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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

The House Energy Bill from a Regulatory Perspective

Aug 7, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Much has been said about the energy bill (H.R. 3221) the House of Representatives passed on Friday Aug. 4 (here is a recap from The New York Times). The provision receiving the most attention is the renewable electricity standard which would require private utilities to generate 15 percent of their output using renewable resources by 2020. How exactly would this renewable electricity standard work?

The Department of Energy (DoE) would retain the regulatory authority of promulgating rules related to the standard and making sure electricity suppliers comply.

read in full

TRI Restoration Bill Passes Senate Committee

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted 10-9 to approve the Toxic Right-to-Know Protection Act (S. 595) on July 31. The act would reverse a December 2006 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule change to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) that significantly reduced toxic release reporting requirements for polluting facilities.

read in full

OMB Manipulates Science in Cost-Benefit Analysis for Ozone Rule

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a cost-benefit analysis for a proposed rule aiming to tighten the federal standard for human exposure to ground-level ozone, also known as smog. Before its release, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) edited scientific language in the analysis in order to downplay the economic benefits of the proposed rule.

read in full

Senate EPW Works for the Environment, Public

Aug 1, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday was a busy day for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The panel approved legislation which would force EPA to decide on California's request to implement its own vehicle emissions standards. (More on California's request here.) The bill — introduced by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) — would also prevent delay from occurring in the future by giving EPA a 180 day window to decide on future requests.

read in full

Paranoia Strikes Deep

Jul 26, 2007 by Rick Melberth*

The Associated Press (AP) published a story today noting the decline in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) criminal enforcement of polluters. According to the article, "The number of the Environmental Protection Agency's criminal investigators has dropped this year to 174, below the 200-agent minimum required by Congress, even as the EPA's overall criminal enforcement budget rose nearly 25 percent over three years to $48 million, according to EPA records." Civil settlements, however, which require spending on pollution controls, are increasing.

read in full

Progress in the FDA? Think again.

Jul 25, 2007 by Rick Melberth*

You'd think that U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials would be willing to listen to their own employees as public confidence in the agency diminishes among a string of regulatory lapses and congressional investigations. However, a BNA report ($) suggests otherwise.

read in full

Victims of High Dioxin Exposure Levels Left Behind

Jul 25, 2007 by Rick Melberth*

Residents of Mossville, LA, have three times the level of dioxin in their blood as the national average, and 90 percent of the residents have illnesses that are linked to dioxin exposure. These are conclusions drawn from government data, so the humane, responsible thing for government agencies to do is — nothing.

read in full

Fish and Wildlife Reviewing MacDonald's Interference

Jul 24, 2007 by Rick Melberth*

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced recently that it planned to review eight Endangered Species Act (ESA) decisions ex-deputy assistant secretary Julie MacDonald influenced according to a BNA story (subscription) published yesterday. FWS has identified eight among hundreds its reviewed that MacDonald may have influenced for political considerations.

read in full

FEMA Ignores Toxic Trailers of Hurricane Victims

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) turned a blind eye to Katrina victims who became ill while living in FEMA-provided trailers, according to testimony given at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on July 19. Trailer tenants and experts described how FEMA, with evidence of toxic levels of formaldehyde in the trailers from construction materials, refused to substantively evaluate the extent of the problem, respond to known instances of formaldehyde poisoning or take adequate precautionary action.

read in full

White House Delays Whale Protection Rule

The White House is currently delaying the completion of a final rule intended to protect a critically endangered whale species. Critics are concerned the Bush administration is giving special access to business interests and overemphasizing economic considerations in its review of the rule. The delay of the whale protection rule is indicative of a larger problem in the White House regulatory review process.

read in full