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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

Gaps in Homeland Security Benefit Bush Campaign Funders

The Bush administration has weakened, opposed, or failed to initiate proposals to address security gaps that leave chemical and nuclear plants, hazardous material carriers, shipping ports, and drinking water facilities vulnerable to terrorist attacks, according to a new report that links these failures to Bush campaign funding from the very industries that oppose needed regulation.

read in full

FDA and Vioxx

Oct 18, 2004 by Guest Blogger

In case you've been missing the story: "Since the Merck decision [to withdraw Vioxx], public health advocates and some congressional leaders have asked pointedly why the FDA, the nation's arbiter of drug safety, did not act sooner itself." Here's a review of FDA's role: Independent studies of Vioxx users continued to add to the questions, and the FDA began its own review. The safety officer who conducted it concluded this summer that the drug posed a serious risk. But he said that the results were ignored and that the FDA made efforts to silence him. . . .

read in full

Industry-tainted science: sort of like clogged arteries...

Oct 17, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Here we go again. Secret industry ties on a science panel for cholesterol guidelines: They led influential medical groups, starred at prestigious meetings, published in top journals and were undisputed giants in their field. But when these famous doctors advised the government recently on new cholesterol guidelines for the public, something else they had in common wasn't revealed.

read in full

Abu Ghraib and more on outsourcing defense

Oct 15, 2004 by Guest Blogger

We mentioned earlier an investigative report concluding that Defense Dept. work has essentially been outsourced to private companies who work on contracts that the government does not supervise. Now a legal scholar has analyzed the prison torture scandal at Abu Ghraib and linked it with the same poor policies. Check out Steven L. Schooner, "Contractor Atrocities at Abu Ghraib: Compromised Accountability in a Streamlined, Outsourced Government," 16 Stan. L. & Pol. Rev. (forthcoming 2005) (abstract and full paper available on-line).

read in full

Halliburton getting special favors from White House (again)

Oct 14, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Another hard-hitting investigative report from the L.A. Times today, this time focusing on special favors from the White House to Halliburton (Dick Cheney's former company). No, not that special favor. No, not that special favor. This is actually yet another one.

read in full

An alternative vision for protecting the public?

Oct 14, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The excellent Newsday series "Erasing the Rules" concludes today with a look at Senator Kerry's legislative record and campaign platform and inquires whether they represent an alternative to current regulatory policy: In the mid-1990s when Republicans in Congress were pushing to make regulations harder to enact, consumer, labor and environmental groups sought an ally committed to government oversight and capable of grasping the complexity of the rules.

read in full

Power and influence in the Pentagon

Oct 13, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Newsday's five-part series "Erasing the Rules" continues today with a look at defense contractors and their influence in the Pentagon. Surely even national security is beyond outsourcing? Close ties between the Pentagon and defense contractors have existed in many previous administrations, Republican and Democrat.

read in full

Of foxes, henhouses, and unbreathable air

Oct 12, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The excellent Newsday series, "Erasing the Rules," continues today with a focus on EPA. There have been some exceptions to the pattern, such as the EPA's adoption earlier this year of tough new emissions standards for diesel engines. But critics and many analysts say the common thread that ties together almost all of the administration's other environmental initiatives is to cushion the impact of regulations on business.

read in full

Foxes in the henhouse, blood on the floor

Oct 11, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Don't miss "Erasing the Rules," the excellent series in Newsday on the Bush administration regulatory record.

read in full

Hex. chrom. rule and industry connections

Oct 7, 2004 by Guest Blogger

We recently mentioned OSHA's rule to protect workers from hexavalent chromium -- long delayed before it was finally announced. As Public Citizen pointed out, the rule creates a PEL that may be 50 times lower than currently allowed but is nonetheless four times higher than it could be, and it also allows an exemption for Portland cement. File this under "Hmmm": OMB met at least two separate times with industry officials, including the cement industry (including, surprise, something called the "Portland Cement Association"), to discuss the pending hex. chrom. rule. Connect your own dots.

read in full