Monday's hearing on the nomination of Susan Dudley to be the new director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in OMB did little to reveal Dudley's positions on a variety of issues. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the current chair of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, was the only Republican member of the committee to attend the hearing. The incoming chair, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT), did not attend the hearing but submitted an extensive list of questions to Dudley prior to the hearing.

Susan Dudley isn't the only controversial nominee that might be snuck through during the lame duck session. According to CongressDaily, future chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), is threatening to put a hold on the nomination for the Environmental Protection Agency's nominee for Inspector General. The IG is responsible for sussing out waste, fraud and abuse in the agency.

Scientists at Rice University announced last week that they had discovered a cheap and effective way to remove arsenic from drinking water. While the technology is still years away from application in water systems, it provides an exciting example of how technology can be harnessed to provide solutions to public health and safety problems. Smaller, rural communities have had trouble meeting clean drinking water standards in the past, and breakthroughs such as this could provide more people with access to safe drinking water.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this past weekend that industry is stridently opposing an EPA recommendation to reduce ozone, often referred to as smog. EPA released the recommendation in a staff paper last July. For a summary, click here. The staff paper recommends tightening ozone emissions by lowering the allowable limit to 0.07 parts per million (ppm). The current limit is 0.08 ppm, set in 1997.