Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
Remembering Workers Who Died or Suffered on the Job Must Also Include Safeguards Against Heat
By Shanna Devine, Public Citizen During Workers’ Memorial Week (April 22- 28), Public Citizen joined with organizations across the country to remember fallen workers and fight for safer workplaces, including for employees exposed to the growing dangers of climate change and rising temperatures in the workplace. According to the AFL-CIO, nearly 5,200 workers were killed on the job […]
More Offshore Drilling and Disasters?
By Lena Moffitt, Sierra Club In the face of recent international climate reports showing a bleak and harrowing future for our planet and more than one million species if we do not take immediate and significant action to stop climate disruption, it is appalling that the Trump administration continues to push fossil fuels. While at this point […]
Improving Transparency and Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest for Science Advisory Committees
By Andrew Rosenberg, Union of Concerned Scientists On Wednesday this week, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs will hold a mark-up hearing in the Federal Advisory Committee Act Amendments of 2019 introduced by Sen. Portman (R-OH). And before you stop reading, yes this is a science issue. The proposed amendments are intended […]
The National Academies Illustrates the More Nuanced Value of Transparency in Science
By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists Ever think about reproducibility in science? Turns out you’re not alone! The National Academies of Science (NAS) just spent a year and a half studying the status quo and have released some important findings. An NAS committee released a report this week that EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Department of Interior […]
NGOs Call for NOAA to Strengthen Seafood Import Standards
By Sandy Aylesworth, Natural Resources Defense Council U.S. consumers face difficult decisions at the seafood counter these days. We’ve now learned that some seafood is caught by forced or trafficked labor—repugnant practices no moral person would wittingly throw their money behind. We know that some seafood is fraudulent or not what it claims to be. […]
Regulating Agricultural Futures Markets to Benefit Producers, Processors and Consumers
By Steve Suppan, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy How difficult can it be to trade contracts based on the cash value of wheat, crude oil, unroasted coffee beans and other raw materials? Sure, there are future risks, physical and financial, but they can be usually managed with the help of trading exchanges, standardized data […]
How Trump Could Make the Extinction Crisis Even Worse
By Alison Cagle, Earthjustice Despite an alarming UN report that warns one million plant and animal species face extinction due to human activity, the Trump administration is poised to hasten species on their path to extinction by eroding critical wildlife protections. The UN’s landmark 1,500-page study, announced this week, warns that if we continue to destroy […]
A Timeline of (Some of) the Trump-Pence Administration’s Attacks on Birth Control
By Hannah Finnie, Michelle Banker and Mara Gandal-Powers, National Women’s Law Center In June 2018, we filed a lawsuit against the University of Notre Dame and the Trump-Pence administration for illegally teaming up in order to deny Notre Dame students and staff their birth control coverage. As we write this, students, staff, and their dependents at the University of […]
DOE’s Process Rule: Wonky Changes Could Have Big Impact
By Lauren Urbanek, Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC submitted comments this week in response to the Department of Energy’s proposed changes to its Process Rule for setting energy efficiency standards, citing several grave concerns over their divisive nature and the peril in which they would place timely, cost-effective future standards. The changes DOE proposes to the process for setting […]
The Science Denial Is Crystal Clear: The EPA Ignores Scientists on Asbestos
By Anita Desikan, Union of Concerned Scientists We ignore scientists at our peril. Why doesn’t the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) get this? The New York Times (subscription required) just reported that EPA officials actively ignored the advice of its own toxicologists last year on asbestos (yes asbestos of all things!) by issuing a rule (subscription required) that placed some […]
In the Face of Extinction Crisis, US Turns a Blind Eye
By Nora Apter, Natural Resources Defense Council If you care about the future of life on Earth, the United Nation’s report on biodiversity hit you like a ton of bricks: 1 million species of plants and animals will soon face extinction—and humanity itself hangs in the balance. Pollinators like the rusty patched bumble bee are vital […]
State PIRGs Join National Consumer Lobby Day at Congress
By Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG Staff from state PIRGs from Alaska to Massachusetts and points between were part of a Congressional Consumer Lobby Day featuring over 120 consumer advocates today. Our meetings with members of Congress and their staffs focused not only on protecting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s structure and funding from special-interest attack but […]
America’s Utilities Unite to Support Lighting Standards
By Ralph Cavanagh, Natural Resources Defense Council Thirty-seven electric utilities operating in 42 states and the District of Columbia, serving a combined total of almost 55 million households and businesses, have just taken an historic stand for their customers and the public interest. The utilities, which together represent more than one-third of the nation’s electricity […]
Mapping the PFAS Contamination Crisis: New Data Show 610 Sites in 43 States
By Bill Walker, Environmental Working Group The known extent of contamination of American communities with the highly toxic fluorinated compounds known as PFAS continues to grow at an alarming rate, with no end in sight. As of March 2019, at least 610 locations in 43 states are now known to be affected, including drinking water […]
House Democrats: Anti-Regulatory Legislation “Dead on Arrival”
By Amit Narang, Public Citizen As the saying goes, “elections have consequences.” Donald Trump’s election certainly has, leading to the rolling back and gutting of hundreds of regulations that protect the health and safety of workers, consumers, children, minorities and the environment. However, the most recent power shift—the House moving to leadership by a pro-safeguards majority– has begun providing […]
Interior Department Guts Critical Offshore Drilling Safety Protections
By Natural Resources Defense Council The Trump administration today will weaken crucial offshore drilling safety standards that were put in place after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, which killed 11 people and covered the seas with millions of barrels of oil. “The well control rule was one of the most important actions we took, as a […]
Trump Administration Finalizes Religious Refusals Rule That Threatens Access to Health Care
By Peter Montgomery, People For the American Way On May 2, the Trump administration finalized a new rule that will threaten millions of Americans’ access to health care by creating expansive rights for health care providers to discriminate and refuse to provide care. The new rule violates the basic principles that a patient’s health should […]
USDA Provides Blueprint for Dismantling a Government Research Agency
By Rebecca Boehm, Union of Concerned Scientists For scientists, it’s a significant accomplishment to get your work published in a peer-reviewed journal. The process of submitting a paper, fielding reviewer comments, and revising the work can take months (or years!), and final publication in a respected journal lends credibility to any researcher’s work. So it […]
Wildfires Changing the State of Our Air
By the American Lung Association When you think of Montana, you probably think of wide-open spaces, high plains, big sky country and presumably fresh, clean air. But the American Lung Association’s 20th annual “State of the Air” report finds something unexpected—increasing air pollution in the “Big Sky Country.” The culprit? Wildfires driven by climate change. […]
Remembering Workers Who Died or Suffered on the Job Must Also Include Safeguards Against Heat
By Shanna Devine, Public Citizen During Workers’ Memorial Week (April 22- 28), Public Citizen joined with organizations across the country to remember fallen workers and fight for safer workplaces, including for employees exposed to the growing dangers of climate change and rising temperatures in the workplace. According to the AFL-CIO, nearly 5,200 workers were killed on the job […]