Industry Influence and Interference

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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A Victory for Wildlife

Aug 29, 2006 by Guest Blogger

From Earthjustice: A federal judge ruled that the Bush administration "plainly violated" the Endangered Species Act when it issued a regulation that eliminated reviews of new pesticides by federal wildlife biologists.

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Industry-Backed Lobbyists Use YouTube to Attack Climate Change

Aug 8, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Lobbyists are trying some new media tactics to sway public opinion about climate change. In the latest effort, a video released on the video-sharing site YouTube mocks Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. The short, entitled "Al Gore's Penguin Army," is a vapid animation that turns Gore into a fat penguin who bores audiences to death and hypnotizes them into thinking climate change must be stopped.

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Bush Nominates Anti-Regulatory Zealot to Head Regulatory Policy

The White House has nominated Susan Dudley, an anti-regulatory extremist from the industry-funded Mercatus Center, to an obscure but powerful office where she would have the power to gut the federal government's very ability to protect the public.

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Testimony on H.R. 682, Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act

Download testimony of J. Robert Shull, Director of Regulatory Policy. Click here to watch the hearing. Click here for OMB Watch response to committee follow-up questions, with these attachments: Regulation & Competitiveness Ackerman, "Unbearable Lightness of Regulatory Costs" The Going-Out-of-Business Myth Discussion of misleading Crain/Hopkins study

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U.S. Promoting Paralysis by Analysis Worldwide

Jun 27, 2006 by Guest Blogger

What's bad for America is being touted as great for the rest of the world: By year's end, the European Union is expected to adopt REACH, a proposal that would "require manufacturers to test industrial chemicals used in the manufacturing process to gather health and safety data." REACH stands for "Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals." The bill "has prompted a U.S.-led coalition of 1

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MSHA Finally Changes Course with Massey Energy?

Jun 17, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Many of you have probably seen the NYT clip today about MSHA's decision to file suit against Massey Energy, charging that Massey has failed to cooperate with the investigation into a deadly coal mine fire: Federal mine safety regulators filed a lawsuit on Friday against one of the largest mining companies in the country in an effort to force its officials to cooperate with the investigation of a deadly fire in January at a West Virginia coal mine.

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Nanotechnology: Data Quality Act Strikes Again

May 19, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Environmental groups seeking stronger regulation of products containing nanotechnology, such as sunscreen and cosmetics, may be thwarted by the Data Quality Act, a provision that allows individuals (or industry groups) to challenge the integrity of government science.

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The "Sound Science" Smokescreen

May 3, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Be sure to check out the new Knight-Ridder piece examining the strategic deployment of the term "sound science" to achieve decidedly political aims. Here's a taste: The Bush administration, senators, industrialists and farmers repeatedly invoke the term "sound science" to delay or deep-six policies they oppose and dismiss criticism of those they favor.

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Industry-Funded Scientists Flood FDA Advisory Panel

Apr 25, 2006 by Guest Blogger

A science advisory panel for FDA is scheduled to consider new labeling guidelines for blood pressure control drugs tomorrow. Yet, according to information compiled by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, three-fourths of the 12-member panel received conflict of interest waivers. Many of those conflicts of interest relate directly to the issues of drug labeling to be discussed by the panel.

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Linking Tobacco to Risk Assessments

Apr 20, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Tobacco industries employed scientists “to convince public health officials not that cigarettes were safe, but that there was not yet sufficient evidence of their danger to justify limiting places where tobacco could be smoked,” according to Environmental and Occupational Health Professor David Michaels. Now, under laws like the Data Quality Act, manufacturing doubt to keep harmful substances in the air and on the market is common practice. In a great Op-Ed for the

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