A Senate Environment and Public Works Committee report released Sept. 23 claims the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House did not act inappropriately in addressing public health concerns in New York City after 9/11. The committee’s report sharply contrasts an Aug. 22 EPA Inspector General’s report that revealed EPA altered press releases to falsely reassure the public because of pressure from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Inspector General released a report Aug. 21 revealing that EPA communications to the public immediately after 9/11 were misleading. Statements made by EPA did not fully represent the data the agency possessed, and were strongly influenced by the White House. The report follows an investigation by the Inspector General into EPA’s overall response to 9/11.

On July 8th Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials from the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) met with various environmental and public interest groups to hear feedback on the Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) project. JP Suarez, the Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, chaired the meeting.

In a 2-1 ruling last Tuesday, a federal appeals court rejected Vice President Dick Cheney’s request to keep documents about his energy task force secret. The decision upholds a lower court ruling that ordered the limited release of documents in a discovery process. Justice Department lawyers defending Cheney then approached the D.C. Court of Appeals to halt that order. The Court of Appeals agreed with the lower courts ruling, stating that current laws would safeguard genuinely privileged information.