Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration will not challenge a federal court ruling saying the Department of the Interior under former President Trump failed to take climate change into account when it auctioned off 1.7 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas drilling last year. The decision invalidated…
The Biden Administration Must Take Climate Change Into Account Under the Law – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a first of its kind decision with far reaching implications for the battle against climate change and potentially the fossil fuel economy, a federal judge ruled on Thursday in favor of environmental groups against…
Editor’s Note: For the past five years, while the New American Journal has continued to keep up with some major stories related to the natural environment such as the latest news on global warming and climate change, our priorities have tended to focus largely on coverage of national science and public affairs, and some state…
By Glynn Wilson – On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the 10th anniversary of the BP oil disaster, and a couple of months into the coronavirus pandemic and economic collapse, I’m not feeling so well or very optimistic about the future of human life on planet Earth. It’s similar to how I feel about…
By Michele Harmon – Ten years ago this month, our community experienced the worst environmental disaster in the history of our country. In fact, the spill was 30 percent larger than originally calculated, and deadlier. Below the surface, “invisible oil” was hidden from view of satellites that were intended to capture the extent of the…
ANALYSIS By Glynn Wilson – President Trump needs a new slogan. Instead of declaring that he wants to “make America great again,” if he was an honest man he would say instead: “Let’s make America more like Alabama.” That’s what’s going on as his administration guts the Environmental Protection Agency. If it was possible to…
By Glynn Wilson — MOBILE, Ala. — The Trump administration held public meetings in cities along the Gulf Coast this week to generate public comments on the environmental impacts of opening up 95 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to new oil and gas leases. But while federal law and national policy calls for…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — The Trump administration has announced a plan to open up more offshore waters in the continental United States to oil and gas exploration and to remove federal regulations imposed by previous administrations on oil and gas drilling, in spite of findings in a federal lawsuit in the 2010…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — A federal judge in New Orleans granted final approval on Monday to the terms of a civil settlement agreement with British Petroleum for its role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and disaster that killed 11 workers and dumped 4.9 million barrels or 210 million gallons…
Watch police clash with protesters in this original video. – By Glynn Wilson – NEW ORLEANS, La. — About 200 environmental activists from across the county marched from City Hall to the Super Dome here Wednesday and crashed an oil lease sale meeting trying to open up another 43 million acres to drilling in the…
For info about the March 23 demonstration at the lease sale and about related activities go to nonewleases.org. By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Between beginnings and endings comes water. You are mostly water. Remove it and only a sift of ash and grit remains. Look at yourself.…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — A federal judge grilled lawyers here Tuesday about the questionable legality of a plan put forward by the administration of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley to use BP oil spill environmental restoration money for economic development to build a hotel and convention center on the state park beach in…
Environmental Group Pushes for Expedited Oral Arguments – By Glynn Wilson – The Bentley administration is stalling in federal court by opposing expedited oral arguments in a lawsuit filed against the proposed use of $58 million in BP oil settlement money — designated to restore the Gulf eco-system — to build a hotel and convention…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the Paris climate conference just built an eight-lane freeway to Hades. Leaders and nerds from 195 countries sifted through separate plans for saving the species from itself and tried to meld them into an agreed text about shrinking…
By Dominic Rushe – British Petroleum has agreed to pay a record environmental fine of $18.7 billion to settle legal actions brought by the U.S. and five Gulf states over the fatal Gulf of Mexico oil disaster of 2010. The U.S. Department of Justice, along with the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Florida,…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – Thoroughbreds charging around the final turn and down the homestretch. Blinders strapped on the sides of their faces to keep their attention on the finish line straight ahead. Preakness Stakes at Pimlico racetrack in Baltimore. Second leg of the Triple Crown later this week. Delegations of civic leaders…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five years ago this month, I was peacefully photographing birds in Birmingham Alabama when I heard the news that British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig had exploded and was on fire and leaking tons of raw crude into my favorite sea. By the time I got my…
We recently received this note from Albert Blok, Clinical Research Coordinator at American Educational Research Association, and publish it here as a letter to the editor. Editor: I’m a research coordinator for the Association of American Universities. Recently, I was visiting your site for research purposes, and came across a resource that no longer works.…
By Glynn Wilson – It was July 5, 2010, while BP’s Deepwater Horizon was still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico and I was watching helpless from Gulf Shores, Alabama, that I began to ask the question: Where Oh Where Have All the Wildlife Gone? Are most of the birds already dead from the oil,…
By Glynn Wilson – The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, and the waves of tar balls deposited on the beaches shortly thereafter, prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to produce a tar ball fact sheet. Among the factoids was one stating that those sticky, coin-sized clumps of…
