Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, unveiled on Monday a database of anti-environment votes by the 112th Congress. According to the minority page of the Committee's website, "the most anti-environment House in the history of Congress" has voted 125 times "to block action to address climate change, to halt efforts to reduce air and water pollution, to undermine protections for public lands and coastal areas, and to weaken the protection of the environment in other ways." The votes are searchable by legislation, topic, statute, or agency, and the database provides the American people with information about each bill or amendment, including a summary, the sponsoring member, and the outcome of the final vote.
The Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA), announced by Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Susan Collins (R-ME) and Reps. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Collin Peterson (D-MN) on Sept. 22, is a radical overhaul of the federal rulemaking process that would result in a system that allows powerful special interests to dominate. The bill would cast aside public health, worker safety, and environmental quality goals that are the basis of so many public protections and make estimated costs to businesses and the economy the most important consideration in rulemaking.
A poll of small business owners conducted by the Small Business Majority reveals strong support for clean energy solutions as one important element leading to innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Huge majorities support "bold" environmental initiatives to increase fuel efficiency and support the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) regulation of carbon emissions.
When the 112th Congress convened, it agreed to a 
In August, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made several changes to the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Mandatory Reporting Rule that will improve, but also delay, public access to critical air pollution data. The EPA will launch an electronic tool to collect and make public GHG pollution data from companies. However, the agency allowed firms in several industries to delay disclosing the factors used to calculate their GHG emissions.
On Aug. 23, federal agencies released their final plans for conducting retrospective reviews of regulations as directed by a January executive order from President Obama. Overall, the final plans closely reflect the preliminary plans released by agencies in May. Agencies stuck to their missions and did not cave to political or industry pressure to undermine their responsibilities to establish and enforce standards to protect the public.
Sunday marked the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This is an appropriate time to look back on what happened to government openness and access to information in the aftermath of the attacks. It seems that after 9/11, government officials stopped believing that Americans could be trusted with information – about their communities, about risks and dangers they could face, and about government actions on their behalf. Withholding information from citizens is a slippery slope for any democracy, yet over the past decade, government secrecy has expanded under the misguided belief that sacrificing citizen access to government information would somehow make us more secure.