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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more news

EPA Blasted for Library Closings

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was blasted in both judicial and congressional forums for closing seven of its libraries over the past several years. In a Feb. 15 ruling, a federal arbitrator found EPA guilty of unfair labor practices with respect to the closings. One month later, Congress heard testimony from several sources, including the Government Accountability Office (GAO), that EPA's library restructuring plan was poorly conceived, planned, and implemented.

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EPA Releases 2006 TRI Data

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the 2006 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data on Feb. 21. This is the fastest data release in the history of the program, although it still constitutes more than a year of lag time from the period the data refers to, and it still takes four months longer than Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory. The 2006 data, which marks the first year that facilities are allowed to stop detailed reporting on chemical waste of less than 5,000 pounds, indicates that nationwide, 4.25 billion pounds of toxic pollution were released, which was a two percent decrease from 2005.

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CDC Watering Down Great Lakes Report on Toxics

After significantly delaying the release of a report that identifies alarming toxic health risks for the Great Lakes region, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now reportedly planning to release a substantially modified document.

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EPA Bucks White House and Plans for Registry on Greenhouse Gases

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has started work on a draft rule creating mandatory greenhouse gas reporting requirements, even though President Bush's proposed FY 2009 budget does not provide funding for the rulemaking.

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Polar Bears Get Their Day in Congress

At a Jan. 17 hearing, the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming questioned the true motives behind the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) delay in deciding whether to list the polar bear as a threatened species.

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Government Offers Refunds for Katrina Trailers

On Jan. 17, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced refunds for potentially toxic trailers purchased between July 2006 and July 2007, the period trailers manufactured in response to Hurricane Katrina were sold.

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Big Farms to Get Free Pass in Reporting Air Pollution from Animal Waste

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Dec. 28, 2007, proposal in a second attempt to exempt farms from reporting air pollution caused by animal waste and to reduce information available about toxins at the local level.

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States Sue EPA for Reduced Reporting on Toxics

Twelve states are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the December 2006 regulation that weakened the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, leading the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Nov. 28. Joining the suit are attorneys general from Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Vermont, and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

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Political Influence Leads to Revised Endangered Species Decisions

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will revise seven of eight decisions made under the Endangered Species Act program after reviewing them for improper political interference. The four-month review came as a result of a Department of Interior inspector general's investigation of allegations that former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Julie A. MacDonald, intimidated staff and changed the scientific information agency scientists developed for decisions about listing or delisting threatened or endangered species.

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Secrecy for Farm Animals

The Senate Agriculture Committee approved a bill in late October that would create a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) exemption for records in the National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Open government advocates strongly oppose the exemption and see it as a violation of the public's right to access information regarding food safety.

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