Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
ExxonMobil, BP, Shell Oppose Methane Regulation Rollback, Here’s What Else They Should Do
By Nicole Pinko, Union of Concerned Scientists The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced proposed changes to the New, Reconstructed, and Modified Source Performance Standards for the Oil and Gas Sector. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the Trump administration is yet again pandering to fossil fuel interests by trying to roll back the EPA’s oversight of methane emissions […]
Data Privacy Can’t Be Assured Without States and Consumers
By Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG Recently, the CEOs who make up the Business Roundtable renewed their demand that Congress pass a federal privacy “standard” that preempts stronger state laws. Los Angeles Times columnist David Lazarus helpfully provides context: “Translation: We want privacy rules, but not California’s, and not anything that we can’t water down at the national level through […]
By Phasing Out Animal Testing, the EPA Could Turn You Into the Guinea Pig
By Anita Desikan, Union of Concerned Scientists When you encounter chemicals in the normal course of your life—while eating food, drinking water, playing in the backyard, or breathing air—do you want the assurance that these chemicals have been deemed safe using the most rigorous scientific methods available? Of course you want that! But the Environmental […]
A National Standard for Climate-Ready Fisheries
By Center for American Progress Tomorrow, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will release the first “Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.” This report will compile the most advanced science on the severe consequences of climate change for the ocean and the millions of people who depend on ocean ecosystems. But […]
Tell EPA: Let States Protect Their Waterways!
By Larissa Liebmann, Waterkeeper Alliance The Trump administration claims to be all about giving states greater freedom and responsibility. However, the administration suddenly sings a very different tune when states use their power to stand up to powerful polluters. Trump’s EPA just released a proposed rule that would effectively take away a powerful Clean Water […]
Trump’s Labor Board Wants to Deprive Graduate Student Workers of Their Basic Right to Form Unions
By Celine McNicholas, Economic Policy Institute The Trump-appointed National Labor Relations Board proposed a rule last week that would rob graduate teaching assistants and other student employees of the rights to organize and collectively bargain. This is just the most recent example of the board’s attack on working people. Last month, the board determined that misclassifying workers as independent […]
On Strike for Climate Justice and Workers’ Rights
By Katie Tracy, Center for Progressive Reform Tomorrow (September 20), I’m standing up for workers’ rights by marching to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., as part of the Global Climate Strike. I’ll be walking in solidarity with the students and youth organizing the strike to spread the message that climate action is imperative. Addressing the growing climate crisis […]
Trump Administration Just Can’t Stop Lying About Vehicle Standards
By Dave Cooke, Union of Concerned Scientists Today, Secretary Elaine Chao (Department of Transportation) and Administrator Andrew Wheeler (EPA) officially released their attack on California’s Advanced Clean Car standards, which reduce global warming emissions and tailpipe pollution from new cars and require manufacturers to sell a minimum number of electric vehicles in the state. 13 other […]
We Know How to Cut Climate Pollution But Need Political Will
By Lara Ettenson, Natural Resources Defense Council To do its part in mitigating climate change, the United States must drastically reduce carbon pollution by 2050. Energy efficiency—using less energy to get the same (or better) services like heat and light—plays a huge role by providing ways to cut both energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in […]
The Proposal to Restrict Science at EPA Is Dying a Slow Death
By Michael Halpern, Union of Concerned Scientists Some modest good news: the proposal to restrict the use of science in air pollution, chemical safety, water quality, and countless other decisions at the EPA has been delayed yet again. At a House Science Committee hearing this morning, EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said that the agency would issue a […]
As Phone Scams Rise, So Does the Need for Action
By Brian Young, National Consumers League American consumers receive 200 million robocalls per day, and that number appears to be growing. As the number of illegal robocalls increases, so do the odds for a scammer to find a victim to cheat out of their savings. In 2019, Americans were 70 percent more likely to fall victim to a […]
Trump Judge Denies Black Lung Benefits to Former Coal Mine Worker Despite Benefits Review Board Decision: Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears
By Elliot Mincberg, People For the American Way In West Virginia Coal Workers’ Pneumoconiosis (CWP) Fund v. Bell, decided in August, Trump 4th Circuit judge Julius Richardson wrote a 2-1 decision that reversed the Department of Labor Benefits Review Board (BRB) and reinstated an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) decision that denied black lung benefits to a […]
The Trump Administration’s Hazy Plans to Weaken Car Pollution Standards Won’t Work. Here’s Why.
By Paul Cort, Earthjustice The future of the nation’s clean car protections is on the table, and Andrew Wheeler, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is moving forward with a plan that will unleash tailpipe pollution across the country. The Trump administration is rolling back clean car standards and, strikingly, is trying to stop states from […]
Why Trump’s Dirty Cars Gambit Will Lose in Court
By David Doniger, Natural Resources Defense Council President Trump seems dead set on blowing up the historic clean car peace treaty forged ten years ago between the automobile industry, the federal government, and leading states. Bizarrely, the Trump team is barreling ahead to revoke California’s ability to set emission standards—over the objections of the automakers themselves, […]
Five Reasons Eugene Scalia Is a Terrible Choice to Lead the Department of Labor
By Julie Vogtman, National Women’s Law Center It’s a day ending in y and Donald Trump is still president, so naturally I have some bad news to share. The administration that brought you a Secretary of Education who opposes students’ rights, a Secretary of Energy who said the agency he leads should be abolished, and so many […]
Climate Change Is a Public Health Emergency. Inaction Is Costing Us.
By Vijay Limaye and Kim Knowlton, Natural Resources Defense Council We’re used to hearing about the effects of climate change on our environment and natural systems: how it’s raising sea levels, intensifying hurricane storm surges, worsening droughts, and prolonging wildfire seasons. And we’ve also come to understand how these shifts are, in turn, fueling so much human misery—causing displacement, illness, famine, water […]
A Timeline of Recent Attacks on the EPA’s Science-Based Ambient Air Pollution Standards
By Gretchen Goldman, Union of Concerned Scientists Trump administration officials at the US Environmental Protection Agency have made several moves that undermine the longstanding process that the agency uses to ensure that independent science informs ambient air pollution standards. For decades, under both democratic and republican administrations, the EPA has used the best available science […]
Trump Strips States’ Power to Curb Dangerous Auto and Truck Pollution
By Natural Resources Defense Council For half a century, California has been the nation’s leader in fighting dangerous air pollution from cars and trucks, using its right under the Clean Air Act to set its own emission standards. Today, Trump declared that his administration will move to block California—and its state allies. “Only the mean-spirited Trump administration […]
Abolition of Supplemental Environmental Projects: A Damaging Retreat for Environmental Enforcement
By Joel Mintz, Center for Progressive Reform Late last month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) quietly took a major step to undercut the enforcement of our federal pollution control laws. In a publicly released but little publicized memorandum, DOJ’s Associate Attorney General for Environment and Natural Resources, Jeffrey Bossert Clark, announced that the agency […]
Here Is Why State Regulators Are Rejecting Utility Resource Plans
By Joseph Daniel, Union of Concerned Scientists Utility resource plans, which often take the form of “Integrated Resource Plans” (IRP), are a business plan, of sorts, for utilities. It lays out what utilities plan on doing to meet customer’s demands. In California, the process tends to look like this. Outside California, the primary questions being looked […]