New Posts

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...

read in full
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...

read in full
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...

read in full
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...

read in full
more news

Second Coal Ash Proposal Added During White House Review

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plans for a single, environmentally-protective proposal to regulate coal ash were changed during a six-month review at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). An internal administration document released Friday shows the significant edits made to EPA’s original draft.

read in full

BP Won't Say What Toxics It's Dumping Onto Its Oil Spill

British Petroleum has in fact gone "Beyond Petroleum" and is now spilling tons of toxic chemicals known as dispersants onto their colossal oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, hoping to break up the slick before it reaches shore. However, BP refuses to disclose what chemicals are in the dispersants they are dumping into the Gulf. The chemical identities are considered trade secrets. Without knowing the chemical identities, we may never know what additional insults BP has left us to clean up for years to come.

read in full

One Clear Choice in Coal Ash Proposal, Environmentalists Say

Yesterday, EPA released its long anticipated proposal to regulate toxic coal ash. The proposed rule actually contains two proposals between which the agency will choose, one to strictly regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste, the other to barely regulate it as a non-hazardous waste. “The difference between the two is stark,” according to a statement from five leading environmental groups.

read in full

Factory Farms Take Federal Money, Refuse Disclosure of Pollution

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday announced plans to expand a program with the Department of Agriculture (USDA) that uses tax money to help factory farms capture their methane pollution and burn it for energy. Before EPA and USDA spend more money on factory farms, the very least these facilities can do is agree to tell us how much they are polluting. Big Agriculture has successfully fought an attempt to measure the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from these large factories, known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). With these giant livestock operations in position to reap financial rewards from climate change policies, the public needs to know what they are emitting in order to measure progress and ensure accountability.

read in full

EPA Announces Coal Ash Proposal

After a long and politically controversial review, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today a proposal to regulate coal ash.

read in full

Environmental, Health, and Safety Agencies Set Rulemaking Agendas

Unified Agenda On April 26, federal agencies published their updated rulemaking agendas outlining past, present, and future regulations. The agendas provide insight into the Obama administration's plans and expectations in the coming months.




read in full

Pollution and Justice 101

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be conducting a webinar to instruct the public on how to use the pollution information in the agency's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) to support environmental justice efforts. In addition to teaching the basics about TRI, the webinar will feature real life examples of how communities have used TRI to address environmental justice concerns. We have encouraged EPA to reach out to the public and publicize the data and tools the agency provides; this webinar is an excellent opportunity for any citizen or public interest group to learn about a very valuable advocacy tool at their disposal.

read in full

Obama on Oil Rigs: Who Knew These Things Could Leak?

President Obama is backing away from earlier plans to permit new offshore drilling amid growing concerns that oil spilling from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico will soon reach the Louisiana coast, exacting serious environmental damage.

read in full

Coal Ash Rule Still on Track?

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency still plans to issue a proposal for the regulation of coal ash in the coming weeks, according to the agency’s most recent regulatory agenda.

read in full

Clean Air Means Big Benefits for the Economy Too

A new report under development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that the public benefits of clean air standards far outweigh the costs of compliance. The report estimates that regulation under the Clean Air Act benefits the economy to the tune of $175 billion per year since 1990, BNA news service (subscription) reports. Controls cost regulated industries $45 billion per year.

read in full

Pages

Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

read in full

A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

read in full
more resources