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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more news

2005 Update on Progress of Hit List

OIRA's 2005 annual report on the costs and benefits of regulation included an appendix detailing the current status of hit list items. Download that appendix here.

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Who Needs Regs When You Can Self-Regulate?

Dec 6, 2005 by Guest Blogger

In another sad day for ocean life, EPA announced Dec. 2 a new proposed rule that will allow oil facilities handling up to 10,000 gallons of oil to write their own oil spill prevention plans, without seeking certification by a professional engineer. The proposed rule also indefinitely postpones compliance dates for farms holding up to 10,000 gallons of oil to write their own prevention plans. The proposal "streamlines" the approval process under the auspices of relieving regulatory burden for small businesses.

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Maybe This Time the Wrap Will Stick

Nov 18, 2005 by Guest Blogger

This might make you think twice the next time you order pizza or unwrap a piece of candy. An ex-DuPont official recently leaked documents detailing how DuPont covered up 20-years of studies showing that the chemical Zonyl, produced by DuPont and used in the making of candy wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, pizza boxes and other food packaging, was degrading into the dangerous chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and seeping into the food products at levels three-times the FDA-recommended limit from 1967.

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Industry Costs Pitted Against Public Needs in Homeland Security Policy

How much is a human life worth when it comes to a terrorist attack? Should the public be involved in setting the nation's safety priorities? The Bush administration is offering surprising answers to these questions and more as it develops the general framework for homeland security policy.

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The Bush Administration's Chummy Deal with Wal-Mart

Nov 2, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Most people by now have read the news coverage of the Labor Dep't Inspector General report criticizing DOL for its chummy settlement with Wal-Mart in which it pledged to give Wal-Mart advance notice before it comes in to inspect for violations. If you want to read the report for yourself, click here to download it. Among the highlights:

"Wal-Mart attorneys author[ed] key provisions of the Wal-Mart agreement." Of course, letting industry write its own rules is a pattern for the Bush administration.

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Nanotech, Genetically Modified Crop News Spotlights Regulatory Gaps

New evidence of long-term persistence of genetically modified crops and new concerns about gaps in monitoring of nanotechnology underscore the risks from failing to embed the Precautionary Principle in regulatory policy.

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Small Business is Not So Small

Oct 21, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The government's definition of small business is so expansive that billion dollar corporations are receiving Katrina cleanup contracts dedicated to small businesses. From the Washington Post: The government's list of small businesses receiving Katrina-related federal contracts along the Gulf Coast includes one of the largest debris-removal firms in the country and a billion-dollar corporation that boasts former vice president Dan Quayle on its board of directors.

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NSR: A Second Bite at the Apple

Oct 20, 2005 by Guest Blogger

With slim chances of passing in Congress, a controversial change to the designation of new source review is now snaking its way through the regulatory system. The regulation would allow power plants to make modifications to existing equipment without installing new pollution technology if their hourly emissions rates do not increase. By changing the way power plant emissions are calculated from an annual output to an hourly output, plants would be allowed to pollute more per year by operating for longer hours. From the New Standard:

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Industry $$ Helps Studies Think Positively About Drugs

Sep 30, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The argument was originally just common sense but is now empirical: drug company studies are far more likely to give high ratings to drugs than those conducted by government. The New Standard reports as follows:

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New OSHA Head: Another Fox in Henhouse?

Sep 29, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The e-mail-only NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health has this report about the nominee to head OSHA: Bush Nominates Partner in Union-Busting Law Firm and Big Contributor to Head OSHA Edwin Foulke was nominated last week to become the head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Foulke’s main qualifications for the job are that he is a labor lawyer and was chair of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) for five years in the early 1990s.

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