Environmental Right to Know

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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We Need a Chemical Safety Bill Worthy of Sen. Lautenberg's Legacy

On May 23, the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) introduced the Chemical Safety Improvement Act of 2013. The bill would amend the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, the nation's primary and outdated chemical safety law. Despite being promoted as a significant reform, the proposed legislation fails to improve the health and safety protections missing from current law. As it stands, it represents a significant retreat from the Safe Chemicals Act of 2013 that Lautenberg introduced earlier this year. The earlier bill should be the senator’s legacy.

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BLM Fracking Rule Bows to Industry, Ignores Public Concerns

On May 16, the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a revised proposed rule for hydraulic fracturing on federal public lands (commonly referred to as fracking). The new proposed rule not only ignores concerns about the public health and environmental risks of the natural gas drilling method, it also disregards recommendations by lawmakers and the U.S. Department of Energy's Shale Gas Production Subcommittee, which called for transparency and full public chemical disclosure. The proposed rule suggests the agency has placed industry concerns ahead of public health and safety. It also contradicts the new data standards the Obama administration issued just last week by executive order.

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BLM Fracking Rule Violates New Executive Order on Open Data

May 16, 2013 by Sofia Plagakis

Today, the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its revised proposed rule for natural gas drilling (commonly referred to as fracking) on federal and tribal lands. The much-anticipated rule violates President Obama's recently issued executive order that requires new government information to be made available to the public in open, machine-readable formats.

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Chemical Safety Board Video Shows Devastation from West Fertilizer Blast

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) released a new video this month that starkly illustrates the devastation caused by the West Fertilizer Company plant explosion in West, TX, on April 17, 2013.

In the video, Daniel Horowitz, Managing Director of the CSB, notes, "The community damage we saw at West was the worst of any chemical accident in the CSB's history."

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Is Anhydrous Ammonia a Risk to Your Community?

Anhydrous ammonia and ammonium nitrate are the two substances that have been investigated as possible causes of the April 17 explosion of the West Fertilizer Company plant in Texas. Though experts now believe the explosion was due to the ammonium nitrate, the facility did have two 12,000-gallon tanks of anhydrous ammonia, which could have exacerbated the tragedy in Texas had they leaked or exploded.

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Local Citizen Group Demands Groundwater Testing Near Ammunition Plant

May 1, 2013 by Amanda Starbuck

Community members living near an army ammunition plant traveled to Washington, DC, on Monday to deliver petitions to their senators and representatives calling for groundwater testing near the plant. The work of local residents demonstrates the importance of citizen action and environmental data in protecting public health.

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Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion Raises Important Questions about Risks Industrial Facilities Pose

On April 17, there was a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in central Texas, which killed at least 14 people and injured more than 200. Though investigators are still trying to determine the exact cause of the incident, the West Fertilizer Company's explosion raises serious questions about managing the risks that facilities can pose to local communities.

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Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion Raises Important Questions

Apr 18, 2013 by Sofia Plagakis

Last night, there was a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in central Texas (outside of Waco), which killed as many as 15 people and injured more than 160. Though investigators are still trying to determine the exact cause of the incident, the West Fertilizer Co. explosion raises serious questions about managing the risks that facilities can pose to local communities.

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Voluntary Certification Program for Fracking Companies Is Not Enough

Apr 1, 2013 by Sofia Plagakis

Last week, a coalition of natural gas producers, environmental groups, and philanthropic organizations unveiled a voluntary certification program for companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the Marcellus Shale region (parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, western Maryland, and western Virginia). The program is based on a set of fifteen water and air protection standards, which are more stringent than current federal law and many state laws. However, a careful review of the standards shows that they are still not strong enough and should not replace public protections enforced by state and federal governments.

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Public Denied Right to Know about Chemicals Used in Fracking

Mar 27, 2013 by Sofia Plagakis

Last Thursday, a Wyoming district court ruled against a lawsuit brought by public interest groups, including the Center for Effective Government, that sought to make public the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The identities of these chemicals can remain secret when companies make claims that fracking solution formulas are "trade secrets." The court upheld such claims, effectively denying the people of Wyoming access to accurate, complete, and detailed information about the chemicals that are being injected into the ground and that may affect their health.

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