Blog: The Fine Print / Citizen Health & Safety

Obama Administration to Withdraw Bush Rule on Endangered Species

Apr 28, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The Obama administration will withdraw a Bush-era regulation designed to undermine the Endangered Species Act, specifically, the role of science in protecting species. The departments of Commerce and the Interior, the agencies responsible for issuing the regulation in December 2008, announced the withdrawal today in a press release.

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Interior Hopes to Reinstate Mountaintop Mining Controls

Apr 27, 2009 by Matthew Madia

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced today that he wants to do away with a Bush administration regulation that allowed mountaintop mining operations to dump mining debris into nearby streams. The rule was one of many rollbacks finalized near the end of President Bush’s time in office.

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White House Accepting Comments on Scientific Integrity

Apr 23, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced today that it is seeking public input on ways to restore scientific integrity in the federal government. In March, President Obama asked OSTP to come up with recommendations on a variety of issues situated at the nexus of science and politics.

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EPA Warming Up to Climate Regulation while Congress Debates

Apr 22, 2009 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday, OMB Watch released an article outlining how EPA’s recent decision to move forward on greenhouse gas emission regulations may (or may not) prompt Congress to pass a cap-and-trade bill. The thinking goes that opponents of cap-and-trade will throw their support behind the bill rather than risk facing new EPA regulations.

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Sunstein Officially Nominated

Apr 20, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The internets are buzzing with the news that President Obama has officially nominated Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs – the administration’s gatekeeper for all things regulatory.

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Guns-in-Parks Rule on Hold Indefinitely

Apr 20, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The Obama administration will accept a federal judge’s ruling that blocked implementation of a rule allowing loaded firearms to be carried in national parks. While the National Park Service (NPS) goes back to the drawing board, the 26-year-old ban on guns in parks will go back into effect.

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EPA Calls Greenhouse Gases a Danger to the Public

Apr 17, 2009 by Matthew Madia

As expected, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to deem greenhouse gases a public threat. Today, EPA unveiled its endangerment finding for the six gases culpable in causing climate change.

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EPA to Begin Work on Hormone Disrupting Chemicals

Apr 16, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will finally begin to test the health effects of certain pesticide chemicals suspected of disrupting human or animal endocrine systems.

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OMB Approves EPA Finding on Greenhouse Gases

Apr 14, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The White House Office of Management and Budget has approved the Environmental Protection Agency’s determination that greenhouse gas emissions threaten the public. (Thanks to Frank O’Donnell at Clean Air Watch for finding this earlier today; he surmises EPA could officially announce the so-called endangerment finding this week or on Earth Day, April 22.)

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Takin’ TRI to the Next Level: First Path - Expanding Information Tracked

Apr 10, 2009 by Sean Moulton

On April 9 I introduced the need for improving the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and suggested three broad paths for achieving this. Here I discuss one path – expanding information. We always want more information. And for a while TRI was a program regularly searching for new data to report with new industries being added, new chemicals, lowering the threshold for some chemicals, and adding federal facilities. But recently we have gone backwards with an effort by the agency to raise the reporting thresholds and have fewer detailed reports filed.

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