EPA
Atrazine in drinking water
Atrazine is suddenly very much in the news. Today’s New York Times features a major story about whether the EPA’s current standard for acceptable levels of atrazine in drinking water is tight enough to protect human health. Yesterday’s Peoria Journal carried a story about a class action lawsuit filed in Illinois state court against Syngenta, …
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CONTINUE READINGOffsets and Waxman Markey
Will the massive number of offsets allowed under the proposed Waxman-Markey climate change bill destroy its effectiveness? Waxman-Markey allows for a huge number of offsets from both domestic and international sources – up to 2 billion tons. Some analysts estimate that if all of these offsets are used domestic emissions will not begin to decline until …
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CONTINUE READINGPublic Enemies: EPA’s Most Wanted List
EPA has a list of fugitives, all of them wanted in connection with environmental crimes. Defendants charged with environmental crimes or violations of the U.S. Federal Criminal Code sometimes flee the court’s jurisdiction and/or the USA rather than face prosecution or to serve a sentence. When these circumstances occur, the defendants become fugitives from justice. …
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CONTINUE READINGCynthia Giles Tackles Busy Agenda in High-Ranking EPA Post
The following was written by Andrew Cohen for Berkeley Law’s Newsroom. As the new enforcement chief for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Cynthia Giles [Berkeley Law alum of] ’78 is anything but naïve about the enormity of her position and the pressure it brings. “We have a lot of important work to do,” says …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate change breaking news: EPA grants California waiver to regulate GHG emissions from cars
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken an important step toward addressing climate change and improving our nation’s automobile fuel economy, by granting California and at least 14 other states a waiver allowing them to regulate automobile greenhouse gas emissions. This was not unexpected, given the recent passage of federal legislation with standards similar to …
CONTINUE READINGNew EPA air toxics report presents sobering assessment of cancer risk
A new U.S. EPA report released today presents a scary picture of our exposure to hazardous pollutants in our air. The National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment for 2002, which analyzed health data based on chronic exposure to air toxics for 124 pollutants for which those data are available. (The assessment’s name is potentially confusing; the report …
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CONTINUE READINGWaxman-Markey May Lower Household Costs
In another report issued today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency counters the predictions of some critics of climate change legislation by concluding that the Waxman-Markey bill would not lead to higher energy costs for consumers. In fact, the EPA concludes that household energy costs actually may go down. In one scenario, each household on average …
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CONTINUE READINGHolding Our Breath for a Test Rule for Carbon Nanotubes
Researchers recently reported new findings regarding potential occupational hazards associated with carbon nanotubes. These nano-scale cylinders have a variety of forms (single-walled and multi-walled, coated and uncoated, and so on.) They are widely available and used in a variety of manufacturing, medical and electronic applications. Previously, much attention was focused on whether when inhaled, nanotubes …
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CONTINUE READINGExecutive Branch Agreement on Mountaintop Removal: A Positive Step, but Only a Step
Cross-posted with permission from CPRBlog. Over the past few months, the Obama Administration has sent mixed signals on mountaintop mining, the practice of blowing the tops off mountains containing coal and piling the left-over rubble in valleys and streambeds. Early on, things seemed to be going well for the environment. First, EPA objected to the …
CONTINUE READINGScientific integrity at EPA
Lisa Jackson was up on Capitol Hill yesterday, telling the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works how her EPA will protect scientific integrity. The webcast is available here. In her written testimony, Jackson said: While the laws that EPA implements leave room for policy judgments, the scientific findings on which these judgments are based …
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