Scientist Who Resisted Censorship of Climate Report Lost Her Job
From: Reveal “All federal scientists are vulnerable, but scientists like Caffrey who work under federal contracts face particular risk because they can be fired easily and their funding can be pulled, said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility ...
CSB Must Disclose Chemical Emission Information After Incidents, District Court Rules
From: Safety+Health “Watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and other environmental organizations filed a lawsuit against CSB in December 2017, about three months after an incident at an Arkema Inc. facility in Crosby, TX. Extensive flooding from Hurricane ...
EPA Criminal Enforcement Crumbling Under Trump
From: Inhabitat “Even more concerning is the fact that only 62 of the referrals in 2018 ended with convictions. That is less than any year after 1992 and illustrates a dire need for greater efficiency within the EPA. PEER argues that the Trump administration is one of the biggest reasons ...
The Key Questions the Senate Should Ask Trump’s Nominee to Head the Department of Interior
From: Pacific Standard “Will Bernhardt continue these practices? Will he continue the Trump administration’s effort to bend public lands management to the will of the fossil fuel powers? Or will he commit to keeping public lands in public hands, and recognize the fact that the ...
Court Orders Chemical Safety Board to Get Cracking on Reporting Rules
From: Reuters “A federal judge in Washington, DC has ordered a federal agency to issue rules in the next 12 months for reporting accidental chemical releases, handing environmental groups a victory. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Monday granted summary judgement to a coalition of ...
Watchdog Group: EPA Sharing Pro-Trump Resignation Letter Violated Laws Against Campaigning on Public Dime
From: EcoWatch “PEER claims the press office’s actions violated the Hatch Act, or An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, which mandates that civil servants not campaign on official time or with official resources. The organization sent a letter Monday to the Hatch Act ...
EPA Press Office Under Fire for Releasing Politically Charged Resignation Letter
From: Government Executive “The letter, according to news reports and confirmed by EPA to Government Executive, was provided to reporters by the press office. That prompted the nonprofit advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility on Monday to file a complaint with ...
Feds Given 12 Months to Release Chemical Safety Rule
From: Bloomberg News “The court rejected the CSB’s argument that the delay was reasonable given its “limited resources and competing priorities.” If their inaction is caused by a lack of resources, the board should not ignore the congressional directive, the court said. Instead it ...
Group Urges Special Counsel to Probe EPA for Breaking the Law
From: The Washington Examiner “GROUP URGES SPECIAL COUNSEL TO PROBE EPA FOR BREAKING THE LAW: An environmental group formally petitioned the federal special counsel’s office on Monday to probe whether the Environmental Protection Agency broke the law by promoting Trump’s 2020 re- ...
Grand Canyon to be Reimbursed for Funds Spent in Shutdown
From: Signals AZ “Ruch said he believes the decision to tap fee dollars came from Washington and not from local park superintendents, despite “all this happy talk we’ve been hearing in this administration about empowering the field.” Garder said using fee dollars in the first place ...
EPA Enforcement Drops Sharply in Trump’s 2nd Year in Office
From: AP “The EPA has been one of the most active agencies overall in carrying out the deregulatory goals of President Donald Trump. Environmental and public-health groups say the business-friendly rollbacks place public health and the environment at greater risk. Jeff Ruch of Public ...
Don’t Just Investigate; Promulgate! Court Orders Chemical Safety Board to Produce Chemical Reporting Requirements
From: JD Supra “In a succinct, yet forceful, decision, Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia lambasted the CSB for what he called “an egregious abdication of a statutory obligation” to promulgate reporting regulations under the Clean Air Act ...
US Chemical Safety Board Ordered to Require Industrial Accident Reporting
From: C&EN “The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board must develop, within one year, a long-delayed regulation that could lead to a national chemical-accident reporting system, a federal court ordered on Feb. 4. The requirement for public reporting of industrial accidents ...
Interior Secretary Nominee Says He Will Balance Energy, Environment
From: Wall Street Journal “The former oil industry lobbyist now in charge of the Interior Department says he’s prepared to balance the interests of environmentalists against an administration that has put a priority on opening public lands to energy development. David Bernhardt has ...
U.S. Chemical and Safety Hazard Board Ordered to Promulgate Release Reporting Requirement Rules
From: JD Supra “On February 4, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held, in a Clean Air Act (CAA) Citizen Suit, that the U.S. Chemical and Safety Hazard Board (Board), an independent federal agency, has violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by failing to ...
Grand Canyon, Other Parks, to Be Reimbursed for Funds Spent in Shutdown
From: Havasu News “The National Park Service said it will reimburse parks, like the Grand Canyon, that were forced to dip into local maintenance funds to remain partially open during the recent five-week government shutdown. While they welcomed the reimbursement, advocates said parks ...
Federal Judge Orders Safety Board to Require Disclosure of Chemical Emissions from Accidents
From: The Guam Daily Post “In a lawsuit filed after Hurricane Harvey, a federal judge has ordered the Chemical and Safety Hazard Investigation Board to force the disclosure of chemical emissions resulting from accidents. More than a thousand industrial chemical accidents take place every ...
Tampa Responds to Claims of Pollution Violations at Wastewater Plant
From: WMNF “An environmental nonprofit is accusing the City of Tampa of dozens of spills and other violations at its main wastewater treatment plant. But the city “categorically denies” the allegations. The Florida director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility – ...
Judge Holds Feds to the Fire on Chemical-Spill Reporting
From: Courthouse News Service “As public interest organizations, the plaintiffs argued that delays in reporting of accidental emissions make their job of raising community awareness harder — causing harm when communities aren’t warned in time of dangerous, unseen chemical emissions ...
Federal Judge Orders Chemical Safety Board to Require Disclosure of Chemical Emissions from Accidents
From: Washington Post “Mehta observed that the agency has had more than 20 years — far in excess of any “unreasonable delay” — to promulgate a final regulation and ordered the board to come up with a regulation within 12 months. “The court will not grant it two full years to do ...
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