02/26/2008 TO Enviro-news

Exxon Oil Spill Goes Before High Court
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/022608EA.shtml
The Associated Press: "It's been almost 19 years since the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground at Alaska's Bligh Reef, spurting 11 million gallons of crude into the rich fishing waters of Prince William Sound. In 1994, an Anchorage jury awarded victims $5 billion in punitive damages. That amount has since been cut in half by other courts on appeals by Exxon Mobil Corp. Now the town of 2,200 looks anxiously to the US Supreme Court, which will hear arguments Wednesday from Exxon on why the company should not have to pay punitive damages at all."

Farms May Be Exempted From Emission Rules
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/022608EB.shtml
Elizabeth Williamson, The Washington Post, writes: "Under pressure from agriculture industry lobbyists and lawmakers from agricultural states, the Environmental Protection Agency wants to drop requirements that factory farms report their emissions of toxic gases, despite findings by the agency's scientists that the gases pose a health threat."

Coral Reefs and What Ruins Them
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/022608EC.shtml
Cornelia Dean, The New York Times: "Researchers who studied a string of Pacific Ocean atolls are painting the first detailed picture of pristine coral reefs and how they can be disrupted by people - particularly, they said, by fishing."