The "citizens" initiatives on California's ballot are increasingly being sponsored by corporations. Opponents of Proposition 16 say it would lock into the state constitution a perpetual monopoly for Pacific Gas & Electric.
Fishermen like walrus-mustached Larry Collins, captain of the Autumn Gale in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, face an agonizing choice.
"As the price tag for what could be the modern world's largest man-made oil spill continues to mount, navigating the complex path towards determining who will foot the bills resulting from the Deepwater Horizon accident could become as difficult as avoiding the oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico."
"Although the exact cause of the Deepwater Horizon explosion isn't certain, at least a dozen offshore drilling experts agree that cement, or pipes encased by cement, had to have failed first."
"More than ever, people are worried about how all the chemicals we're exposed to are affecting our health: among them a family of chemicals known as phthalates, which are used in everyday plastics. ... Recently the EPA, put phthalates on a list of chemicals that 'may present a risk' to the environment or human health. That's because they disrupt hormone activity and some preliminary studies show that they may be causing a slow and steady demasculinizing of men."
Climate scientists are receiving a rash of threats, hate-mail, and physical acts of intimidation from right-wing hate groups unhappy with the conclusions about man-made climate change which data have led them to.
"The gooey oil washing into the maze of marshes along the Gulf Coast could prove impossible to remove, leaving a toxic stew lethal to fish and wildlife, government officials and independent scientists said."
"In the days since President Obama announced a moratorium on permits for drilling new offshore oil wells and a halt to a controversial type of environmental waiver that was given to the Deepwater Horizon rig, at least seven new permits for various types of drilling and five environmental waivers have been granted, according to records."
"BP has rebuffed demands from government officials and environmentalists to use a less-toxic dispersant to break up the oil from its massive offshore spill, saying that the chemical product it is now using continues to be 'the best option for subsea application.'"
Water and energy -- two critical and often finite resources -- are today more than ever connected in complex ways. A new feature package explores the connection in stories that range from solar thermal plants in the Mojave Desert to an ocean thermal project near Tahiti. And the ongoing Gulf oil spill provides yet another lurid example.
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