Today, OMB Watch and 16 local, regional, and national organizations filed a petition under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require the oil and gas industry – including companies engaged in fracking – to report their toxic emissions. Such reporting would provide EPA with more information on the identity, use, and quantity of chemicals used by the oil and gas industry and would help the agency evaluate their health and environmental risks.

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, water utilities are required to provide annual reports on the quality of the drinking water they provide to consumers. These reports, attached to a customer’s water bill, are called Consumer Confidence Reports (CCRs); they contain information on potential contaminants in the water, any violations of water quality standards, and the sources of the water supply. Unfortunately, the reports are overly technical and most people have a hard time understanding if the cleanliness of their water is improving or declining.

In the lead up to Rio+20, the three-day international environmental conference being held this week in Rio de Janeiro, many doubted that government officials would finalize an outcome document on how to embrace sustainable development in the next decade. However, after intense talks, negotiators finalized a document and presented it to high-level officials on June 20. The outcome document, titled “The Future We Want,” focuses on market growth and offers few advances in protecting the planet and its people in the process.

For months, we've been waiting for the U.S. Department of the Interior to issue standards for natural gas drilling and extraction on federal land and tribal land. The proposed rule was finally released on May 4 and it is very disappointing.