A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program to evaluate and regulate air toxics, especially in urban areas, is way behind schedule, according to an Inspector General report released last week. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA established a Integrated Urban Air Toxics Strategy in 1999, but has yet to implement much of the strategy. “For example, EPA has not established baseline risk data to measure progress in reducing air toxics risks,” according to the report.
The Department of the Interior's management of oil and natural gas resources suffers from a lack of public access to information, according to government investigators and numerous public interest groups. This lack of openness takes a significant toll on the public's ability to challenge Interior's decisions and impedes accountability. Reforms to the Interior Department's oil and gas management policies announced in recent months have not made transparency a key element, casting doubt on their potential to bring about stronger oversight.
Officials at the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) purposefully prevented a number of mines with serious safety violations from being placed on the list of mines with patterns of violations. Budget constraints, not safety concerns, led to some dangerous mines not being listed, according to the Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General (OIG).