Safeguarding Public Health and the Environment

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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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Biopharming: Not a Boon for Rural America

Dec 9, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The Union of Concerned Scientists is announcing a new report on biopharming:

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Protecting the Right of Environmental Scientists to Express Professional Opinions

Dec 9, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Check out this interesting law review article concerned with protecting scientists from retaliation in the current anti-science climate. From the abstract:

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Time Again for Polluter Pays?

Dec 8, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Congress Daily is reporting that 23 members of the House are going to hold a press conference today to announce a bipartisan bill to reinstate the industry taxes that made Superfund a "polluter pays" program. Superfund worked for years because the polluters themselves were held responsible for cleaning up after themselves when they left toxic garbage in the environment. Without these industry fees, that burden is shifted onto the innocent: the taxpayers, who are the very same people who are subject to the potential harms from industry's hazardous spew.

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Who Needs Regs When You Can Self-Regulate?

Dec 6, 2005 by Guest Blogger

In another sad day for ocean life, EPA announced Dec. 2 a new proposed rule that will allow oil facilities handling up to 10,000 gallons of oil to write their own oil spill prevention plans, without seeking certification by a professional engineer. The proposed rule also indefinitely postpones compliance dates for farms holding up to 10,000 gallons of oil to write their own prevention plans. The proposal "streamlines" the approval process under the auspices of relieving regulatory burden for small businesses.

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EPA Subverts Science to Justify Clear Skies

Dec 2, 2005 by Guest Blogger

A new ">Congressional Research Services report finds Clear Skies will have far fewer health benefits than competing pollution legislation. Moreover, EPA exaggerated the costs of more stringent pollution controls to justify the administration's bogus Clear Skies Initiative. From the report:

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New OMB Watch Report on TRI: Dismantling the Public's Right to Know

OMB Watch released a report entitled: "Dismantling the Public's Right to Know: EPA's Systematic Weakening of the Toxic Release Inventory." The report details how under the Bush administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is slowly dismantling its flagship environmental information tool: the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).

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EPA Plans Shield Polluters from Accountability: Statement by Sean Moulton, Senior Policy Analyst

The Environmental Protection Agency could not have sent a clearer message about its priorities as dictated by the White House: corporate interests before public health and safety. On September 21, EPA officials announced plans to roll back our nation's premier tool for citizens seeking information on toxic pollution released into their communities. The agency proposed dramatically reducing industry reporting requirements under its Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program and plans to cut the program in half by switching to reporting every other year from the current annual program.

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Court Rules in Favor of Mountaintop Mining

Nov 30, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Update on mountaintop removal: The use of a streamlined, general permit for mountaintop mining was reinstated by an appeals court on Nov. 22, vacating a lower court decision to bar the use of a general permit for 11 coal mining projects in West Virginia. The three-judge panel concluded that the Army Corps of Engineers had complied with the Clean Water Act in issuing the general permit. The streamlined general permit requires far less scrutiny of environmental impacts than an individual permit.

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EPA to Reduce Testing of Ground Zero

Nov 30, 2005 by Guest Blogger

In a slap in the face to resident of New York City, EPA released yesterday a reduced testing plan for contaminants released in the collapse of the World Trade Center. EPA backed away from initial broader testing plan that included parts of Brooklyn and areas north of Canal Street in Manhattan. From the Washington Post:

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Developments Could Hamper, Help Effort to Preserve TRI

In response to a petition from public interest groups, the EPA has extended the deadline for public comments on its proposed cutbacks to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) to Jan 13. In an unrelated change, the agency also moved the electronic docket of public comments from its own website to the federal government's www.regulations.gov. The transition was far from seamless, and the possible effects of the location change in the midst of the rulemaking process are uncertain.

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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...

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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...

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

Large chemical companies a...

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

New scientific research shows that the current levels of...

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