Part of Understanding Government's mission is to examine the way federal and state agencies cooperate on issues of national importance, or -- as in this article by GIMBY reporter Jane Johnston -- don't. Newburgh, NY, Nov. 20, 2008 -- Millions of gallon of water, laced with carcinogenic and other toxic chemicals, are pumped deep into the earth at pressures great enough to break solid rock and release natural gas stored in pockets. The process is called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Politicians with an eye for economic development cheer for the gas and the hoped for prosperity it will bring; also pleased are some property owners who have received fat signing bonuses for drilling leases. But what becomes of those millions of gallons of now contaminated water? If left in the ground, could they affect the groundwater supply? What about spillage or leakage from above-ground storage tanks? This scenario has alarmed people in many states in the past few years, and New York State now faces its own dilemmas with the prospect of drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation in Sullivan County.

This February I interviewed a federal employee about improper politicization at his agency. I asked if the recent charges of politicization surprised him. "At this point in the Bush administration," he said, "nothing surprises me."

It has been for a while now, perhaps since Hurricane Katrina or maybe the fired U.S. Attorneys or maybe the unveiling of Justice Dept. memos that condone torture, that the Bush administration has lost its capacity to shock. Yet the administration continues to take actions that, under normal circumstances, would be stunning.

The Washington Post's Anne E. Kornbult and Karen DeYoung report on the appointment of Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) as Barack Obama's Chief of Staff and give the latest conventional wisdom on Obama's cabinet picks.  Emanuel, the erstwhile no. 4 Democrat in the House and ...

The Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin reports that the Bush administration is torn about whether to environmentally protect two underwater ecosystems near the Northern Marianas Islands. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush ,support protection of this land from fishing. Dick Cheney opposes it, claiming ...

The Clean Air Act is one of the signature laws that empowers the Environmental Protection Agency. But during the Bush administration, the EPA seems to have done all it can to undermine its own power. Whether it's pressure from Dick Cheney or self-loathing or something else, Stephen Johnson, the EPA  administrator, is trotting a new rule that makes it easier for power plants to pollute.

Few Bush administration figures have been as battered as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, whose face is surely on many dart boards in the offices of environmental advocacy groups. Yet environmentalists showered rare praise yesterday as the EPA reduced the maximum allowable amount of lead in the air from ...

The Washington Post's Al Kamen memorializes today perhaps the last great evasion of Enivornmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson. With Wall Street about fall into the Atlantic Ocean it can be easy to forget other late-term Bush administration legacies: like never, ever setting a ...

The Environmental Protection Agency and its beleaguered administrator, Stephen Johnson, have managed to stay out of the news for about two months. So it was weirdly comforting to see the Washington Post's Lyndsey Layton write this morning about another environmental rule the Bush administration is flouting.

The Pentagon is refusing ...

The Democratic convention is no excuse for state attorneys general to rest in their legal action against the Environmental Protection Agency. The Wall Street Journal's Ana Campoy reports that 12 states have sued EPA for not implementing greenhouse gas emissions ...

The Washington Post's Del Quentin Wilber reports that a federal appeals court struck down a 2004 Environmental Protection Agency ruling that states and local govt. cannot have their own air pollution monitoring. The EPA rule had said that since the federal govt. already has ...