Safeguarding Public Health and the Environment

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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States Group Resolved Against EPA's Plans to Cut Toxics Reporting

On Aug. 29 the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) passed a resolution urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw its proposals to reduce reporting under the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). The resolution, by a national association of state and territorial environmental agency leaders, underscores the fact that states are firmly opposed to the EPA's plans to cut the national pollution reporting program.

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White House Strips Whistleblower Protections from Clean Air Act

Sep 11, 2006 by Guest Blogger

According to documents obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Bush administration has waived whistleblower protections under the Clean Air Act and the Solid Waste Disposal Act. Acting Assistant Attorney General Steve Bradbury wrote a memo in 2005 detailing why whistleblower protections do not apply under the acts. According to PEER, The opinion and the ruling reverse nearly two decades of precedent. Approximately 170,000 federal employees working within environmental agencies are affected by the loss of whistleblower rights.

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A Victory for Wildlife

Aug 29, 2006 by Guest Blogger

From Earthjustice: A federal judge ruled that the Bush administration "plainly violated" the Endangered Species Act when it issued a regulation that eliminated reviews of new pesticides by federal wildlife biologists.

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Bill Berkowitz: Dudley Do-Wrong

Aug 25, 2006 by Guest Blogger

In a column for WorkingForChange, Bill Berkowitz compiles a pretty damning case against Susan Dudley. Berkowitz interviews a variety of advocates for public health, safety and the environment, all of whom express deep concerns about the nomination: "If Dudley is confirmed by the Senate, she will further strip them of their ability to stand up to government secrecy, politicization and corporate interests," said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. "Throughout her career, Dudley has consistently fought against government safeguards and advocated a radical, hands-off approach.

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Industry-Backed Lobbyists Use YouTube to Attack Climate Change

Aug 8, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Lobbyists are trying some new media tactics to sway public opinion about climate change. In the latest effort, a video released on the video-sharing site YouTube mocks Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. The short, entitled "Al Gore's Penguin Army," is a vapid animation that turns Gore into a fat penguin who bores audiences to death and hypnotizes them into thinking climate change must be stopped.

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A Look at Risk Assessment

Aug 5, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Click here for Rachel's Precaution Reporter's reprint of a Nature magazine article covering the White House's Proposed Risk Assessment Bulletin.

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EPA's Science Advisory Board Opposes TRI Proposals

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board (SAB) recently sent a letter to the agency expressing concerns over its plans to reduce information collected under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The SAB maintains that the proposed cuts would "hinder the advances of environmental research used to protect public health and the environment." SBA sent the letter detailing its concerns to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on July 12.

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Senators 'Hold' EPA Nominee to Protest Cuts to Pollution Reporting

New Jersey Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D) and Robert Menendez (D) have placed a hold on a Bush administration nominee to protest a set of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposals to dismantle the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Last year, EPA proposed significant cuts to the TRI program, our country's most complete inventory of toxic pollution, that would according to Lautenberg, "deny thousands of communities - including 160 in New Jersey - full information about the release of hazardous toxic emissions in their neighborhoods."

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Congress to Limit Public Participation in Forest Service Decisions

After courts in California and Montana struck down Forest Service rules that limited public participation in certain logging decisions, the Senate has added language to an appropriations bill that would reinstate those rules.

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U.S. Promoting Paralysis by Analysis Worldwide

Jun 27, 2006 by Guest Blogger

What's bad for America is being touted as great for the rest of the world: By year's end, the European Union is expected to adopt REACH, a proposal that would "require manufacturers to test industrial chemicals used in the manufacturing process to gather health and safety data." REACH stands for "Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals." The bill "has prompted a U.S.-led coalition of 1

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