What's Important

Snippets from the news
• EPA must regulate water discharges from ships, says court.

• Studies warn of toxic chemicals in air fresheners and laundry products and cars and car seats.

• Golf carts hit the road.

• FEMA seeks immunity from toxic-trailer lawsuits.

• Panama's gourmet coffee leading to deforestation.

Hurricane Dolly hits land, skirts oil and gas facilities
Hurricane Dolly hit land in Texas Wednesday as a Category 2 storm. No deaths have been reported and the storm had a minimal impact on oil and gas operations; it largely missed offshore oil and gas facilities, but did cut production 10 to 20 percent at some refineries and by 5 to 8 percent overall. Oil futures hardly budged, and a collective sigh of relief went up from those who had feared Dolly would have a stronger impact on the shaky oil market. (The hurricane did have an impact on Sen. John McCain, who cited Dolly's presence in the Gulf as the reason for canceling a planned trip to New Orleans, during which he had planned to helicopter to an oil rig and talk up offshore drilling.) With hurricanes Bertha, Cristobal, and Dolly, July 2008 has already been the third-most active hurricane-season month on record, and meteorologists are expecting a continuing busy summer for storms. More frequent hurricanes are, of course, also in line with what scientists expect to see as the climate continues to change.

sources: Bloomberg, Reuters, National Geographic News, The Washington Post

Oil spills into Mississippi River after tanker-barge collision
Some 420,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled into the Mississippi River early Wednesday, after a 600-foot chemical tanker collided with a fuel barge. The collision split the barge in half; thick, slow-to-evaporate fuel has traveled at least 12 miles downriver. The Coast Guard closed a 29-mile stretch of the river around New Orleans, and residents have been asked to conserve water as drinking-water intakes are closed or diverted. Cleanup is expected to take days. Full environmental impact is yet unclear, but, notes a spokesperson for the Louisiana environmental agency: "We have a lot of wildlife in the southern delta." To look on the bright side, the spill pales in comparison to the millions of gallons of oil that the Coast Guard estimates were dumped in the river following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Yes, folks, millions -- not zero.

sources: Reuters, Associated Press, WDSU, WWLTV, CNN
see also, in Grist: A special series on the Army Corps and the Mississippi River, Three cities on the Mississippi reimagine their waterfronts and themselves