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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Partisan Patterns Detected in Civil Rights, Environment Decisions

Federal judges appointed by Republican administrations -- and the Bush administration in particular -- are expressing, through decisions and dissents, a marked bias against civil rights, environmental, and other public interest litigation, according to two new reports.

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Administration Continues to Suppress, Weaken Science

In three separate cases in the past month, agency scientists have claimed that government agency officials have suppressed or softened their scientific findings, allowing policies harmful to public health and the environment to be carried out despite scientific evidence of their potential harm. Antidepressants and Vioxx

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RegWatch Roundup

If you haven't been reading RegWatch, our new regulatory policy weblog, here's a look at what you've been missing. Regulatory Policy Failures So what's the federal government doing to protect us from bio-terrorism?

Weakening needed rules, after meeting with the food industry!
Promoting a Bioshield program that is inadequate to the task!

But surely our nuclear facilities are being secured against terrorism threats. Right?

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Making cigarettes even less safe (can you believe it?)

Oct 17, 2004 by Guest Blogger

This story comes packed with just enough irony of its own: Legislation just passed by Congress abolishes the requirement that the government inspect imported tobacco to ensure it is not laced with chemicals and pesticides banned in the United States but permitted elsewhere. That means imported leaf, which U.S. tobacco companies are increasingly relying on, could make cigarettes even more harmful, said Tom Glynn, director of science and trends for the American Cancer Society. --Nancy Zuckerbrod, " U.S. to Quit Inspecting Tobacco for Banned Chemicals and Pesticides," A.P., Oct. 18, 2004.

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Things getting better on the job or in the environment?

Oct 14, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The administration has been replying to critics of the attack on regulatory policy that its choices are being proved right, because things are getting better on the job and in the environment. Reports suggest that the trends may not necessarily back the administration's claims about its policy choices.

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An alternative vision for protecting the public?

Oct 14, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The excellent Newsday series "Erasing the Rules" concludes today with a look at Senator Kerry's legislative record and campaign platform and inquires whether they represent an alternative to current regulatory policy: In the mid-1990s when Republicans in Congress were pushing to make regulations harder to enact, consumer, labor and environmental groups sought an ally committed to government oversight and capable of grasping the complexity of the rules.

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Of foxes, henhouses, and unbreathable air

Oct 12, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The excellent Newsday series, "Erasing the Rules," continues today with a focus on EPA. There have been some exceptions to the pattern, such as the EPA's adoption earlier this year of tough new emissions standards for diesel engines. But critics and many analysts say the common thread that ties together almost all of the administration's other environmental initiatives is to cushion the impact of regulations on business.

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Foxes in the henhouse, blood on the floor

Oct 11, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Don't miss "Erasing the Rules," the excellent series in Newsday on the Bush administration regulatory record.

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From politicizing science to politicizing history

Oct 8, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The Los Angeles Times is reporting a doozy: VP wife Lynne Cheney has long opposed the National History Standards because they contain too much actual history and haven't been politically slanted in favor of her more "positive" vision of America's past. When she realized that the Department of Education was circulating a 10-year-old guidebook for parents, "Helping Your Child Learn History," that mentioned the national standards, her staff communicated its displeasure to the Education Department.

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22-year-old Wildlife Protection Standard Waived

Oct 6, 2004 by Guest Blogger

U.S. Forest Service posted a temporary final rule in the Federal Register last week that will rollback regulation to protect endangered fish and wildlife from logging and development in national forests. The new rule gives U.S. Forest Service officials flexibility in how they calculate the risk to fish and wildlife populations when reviewing road-building, logging or other proposals. The rule allows officials to waive the 22-year-old Reagan-era standard that requires that forests maintain "viable populations" of fish and wildlife.

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