New Posts

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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Strong Coal Ash Rules Sought at Public Hearing

Witnesses from across the country yesterday urged the EPA to set strong public health standards for coal ash. In an all-day hearing in Arlington, VA, environmental and public health advocates and members of the general public asked EPA to regulate coal ash, a toxic byproduct of coal combustion that can contain arsenic, lead, and other toxics, as a hazardous waste.

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Tell EPA to Protect Communities from Toxic Coal Ash

OMB Watch is asking you to tell the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set strong public health and environmental standards for coal ash, a toxic waste resulting from coal combustion.

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Overdue OSHA Rule Will Improve Safety Conditions for Crane Workers

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is finally setting new safety standards for cranes and derrick use in the construction industry. OSHA estimates the new standards will save 22 lives and prevent 175 injuries every year.

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Big Upgrade for Federal Register Online

The Federal Register unveiled a slick new website last week that should allow the public to find proposed and final rules more easily.

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The Amazing Benefits of EPA’s New Air Pollution Proposal

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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Coal Ash Proposal Open for Public Comment

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today published in the Federal Register its proposal to regulate toxic coal ash. The proposal, steeped in controversy, was announced by EPA May 3 but not immediately published.

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Commentary: Changes to Coal Ash Proposal Place Utility's Concerns above Public Health

An internal administration document shows the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may have weakened a proposal to regulate toxic coal ash at the behest of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), owner of a Kingston, TN, power plant where a dam break spilled 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash in 2008.

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Lettuce Contamination Prompts Harder Look at Precut, Bagged Products

Bagged, precut lettuce may pose additional safety risks and challenges for regulators, the Washington Post reports. An ongoing E. coli outbreak connected to precut lettuce has sickened at least 23 people in four states.

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Commentary: White House Misadventures in Coal Ash Rule

Unified Agenda Developments behind the scenes of a new EPA proposal to regulate coal ash undermine several core tenets of the Obama presidency, conflict with pledges to reform the way government works, and expose the flaws in a regulatory process that too often does not do enough for the public.

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One Clear Choice in Coal Ash Proposal, Environmentalists Say

Yesterday, EPA released its long anticipated proposal to regulate toxic coal ash. The proposed rule actually contains two proposals between which the agency will choose, one to strictly regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste, the other to barely regulate it as a non-hazardous waste. “The difference between the two is stark,” according to a statement from five leading environmental groups.

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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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