Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
Investigation: Counties With Meatpacking Plants Report Twice the National Average Rate of COVID-19 Infections
By Sarah Graddy, Soren Rundquist and Bill Walker, Environmental Working Group Counties with or near meatpacking plants have almost twice the rate of known COVID-19 infections as the national average, according to a geospatial analysis by the Environmental Working Group. Based on cases reported by Johns Hopkins University as of May 6, EWG’s analysis found that counties […]
Put Workers First in COVID Response
By Jeremy Richardson, Union of Concerned Scientists As I often say to friends and colleagues, the issues we face as a society are complex and simply cannot be reduced to bumper sticker slogans. Sometimes, however, the reality is strikingly simply—and staring us right in the face. After lobbying by the Chamber of Commerce, the administration initially dragged […]
Endangered Species Day: More Vital Than Ever
By Lucas Rhoads, Natural Resources Defense Council Friday, May 15th is Endangered Species Day, a time to cherish the world’s biodiversity and to celebrate the many conservation successes of the past fifty years. It’s also a time to recognize that fighting for these species is more important than ever, with a looming biodiversity crisis compounded […]
Six Ways Nancy Beck Showed Us She Doesn’t Care About Us or Science
By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists As I balance working from home and caring for my toddler, I spend a lot of time staring at the scores of products in my home that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is tasked with keeping safe. Cribs, highchairs, toys, arts and crafts, bike helmets—the list goes […]
Work Conditions Make Farmworkers Uniquely Vulnerable to COVID-19
By Melanie Benesh and Jared Hayes, Environmental Working Group Depending on the season, an estimated 1 million to 2.7 million workers, mostly undocumented, toil on the nation’s farms. Without farmworkers, the American food system would collapse – and during the coronavirus pandemic, they are especially essential to ensuring that food arrives on grocery shelves. But farmworkers are especially at […]
On the Heels of Rollback, Auto Makers Seek Another Hand Out
By Dave Cooke, Union of Concerned Scientists While the administration just finalized its reduction in vehicle efficiency from 5 percent per year to no better than a measly 1.5 percent per year (despite their own evidence showing how bad it is for the country), that hasn’t stopped the auto industry from seeking even further reductions. […]
Yet Another Reason Nancy Beck Should Not Run Consumer Agency
By Daniel Rosenberg, Natural Resources Defense Council You may have heard recent reports about the White House burying detailed guidance by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to help safely re-open amid the pandemic. The White House and CDC have claimed that the head of the CDC had not given final approval on this important […]
NRDC Sues After EPA Gives Industry a Pass on Leaks of HFCs, a Potent Climate Pollutant
By Natural Resources Defense Council In our 112th lawsuit against the Trump administration, NRDC sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today after the agency reversed a rule that aims to prevent leaks of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)—potent chemicals used in commercial and industrial refrigeration that pack up to thousands of times the heat-trapping power of carbon when released into the atmosphere. […]
The FDA’s Convoluted Stance on Abortion Pills Doesn’t Protect Patients — It Endangers Them
By Sarah Christopherson and Olivia Snavely, National Women’s Health Network Under federal law, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can impose Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) on drugs that it believes could do more harm than good if not carefully controlled. While all medications pose some health risks, some are more dangerous than others, […]
The New Title IX Rule Is Dangerous for All Students. That’s Why We’re Suing Betsy DeVos (Again).
By Elizabeth Tang, National Women’s Law Center It’s here. Betsy DeVos has released—in the middle of a global pandemic—a new Title IX rule that weakens protections against sexual harassment in school. DeVos finalizing this rule during the COVID-19 crisis instead of providing much-needed relief to students and schools is indefensible. Worse, she took this step after she […]
When ‘Essential’ Means ‘Expendable’: Connecting the Dots Between Back-to-Work Orders and Spread of the Coronavirus
By Matthew Freeman, Center for Progressive Reform In the latest episode of CPR Board President Rob Verchick’s Connect the Dots podcast, he and CPR Member Scholars Michael Duff and Thomas McGarity explore worker safety issues in the era of the coronavirus. McGarity begins the conversation with the story of Annie Grant, a 15-year veteran of the packing line at […]
America Needs Good Information Before It Can Safely Lift Stay-at-Home Rules
By Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG Public health experts have made it abundantly clear that to safely lift stay-at-home rules we must have four key things we don’t yet have. We need fast, accurate and widely available testing. We need a better plan for isolating and supporting people who have COVID-19. We need sufficient hospital capacity, […]
Timeline: 23 Years of Attempts to Restrict Public Health Science at EPA
By Michael Halpern, Union of Concerned Scientists The Environmental Protection Agency is advancing a broad proposal to restrict the use of science at the agency with no official public hearings and a limited sixty-day comment period, which ends on May 18. The rule is the culmination of 25 years of attempts to weaken the Clear […]
Coronavirus Relief Act Gives Drug Makers New Sway Over FDA
By David S. Hilzenrath, Project on Government Oversight Last year, based on growing concerns about the safety of certain sunscreens, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a plan of action. It proposed concluding that, for two sunscreen ingredients, the risks outweigh the benefits, and it proposed declaring that there was insufficient data to support the […]
Oral Arguments in Contraceptive Case Show Danger of Upholding Trump Rule
By Elliot Mincberg, People For the American Way Today, the Supreme Court held oral arguments in the Supreme Court in two cases concerning the Trump administration rule that severely limits contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As always, it is difficult to predict the outcome of the case, but the arguments did make clear the […]
Senate Plan to Protect Data in a Pandemic Is Mostly Bad News
By Emily Peterson-Cassin, Public Citizen There’s good news, and there’s bad news. The good news is that a bill is about to be introduced in the U.S. Senate to offer some protections around the new data being collected by companies that are tracking our health and movement in the name of fighting the pandemic. Efforts already are […]
Responding to COVID-19 Doesn’t Have to Mean Sacrificing Frontline Communities
By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists As the U.S. government responds to the COVID-19 crisis, it is imperative that frontline communities and essential workers are not saddled with the cost of hastily made decisions. On March 25, EPA announced that efforts were underway to increase sterilization capacity for medical equipment at several facilities using the known […]
We Need the Clean Air Act, Now More Than Ever
By Vijay Limaye, Natural Resources Defense Council As the United States observes Air Quality Awareness Week, a new report commissioned by NRDC highlights the landmark achievements of the Clean Air Act to protect our health. Since its near-unanimous passage by Congress 50 years ago, this law has delivered on its intent to reduce air pollution, improve health, […]
Congress Must Include Worker Protections in the Next Coronavirus Relief Bill
By Celine McNicholas and Margaret Poydock, Economic Policy Institute In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Congress has now passed four separate relief and recovery measures allocating trillions of dollars in aid, but none have provided meaningful protections to working people. Workers continue to be required to work without protective gear. Sick workers continue to lack access to paid sick […]
Clean Air Act: Tremendous Lifesaver and Economic Engine
By Simon Mui and Amanda Levin, Natural Resources Defense Council Marking the 50th anniversary of the first ever Earth Day, a newly released study finds that air pollution programs implemented under the federal Clean Air Act are saving hundreds of thousands of lives and delivering trillions in economic benefits to human health and welfare each year. The passage […]