Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
Regulatory Failures = Superweeds and Glyphosate Cancers
By Jennifer Sass, Natural Resources Defense Council Glyphosate is used in the U.S. at roughly 300 million pounds per year in agriculture, with about 90% for agriculture, and 10% for non-ag uses (Benbrook 2016). It gets on our lawns and gardens, our parks and playgrounds, our farm fields and food crops, and then runs with […]
Three Things EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler Doesn’t Understand About Ambient Air Pollution Standards
By Gretchen Goldman, Union of Concerned Scientists Last week, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler talked to Congress. Members had questions about his recent changes to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards updates for particulate matter and ozone. Wheeler’s comments last week and earlier make clear that he either doesn’t understand or isn’t being honest about how the EPA is proceeding […]
Trump Threatens States with Two Executive Orders Favoring Fossil Fuels—Again
By Kimberly Ong, Natural Resources Defense Council In a transparent attempt to restrict states’ powers to protect their own streams, rivers, wetlands, reservoirs, and springs, President Trump signed an executive order intended to limit states’ authority to enforce its water quality standards against interstate fossil fuel infrastructure like fracked gas pipelines. He also signed a separate executive […]
Yes, EPA: Regulating Mercury Pollution Is “Appropriate and Necessary”
By Kathleen Rest, Union of Concerned Scientists It doesn’t take a health care professional, public health expert or environmental scientist to understand the value of clean air and the need for regulatory safeguards that protect our families and communities from toxic air pollution. While killer smog may seem like a historical artifact, air pollution exacts a […]
The “Return to Prudent Banking Act” Will Help Protect Us From Another Financial Crash
By Craig Sandler, Public Citizen We need strong rules for Wall Street. When we don’t have them, Americans suffer. It happened with savings and loan association deregulation, which led to a real estate collapse; it happened with the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999, which led to the 2008 financial crash. Now, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH-9), has introduced […]
Fires in Texas Spark Interest in Chemical Safety
By Anthony Gutierrez, Union of Concerned Scientists Watching the news last week as clouds of thick black smoke billowed over Houston, I worried about my family. They are surrounded by chemical plants. Hearing state and local officials saying there is no air quality issue, and then ordering everyone to “shelter in place” terrified me. In […]
Trump’s Executive Order Undermines States’ Rights
By Waterkeeper Alliance President Trump plans today to sign an executive order that attempts to limit states’ role in approving permits required for oil and gas projects under the Clean Water Act, undermining federal law and stripping states of their ability to approve or deny projects that will impact their communities and waterways. The Clean Water Act […]
When You Drill, You Spill. Proposed Bills Push Back Against Trump’s Dangerous Offshore Drilling Plans.
By Natalie Mebane, Sierra Club This month will mark the 9th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. As we reflect on the worst oil spill in American history, we must not forget that 11 human lives were lost, countless animals were killed, and 68,000 square miles of Gulf waters […]
Letting Dirty Trucks Glide Past Pollution Protections
By Amit Narang, Public Citizen The White House agency in charge of reviewing regulations, the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), conspired with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to circumvent important rulemaking requirements – and ram through a deregulatory giveaway to “glider” trucks, which are super-polluting diesel freight trucks created by dropping […]
5 Ways Wheeler Is Dirtying Our Water
By Sally Hardin, Center for American Progress In a recent interview, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler said that access to clean drinking water across the globe is “the biggest environmental threat.” However, these empty words represent the extent of Wheeler’s effort to support clean water. In reality, Wheeler’s countless actions show that the former coal lobbyist has […]
Banned Around the Globe – But Still Legal in California?
By Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group More than 40 nations have banned or restricted more than 1,400 chemicals in cosmetics and other personal care products. So why are chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive harm still turning up in cosmetics sold in California? Using EWG’s Skin Deep® database, EWG found products sold in the U.S. in the past […]
5 Trump Administration Efforts That Could Undermine the Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Strategy
By Jim Lyons, Center for American Progress In September 2015, a landscape-level, science-based conservation effort developed through the collaborative work of 11 states, four federal agencies, multiple companies, and thousands of private landowners prevented the greater sage-grouse from being added to the list of threatened or endangered species. Unfortunately, the Trump administration is methodically dismantling […]
Diapers and Pads May Be Leaching Chemicals Into Our Bodies
By Katie O’Reilly, Sierra Club In her 1997 book Living Downstream, biologist, mother, and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber compares the idea that as individuals, we can protect ourselves from environmental toxins to buying blueprints for bomb shelters. Steingraber writes that “few lifestyle sacrifices actually offer much real protection…. The sooner we quit trying to turn our […]
Even If You Can’t Pay, Payday Lenders Can Keep Looting Your Account Thanks to Texas Judge
By Better Markets As if it wasn’t enough that new CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger was doing her best to help predatory payday lenders, a federal judge in Texas decided to leave in place a stay on the compliance date of the payday lending rule. As a result of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel, payday […]
Here’s What You Can Do to Pass the Save the Internet Act
By Free Press This just in: A key House committee passed the Save the Internet Act! This is a huge milestone. Multiple representatives who have been Net Neutrality skeptics in the past voted for this bill, citing all the contacts, stories and messages they’ve received from constituents. Thanks to your activism, the bill is now on its […]
Out-of-Season Algae Outbreaks on the Rise
By Anne Schechinger, Environmental Working Group Outbreaks of toxic algae in U.S. waterways usually happen in warmer months. But in a sign that the problem is growing worse, algae blooms were reported in December in Michigan and Washington state, with another reported in Florida during the first days of spring. EWG’s ongoing tracking of reported algae outbreaks […]
Wells Fargo’s Next CEO Must Be a Commercial/Retail Bank Leader
By Better Markets The only reason banks are backed by governments and taxpayers – and why they were bailed out in 2008 – is because they are supposed to serve an essential public function: providing financial support to the real economy and Main Street families and businesses. For many years, Wells Fargo was a commercial/retail […]
Speak Up Now to Save Clean Water Act Protections!
By Ellen Simon, Waterkeeper Alliance The last chance to comment on a Trump administration proposal that would gut the Clean Water Act is April 15. The proposal, which has no basis in science, would be disastrous for our waterways, removing safeguards from historically protected rivers, streams, lakes, wetlands, and other waters. Just as a child with […]
Food Companies at the Table in Trump Administration’s Dietary Guidelines Committee
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Union of Concerned Scientists Putting a new twist on the term “pork-barrel politics,” the National Pork Board, along with other of food industry and infant formula lobbyists, may be maneuvering into a position of undue influence in the Trump administration’s five-year update of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The US Department […]
DOE About to Make an Appliance Efficiency Testing Error
By Joe Vukovich, Natural Resources Defense Council If you wanted to improve the test scores of a high school math class, one way to do it would be to let the students write their own tests. The scores would certainly increase, but the thing you actually care about—knowledge of math—would not. Unfortunately, the Department of […]