Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
Did California Trump the Clean Car Rollback?
By Ben Jervey, Sierra Club Leverage is one of Donald Trump’s favorite themes—”don’t make deals without it,” he wrote in The Art of the Deal. In the two-year battle over clean car standards, California just reminded the Trump administration what real leverage looks like. In late July, after months of secret negotiations, the agency responsible for […]
Trump EPA Refuses to Ban Pesticide—Where’s California?
By Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, Natural Resources Defense Council Public health and farmworker advocates returned to court this week to fight back against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ongoing refusal to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that harms children’s brains, from the U.S. food supply. In the meantime, California’s agricultural communities are continuing to sound the alarm for the health of […]
10 Sunscreens That Comply with Proposed New FDA Safety Rules
By Katie O’Reilly, Sierra Club It may be vital for protecting ourselves from the hot sun, but in recent years, sunscreen has found its way into the hot seat. Thanks to a heating planet and trashed ozone layer, sunscreen habits have evolved in recent decades—no longer a mere beach-bag accoutrement, it’s now stuff we slather on […]
NRDC Takes EPA to Court—Again—to Protect Children’s Health
By Natural Resources Defense Council A coalition of labor and health groups, including NRDC, sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today in order to force a ban on chlorpyrifos, a toxic pesticide that is commonly sprayed on various U.S. food crops, including apples, oranges, and berries. The groups are represented by EarthJustice. “We will not stand by […]
EPA Is Eroding States’ Authority to Protect Waters from Unchecked Development
By Aaron Zoellick, Waterkeepers Chesapeake The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a guidance document outlining certain Clean Water Act (CWA) timelines and requirements that states should follow when reviewing the impacts of major infrastructure projects, such as interstate pipelines and dams. The Guidance comes on the heels of President Trump’s Executive Order 13868 which seeks to abolish environmental […]
Furnace Fan and Dehumidifier Efficiency Standards Take Effect
By Emily Deanne, Natural Resources Defense Council New equipment in America’s homes and buildings will soon be more energy efficient thanks to energy standards that just went into effect for dehumidifiers and the fans moving air from furnaces and central air conditioning systems through houses. You may not realize these two pieces of household equipment […]
Toxic Personal Care Products and Women’s Health: A Public Health Crisis
By M. Isabelle Chaudry, National Women’s Health Network With few exceptions, current federal law does not require makers of cosmetics and other personal care products sold in the United States to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before their products go on the market. In fact, manufacturers aren’t required to list […]
It’s Time to Ban PFAS From Food Packaging
By Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group The recent discovery of fluorinated chemicals, or PFAS, in food packaging should serve as a reminder that our diets are as big a source as drinking water of these toxic compounds in our bodies. The discovery by The New Food Economy, a nonprofit newsroom, that PFAS is in certified compostable bowls […]
House Democrats Look to End Special Treatment of Corporate Polluters
By Matthew Gravatt, Sierra Club For decades, bedrock environmental laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act have existed to protect our communities from dangerous pollution. But did you know that oil and gas companies are often able to get around these protections? Thanks to provisions like the infamous “Halliburton Loophole,” the oil and […]
So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, Says the EPA to Southwest Alaska
By Anita Desikan, Union of Concerned Scientists The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has once again washed its hands of its responsibility to protect the health and safety of our waterways. On Tuesday, the agency helped clear a path towards the development of Pebble Mine, a proposed mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska that if built will become the […]
Four Automakers Stand Firm With California Against a Trump Administration Rollback
By Dave Cooke, Union of Concerned Scientists Last week, California’s governor and lead regulator announced an agreement with four automakers (BMW, Ford, Honda, and Volkswagen) on vehicle emissions standards that exceed anything the Trump administration has proposed, though it remains lower than what is on the books today. With the current administration shirking its responsibility to reduce […]
Confused by Food Date Labels? Congress Aims to Set Them Straight.
By Natural Resources Defense Council Date labels on food packages are many and varied, and all too often misunderstood—leading to unnecessary food (and money) waste. In fact, up to 40 percent of all food goes uneaten in the United States. Now, twin bills making their way through the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives aim to […]
Why Eugene Scalia Is the Wrong Person for the Job
By Heidi Shierholz, Lynn Rhinehart and Celine McNicholas, Economic Policy Institute Working women and men need and deserve a Secretary of Labor—somebody who will look out for their interests, protect them from unscrupulous employers, set strong health and safety standards, and safeguard their retirement security. Unfortunately, corporate lawyer Eugene Scalia, the man named by President Trump to be the […]
Trump Administration Sidesteps Congress to Cut SNAP. Again.
By Sarah Reinhardt, Union of Concerned Scientists The Trump administration has announced a new proposed rule that would make it harder for millions to feed their families—and is defying Congress in the process. If that sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen this movie before. Several times. Remember that in 2018, Trump allies in the House […]
Five Key Takeaways from the 2018 CFA Consumer Complaint Survey Report
By Susan Grant, Consumer Federation of America So many interesting issues emerged from this year’s survey of state and local consumer protection agencies that it’s impossible to list them all. Here are some of my key takeaways based on information from the survey report. Payment methods in fraud continue to evolve. This year we heard about crooks […]
Better Markets Speaks Truth to Power at Fed Stress Tests Conference
By Better Markets Stress tests, as we’ve detailed here, have been invaluable in strengthening our financial system. They are vital tools that protect taxpayers and our economy by making sure that banks have enough capital to absorb their own losses without needing bailouts. To protect Americans’ jobs, homes and our economy, they must continue to be […]
To Address PFAS Pollution, Congress Should Report, Reduce and Remediate
By Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group When it comes to household waste, we all know the mantra: Reduce, reuse, recycle. When it comes to pollution from the toxic fluorinated chemicals called PFAS, Congress should adopt a different three-part approach: Report PFAS releases, reduce PFAS discharges and remediate legacy PFAS pollution. This summer, members of Congress have a chance to make progress […]
HUD Celebrates One Year of Smokefree Apartment Living
By the American Lung Association For more than a decade, the American Lung Association has been working hard to protect everyone in public housing from secondhand smoke exposure. This multi-faceted effort included years of advocating for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to make all federally subsidized housing, including public housing, smokefree. And once […]
EPA Kills Bristol Bay Protections, Cozies Up to Pebble Mine
By Taryn Kiekow Heimer, Natural Resources Defense Council In a purely political move unsupported by science, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today withdrew its proposal for common-sense restrictions that would have protected Bristol Bay, Alaska from the giant Pebble Mine – a colossal gold and copper mine proposed at the headwaters of Bristol Bay’s famous salmon runs. EPA had called […]
USDA to Biotech: Call Your Own Compliance
By Steve Suppan, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy The U.S. Department of Agriculture wants agribusiness to sell more genetically engineered (GE) seeds and food products all over the world, as soon as possible. This rule would go beyond already controversial genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to encompass hundreds of new products of new gene and […]