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Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Feds Plot Weak Pollution Rules for Old, Dirty Power Plants
From the Washington Post:

The Bush administration has drafted regulations that would ease pollution controls on older, dirtier power plants and could allow those that modernize to emit more pollution, rather than less.
The language could undercut dozens of pending state and federal lawsuits aimed at forcing coal-fired plants to cut back emissions of harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, said lawyers who worked on the cases.
The draft rules, obtained by The Washington Post from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group, . . . take the position that decisions on whether a plant complies with the regulations after modernization should be based on how much pollution it could potentially emit per hour, rather than the current standard of how much it pollutes annually.
Under the new standard, a modernized plant's total emissions could rise if the upgrade allowed it to operate longer hours....

Posted by Robert Shull, 02:03:38 PM

Friday, August 26, 2005

Paralysis by Analysis: Snowmobiles in Yellowstone
A New York Times op-ed examines the Bush administration's decision to authorize a fourth study of the environmental impact of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, despite the wealth of scientific information already available:

Since 1996, there have been three major official assessments of snowmobiles' impact on the park in winter. Two of those were done during the Bush administration. Now a fourth major study has been authorized; it is to be completed by 2007, when the current three-year plan for winter use comes to an end. This new study will cost $2 million to $3 million - for a park that is annually underfinanced by nearly $23 million. There is only one conceivable reason for this study. It's part of the tried and true methodology of the Bush administration: if you don't like the results the first time, do it again and change the definitions so you do get the results you like.

Read more about the snowmobile controversy: Court Rejects Ban on Snowmobiles in Yellowstone

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 11:42:38 AM

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

OIRA Meeting on EPA Rules

On Aug 2, OIRA, EPA and SBA met with the Natural Resources Defense Council over EPS's Pretreatment Streamlining Rule.
OIRA and EPA met with the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance (HSIA) on July 27 to discuss dry cleaners residual risk.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 02:30:54 PM

Nine States Commit to Reducing Global Warming
Facing a standstill in the Bush administration, nine states have decided to take matters into their own hands and cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, according to the New York Times. Read more about state efforts to raise the bar on public protections in the latest Watcher: States Present Opportunities and Pitfalls for Progressive Regulation.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 02:28:37 PM

Failure on Fuel Economy
The Bush administration unveiled a plan to modestly increase fuel economy for some but not all vehicles. Get some public interest perspectives on the weakness of the proposal and the missed opportunity to do something to protect the environment and save us all money at the pump:

Posted by Robert Shull, 10:08:09 AM

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

OIRA meets over Black Carp Rule
Representatives from OIRA and Fish and Wildlife Services met with interested parties on July 7 to discuss a proposed rulemaking to add black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) to the list of injurious wildlife under the Lacey Act. Attendants included Paul Zajicek of the National Association of State Aquaculture Coordinators, Ted McNulty of the Arkansas Development Finance Authorities (representing fish farmers), Michael See of SBA's Office of Advocacy, Keith Gram of Alabama Farmers Federations (representing Alabama catfish producers), Hugh Warren of Catfish Farmers of America, and Carole Engle, professor of aquaculture economics and marketing at the University of Arkansas. OIRA representatives met again with a representative from the Fish and Wildlife Service to discuss the proposed rule on July 29.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 05:36:14 PM

OIRA Meetings with Industry, Senate

On Tuesday August 9, Microsoft lobbyists met with OIRA, Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security administrators to discuss labor certification for permanent employment of aliens in the U.S.

Also on August 9, pesticide manufacturers Bayer CropScience and Crop Life America met with EPA and OIRA to discuss protections for test subjects in human research.

On Tuesday August 16, representatives from the Cement Kiln Recycling Coalition (CKRC) met with OIRA and EPA representatives over the "maximum achievable control technology" (MACT) standards for hazardous waste combustion.

On Thursday Aug. 18, representatives from OIRA and EPA met with Michele Nellenbach of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee over EPA's Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) proposed rule.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 03:06:28 PM

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Easing Burdens on Scientific Evidence
Be sure to catch the latest article from CPR member scholar Lisa Heinzerling, "Doubting Daubert, forthcoming in the Brooklyn Journal of Law & Policy. In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Supreme Court announced that it was liberalizing the rules on admissibility of expert scientific evidence by rejecting a requirement that such evidence be generally accepted in the scientific community. Daubert has had, Heinzerling notes, just the opposite effect from the one the Court said it intended. Among other reasons:

it has narrowed rather than enlarged the range of expert evidence admitted by courts, as courts have taken dicta from the case and applied them as a rigid test;
it has encouraged more junk science in legal cases rather than less, as courts have scrutinized studies paper by paper rather than looking, as scientists do, at the larger universe of studies to identify the weight of the evidence;
it has encouraged the industry assault on science by reiterating the industry talking points about "junk science" -- talking points that have been circulating precisely because science so often reveals that corporate special interests are harming us all;
and it has legalized science, as legal precedents codify scientific (or anti-scientific) conclusions and then are applied in subsequent cases as the law.

Proposals to extend Daubert to the administrative setting should be rejected, Heinzerling concludes, and the courts should pull back from Daubert itself.

Download the article.

Posted by Robert Shull, 06:25:46 PM

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

OIRA Meets to Discuss Fuel Economy Reform
OIRA met with Environmental Defense and three members of its Council of Economic Advisors on Aug. 4 over Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) reform for light trucks.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 11:24:18 AM

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