The Gaia Reports By Theodora Filis - Environmental Journalist

By Theodora Filis Senator John Barrasso has introduced a bill that would permanently block the EPA and every other federal agency from using the Clean Air Act. Activists say this is part of a coordinated assault to weaken America's clean air standards and block climate action. The Clean Air Act is the law that defines EPA's responsibilities for protecting and improving the nation's air quality and the stratospheric ozone layer. The last major change in the law, the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, was enacted by Congress in 1990. Legislation passed since then has made several minor changes. In the late 1960s, the American public began to demand action on environmental questions. Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine, chairman of the water pollution subcommittee of the Senate Public Works Committee, was one of the first to sponsor the Clean Air Act of 1967. Muskie led the 1970 fight for tough clean-air legislation. The Clean Air Act of 1970 made EPA directly responsible for es

By Theodora Filis A press release issued today by Greenpeace - European Unit said the European Union (EU) is now allowing untested Genetically Modified (GM) crops into the European food chain. The end to Europe's zero-tolerance approach to untested GM crops in animal feed was made final today by EU member state representatives in Brussels, allowing the unintended mixing of approved and unapproved GM varieties to enter Europe. Both the animal feed industry and biotech industry have been lobbying individual countries to vote in favor of a proposal to allow imports of animal feed to contain up to 0.1 percent of non-approved GMOs. They claimed the current restrictions are costing the EU 4 billion Euros and leading to a 'crisis' of supply that will lead to higher meat prices for consumers. Because of the new rules, adopted today and expected to come into force in early summer 2011, the EU will be allowed contamination of up to 0.1% by crops that have not undergone safety te