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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Public Supports Consumer and Environmental Protections, Polls Show

Americans overwhelmingly support government protection of the environment and consumers, a series of new polls shows. The findings come as efforts to enforce and expand regulation face increasingly hostile rhetoric from conservatives and industry representatives in Washington.

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EPA Seeks to Enhance Public Access to Chemical Data

Mountaintop The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed several changes to its regulation of chemicals that should improve the public's access to crucial information. The improved data collected under the proposed rule will help the agency and the public identify potential chemical risks and take action to manage those risks.

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EPA Rejects Challenge to Climate Change Finding

Jul 30, 2010 by Rachel Sauter*

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on July 29 denied 10 petitions challenging its 2009 finding that climate change caused by greenhouse gases poses a threat to human health and the environment. EPA made the endangerment finding in response to a 2007 Supreme Court case that held that greenhouse gases are air pollutants under the Clean Air Act, and are therefore subject to regulation by EPA.

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EPA Pushing Pollution Data Out to Public with New Tools, Earliest TRI Release Ever

Jul 30, 2010 by Brian Turnbaugh*

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week released the preliminary 2009 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data, the earliest data release in the history of the program. The TRI program tracks toxic pollution from thousands of facilities nationwide and is considered one of the most successful environmental programs and a cornerstone of environmental right to know. The preliminary data are now available for the public to download and analyze, maintaining TRI as a vital tool for holding businesses accountable for their pollution and driving changes to prevent pollution.

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Alaska Court Stops All Oil and Gas Activities in Chukchi Sea

On July 21, a federal district court judge in Alaska issued an order halting all oil and gas activities in more than 29 million acres of the Chukchi Sea. The order said that the former Minerals Management Service (MMS) failed to adequately consider the environmental impacts of potential natural gas production in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

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National Mining Association Sues EPA over Limits on Mountaintop Mining

Mountaintop The National Mining Association (NMA) filed a lawsuit on July 20 against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) claiming that new enforcement guidelines issued by EPA in April unlawfully obstruct permitting of coal mining operations. NMA claims the new guidelines effectively prohibit certain types of surface mining and that EPA denied NMA the opportunity to review and comment on the guidelines before they became final.

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New Oil Industry Suit Challenges Obama’s Latest Effort to Pause Offshore Oil Drilling

Jul 21, 2010 by Rachel Sauter*

A Texas-based deepwater drilling contractor has filed a lawsuit in federal district court, seeking to block the Obama administration’s latest effort to temporarily halt new offshore drilling operations while the Department of the Interior investigates safety and technology concerns in light of the April 20 explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Ensco Offshore argues in their July 20 suit that the drilling suspension issued by the Interior is “substantially the same” as an earlier moratorium that was struck down in federal district court.

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Another Shameful Attack on Our Public Protections

Jul 21, 2010 by Gary Bass*

There they go again. Amid some of the most spectacular market failures the country has ever seen, business lobbyists and their friends in Congress want to reinvigorate their discredited deregulatory agenda.

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Courts Block Deepwater Drilling Moratorium, Salazar Issues Revisions in Response

On July 8, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Obama administration's attempt to block deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. In a three-paragraph ruling, the court denied by a 2-1 vote the administration's request to stay an earlier ruling by a federal district court that struck down the moratorium. In response, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has revised the moratorium.

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The Amazing Benefits of EPA’s New Air Pollution Proposal

Jul 6, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its plan to regulate air pollution that crosses state lines. The so-called clean air transport rule targets downwind emissions, mainly smog and soot, from power plants in 31 states (mostly in the east) and D.C.

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more resources

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

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

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

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

Public Supports Consumer and Environmental Protections, Polls Show

EPA Seeks to Enhance Public Access to Chemical Data

EPA Rejects Challenge to Climate Change Finding

Jul 30, 2010 by Rachel Sauter*

EPA Pushing Pollution Data Out to Public with New Tools, Earliest TRI Release Ever

Jul 30, 2010 by Brian Turnbaugh*

Alaska Court Stops All Oil and Gas Activities in Chukchi Sea

National Mining Association Sues EPA over Limits on Mountaintop Mining

New Oil Industry Suit Challenges Obama’s Latest Effort to Pause Offshore Oil Drilling

Jul 21, 2010 by Rachel Sauter*

Another Shameful Attack on Our Public Protections

Jul 21, 2010 by Gary Bass*

Courts Block Deepwater Drilling Moratorium, Salazar Issues Revisions in Response

The Amazing Benefits of EPA’s New Air Pollution Proposal

Jul 6, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Pages

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

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

Blowing Smoke: Chemical Companies Say “Trust Us,” But Environmental and Workplace Safety Violations Belie Their Rhetoric

Gasping for Support: Implementation of Tougher Air Quality Standards Will Require New Funds for State Agencies

Citizen Health & Safety Topics

Recent Reports

Living in the Shadow of Danger: State Scorecards

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

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