Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Decision to Exempt Factory Farms From Reporting Hazardous Air Pollution
By Waterkeeper Alliance Community and conservation groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today for overstepping its authority in exempting factory farms from pollution-reporting requirements essential to public safety, environmental health and animal welfare. The lawsuit seeks to ensure that industrial-scale livestock and poultry operations report their toxic releases of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide as required by […]
As Methane Levels in the Atmosphere Soar, Trump Administration Moves to Gut Regulations
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Union of Concerned Scientists Until recently, carbon dioxide has earned top billing among global warming gases. Emitted when fossil fuels burn, it remains the most prevalent heat-trapping emission driving climate change. Its concentration in the atmosphere has now reached levels unseen for three million years, helping to usher in an unprecedented decline […]
Here’s How Manufacturers Argue Against Repair
By Nathan Proctor, U.S. PIRG Tired of getting ripped off by companies overcharging you for repairs and pushing you to upgrade to a new item instead? You’re not alone. Frustration over repair restrictions has helped create a burgeoning Right to Repair campaign. Our campaign had bills in 20 states this year, and now federal regulators are […]
Environmental Rollbacks in the Guise of Cheap Housing
By Andrew Wetzler, Natural Resources Defense Council I began my career as an environmental advocate 20 years ago working on open space and wildlife preservation in Southern California. Then, as now, one of the most consistent threats to those open spaces, big and small, is housing development. Not high-density and transportation-friendly urban development, but housing […]
Replacing the CPP’s Visionary Energy Planning with the ACE’s Technical Tinkering
By Alice Kaswan, Center for Progressive Reform The Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, the Trump administration’s recently released substitute for his predecessor’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), has been widely criticized as an ineffectual mechanism for addressing power plants’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. More broadly, the rule substitutes a technocratic, plant-by-plant approach for the more comprehensive and participatory state planning […]
What Has Happened to Nurturing and Protecting Children?
By Reid Maki, National Consumers League The Child Labor Coalition is a non-partisan group that is concerned with the health and welfare of children in the U.S. and abroad. We were extremely critical of the Obama administration’s decision to withdraw proposed safety protections for children who work in agriculture—known as “hazardous occupations orders.” We try […]
Our Tussle With The Wall Street Journal’s Letters Page
By Taylor Lincoln and Angela Bradbery, Public Citizen Earlier this month, we issued a report disclosing some rather remarkable facts about a program at George Washington University called the Regulatory Studies Center. We reported that the bulk of the center’s work comes from authors who been affiliated with groups funded by the famous petrochemical billionaires Charles and […]
Summer Is Toxic Algae Season: What You Need to Know
By Gary Belan, American Rivers What is a toxic algae outbreak and where do they occur? If your river or lake is choked with green slime, it might be a toxic algae outbreak. These outbreaks are triggered by several factors, including warm temperatures and excess nutrients from agricultural and urban runoff. Last year there were […]
Unregulated Cosmetics, Eurocentric Beauty Standards, and the Effect on Black Women’s Health
By M. Isabelle Chaudry, National Women’s Health Network With few exceptions, current federal law does not require cosmetics manufacturers to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration before their products go on the market. In fact, manufacturers aren’t required to list all of their ingredients, test their products, use good manufacturing practices to prevent contamination, or even […]
Another Gross Reason to Put Down the E-Cigarettes
By American Lung Association Scientists have been working hard to debunk the belief that e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes. A recent study published in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine is giving the mounting concern against vaping some traction. The news adds to the growing list of health […]
The Best School Lunch News You Never Heard
By Sarah Reinhardt, Union of Concerned Scientists This spring, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) released a groundbreaking new study showing that kids and schools alike have benefited enormously from new school nutrition standards adopted over the course of the last seven years. This is the first comprehensive assessment of how schools across the nation have […]
U.S. Lacks Data Needed to Weigh Effects of Oil and Gas Production on Western Water Supply
By Mary Ellen Kustin, Center for American Progress At a time when policymakers, land managers, and the public should weigh and scrutinize any demands on Western water, they are missing critical information to help inform whether, where, and how energy development should take place. The federal government has no standard reporting requirements for energy companies related […]
Testifying to Stop Wall Street Gambling With Derivatives to Jack Up Prices for Their Bonuses
By Better Markets Almost everything you buy (gas, cereal, coffee, etc.) is connected to complex financial instruments called “derivatives,” about 90% of which are controlled by the five biggest Wall Street banks. If those gigantic derivatives-dealing banks are not properly regulated, then they play with the prices hardworking Main Street Americans pay for almost everything. […]
DOE Relents, Will Hold Webinar on Testing Loophole Plan
By Joe Vukovich, Natural Resources Defense Council The Department of Energy (DOE) today agreed to hold a public webinar to provide more information on its proposed controversial changes to its test procedure waiver process for testing the efficiency of appliances, equipment, and electronics. However, the agency will give interested parties only two business days after […]
Congress Must Lead with National Energy Standards to Save the Climate
By Rob Cowin, Union of Concerned Scientists It’s well past time for a national standard for low-carbon electricity. In order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change we must rapidly decarbonize our power sector while rapidly electrifying as much of the transportation, industry, and buildings sectors as possible. That means adding a lot more […]
The ‘Advancing Coal Energy’ Rule? EPA’s Misguided Approach to Carbon Emissions From the Dirtiest Power Plants
By Hannah Wiseman, Center for Progressive Reform The EPA released its finalized rule for carbon emissions from existing power plants last week. The agency calls the rule the “Affordable Clean Energy” (ACE) rule, but it would be better named the “Advancing Coal Energy” rule given its explicit aim to keep old, dirty coal-fired power plants running. […]
Trump Administration Is Suppressing Science and Public Opinion to Drill the Arctic Refuge
By Jenny Rowland-Shea and Sung Chung, Center for American Progress In December 2018, the Trump administration’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The review was criticized for being insufficient and downplaying the impacts of drilling in one of the few […]
EPA’s Monkey Business Hides ACE Rule Emissions Increases
By Arjun Krishnaswami, Natural Resources Defense Council The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repealed the Clean Power Plan (CPP) and replaced it with a do-nothing dirty power plan last week. This blog digs into the analytical tricks the EPA used to confuse the public and hide the likely negative impacts of its new rule. The […]
With New Power Plant Rule, Trump Administration Plumbs the Depths of the Indefensible
By Julie McNamara, Union of Concerned Scientists The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the final versionof its “Affordable Clean Energy” (ACE) rule, a carbon emissions standard for fossil fuel-fired power plants. And it does nothing. Nothing. It does nothing despite the agency’s legal obligation to limit carbon pollution from the power sector, the nation’s largest […]
Trump EPA Claims New Power Plant Rule Would Improve Health of Minority and Low-Income Communities. Don’t Believe It.
By Elvondo Cooper, Media Matters for America On June 19, the Trump administration announced that it was officially replacing the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s 2015 policy for curbing carbon pollution from power plants, with a much weaker Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. The text of the new rule claims that it will “improve environmental justice communities’ health,” […]