Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
Tell EPA Administrator Wheeler: We Need a Strong Clean Water Act
By Waterkeeper Alliance Forty-seven years ago on October 18, 1972, the Clean Water Act was signed into law, providing critical federal protections for waters across the United States. But today, the Clean Water Act is under attack. The Environmental Protection Agency is trying to eliminate Clean Water Act protections for rivers, streams, wetlands, lakes, and […]
Climate Change Lawsuits Against Fossil Fuel Companies Are Heating Up
By Ken Kimmell, Union of Concerned Scientists In the span of four years, there’s been a flurry of litigation aimed at holding the oil and gas industry accountable for its role in spreading climate change disinformation and making the climate crisis worse. Nearly four years ago, the state attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts […]
If You Care About Cramped Airline Seats, You Should Care About the FAA’s Evacuation Tests
By John Breyault, National Consumers League Last month, I had the pleasure of testifying before the House Aviation Subcommittee on the implementation of the Federal Aviation Administration’s 2018 reauthorization bill. My testimony touched on many of the pressing consumer protection priorities for airline passengers teed up by the 2016 and 2018 FAA reauthorization bills. The big news coming […]
Perry’s Odd Definition of Progress on Nuclear Waste
By Caroline Reiser, Natural Resources Defense Council After months of suspense, Energy Secretary Rick Perry finally confirmed he will resign, boasting in a farewell tweet that under his leadership the Department of Energy “made environmental progress unseen for decades cleaning up the legacy of the Manhattan Project.” —What’s that now? Where exactly are the “numerous” legacy […]
The Experts Have Spoken: Disbanded Particulate Pollution Panel Finds EPA Standards Don’t Protect Public Health
By Gretchen Goldman, Union of Concerned Scientists The Independent Particulate Matter Review Panel has released their consensus recommendations to the EPA administrator on the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter. The group of 20 independent experts, that were disbanded by Administrator Wheeler last October and reconvened last week, hosted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, has now made clear that the […]
Trump Finally Uses (Weaponizes) the Clean Water Act
By Corinne Bell, Natural Resources Defense Council There’s low. And then there’s rock bottom. The Trump Administration’s EPA takeover, with its race to the bottom rollbacks of the environmental and public health protections that Americans have relied upon for decades, is low; so low that even some of the industries the Administration seeks to support are pushing back. But […]
A Tribute to Rep. Elijah Cummings: Fueled by Compassion, a Champion of Social Justice
By James Goodwin, Center for Progressive Reform Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland was different from most other lawmakers we see today. He embodied a moral authority that others try to project but that for him was unquestionably authentic. When he spoke of working on behalf of “the people,” there was never a shred of a doubt […]
Air Pollution from Cars, Trucks and Buses in the U.S.: Everyone Is Exposed, But the Burdens Are Not Equally Shared
By David Reichmuth, Union of Concerned Scientists Air pollution has significant impacts to public health and the cars, trucks, and buses on America’s roads contribute to this problem. While we are all exposed to this pollution, there are significant differences in the average exposure to this air pollution by different racial groups in the U.S. […]
What the Trump Administration Is Doing to Your Water
By Rebecca Bowe, Earthjustice Everyone and everything needs clean water. Without clean drinking water, humans get sick. Plants, animals, aquatic life, and the entire food web need clean water to survive. That’s why the Trump administration’s efforts to gut federal clean water protections are so disturbing. The administration repealed the Clean Water Rule and is now attempting […]
Scientific Integrity Act Passes Out of Committee With Unprecedented Bipartisan Support
By Michael Halperin, Union of Concerned Scientists Today, the remarkable happened: the Scientific Integrity Act passed the House Science Committee with support from both Republicans and Democrats. Six Republicans joined all 19 Democrats in attendance to vote the Scientific Integrity Act out of Committee. This is the first time this kind of legislation has passed out of […]
Another Forest, This Time Alaska’s Tongass, May Be Destroyed — All for Profit
By Natural Resources Defense Council Today the U.S. Forest Service announced it will be seeking public comment on a draft environmental impact statement (expected later this week) for its plan to open up protected areas of Alaska’s old-growth Tongass rainforest to logging and road-building. “As a global climate crisis demands that we take urgent conservation and climate-mitigation measures, the […]
House Committee to Vote on Scientific Integrity Act
By Michael Halpern, Union of Concerned Scientists The House Science Committee just announced that it will amend and vote on the Scientific Integrity Act on Thursday at 10 am. This is the first time this kind of bill, which would protect the independence of science and scientists in federal government agencies, will receive a vote in the United States […]
For PFAS, Hazardous Designation Is Not a Ban
By Melanie Benesh and Jared Hayes, Environmental Working Group Designating the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS as “hazardous substances” is critical to cleaning up legacy contamination of a chemical linked to cancer. But some PFAS polluters – and their supporters in Congress – have implied that designating PFAS as hazardous substances under the federal Superfund […]
Trump Administration Thwarts Consumer Watchdog’s Investigation on Student Loan Forgiveness Program
By Jacob Carter, Union of Concerned Scientists People suppress the collection of information and data when they are afraid of the results. The Trump administration is no stranger to using this strategy, as we’ve documented time and time again. So, it’s not a surprise that the Department of Education (DOE) ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to stop collecting information in its […]
DOE’s Latest Proposal to “Save” the Incandescent Is Illegal
By Noah Horowitz, Natural Resources Defense Council As part of its relentless assault on energy efficiency, the Trump administration’s Department of Energy (DOE) has proposed NOT to update the minimum efficiency standards for the most common light bulbs in our homes and is holding a meeting on the topic today in Washington, D.C. NRDC will […]
The Trump Administration’s New Anti-Safeguard Executive Orders on Guidance, Explicated
By James Goodwin, Center for Progressive Reform Last week, President Trump unleashed the latest volley in his administration’s efforts to bring about the “deconstruction of the administrative state” with the signing of two new executive orders relating to agency issuance and use of “guidance documents.” The first purports to ensure “improved agency guidance,” while the second claims to […]
What the Trump Impeachment Inquiry Teaches Us About the Federal Bureaucracy
By James Goodwin, Center for Progressive Reform Just when it seemed that President Donald Trump was completely immune to accountability for his various abuses of power, impeachment proceedings against him have quickly picked up steam over the last couple weeks. Laying aside what happens with Trump, it’s significant that it was a whistleblower complaint from […]
Questions Congress Should Ask the CFPB Director Next Week
By Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger will deliver the statutory “Semi-Annual Report of the CFPB” to the House Financial Services (10/16) and Senate Banking (10/17) Committees next week. On the House FSC website the hearing is labeled “Who Is Standing Up for Consumers?” It’s a good question. Since Director Kraninger took the reins from interim director […]
Here’s What’s Needed to Fix the EPA’s Outdated Lead in Tap Water Rule
By Erik D. Olson, Natural Resources Defense Council It is expected that EPA will soon be proposing changes to its obsolete Lead and Copper Rule or LCR. This is the agency’s regulation for how to control lead levels in drinking water. The LCR, issued in 1991, is a highly complex rule that has failed to ensure […]
Protecting the Endangered Species Act Will Help More Bears Earn the “Fattest Bear” Title
By Courtney Bourgoin and Heather Moyer, Sierra Club Katmai National Park in Alaska has made news in the past week over its annual “Fat Bear Bracket Challenge”, where followers on their social media outlets vote on which of the park’s brown bears have fattened up the most since spring. The park has photos of 12 of the park’s […]