Obama’s experience, but she can hardly claim ignorance of the problems gas taxes entail. Back in 2000, she made her opposition to gas-tax cuts a centerpiece of her Senate campaign, saying her rival’s plan for a 4.3-cent cut would be “a bad deal for New York and a potential bonanza for the oil companies,” and added that “the gas tax is one of the few exceptions where we actually get more money back than we send to Washington.”

More here.

Over at Political Climate, I've posted some notes on the Bush administration's attack on the public right to know. Read more here.

The LAPD is under pressure to overhaul its rules for dealing with immigrants, after an illegal alien allegedly killed a high-school football star last month. I've jotted some thoughts for Comment is free:

One Sunday afternoon last month, 17-year-old Los Angeles resident Jamiel Shaw was walking home from the mall when a white sedan pulled up next to him. Two Latino men leaned out and asked Jamiel - a clean-cut high school football star with hopes of winning a scholarship to Stanford - what gang he belonged to. When he couldn't give an answer, one of the two men shot him dead.

That terrible, senseless act of violence has catapulted LA's battle with street gangs back into the public gaze - and sparked fresh debate about the way the City of Angels deals with its huge immigrant population. That's because Jamiel's alleged killer, a 19-year-old named Pedro Espinoza, is believed to have been an illegal alien - and, to make matters worse, had reportedly been released from county jail just a day before the brutal attack.

Quite rightly, that's prompted soul-searching at the LA police department, most of it focused on the application of Special Order 40, a regulation prohibiting police officers from stopping people for the sole reason of learning their immigration status. A number of police officers - including one who moonlights as a National Review blogger - say the rule is confusing and leads officers to actively avoid discovering the immigration status of known criminals.

Read the rest here.

I've got a piece in the latest issue of Mother Jones pitting Jamie "Mythbusters" Hyneman against some of the wackier alternative energy sources currently in development - including grape juice, dirty diapers and even empty space. Read more here.

Renewables are running into trouble, thanks to a combination of NIMBYism and political apathy. I've posted some thoughts over at Political Climate:

Everyone agrees that renewable energy is the way forward; unfortunately, neither lawmakers nor ordinary folk seem willing to give renewables a chance to get off the ground. Wind power made up almost a third of the new energy production in the US last year, according to the American Wind Energy Association, creating 10,000 green-collar jobs - but even with these changes, it’s predicted that by 2025, less than 5 percent of US energy will come from renewable sources.

That’s partly the fault of the feds, who last year failed to push through national standards for renewables as part of the energy bill. Worse still, national lawmakers have been reluctant to extend tax breaks that make it profitable to build and install wind farms; the incentives are set to expire at the end of this year, and developers say wind-turbine production will suffer unless Congress passes an extension by Memorial Day.

Read the rest here.