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Endangerment Finding Monday?

David Bookbinder of Sierra Club is predicting EPA's finding that climate change endangers public health will be released on Monday, Dec. 7, ahead of the opening of international negotiations in Copenhagen. Bookbinder's prediction indicates the endangerment finding, which is expected to trigger regulatory actions, could be released several days earlier than previous predictions that President Obama would announce the finding during his appearance at the talks Dec. 9. Sources say the Obama administration is expected to announce the finding at...

CEI: E-Mails Undercut Endangerment

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a libertarian think tank, has modified its petition to EPA on the proposed endangerment finding to request the agency conduct a full investigation of information released in hundreds of hacked e-mails from a prominent British climate research center, arguing the contents of the e-mails “may well destroy” the agency's justification that greenhouse gases endanger public health and should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. In a Dec. 2 petition to the agency, CEI amends...

IRIS Makes Progress

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that EPA is making “real progress” on improvements to the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), the agency's chemical risk assessment database, while cautioning that the process for review chemicals still takes too long. GAO's John Stephenson, speaking at a Dec. 2 Senate Environment & Public Works (EPW) committee hearing on chemicals management reform, said the agency's recent draft risk assessment of the ubiquitous solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) provided a “first test” of the recently reformed...

Workers' Risky Business

A coalition of labor and environmental groups is urging EPA to create a task force of agency staff, labor officials and environmental organizations to assess how to boost worker and union involvement in EPA's inspection of facility risk management plans (RMPs). In a Dec. 3 letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the Blue Green Alliance, the New Jersey Work Environment Council and more than 100 other labor and environmental groups say that the agency should enforce a provision of the...

Ethanol As Economic Booster?

Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.), co-chair of an industry group requesting that EPA lift the cap on ethanol in gasoline above 10 percent (E10) to allow the sale of E15, is using the White House's jobs summit as another platform to pitch the biofuel as a major jobs creator. Representing industry group Growth Energy, Clark told the Dec. 3 summit that if EPA approves the request for a Clean Air Act waiver to allow E15's sale, it would boost the economy...

Mayors Float Water Decree Database

Mayors are floating the idea of creating an online database of consent decrees between cities and EPA over wet weather overflows, in a bid to provide vital information on the decrees for other cities in their negotiations with the agency that the mayors say have become increasingly adversarial. David Berger, the mayor of Lima, OH, said at a Dec. 3 meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, DC, that the city has spent a total of ten years...

Questioning EPA Cost Estimates

Environmentalists are stepping up their concerns over the move by economist Randall Lutter to the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) by citing his recent questioning of cost data on an EPA proposal to cut sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. Activists have already raised concerns about Lutter's long-running criticism of the need for EPA rules, citing a slew of papers he authored in the past that attack agency air, fuel and other rulemakings due to what he said were...

States, EPA Regions Eye Waste Management To Address Climate Change

State and local officials along with EPA regional staff are beginning to explore ways to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through waste management activities, with officials in Western states meeting this week to discuss how to influence national policy on the connection between materials management and climate change. Sources involved with the West Coast Forum on Climate Change, Waste Prevention, Recovery and Disposal say the consortium of officials from California, Oregon and Washington and EPA Regions IX and X are...

EPA Policy Office Shuffle Spurs Uncertainty Over Stewardship Panel's Role

The future of a stewardship advisory panel tasked with evaluating voluntary programs at EPA is uncertain after the agency recently decided to reorganize its policy office and scrap some of the office's work on voluntary programs, prompting a last-minute delay of a key panel meeting and raising questions about the direction of the panel's work. A Dec. 1-2 meeting of the panel has been postponed for months to give EPA and panel members more time to discuss the reorganization, including...

Revised Petition To SEC For Climate Reporting Cites EPA Actions

A coalition of state officials and "green" investment organizations has filed a revised petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require publicly traded corporations to report their climate change liabilities, citing recent EPA actions and proposals for regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as further justification for the bid. The groups have been pushing the SEC to establish climate reporting rules for years, but recent progress by EPA under the Obama administration to develop first-time GHG regulations is prompting...

EPA Critic's Move To OMB Spurs Fears Over Opposing Strict Rules

Environmentalists fear that a new hire in the White House Office of Management & Budget's (OMB) regulatory review office could try to block strict EPA regulations on a slew of high-priority issues, citing a broad range of papers that the official wrote that attack past agency rulemakings for their high costs and overestimated benefits. Randall Lutter, a former fellow with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, is said to have recently returned to OMB's Office of...

Activists Eye Greater EPA Influence After Key Policy Office Appointments

Activists are hoping for greater influence over EPA policies after two officials with strong ties to progressive groups won key roles at the agency's policy office, saying a stronger role for their viewpoint at the agency could counter their emerging concerns about industry influence on the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB). One industry source also says the recent hires could play a strong role with EPA, noting that while OMB merely provides comment on individual regulations, policy...

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