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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more news

OIRA Meets Regarding EPA Mercury Draft Guidance

Jun 10, 2005 by Guest Blogger

OIRA met with several industry representatives, the Environmental Protection Agency Water Division and the National Association of Clean Water Agencies regarding the EPA Mercury Draft Guidance on June 6. Published in the federal register on March 15, the Clean Air Mercury rule is meant to reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. However, under EPA's cap-and-trade program, the rule will create higher levels of mercury emissions in some areas.

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OIRA Meets Regarding BART Rule

Jun 10, 2005 by Guest Blogger

OIRA met with representatives of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Parks Conservation Association regarding a Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) regulation on June 3. OIRA also met to discuss the BART rule on April 13 and May 16 of this year. The rule, also known as the Clean Air Visibility Rule, would seek to limit regional haze by requiring power plants and factories to install the best available retrofit technology (BART) to control sulfur dioxide and other emissions.

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White House "edits" science report, yet again

Jun 7, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Reporters must have a Mad Libs form somewhere -- "White House edits a scientific report on ______________ to ___________ the risks of _____________." It certainly happens a lot. Here's the latest, from the NY Times: A White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents.

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EPA's Lead Poison Prevention Program: From Bad to Worse

Jun 3, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Only a few months ago, EPA href="/article/blogs/entry/729/23">replaced plans for developing enforceable standards for lead poisoning prevention in home renovation with a plan for voluntary guidelines. EPA touted the voluntary plan as more flexible for remodeling and renovation companies, and concerned citizens decried the plan as a weakening of congressionally mandated public protections. Now EPA has taken yet another step in the wrong direction: withdrawing its plans for the voluntary standard completely. EPA now has no plans for protecting children and construction workers from lead

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Court Waters Down Toxic Release Inventory

A federal appeals court ruled May 10 that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can no longer require chemical facilities to report methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) releases under the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). According to the 2003 TRI data, facilities released over 26 million pounds of MEK to the environment.

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OIRA Meets Regarding BART Rule

May 23, 2005 by Guest Blogger

OIRA met with representatives of Pacificorp power company, the White House's Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency regarding a Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) regulation on May 16. The rule, also known as the Clean Air Visibility Rule, would seek to limit regional haze by requiring power plants and factories to install the best available retrofit technology (BART) to control sulfur dioxide and other emissions. These emissions lead to visibility impairment, which is widespread throughout the national park system.

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Sneak attack on EPA turned away

May 20, 2005 by Guest Blogger

If you blinked, you missed it, but what was at stake was nothing less than the ability of the federal government to do anything for the environment: during the House consideration of the appropriations bill for Interior and EPA, Rep. Todd Tiahrt pushed an amendment "to provide that no funds may be used to promulgate regulations without outside auditing to determine the authenticity of the scientific methods used to develop such regulations." It was withdrawn.

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Unified Agenda out today

May 16, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The semiannual Unified Agenda is available in today's Federal Register. It will eventually be available in database form on this site; until then, here are links to the PDFs of the agendas for certain key agencies:

Consumer Product Safety Commission
EPA
HHS
Interior
Labor
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Transportation
USDA

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New agency agendas

May 15, 2005 by Guest Blogger

BNA's Daily Report for Executives (a subscription-only service) has already combed through a copy of tomorrow's edition of the Federal Register, in which the agencies are releasing their semiannual agendas for the next six months of regulatory priorities. We have some information available to help people decipher the agendas: click here for more.

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RTK NET Releases 2003 Toxic Release Inventory Data

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 12, 2005 Contact: Herb Ettel or Sean Moulton, 202-234-8494 OMB Watch, 1742 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20009 www.rtknet.org www.ombwatch.org Washington, D.C., May 12, 2005 -- The Right-to-Know Network (RTK NET) published the 2003 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data today, providing public access to important Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data on the release and transfer of toxic chemicals in the United States.

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