Citizen Health & Safety

The Spy Who Greened Me

Nov 3, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Huh? PEER has released an EPA email announcing that the agency is Creating an Intelligence Operations function within the Office of Homeland Security to advise the Administrator and other senior EPA officials on matters related to national security and intelligence; to serve as the principal Agency liaison to the U.S. intelligence community; and to coordinate with EPA programs and Regions on matters related to classified and other sensitive information. Again -- huh? Read the PEER press release and download the EPA email

read in full

More Yuckiness on Genetically Modified Crops

Nov 2, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Perhaps you've already read our article in the latest issue of The OMB Watcher about developments in nanotech and genetically modified crops that spotlight gaps in our regulatory protections. Hungry for more on GMOs? Well, it turns out a Russian scientist tested Monsanto's RoundUp Ready genetically engineered soy by feeding it to a batch of female rats to compare the offspring of the GM-soy-fed rats with those of a control group:

read in full

Industry Derails Labor Safety Rule with Data Quality Challenge

A coalition of mining companies and trade associations appears to have used the Data Quality Act to derail a Mine Safety Health Administration (MSHA) rule that would protect miners from harmful particulate matter in diesel exhaust. The challenge did not raise actual objections to data quality; instead it couched industry's disagreements with the rule in data quality language. The tactic, however, appears to have succeeded in impelling the agency to publish a modification to the rule that weakens the mine worker protections. The Issue

read in full

TRI: The Tool For Public Protection Against Toxic Pollution

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implied that the public had already received most of the benefits the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) could offer when the agency recently proposed significantly cutting the amount of information companies report under the program. This is not, however, reflected in the facts, which show the TRI continues to be an important public health tool widely used by community groups, labor unions, local officials and citizens.

read in full

Clear Skies No Better than Existing Regs

Nov 1, 2005 by Guest Blogger

EPA recently released cost-benefit analysis of competing legislation to curb power plant emissions, including the President's Clear Skies legislation as well as legislation introduced by Sen. James Jeffords (I-VT) and separate legislation introduce by Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE). The cost-benefit analysis showed that the President's Clear Skies bills perform no better than regulations already on the book. Furthermore, though the analysis predicts lower costs for the Clear Skies Act compared to competing legislation, it also predicts far fewer benefits.

read in full

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.

read in full

Senate Uses Minimum Wage Increase to Push Anti-Regulatory Agenda

The recently revised unfunded mandates point of order was invoked in the Senate to kill dueling amendments to raise the minimum wage, one of which included a Republican counterproposal to "offset" the wage increase with several pro-business anti-regulatory provisions. The exchange revealed dramatically the power of the recently revised point of order to stop legislation.

read in full

One More Thing About Davis-Bacon

Oct 28, 2005 by Guest Blogger

One more thing about the White House's decision to rescind the waiver of Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage requirements, per CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight: The reinstatement will not change the wages of those already working under contract. So far, the federal government has awarded $50 million in relief contracts. But it should make the contracting process from here on out more transparent and ensure displaced workers are first in line to rebuild their communities.

read in full

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:

read in full

Your Safety is at Stake

Oct 19, 2005 by Guest Blogger

More than 5,000 people are killed every year in crashes with big rigs on the nation's highways, and a major cause of these accidents is fatigue -- that overworked truck drivers are forced to drive way too many hours at a stretch. Now Congress is poised to make matters worse.

read in full

Pages

  • ©2025 Project On Government Oversight
  • All Rights Reserved.
  • This an archive site of the materials produced by the Center for Effective Government (formerly OMB Watch) and is maintained by the Project On Government Oversight.