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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Bite Taken Out of Chemical Secrecy

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Jan. 21 a new practice that will prevent chemical manufacturers from hiding the identities of chemicals that have been found to pose a significant risk to environmental or public health. The policy is a small step to increase the transparency of the nation's chemical laws, and it highlights both the problem of excessive secrecy and the power of the executive branch to make government more open – even without action by Congress or the courts.

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EPA Sets New Standard for Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution

Jan 26, 2010 by Matthew Madia

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday revised the national air quality standard for nitrogen dioxide for the first time in 35 years. In addition to the annually-measured standard (which EPA actually kept the same) the agency will, for the first time ever, enforce a one-hour standard intended to limit short-term exposure to NO2. The new one-hour standard is set at 100 ppb (parts per billion).

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Greenhouse Gases are Peachy Keen, 40 Senators Say

Jan 22, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and a whopping 39 co-sponsors introduced a resolution that would disapprove the Environmental Protection Agency’s endangerment finding for greenhouse gas emissions.

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Time’s about up for OIRA on Coal Ash Rule

Jan 14, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Today, Jan. 14, marks day 90 of the White House’s review of EPA’s proposed coal ash regulation. As I blogged on Monday, the rule has been discussed at dozens of meetings featuring the EPA, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), and various stakeholders. My updated count has industry stakeholders at 22 meetings and environmental stakeholders at four.

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Chemical Secrecy Increasing Risks to Public

Excessive secrecy prevents the public from knowing what chemicals are used in their communities and what health impacts might be associated with those substances, according to a recent analysis of government data by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG). The growing practice of concealing data alleged to be trade secrets has seemingly hobbled regulators' ability to protect the public from potential risks from thousands of chemicals.

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OIRA Meetings Stir Controversy over Coal Ash Regulation

Jan 11, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Industry representatives have repeatedly visited the White House to discuss pending regulation of coal ash, raising suspicions that industry may be influencing the rule. In December, amid these meetings, EPA announced it was backing away from its earlier pledge to propose coal ash regulations by the end of 2009.

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EPA Takes Aim at Past Air Pollution Screw Ups

Jan 7, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a revision to the national air quality standard for ozone, a.k.a. smog. EPA is proposing to tighten the primary standard to a level somewhere between 0.060 and 0.070 ppm (parts per million), down from the current standard of 0.075 ppm set in 2008. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA must set the primary standard at a level protective of public health.

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EPA Seeking Comment on Disclosing Pesticide Ingredients

Dec 22, 2009 by Brian Turnbaugh*

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it will begin accepting public comments on its proposal to require pesticide manufacturers to label pesticide ingredients. Currently, pesticide makers must label the "active" ingredients in a pesticide, but they are not required to identify the so called inert ingredients. "Inerts" often are toxic or otherwise harmful substances in their own right.

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A Busy Year for EPA’s Air Office

Dec 22, 2009 by Matthew Madia

As the Washington Post reports today, EPA is temporarily delaying a decision to regulate coal ash, a toxic byproduct formed when smokestack scrubbers capture pollutants otherwise destined for the air. Today is the one-year anniversary of a major coal ash spill that sent a billion gallons of toxic goo cascading across hundreds of acres of land in eastern Tennessee.

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In Drinking Water, What’s Legal Can Be Poisonous

Dec 17, 2009 by Matthew Madia

In another of The New York Times’ startling articles on the state of U.S. waters, Charles Duhigg reports on the myriad chemicals polluting drinking water supplies and regulators’ inability to manage them.

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