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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TAKE ACTION – Tell Congress to Force Disclosure of Toxic Drilling Chemicals

Aug 5, 2009 by Brian Turnbaugh*

A controversial natural gas drilling technique is suspected of contaminating drinking water across the country, but more research cannot be done because the drilling companies won't disclose what toxic chemicals they are pumping into the ground. Congress is now considering legislation that would force drillers to disclose what chemicals they are using, but it needs our support against Big Oil and Gas.

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EPA Faces Clean Air Test, Advocates Say

Aug 4, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The Environmental Protection Agency is mulling a new air quality standard for nitrogen dioxide – a pollutant that can irritate the lungs and trigger asthma attacks.

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Reproductive Health Declines as Chemical Exposure Increases

Troubling national trends show increases in reproductive health problems as the widespread use of certain chemicals has increased dramatically. A new analysis of available data makes several recommendations for U.S. chemicals policy to address the growing health concerns and potential links to toxic chemicals. Among the recommendations is a call for greater public disclosure of chemical safety information, increased federal research on safer chemical substitutes, and removing political influence from assessments of chemical safety.

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After White House Interference, EPA to Reconsider Lead Monitoring

Jul 23, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced yesterday that it may require more air quality monitoring devices to be placed around the country to calculate levels of airborne lead.

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Sotomayor Defends Opposition to Cost-Benefit Analysis in Fish Kill Case

Jul 16, 2009 by Matthew Madia

During her Senate confirmation hearings, Judge Sonia Sotomayor defended her belief that cost-benefit analysis is an inappropriate decisionmaking tool for writing certain regulations under the Clean Water Act. As a member of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Sotomayor authored an opinion striking down an EPA rule that would have allowed power plants to suck in and kill millions of fish if operators could show that compliance costs outweighed ecological benefits.

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EPA Calls for Transparency as "First Step" to Improving Water Quality

In a July 2 memo to top staff, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lisa Jackson, called for greater transparency of water quality enforcement and compliance information. Jackson acknowledged that U.S. waters do not meet public health and environmental goals, and she listed enhancing transparency as the first of several steps toward improving compliance and water quality.

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Climate Bill Would Prohibit Clean Air Act Regulation

Jul 1, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The historic Waxman-Markey climate change bill passed by the House last Friday includes a provision that would strip the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

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California Seeks to Add New Chemicals to Prop. 65 List

California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is proposing to add 30 chemicals linked to reproductive harm and cancer to the state's Proposition 65 list. Proposition 65, a statute passed by California voters in 1986, requires the state to list chemicals known to cause public health problems and bars some actions that could expose people to the substances.

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Defense Industry Questions Health Effects of Rocket Fuel Additive

Jun 25, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The military-industrial complex is once again lobbying the Environmental Protection Agency in hopes of staving off regulation of a harmful chemical found in rocket fuel.

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Bills Would Require Disclosure of "Fracking" Chemicals

Bills recently introduced in both the House and Senate seek to force natural gas drilling companies to disclose what chemicals are pumped into the ground in a practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." Although the process has been linked to drinking water contamination and other harms to public health and the environment, companies are currently allowed to conceal the toxic chemicals they use.

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