UPDATE (June 30, 2015): Yesterday, New York State formalized its fracking ban, concluding a seven-year public health and environmental impact study. Governor Cuomo’s administration released the Findings Statement that found that fracking’s risks are too high and officially bans the practice within the state. New York becomes the first state with significant shale gas resources to ban fracking.    

Just before Thanksgiving, the White House quietly released the fall 2014 Unified Agenda, updating the status of public protections under development by agencies across the federal government. The fall agenda indicates that agencies expect to finalize several key health and safety rules in 2015, but other important protections will progress much more slowly or have been pushed far into the future.

In the leading edge of what is expected to be a wave of legislation in the new Congress aimed at undermining the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to set essential public protections, the House of Representatives last week passed two bills that would undermine the agency's ability to advance good, science-based policy and improve public health.