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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New Report Examines Agency Rulemaking Activity at Mid-term Point of Obama Administration

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2010—Some agencies under the Obama administration have energetically laid out a clear rulemaking agenda, while others have been stymied by a variety of factors, according to a new OMB Watch report. The report, The Obama Approach to Public Protection: Rulemaking, was released today and evaluates the regulatory activity of several environmental, worker safety, and consumer protection agencies within the federal government.

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Jackson and Rockefeller Explore Different Ways to “Toast” the Clean Air Act

Sep 16, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Happy belated birthday to the Clean Air Act which turned 40 on Tuesday, Sept. 14. In honor of the occasion, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson gave a speech touting the many accomplishments of the act. Among them, health and life-saving benefits of gigantic proportions. EPA says that, in the act’s first 20 years alone, clean air programs prevented 205,000 premature deaths and 18 million respiratory illnesses among children.

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Food Safety Bill Pushed after Salmonella Outbreak

A salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 1,500 people and led to the recall of 550 million eggs highlights the need for Congress to pass legislation that would empower the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to better protect the food supply, advocates say.

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Mining Scofflaw Failed to Report Accidents at Explosion Site

Aug 19, 2010 by Matthew Madia

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) discovered 20 unreported accidents at the Upper Big Branch mine, where an explosion killed 29 miners in April, in West Virginia. MSHA is citing the mine’s owner, Massey Energy, for failing to report the accidents.

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Public Supports Consumer and Environmental Protections, Polls Show

Americans overwhelmingly support government protection of the environment and consumers, a series of new polls shows. The findings come as efforts to enforce and expand regulation face increasingly hostile rhetoric from conservatives and industry representatives in Washington.

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National Mining Association Sues EPA over Limits on Mountaintop Mining

Mountaintop The National Mining Association (NMA) filed a lawsuit on July 20 against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) claiming that new enforcement guidelines issued by EPA in April unlawfully obstruct permitting of coal mining operations. NMA claims the new guidelines effectively prohibit certain types of surface mining and that EPA denied NMA the opportunity to review and comment on the guidelines before they became final.

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New Oil Industry Suit Challenges Obama’s Latest Effort to Pause Offshore Oil Drilling

Jul 21, 2010 by Rachel Sauter*

A Texas-based deepwater drilling contractor has filed a lawsuit in federal district court, seeking to block the Obama administration’s latest effort to temporarily halt new offshore drilling operations while the Department of the Interior investigates safety and technology concerns in light of the April 20 explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Ensco Offshore argues in their July 20 suit that the drilling suspension issued by the Interior is “substantially the same” as an earlier moratorium that was struck down in federal district court.

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Another Shameful Attack on Our Public Protections

Jul 21, 2010 by Gary Bass*

There they go again. Amid some of the most spectacular market failures the country has ever seen, business lobbyists and their friends in Congress want to reinvigorate their discredited deregulatory agenda.

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At the White House, Business Finds an Audience for Anti-Regulatory Message

Jul 16, 2010 by Matthew Madia

The Business Roundtable, a coalition of top corporate executives, has submitted to the White House a list of laws, regulations, taxes, and other policies it believes are hurting businesses and would like to see rolled back – a roadmap for a dangerous, deregulatory future.

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FDA Panel Warns of Diabetes Drug’s Safety

Jul 14, 2010 by Matthew Madia

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel debated the safety of the diabetes drug Avandia today. In 2007, a study determined that Avandia raises the risk of heart attack in patients taking it. The drug’s safety and effectiveness have been hotly contested ever since.

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more resources

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

New Report Examines Agency Rulemaking Activity at Mid-term Point of Obama Administration

Jackson and Rockefeller Explore Different Ways to “Toast” the Clean Air Act

Sep 16, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Food Safety Bill Pushed after Salmonella Outbreak

Mining Scofflaw Failed to Report Accidents at Explosion Site

Aug 19, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Public Supports Consumer and Environmental Protections, Polls Show

National Mining Association Sues EPA over Limits on Mountaintop Mining

New Oil Industry Suit Challenges Obama’s Latest Effort to Pause Offshore Oil Drilling

Jul 21, 2010 by Rachel Sauter*

Another Shameful Attack on Our Public Protections

Jul 21, 2010 by Gary Bass*

At the White House, Business Finds an Audience for Anti-Regulatory Message

Jul 16, 2010 by Matthew Madia

FDA Panel Warns of Diabetes Drug’s Safety

Jul 14, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Pages

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

Blowing Smoke: Chemical Companies Say “Trust Us,” But Environmental and Workplace Safety Violations Belie Their Rhetoric

Gasping for Support: Implementation of Tougher Air Quality Standards Will Require New Funds for State Agencies

Citizen Health & Safety Topics

Recent Reports

Living in the Shadow of Danger: State Scorecards

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us