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Thursday, October 20, 2005

NSR: A Second Bite at the Apple
With slim chances of passing in Congress, a controversial change to the designation of new source review is now snaking its way through the regulatory system. The regulation would allow power plants to make modifications to existing equipment without installing new pollution technology if their hourly emissions rates do not increase. By changing the way power plant emissions are calculated from an annual output to an hourly output, plants would be allowed to pollute more per year by operating for longer hours. From the New Standard:

"This latest attack by the Bush administration to dismantle [New Source Review] comes from a new angle," the Sierra Club’s Nat Mund explained in a statement Friday. "Simply put, a power utility could refurbish a plant so that it does not release more pollution per hour, but could double the operating time thus releasing more pollution over the course of the year. . . ."
"This is the Clean Air Act we're talking about, not the Hourly Efficiency Act," [National Environmental Trust Vice President John] Stanton said in a statement. "A plant can be more efficient, and yet a bigger polluter if it runs for more hours. That means more soot and smog pollution, more asthma attacks, and more deaths."
Earlier this year, a federal court rebuffed states seeking more stringent enforcement of New Source Review. The ruling also required the EPA to clarify its New Source Review-related rule making, leading EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson to propose the new rules, the agency said in announcing the changes.
In August, the Natural Resources Defense Council obtained and leaked an internal EPA document warning that the rule now being proposed could seriously undermine agency enforcement actions across the country, the Washington Post reported.
House leaders dropped a nearly identical measure from the recently passed Gasoline for America’s Security Act.

The case is an example of the way industry interests abuse the regulatory process in order to get a second bite at the apple, taking controversial policies they cannot win in Congress and sneaking them into agency regulations. The proposed rule was published today in the Federal Register and will be open for public comment through Dec. 19.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 12:11:30 PM

Monday, October 17, 2005

Tracking the Precautionary Principle
We've mentioned before that the Environmental Research Foundation, which already publishes the excellent Rachel's Environment and Health News, has launched a new newsletter focused on the precautionary principle. If you haven't subscribed to the email version, note that it is now available online: Rachel's Precaution Reporter.

Posted by Robert Shull, 09:24:40 PM

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Learn More About the Precautionary Principle
The Environmental Research Foundation, which publishes the excellent Rachel's Environment & Health News, is now producing an email newsletter dedicated to the precautionary principle. In the latest edition, there's a link to a nice web tutorial on the precautionary principle, which you can find here.

Posted by Robert Shull, 04:42:56 PM

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Toxic Gumbo... Flowing from YOUR Tap, Too?
Grist Magazine is exploring whether New Orleans is alone in seeing a "toxic gumbo" in the drinking water:

Last month, "toxic gumbo" entered the American lexicon with the speed and force of the floodwaters it describes.... "I want to be very clear," cautioned EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, describing the situation in the devastated city to the press. "Emergency response personnel and the public should avoid direct contact with any floodwater."
It was a dire warning. And to some water-quality experts, it came as no surprise. Our national water infrastructure -- everything from streams, lakes, and coastal waters to treatment plants and the pipes that carry the precious liquid to our individual taps -- is in serious trouble, they say. Toxic gumbos are simmering, for the most part out of sight, all across the country. New Orleans was just the first to boil over on a grand scale.

Check it out here.

Posted by Robert Shull, 04:13:32 PM

Groups Demand Better Protection for Katrina Cleanup
From Medical News Today:

Gulf Coast Cleanup Workers Must Be Protected from Serious Health Hazards
The U.S. Congress should immediately act to protect the health and safety of workers and residents engaged in the cleanup of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, according to a group of more than 100 of the nation's foremost labor, religious, environmental, community, public health and public interest organizations and more than 100 academic, medical, religious and public health leaders.

Posted by Robert Shull, 03:52:48 PM

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

OIRA Meetings on HexChrome, Dry-Cleaning Rules
OIRA met with chemical industry representatives on Sept. 26 to discuss "the economic effects on co-residential dry cleaning facilities of proposed EPA regulations under consideration." The rulemaking in question is presumably the forthcoming proposed NESHAP rule for perchloroethylene dry cleaning facilities residual risk standards.

OIRA also met on Oct. 3 to discuss OSHA's rulemaking on occupational exposure to hexavalent chromium with SBA's Office of Advocacy, representatives of the metal finishing, aerospace and steel industries as well as Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 09:58:47 AM

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