Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
Hurricane Michael Targets Florida’s Red Tide
By Stacy Woods, Natural Resources Defense Council Hurricane Michael, the strongest hurricane to ever strike Florida’s Panhandle, brought catastrophic winds, rain, and storm surge to the coastal and inland communities along Florida’s Gulf of Mexico. The powerful storm is also expected to affect the disastrous red tide algal bloom that has been decimating Florida’s ocean life for months. But […]
Congress Continues to Handicap Bright Line Rules
By Emily Peterson-Cassin, Public Citizen Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) published a report that once again criticized the Internal Revenue Service for failing to adequately enforce the rules on nonprofit political activity. The report comes as no surprise; Public Citizen’s Bright Lines Project has been calling out the […]
Justice Delayed: Mercedes-Benz’s Diesel Pollution Remains Unprosecuted
By Joel Mintz, Center for Progressive Reform To serve the cause of justice, law enforcement must be prompt, even-handed, and appropriate to the circumstances of individual cases. In their handling of an important recent pollution case, however, the enforcement activities of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have been none […]
When Companies Collude to Suppress Workers’ Wages
By the National Employment Law Project NELP recently submitted a comment to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urging the agency to impose tougher penalties on companies that collude to suppress wages. We filed the comment in response to a proposed settlement in a case where the companies allegedly colluded to keep wages for therapists low, a violation […]
Sidelining Science Hurts Children
By Jacob Carter, Union of Concerned Scientists “That week, her mother chose groceries over her daughter’s asthma inhaler. Food for your children over medicine for your children; for a parent, there is not a more tortuous game of Russian Roulette than this. That week, this mother lost that gamble. Her daughter had an asthma attack. […]
Scientists Cut Out of EPA’s Particulate Pollution Standard Setting
By Gretchen Goldman, Union of Concerned Scientists In the latest of several moves targeting EPA air pollution protections, the Trump administration appears to have cut scientists out of a process for reviewing particulate pollution standards. The move breaks with a longstanding process for how the agency gets independent scientific review into its decisionmaking on air pollution protections. […]
Trump’s War on Children’s Health Escalates at Wheeler’s EPA
By Alex Formuzis and Robert Coleman, Environmental Working Group Under President Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency has repeatedly betrayed its responsibility to safeguard the health of children. But in recent weeks, the hostile actions of the president and Andrew Wheeler, the EPA’s acting administrator, have escalated into nothing less than a war on children’s health. […]
Extreme Heat Is Worsening Climate Change: Is OSHA Doing Enough to Protect Farm Workers?
By Kelly Kramer, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy In June of this year, 24-year-old Mexican-born Miguel Angel Guzman Chavez started a new job picking tomatoes in Georgia. Five days later, soaring temperatures led him to collapse in the field, sending him into cardiac arrest. Two hours later, he was pronounced dead. The Department of Labor’s Occupational […]
Three Reasons Bernard McNamee Is a Horrible Choice for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
By Sam Gomberg, Union of Concerned Scientists President Trump’s nomination of Bernard McNamee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) may not grab a lot of headlines but make no mistake – it’s a blatant (and oft repeated) move by the Trump administration to pollute an independent regulatory body with political operatives intent on carrying out his crony […]
Immigration Rule Fails Administration’s Own Cost-Benefit Test, May be Trump’s Most Expensive Regulatory Move
By Matt Kent, Public Citizen Deregulation and rigorous cost-benefit analysis are core values for the Trump administration, except when it comes to denying immigrants the right to live and work in the U.S. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) own conservative estimate, the costs of the administration’s proposed “public charge” rule vastly outweigh […]
The EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule: Putting Money on ACE Is a Bad Bet — Part II
By Joseph Tomain, Center for Progressive Reform Industry Trends In short, energy projections demonstrate a clear trend for clean energy and away from fossil fuels. These trends, directly and negatively, affect traditional electric utilities. About the time that rooftop solar financing was being consolidated by third parties such as SolarCity and Sunrun, utilities began to […]
Mindlessly Pushing for More Financial Deregulation
By Better Markets In May, President Trump signed a law deregulating 26 of the largest 40 banks in the country. Many were the same banks that received massive bailouts just ten years ago when Wall Street’s biggest banks caused the worst financial collapse since the Great Crash of 1929. Many of these banks are also repeat lawbreakers and […]
FDA Rules Food Manufacturers Can’t Flavor Products With Cancer-Causing Chemicals
By Carrie Apfel, Earthjutice Food manufacturers can no longer use seven synthetic flavors that have been shown to cause cancer in animals, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled on Oct. 5. The chemicals, which may also cause cancer in humans, add flavors such as mint, cinnamon and citrus to everything from baked goods and […]
The EPA’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) Rule: Putting Money on ACE Is a Bad Bet — Part I
By Joseph Tomain, Center for Progressive Reform On August 21, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule as a substitute for the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP). The CPP had been stayed from going into effect by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the purpose of the substitute rule is […]
Stop Wall Street Payouts That Produce TARP Bailouts
By Dennis Kelleher and Jack Reidhill, Better Markets As the country’s financial system spiraled out of control, ten years ago today President George W. Bush signed into law the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 creating the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The passage of the bill was a key element in responding to the […]
One of the Most Important Agencies You’ve Never Heard of Is Being Taken Over by Trump
By Kim Smaczniak, Earthjustice Most Americans probably don’t know that an independent—and up to now nonpartisan—government agency has played a key role in our nation’s transition to cleaner energy technologies. Under the radar and hidden beneath a layer of technical jargon, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has shepherded changes to electricity market rules that […]
With Kavanaugh Confirmed to the Supreme Court, Our Environment and Health Are at Risk
By the Natural Resources Defense Council After weeks of high-profile questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee, intense public backlash, a last-minute FBI investigation into allegations of sexual assault, and a shockingly blatant display of partisanship by the Supreme Court justice nominee, the Senate voted 50 to 48 on Saturday to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to America’s highest court. Kavanaugh will replace […]
Kids Deserve to Have Healthy Lives: The Uncertain Fate of EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection
By Kathleen Rest, Union of Concerned Scientists October 1 marked the beginning of Children’s Health Month, the month when health organizations, health professionals, government agencies, and others work to raise public awareness of children’s unique vulnerabilities and highlight their support for child health. And there certainly are many issues that merit our attention and efforts to […]
USDA Moves to Increase Poultry Line Speeds
By Shanna Devine, Public Citizen Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it will issue waivers that allow poultry slaughterhouses to increase their line speeds from the already dangerous 140 birds per minute (BPM) to 175 BPM. Increased line speeds can lead to devastating ergonomic injuries for plant workers, food safety threats for consumers, a […]
FDA Bans Seven Food Additives That Cause Cancer
By the Natural Resources Defense Council In response to a lawsuit brought by NRDC and a coalition of health, consumer, and environmental groups, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today banned seven cancer-causing chemicals found in artificial flavoring used for various food and beverages. “Carcinogens have no place in the food we feed our families,” says Erik Olson, director of […]