Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
We Need a Czar to Protect Health Care Workers
By Debbie Berkowitz, National Employment Law Project The President is now calling the fight against the coronavirus a war. But in what kind of war do we send in troops without any armor? Our brave first responders and health professionals are working without the protective gear they need to keep safe. At the rate things […]
UCS to Host Virtual Public Hearing on EPA Science Rule
By Michael Halpern, Union of Concerned Scientists In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EPA is rushing through a proposal to transform how science is used in agency decisions and scientific assessments. The EPA is giving the public just 30 days to comment on the proposal and refuses to hold virtual public hearings. We are going […]
Coronavirus Pandemic Reinforces the Need for Cumulative Impacts Analysis
By Darya Minovi, Center for Progressive Reform As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread around the globe, the inequalities in American society have come into even sharper relief. People with low incomes who are unable to work from home risk being exposed to the virus at work or losing their jobs altogether. Their children may […]
Federal Food Assistance During the Pandemic
By Dr. Steve Suppan, Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy You look for good news wherever you can find it. The heroic actions of health workers, school administrators, scientists, private food shelf operators and their volunteers. Federal Judge Beryl Howell, who ordered a temporary postponement of one of the Trump administration’s rules to cut the already meager […]
With the Public Distracted, Interior Department Moves Full Speed Ahead on Oil and Gas Leases
By Maria Caffrey, Union of Concerned Scientists We are currently in a state of national emergency thanks in no small part to the Trump administration’s muzzling of public health experts and slow response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we all do our part to limit the extent of this outbreak, the Department of the Interior (DOI) instead appears to be […]
CPR, Allies Call on Trump Administration to Hold Open Public Comment Process During COVID-19 Pandemic
By James Goodwin, Center for Progressive Reform Earlier this week, a group of 25 Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) Board Members, Member Scholars, and staff signed a joint letter urging Russell Vought, Acting Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to direct federal agencies to hold open active public comment periods for pending […]
EPA Proposes Broad Science Restrictions in Midst of Coronavirus Pandemic
By Michael Halpern, Union of Concerned Scientists The Environmental Protection Agency moved today to restrict the types of research that can be used in public health protection decisions and scientific assessments. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the agency is recklessly giving the public just 30 days to comment on this sweeping proposal. UCS developed a guide to […]
Zombie Industry Science and Consumer Protection Don’t Mix
By Dr. Pasky Pascual and Jennifer Sass, Natural Resources Defense Council A rather arcane and largely discredited chemical industry-sponsored publication is still circulating, zombie-like, at the Trump Administration’s EPA science meetings, despite being basically dead among experts. (See for example, the December, 2019 EPA TSCA Science Advisors report on 1-Bromopropane, p. 54, 62). Photo used with […]
PJM’s Costly Capacity Cushion
By Casey Roberts, Sierra Club The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s recent “Minimum Offer Price Rule” order has grabbed headlines for how it will hike electricity costs for 65 million people in the mid-Atlantic region and Ohio Valley to finance a coal and gas bailout. But by forcing consumers to make more costly excess purchases, that […]
Amplifying or Absorbing Shocks in Financial Markets?
By Dr. Steve Suppan, Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy On March 9, IATP submitted its first regulatory letter of the year to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Some of our letters have and will concern agricultural price risk management and prevention of market manipulation. But other letters, including the March 9 letter, concern rules about systemic […]
Monarch Butterfly Numbers Fall Again
By Sylvia Fallon, Natural Resources Defense Council The annual measurement of the eastern monarch butterfly population that overwinters in Mexico is reported to be 2.83 hectares this year. That is a 53% decrease from last year’s more robust population of 6.05 hectares. After a hopeful increase the year before, this year’s estimate is big disappointment […]
It’s the Economy, Sonny: Why the Coronavirus Demands Maximum SNAP Benefits Now
By Rebecca Boehm, Union of Concerned Scientists Over the last three years the Trump administration and its Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue have gone straight for the jugular of our country’s social safety net. Through a series of new rules, they have sought to cut people off the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known […]
Court Requires EPA to Protect Communities Against Worst-Case Chemical Spills
By Natural Resources Defense Council On Thursday, a federal district court required the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue long-overdue protections against worst-case scenario spills of hazardous materials, like in the case of extreme storms, fires, or flooding. The decision approved a negotiated consent decree between the EPA and a coalition of community and environmental organizations, including […]
Lunch in the Time of COVID-19: What Schools Need Now to Ensure Kids Don’t Go Hungry During a Pandemic
By Karen Perry Stillerman, Union of Concerned Scientists Regular readers will know that I take a pretty dim view of the Trump administration’s Department of Agriculture and many of its anti-science, anti-farmer, and just plain mean-spirited actions over the past three years. The administration is also getting a lot of things (very) wrong in its response to the novel coronavirus disease […]
Proposed NEPA Rule Changes
By Sharon Buccino, Natural Resources Defense Council What They Do and Ways to Respond Background In passing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) over 50 years ago, Congress made it the “continuing responsibility of the Federal government to . . . fulfill the responsibilities of each generation as trustee of the environment for succeeding generations.” […]
CFPB’s First Director, Richard Cordray, Publishes ‘Watchdog’
By Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG The CFPB’s first director, Rich Cordray, has published a book, “Watchdog: How Protecting Consumers Can Save Our Families, Our Economy, and Our Democracy,” explaining efforts to set up and run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I recommend reading the book! The first few chapters tell the story of how the […]
FDA Studies: ‘Short-Chain’ PFAS Chemicals More Toxic Than Previously Thought
By David Andrews, Environmental Working Group New studies by the Food and Drug Administration indicate that a common fluorinated chemical in food packaging and stain-resistant carpets and textiles is much more toxic than earlier studies by the chemical industry suggested. The FDA studies – published in the peer-reviewed scientific journals Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology and Food and Chemical […]
Environmental Racism in Action: The Trump Administration’s Plans to Gut NEPA
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Union of Concerned Scientists The Trump administration is trying mightily to gut the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the law that mandates rigorous, science-based environmental impact reviews for major infrastructure and construction projects prior to federal permitting. NEPA also reserves significant time for the public to weigh in on the impact of projects to […]
Trump USDA Commemorates National School Breakfast Week by Declaring Potatoes a Fruit
By Sarah Reinhardt, Union of Concerned Scientists It’s National School Breakfast Week, and the Trump administration is celebrating by rolling back science-based nutrition standards that are keeping kids healthy at school. (Not that it takes a special occasion to pull the plug on policies that protect children’s health.) This is the second time the administration has […]
Trump Labor Rule Undermines Employment Service
By Pablo Ros, AFSCME AFSCME was founded in Wisconsin in 1932 to promote, defend and enhance the state’s civil service system, which was at risk of exploitation by politicians seeking to reward their supporters. Ninety years ago, in the Midwest, we knew this much: any government that seeks to be for the people must leave politics out […]