Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
As Asbestos Toll Mounts, Trump’s EPA Ignores It
By Derrick Jackson, Union of Concerned Scientists Two years ago, President Obama signed a successful bipartisan effort to update the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA). It was called the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, named for the late New Jersey senator who had long championed it. The new act was intended to give the […]
What Does Judge Preska’s Decision Striking Down the CFPB Mean for Consumers?
By Jeff Sovern, St. John’s University School of Law Allison blogged earlier about Judge Preska’s decision striking down the CFPB as unconstitutional and I’ve been wondering what it means for consumers. I hope some of our readers will offer their own thoughts in the comments, because I’m still trying to figure this out. As a formal matter, […]
Pruitt: Thousands of Toxic Spills? No Problem.
By Erik Olson and Daniel Rosenberg, Natural Resources Defense Council On June 19, Scott Pruitt’s EPA announced that even though the Clean Water Act explicitly requires the agency to establish rules to prevent and address hazardous substance spills from industrial facilities, and even though EPA agreed with NRDC and our partners to a court-approved Consent Decree requiring the agency to issue […]
Two Years After Reformed TSCA, Pruitt’s EPA Has Failed to Protect Us From Toxic Chemicals
By Melanie Benesh, Environmental Working Group On June 22, 2016, President Obama signed into law a significant overhaul of the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, the nation’s primary chemical safety law. It was the first update to the law, which was widely considered to be the least effective environmental law on the books, in 40 years. […]
Kathy Kraninger’s Nomination to be CFPB Director Raises Disturbing Red Flags
By Craig Sandler, Public Citizen Over the weekend, President Trump nominated Kathy Kraninger, currently an associate director at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to be the permanent director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau). Until now, the Acting Director of the CFPB since the departure of previous director Richard Cordray […]
At Small Business Hearing, CPR’s Ristino Will Connect the Dots between Strong Safeguards and Strong Small Farms
By James Goodwin, Center for Progressive Reform This morning, CPR Member Scholar and Vermont Law School Professor Laurie Ristino will testify at a hearing before the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy, and Trade of the House Small Business Committee. The majority’s not-so-subtle objective for the hearing is to apply familiar conservative talking points against federal regulations to the specific context […]
A Hard-Won Victory on CEO Pay
By Jim Lardner, Americans for Financial Reform Runaway CEO pay at Wall Street banks was one of the driving forces behind the financial crisis of 2008-09. Pay packages “too often rewarded the quick deal [and] the short-term gain—without proper consideration of long-term consequences,” a federal panel of inquiry concluded. That same plot line — crazed compensation leading to […]
EPA Says It Won’t Protect Americans From Chemical Spills
By the Natural Resources Defense Council In 2014, more than 10,000 gallons of a coal-cleaning chemical leaked into the Elk River in Charleston, West Virginia, leaving more than 300,000 residents without clean tap water for a week—and eventually resulting in a court settlement that ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to issue standards to prevent […]
Could Your State Require Solar Panels on Homes?
By Bret Fanshaw, Environment America Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year in Earth’s Northern Hemisphere. It’s a day to remind ourselves that beyond those few extra minutes of brilliant light, the sun’s rays hold a virtually limitless stream of clean, renewable energy. If fully tapped, this power could save our […]
#ReleaseTheGuidance: Trump Is Rigging the Regulatory Process at the Expense of Workplace Sexual Harassment Protections
By Matt Kent, Public Citizen Thirty-two years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson. The court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects workers from sexual harassment. The Meritor Savings decision enshrined legal recognition of sexual harassment as a form of discrimination on the basis of sex. […]
Trump’s War On Regulations: A War on Public Health, Free Markets, and American Consumers
By Caroline Ristaino, Public Citizen On June 5, the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, an alliance of more than 160 public advocacy groups that is chaired by Public Citizen, hosted “The War on Regulation: Good for Corporations, Bad for the Public” symposium. The event, which featured Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh as keynote speakers, […]
Symposium: Clear Regulations Protect Freedom, Not Restrict It
By Sean Moulton and Nicholas Trevino, Project on Government Oversight In 2016, 22-month-old Ted McGee died when an IKEA dresser tipped over and fell on him. IKEA had not built the dresser to the government’s recommended safety standards. It didn’t have to. Despite the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s estimate that between 2014 and 2016, […]
Peter Wright’s 50+ Chemical Facility Conflicts: A Disaster Waiting to Happen
By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists Peter Wright, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management, will face the Senate Environment and Public Works committee at his nomination hearing this Wednesday. Mr. Wright has spent the majority of his career working as an attorney for Dow Chemical Company […]
Poll Reveals Bipartisan Voter Support for Curbing Wall Street’s Power
By Sophia Autor, Public Citizen Public Citizen has always worked to protect consumers’ pocketbooks, defending against proposals that put our economy at risk and ensuring that individuals are safeguarded against wrongdoing by financial institutions. For example, since President Donald Trump took office, the organization has battled the Administration’s efforts to dismantle financial rules designed to […]
Sherwin-Williams Puts Consumers’ Lives First, Pulls Deadly Paint Strippers
By Natural Resources Defense Council Following Lowe’s recent announcement, the paint company is eliminating two toxic chemicals from its stores. Just weeks after Lowe’s made the commitment to remove dangerous paint strippers from its shelves, Sherwin-Williams, the country’s largest supplier of paint and paint supplies, hasannounced it is following suit and will no longer sell products containing methylene […]
Toxic Triclosan in Toothpaste?
By Dev Gowda, U.S. PIRG A recent article in the LA Times revealed that a new study found that the toxic compound triclosan, which is commonly found in toothpaste as well as other consumer products such as cosmetics, children’s toys, and yoga mats, “could cause adverse effects on colonic inflammation and colon cancer.” The U.S. Food and […]
Five Questions With Debbie Berkowitz, NELP’s Worker Health and Safety Director
By National Employment Law Project Congratulations on this award. This is a big achievement. Looking back on your career, what are some of the key moments that shaped you as an advocate? I started my career as a worker safety and health advocate at the AFL-CIO back in 1978. I was just one year out […]
Michigan Moves to Eliminate Lead Drinking Water Pipes
By Cyndi Roper, Natural Resources Defense Council Flint, Michigan will forever be the symbol of a government’s willingness to play fast and loose with the health of a majority non-white community. An unelected and unaccountable emergency manager tried to save a few bucks by switching Flint’s drinking water source from Lake Huron to the Flint […]
New Evidence Shows Just How Bad the Trump Administration is at Governing
By Josh Goldman, Union of Concerned Scientists President Trump likes to brag about how many regulations his administration is removing. The President’s “2 for 1” order requires federal agencies to revoke two regulations for every new rule they want to issue. This order is aimed at getting “rid of the redundancy and duplication that wastes […]
The EPA Is Moving to Scrap Chemical Plant Safety Rules, Putting 134 Million People at Risk
By Kara Cook-Schultz, U.S. PIRG More than 40 percent of Americans live in the danger zone of a facility that stores or uses hazardous chemicals—facilities we assume have comprehensive safety rules in place in case of emergency. But industrial disasters throughout U.S. history, including several dangerous chemical explosions in recent months, showcase the urgent need for stronger enforcement of chemical […]