Setting and Enforcing Regulations

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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Americans Vote to Protect Environment in Ballot Initiatives

Voters approved ballot measures on Nov. 2 that will strengthen environmental protections in several states. Although the Bush administration's return to power does not bode well for the future of environmental protections, the success of these state ballot initiatives indicates that citizens remain committed to protecting the environment. While only a few states voted down ballot initiatives to strengthen environmental protections, several states passed major environmental measures that will, among other things, clean up hazardous waste, limit mining with cyanide, and protect public lands.

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What Bush means for the environment

Nov 12, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Be sure to check out this excellent report on the prospect of further Bush administration rollbacks of the environment. Unlike most press coverage, this story goes the extra step and addresses how the Bush administration can have far-reaching consequences not just through rollbacks of individual rules but also through broadly applicable technical policies, such as cost-benefit analysis.

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EPA rollback is killing children

Nov 11, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Tens of thousands of children are poisoned every year from accidentally ingesting rat poison. EPA responded in 1998 with a rule that added a bitter taste to the poison and a dye to make it more obvious that a child has ingested rat poison. The Bush administration promptly reversed course in 2001 and repealed these requirements, even though they do not make rat poisons any less effective at killing rats.

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Costs outweighing benefits of cost-benefit analysis

Nov 10, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Interesting tidbit in Cindy Skrzycki's Washington Post column about OHSA. Charged with protecting the men and women of America who work for a living, OSHA has become, during the Bush administration, the black hole of government: nothing comes out of it, certainly not light. As we found in a recent report, the Bush OSHA has failed to produce a single economically significant protection of workplace health or safety.

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The coming attacks on the environment

Nov 8, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Don't miss the New York Times's coverage of the administration and GOP Congress's plans for weakening and dismantling environmental policy. The article identifies several specific targets:

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The coming attacks on regulatory policy

Nov 6, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Election day results portend a new wave of attacks on the ability of the people to use their federal government to serve the public interest. More Destruction of Public Safeguards. The Bush administration mounted an all-out assault on regulatory safeguards in its first term. An exhaustive catalogue of these attacks is available in our reports Special Interest Takeover: The Bush Administration and the Dismantling of Public Safeguards and The Bush Regulatory Record: A Pattern of Failure.

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Coming attack on tire pressure monitoring rule?

Nov 4, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Remember the tire pressure monitoring rule? NHTSA was forced by law to require automakers to implement systems that alert drivers when air pressure in their tires becomes dangerously low. There was unnecessary brouhaha (and lives were needlessly lost) because White House regulatory czar John Graham forced the agency to select a less effective alternative.

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The pattern of failure has a timeline

Nov 2, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The Bush administration's pattern of failure to use regulatory policy in the public interest has been spelled out in a timeline, by the good folks over at In These Times magazine. Check it out!

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Dreier Pushes Amendment to Place DHS Above Law

Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) is promoting an amendment to pending intelligence overhaul legislation that would exempt the Department of Homeland Security from all federal law in the course of securing the nation's borders. Dreier is championing this amendment in the conference committee that is working to resolve differences in the House and Senate versions of a bill to implement reforms suggested by the 9/11 Commission. Text of the Dreier Amendment Sec. 3131. Waiver of Laws Necessary for Improvement of Barriers at Borders

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Interior Gives Exclusive Appeal Rights to Industry

A proposed rule from the Department of Interior would grant those in the hydroelectric industry the exclusive right to appeal rulings about how dams are licensed and operated. The rule could save the hydroelectric industry hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements while effectively cutting Indian tribes, states, federal agencies and environmental groups out of the appeals process.

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