Energy

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March 26, 2015

A 300-Foot High Fireball from an Exploding Bakken Oil Train: When Will New Rail Safety Standards Be Approved?

By Amanda Frank, Policy Analyst, Citizen Health and Safety, Center for Effective Government Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced legislation today that would create stronger crude-by-rail safeguards than those currently under review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Among other things, the Cantwell-Baldwin bill would require the Pipeline and Hazardous […]

March 20, 2015

Federal Fracking Rules Imminent — Clean Water, Wild Places Must Trump Oil & Gas Industry Interests

by Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, National Resources Defense Council March 11, 2015 In late February, U.S. Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell said that publication of the Bureau of Land Management’s new rules for fracking on the nation’s public lands would be “soon.” Such rules are long overdue — its been decades since they have […]

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February 27, 2015

Quick Thoughts About NAM’s Hyperbolic Report on Smog

by Frank O’Donnell, President, Clean Air Watch I know few of us are thinking about smog on a day like this. But I see that the good people of NAM are – out with yet another hyperbolic report about the alleged impact of cleaning up the air. http://www.nam.org/ozone/ As you can see, NAM has produced […]

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January 17, 2015

Industry-Backed Study Exaggerates Regulatory Costs, Ignores Benefits

What are the costs and benefits of the safeguards that protect Americans from big polluters, predatory lenders and junk food giants? It’s not an unusual question, but you won’t get a fair answer in a new report published this morning by the American Action Forum (AAF) – a front group for corporate interests headed by […]

August 29, 2014

The Benefits of Public Protections: Ten Rules That Save Lives and Protect the Environment

Protecting the public from harmful products and services is an important role of the American government. But regulators struggle to achieve this goal as they encounter relentless push-back from industry lobbyists trying to weaken or kill rules. Most media coverage of public protections focuses on Industry complaints about the cost of new standards (without any […]

July 16, 2013

President’s Spring Agenda Signals Continued Delays on New Rules

This post comes from the Center For Effective Government The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) quietly published its highly anticipated Spring 2013 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Unified Agenda) on July 3. The spring agenda, like the previous fall agenda, does not show a strong commitment to advancing public […]

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April 19, 2013

Three Years after Deepwater Horizon Disaster, Has the U.S. Improved Safety Standards for Oil Drilling?

The debates over our country’s regulatory system that have been happening in Washington often take place in the form broad generalities. This is how we come to hear complaints about the number of pages of new regulations with no look at the quality of or the need for that content. It’s how we hear of […]

March 12, 2013

Two Years After Fukushima: Status of NRC Safety Reforms

The following post is from Ed Lyman, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists Following the March 11, 2011, nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) set up a task force to identify the lessons the U.S. nuclear industry should learn from the accident to avoid […]

January 4, 2013

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Leaves a Legacy of Cleaner Air, Safer Water, and More Stable Climate

The following post is from Frances Beinecke at Switchboard , the NRDC weblog Lisa Jackson recently announced she will be resigning from her post as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Her dedicated leadership will be missed, but she leaves behind an extraordinary legacy that will improve the lives of millions of Americans. City dwellers across […]

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November 16, 2012

BP Fine is Record, Still Just a Slap on the Wrist

The following post is from Mijin Cha at Policy Shop, the Demos weblog British Petroleum announced that it had reached a resolution with the Department of Justice over the Deepwater Horizon disaster that released nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. BP will pay $4 billion over 5 years in fines […]

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August 2, 2012

EPA’s Regulations Would Not Be a Burden on the Natural Gas Industry, Says Bloomberg Government

Vignesh Gowrishankar’s Blog – Posted: August 1, 2012 Bloomberg Government (BGov) recently released a report [subscription required for full report] that assesses the business implications of the EPA’s regulations to control air pollution from the natural gas industry. While NRDC does not agree with some of the report’s specific cost estimates, NRDC does echo some of […]

June 11, 2012

How to Save a Trillion Dollars

by Peter Lehner According to the latest forecast from Weather Channel meteorologists, most of the country is in for a hot summer this year. This is more than a matter of personal discomfort. It also means skyrocketing energy bills, lost work days due to air pollution, and possibly heat-related deaths. As global warming continues unchecked, […]