Citizen Health & Safety
Kudos to the Office of Advocacy!
Feb 28, 2013 by Randy Rabinowitz
The Center for Effective Government recently published a report criticizing the Office of Advocacy at the Small Business Administration for catering to the anti-regulatory agenda of Big Business rather than representing the unique interests of small business. Among other issues raised in our report was a concern that the environmental roundtables held by the Office of Advocacy were too one-sided – with the presentations at the roundtables dominated by opponents of regulation.
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Leaked BLM Draft May Hinder Public Access to Chemical Information
Feb 26, 2013
On Feb. 8, EnergyWire released a leaked draft proposal from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management on natural gas drilling and extraction on federal public lands. If finalized, the proposal could greatly reduce the public's ability to protect our resources and communities. The new draft indicates a disappointing capitulation to industry recommendations.
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Anti-Regulatory Forces Target Agency Science to Undermine Health and Safety Standards
Feb 26, 2013
As committees of the 113th Congress begin to implement their agendas, it is increasingly apparent that environmental and health standards, and the science serving as the basis for these protections, will remain a favorite target of anti-regulatory legislators. Last session's industry-supported proposals to change scientific assessment programs would undermine environmental, health, and safety standards, yet they are likely to reappear. Meanwhile, new investigations underscore that these measures ignore the real impediments to improving the credibility and usefulness of agency science and risk assessments.
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Disclosure at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: Written Comments and Telephone Records Suspiciously Absent
Feb 26, 2013
In 1981, President Reagan signed an executive order charging the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) with reviewing all economically significant rules and rejecting those that did not pass a strict cost-benefit test. Supporters of environmental, consumer, and worker protection standards have long criticized the office for failing to make its analyses public. Moreover, the office has a reputation for meeting with industry interests behind closed doors and for engaging in intrusive back-and-forth exchanges with agencies over proposed rules. This often results in the office delaying, watering down, or blocking new standards and safeguards.
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New Bowles-Simpson Deficit Plan Emphasizes Spending Cuts
Feb 21, 2013 by Patrick Lester
Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, co-chairs of a presidentially appointed bipartisan commission that failed to reach agreement on a deficit reduction plan in 2010, released a new plan on Feb. 19 to reduce the federal deficit by an additional $2.4 trillion over the next ten years. Most of the proposed new deficit reduction is achieved through spending cuts.
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Stronger Standards for Hazardous Chemicals Benefit the Public and Spur Innovation
Feb 21, 2013 by Katie Greenhaw
Stronger standards for hazardous chemicals not only protect human health and the environment, but can also spur innovation and benefit the economy. A recent report, Driving Innovation: How stronger laws help bring safer chemicals to market, examined the impact of laws governing hazardous chemicals and found that the prospect of stricter laws on toxic chemicals sparked the invention, development, and adoption of alternatives. The demand for these alternatives is growing globally.
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Democrats Release Plans to Prevent Sequestration
Feb 15, 2013 by Patrick Lester
On Feb. 14, congressional Democrats unveiled legislation that would cancel across-the-board spending cuts, called sequestration, which are currently scheduled to begin on March 1. The two bills include $120 billion in alternative spending cuts and revenue increases to offset the cost of canceling sequestration.
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Sanders and Boxer Take Lead on Climate Change
Feb 15, 2013 by Katie Weatherford
At a press conference on Feb. 14, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) revealed new legislation to address climate change by reducing carbon emissions from the nation’s top polluting sectors: power plants, industry, and transportation.
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Climate Change Policies Face Challenges in Congress
Feb 12, 2013
During his second inaugural address on Jan. 21, President Obama announced that the United States will respond to the growing threat of climate change.
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More American Workers Will Die as Silica Rule Delayed
Feb 7, 2013 by Randy Rabinowitz
Silica has long been known to cause silicosis, a progressive, irreversible, but preventable lung disease that kills people. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reported that in 2007, 120 workers died from silicosis; 180-360 new cases of the disease are reported each year. Recent evidence shows that silica exposure also causes lung cancer. OSHA estimates that a lower allowable limit on silica in the workplace would prevent 60 deaths each year.
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