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 ...
Trump to Nominate Bernhardt as Interior Secretary
From: Politico “Nine of Interior’s 17 political positions are empty, according to a list compiled by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an environmental group made up of government employees. “There’s no secretary, no assistant secretary, no director of the parks ...
Is Tampa Sewage Polluting the Bay? No, Says City. Yes, Says Environmental Group
From: Tampa Bay Times “An environmental group is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to step in to correct what it says is the state’s failure to fix repeated violations at Tampa’s wastewater system. Tampa officials are vigorously contesting the group’s findings, saying ...
Suit on Obligations for Documenting Decisions Dismissed
From: FedWeek “A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that could have better defined the responsibilities of agency officials to create and keep records related to their decisions, although one of the sponsors of the case has said it will continue to pursue the issue. The suit was filed ...
‘It’s Way Too Many’: As Vacancies Pile Up In Trump Administration, Senators Grow Concerned
From: The Washington Post “From the Justice Department to Veterans Affairs, vast swaths of the government have top positions filled by officials serving in an acting capacity — or no one at all. More than two years into Trump’s term, the president has an acting chief of staff, ...
Agency Hit by Brain Drain, Mass Retirement
From: Energywire “Bernhardt may need more than a smile and a joyous tweet to address looming challenges for the 70,000 employees who work for him. The agency is facing concerns about a brain drain as a third of its workforce is nearing retirement age. Only 5 percent of workers are ...
Trump EPA’s Pollution, Waste Reduction Numbers are Lowest in a Decade
From: The Hill “A January study by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility found that the number of criminal enforcement cases EPA referred to the Department of Justice collapsed in fiscal 2018, a nearly 60 percent reduction from 2011 and a 72 percent decline from the level of ...
With Vacancies Galore, ‘Acting’ Leaders Gain More Time
From: Greenwire “A new recharge for the Interior Department’s many temporary leaders will keep agencies running even as it underscores the Trump administration’s tardiness in filling key slots. On Tuesday, acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt issued an order extending ...
Earth Watch, Brexit, Kamala Harris, Venezuela
From: Sojourner Truth with Margaret Prescod “Environmental damage caused by the government shutdown. Experts are saying in some instances, it will take the environment 300 years to recover. Our weekly Earth Watch guest is Jeff Ruch, Executive Director of Public Employees for ...
Post-Shutdown, An Ocean of Outrage Greets Interior’s Proposed FOIA Changes
From: Think Progress “More than 130 groups and organizations have submitted public comments opposing the Interior Department’s efforts to crack down on public information requests — a suppression that opponents say will make it much harder to hold the government accountable on a ...
Proposed FOIA Rule Provokes Response
From: Coastal Review “Information provided on the Federal Register states that the Department published a final rule in 2012 that updated and replaced the Department’s previous Freedom of Information Act regulations. In early 2016, the Department updated the final rule to authorize the ...
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