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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Mountaintop Mining Rule Nearing Completion

Dec 4, 2008 by Matthew Madia

The Bush administration has nearly finalized a dastardly rule that will make it legal for mining operations to dump the waste generated during mountaintop mining (tons of rock and dirt) into rivers and streams, in some cases destroying them completely.

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Gas Drilling Threatens Public with Undisclosed Chemicals

The natural gas drilling industry refuses to disclose what potentially harmful chemicals are used in thousands of hydraulic fracturing gas wells across the country, despite evidence that the chemicals are poisoning drinking water supplies. As concerns mount, several states are considering action to curb use of the process despite the federal government's efforts to encourage it with large subsidies and environmental exemptions.

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Endangered Species Rule Sealing Bush Legacy on Warming

Nov 21, 2008 by Matthew Madia

More bad news on the midnight regulations front. A pending rule that would change the way the federal government enforces the Endangered Species Act has become even more controversial.

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Last-Minute Rule Allows More Dirty Oil Production

Nov 17, 2008 by Matthew Madia

The Interior Department today announced a final rule that will open almost 2 million acres of land in Western states to oil shale development. Environmentalists say oil shale development, which involves extracting liquid oil from solid rock by heating it, increases greenhouse gas emissions and requires intensive water use. Interior's Bureau of Land Management fast-tracked the rule when it realized a ban on oil shale development was set to expire. Congress failed to renew the ban which expired Oct. 1.

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Bush Handing over Wilderness to Oil and Gas Industry

Nov 12, 2008 by Matthew Madia

The Bush administration is making a last minute push to open up huge tracts of lands near national parks to oil and gas exploration. According to The New York Times, the Bureau of Land Management published new maps Nov. 4 outlining areas that will be up for auction on Dec. 19 — just 32 days before Bush leaves office.

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Climate Change Disclosure Becomes an Investor Thing

Recent actions by investors and the New York State Attorney General are pressuring companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and the risks they face from climate change. Many regard such information as essential to investors' right to know about the potential liabilities facing thousands of industries as the climate warms and new emissions regulations become a near certainty.

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Watching out for Midnight Regulations

Nov 3, 2008 by Matthew Madia

Reg•Watch has been following the phenomenon known as "midnight regulation" where an administration finalizes lots of rules in its waning days of power. Below is a list of many of the more controversial rules worth watching. Reg•Watch will provide regular updates to this list.

Click here for updated information on all midnight regulations finalized during the Bush administration.

CIVIL LIBERTIES

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To Gut Species Protection, Interior Calls "All Hands on Deck"

Oct 22, 2008 by Matthew Madia

The Bush administration is moving at warp speed to finalize a rule that will allow government-approved projects to intrude on the habitats of endangered species. The Department of the Interior received about 300,000 public comments, mostly negative, on its proposal after it was unveiled in August. According to an internal email obtained by the Associated Press, Interior wants to review all the public comments in just four days:

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EPA Doesn't Tell the Whole Tale of Enforcement

Oct 21, 2008 by Matthew Madia

The Environmental Protection Agency exaggerates its penalties on polluters according to a new GAO report to be released later today, AP reports. GAO charges that EPA overstates its total penalty amounts by including fines that are never actually collected. From AP: The levied fines in 2004, 2005 and 2006 included a total of $227.2 million in so-called default judgments. The agency admitted these hard-to-collect fines were larger in those years; GAO said they are unlikely to be collected.

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EPA to Reduce Airborne Lead, but OMB Bedevils the Details

The Bush administration recently tightened the national public health standard for airborne lead, drawing rare praise from clean air advocates. However, shortcomings in the network for monitoring lead pollution persist, and a new requirement to increase the number of pollution detectors was watered down by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

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