Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
New Study Shows Heat Stress Protections Prevent Kidney Injury Among Farmworkers — and Save Lives
By Marya Reiter, Farmworker Justice The lack of a federal standard to protect agricultural workers from heat stress endangers the health and lives of farmworkers across the U.S. Heat stress is a frequent risk to farmworkers, who often spend long periods doing physically-demanding work in high temperatures and humidity. Beyond the risk of hyperthermia –or […]
Public Knocks Down Virtual Doors of EPA Hearing on Air Pollutant Linked to COVID-19
By Mary Anne Hitt, Sierra Club This week, clean air supporters broke down the virtual doors of an EPA hearing on a Trump air pollution proposal, and I’m so here for it. They overwhelmed the EPA on the first and second days of online hearings on the Trump administration’s insufficient national soot standard proposal, demanding […]
Trump Administration’s Order to Gut Protections in the Name of COVID Will Harm Communities for Polluter Profits
By Abigail Dillen, Earthjustice The Trump administration never lets a crisis go to waste. This week, in the middle of a global pandemic that has killed more than 90,000 Americans and left 35 million unemployed, President Trump ordered federal agencies to seek out regulations to cut. Their targets are likely to include key protections for water, […]
CPR Urges EPA to Abandon Unjustified and Harmful Censored Science Rulemaking
By Darya Minovi and James Goodwin, Center for Progressive Reform Earlier this week, we submitted a public comment to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), criticizing the agency’s March 2020 supplemental proposal for its “censored science” rulemaking. This rule, among other things, would require the public release of underlying data for studies considered in regulatory decision-making, and thus might prevent […]
Environmental Rollbacks Won’t Revive the Economy
By Marc Yaggi, Waterkeeper Alliance Re: The Trump Administration Is Reversing 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List, The New York Times When Richard Nixon vetoed the Clean Water Act in 1972, he called the Act “budget-wrecking,” saying, “Legislation which would continue our efforts to raise water quality, but which would do so through extreme and needless […]
Not Worth the Risk: It’s Time to Get Talc Out of All Cosmetics, Not Just Baby Powder
By Danielle Melgar, U.S. PIRG Johnson & Johnson announced on Tuesday that it has ended the sale of talc-based baby powders in the United States and Canada. That’s a big win for consumers, because talc is often contaminated with asbestos, which can cause cancer. As of March, there were 19,400 lawsuits filed against Johnson & Johnson by […]
Shocking the Markets: Excessive Speculation and Climate Change
By Dr. Steve Suppan, Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy On May 13, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) issued a warning to the trading platforms, clearing organizations (the back office processing of trades) and futures contract merchants: the organizations “are expected to prepare for the possibility that certain contracts may continue to experience extreme […]
With Trump Executive Order, Are Meat and Poultry Plants a COVID-19 Ticking Time Bomb?
By Rebecca Boehm, Union of Concerned Scientists On April 28, President Trump issued an executive order directing slaughterhouses and meat and poultry processing plants to remain open as critical infrastructure. The order noted that these facilities should follow CDC guidelines to protect workers from COVID-19. However, the guidelines in the order were described as voluntary, and no enforcement mechanism […]
Wheeler’s Staff Shows the Clean Cars Rollback is a Disaster
By Luke Tonachel, Natural Resources Defense Council According to two new bombshell articles this week, EPA staff experts had as many concerns about the Trump administration’s rollback of clean car standards as those of us on the outside have. The understated, factual criticisms of the rollback from the EPA engineers and analysts who have worked […]
It’s Time to End the Use of Talc in Loose Powders
By Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group The news, announced Tuesday, that Johnson & Johnson will soon end the sale of baby powder with talc is long overdue. Because talc and asbestos can form in the same parent rock, cosmetics made with talc can become contaminated with the deadly carcinogen, which is responsible for the death of thousands […]
Trump Tells Agencies to Slash Environmental and Health Protections
By Natural Resources Defense Council Citing the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump issued a sweeping executive order that directs federal agencies, like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to roll back or fail to enforce a wide range of regulations that could include environmental and health protections. “When you hear the Trump administration say it […]
New Analysis: Unlike Bush and Obama, the Trump Administration Is Muzzling CDC Scientists During Pandemic
By Anita Desikan, Union of Concerned Scientists Despite the incredible efforts of Dr. Anthony Fauci and other scientists in the White House Coronavirus Task Force, the Trump White House has pushed aside CDC scientists from communicating with the public during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists finds. CDC recommendations are no […]
Trump Judge’s Dissent Tries to Uphold EPA Rule Eliminating Restrictions on Dangerous Emissions: Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears
By Elliot Mincberg, People For the American Way Trump D.C. Circuit judge Neomi Rao argued in dissent that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be allowed to completely scrap a previous rule that restricted industry use of dangerous hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) without allowing any opportunity for notice and comment. The D.C. Circuit majority disagreed and struck […]
NRDC Fights Dangerous Science Censorship Plan at EPA
By Vijay Limaye, John Walke and Emily Davis, Natural Resources Defense Council As the coronavirus continues to impose significant health and economic hardship and disrupt daily life, it is becoming ever clearer that federal leaders should rely on the best available science to make decisions that affect our health. Yet, even in the midst of a global […]
EPA Should Cancel Plans to Restrict Science Once and For All
By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists Today, UCS submitted our comment on the Environmental Protection Agency’s flawed strengthening transparency rule. In our view, this is a proposal beyond fixing. It rests upon an erroneous assumption that the EPA’s regulatory science is not sufficiently accessible to the public. The rule would create a path for opportunistic representatives […]
Endangered Species Day: A Chance to Cherish Nature and Wildlife
By Bonnie Rice, Sierra Club “We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals … We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world […]
Now Is the Time to Improve SNAP for Food Insecure Families
By Sara Imperiale and Margaret Brown, Natural Resources Defense Council As of January 2020, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) served more than 37 million people. More than 80 percent of recipient households are families with children, seniors, or those with a disability, and households in poverty receive the vast majority of benefits. With staggering reports of job […]
The EPA Is Set to Ignore Science and Risk Your Health on Particulate Pollution: Your Voice Needed
By Gretchen Goldman, Union of Concerned Scientists The Trump Administration is set to ignore science and risk your health on an air pollution rule that will affect millions of people in the US. EPA Administrator Wheeler is going against EPA scientists and against the recommendations of an independent 20-member panel of experts (whom the administration disbanded but UCS hosted to meet anyway). By June […]
EPA Refuses to Protect Children From Perchlorate-Contaminated Tap Water
By Erik D. Olson, Natural Resources Defense Council In an extraordinary decision, President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Andrew Wheeler has decided to defy a court-ordered consent decree requiring the agency to issue a drinking water standard for the widespread contaminant perchlorate. Studies show this chemical poses threats to the brain development of fetuses […]
How State and Local Governments Can Support Safe Workplaces and Protect Public Health During the Coronavirus Crisis
By David Madland, Center for American Progress Action Fund In recent weeks, scores of essential workers across the country—from meatpackers and warehouse workers to transit employees and grocery clerks—have gone on strike to demand safer working conditions and higher wages that reflect the hazards facing them during the coronavirus pandemic. With employers too often ignoring their pleas, […]