Spectrum.

This article deals with issues such as environmental protection and policy in the U.S. as of June 1986. For the second year in a row, the U.S. Department of Defense has decided not to consider the policy implications of nuclear winter. Meanwhile, after nine months of negotiations, representatives from environmental groups and major oil companies have reached agreement on a plan for development and preservation of outer continental shelf tracts in the Bering Sea. Connecticut chemists Martin L. Cohen and Warren D. Steinmetz of the American Cyanamid Company found that a small amount of rain can wash off most of several pesticides sprayed on cotton plants. Scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle are using fish cells and eggs to evaluate the biological effects of chemical pollutants. The potential detrimental effects on environmental protection from the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings deficit reduction law, a possible remedy for them, and a way for the government to raise much-needed funds have been outlined by seven environmental groups.