Urban Schools Near Industries to Be Monitored for Air Toxics
WASHINGTON, DC, March 2, 2009 (ENS) – Lisa Jackson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said today that the agency will begin a new initiative to measure levels of air contamination near many schools across the country, particularly those located near large industries and in urban areas. The $2.25 million initiative will be the [...]
Read More »EPA Nominee Jackson Promises Science Will Trump Politics
WASHINGTON, DC, January 14, 2009 (ENS) – Scientific integrity and the rule of law will be the “two core values” guiding decisions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the incoming Obama administration, the president elect’s nominee to head the agency vowed today at her confirmation hearing. The promises of nominee Lisa Jackson were met [...]
Read More »Senators Grill TVA Chief Over Coal Ash Cleanup
WASHINGTON DC, January 8, 2009 (ENS) – The head of the Tennessee Valley Authority today pledged the federal electric utility would do a “first-rate job” cleaning up the mess left from last month’s massive coal ash spill. But at a Congressional committee hearing to examine the spill he faced sharp criticism from senators unconvinced by [...]
Read More »EPA Abandons Attempts to Change Clean Air Rules
WASHINGTON, DC, December 11, 2008 (ENS) – The Bush administration has dropped plans to adopt two Clean Air Act rules that would have allowed power plants and other polluters to increase smog and soot pollution. The first rule concerned the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review program. It would have allowed coal-fired power plants to [...]
Read More »Democrats in Control: Climate, Clean Energy Top Legislative Agenda
WASHINGTON, DC, November 21, 2008 (ENS) – The order of business in the incoming 111th Congress is beginning to take shape. When lawmakers convene on January 6, 2009, Democrats will be firmly in control of both houses, although today the outcome of several elections is still unclear. When Democratic President-elect Barack Obama takes office on [...]
Read More »Republicans Boycott Senate Review of Bush Environmental Record
WASHINGTON, DC, September 24, 2008 (ENS) – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing today to review the Bush administration’s record on public health and environmental matters, but it was conducted in the absence of Ranking Member Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, a Republican and former chair of the committee. Senator Inhofe [...]
Read More »Democrats Want Obama to Grow a Green, Clean Energy Economy
DENVER, Colorado, August 27, 2008 (ENS) – Speaker after speaker at the Democratic National Convention is calling on Americans to elect Barack Obama president because they expect him to build a green economy powered by U.S. renewable energy instead of by foreign oil. U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York told delegates that she ran [...]
Read More »Gag Order Imposed on U.S. EPA Staff
WASHINGTON, DC, July 28, 2008 (ENS) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is ordering its staff to “not respond to questions or make any statements” if contacted by congressional investigators, reporters or its own Office of Inspector General, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER. “The order reinforces a growing [...]
Read More »White House Stifled Evidence of Climate Change Health Risks
WASHINGTON, DC, July 8, 2008 (ENS) – Officials in the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office pressured federal health and environmental officials to edit congressional testimony to downplay the public health impacts of climate change, according to a former senior official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Senior Senate Democrats contend the allegations [...]
Read More »U.S. Senate Abandons Global Warming Bill
By J.R. Pegg WASHINGTON, DC, June 6, 2008 (ENS) – The U.S. Senate’s much anticipated tangle with a landmark bill that would have required the nation to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming came to an unceremonious end Friday, as proponents failed to muster enough votes to formally consider the [...]
Read More »Law Would Save Half Million Acres of California Wilderness
WASHINGTON, DC, May 29, 2008 (ENS) – Legislation to protect almost half a million acres of federal public lands in California has been introduced in Congress on a bipartisan basis. The Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wild Heritage Act will give wilderness designations to 472,804 acres of public land, the highest level of protection [...]
Read More »U.S. EPA Changes Chemical Risk Assessment Process
WASHINGTON, DC, April 10, 2008 (ENS) – The U.S. EPA says it is expanding the process for recommending that a chemical be assessed for risk of harm to human health or the environment, “to increase its transparency and efficiency.” But the senator who heads the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee says the changes really [...]
Read More »EPA Chief Reluctant to Regulate Greenhouse Gases
WASHINGTON, DC, March 28, 2008 (ENS) – The public will have an opportunity to comment before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency takes any action to regulate the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change, EPA chief Stephen Johnson told members of Congress in a letter on Thursday. Johnson said he will solicit public input through an [...]
Read More »EPA Chief Blasted for Denying California Clean Car Waiver
WASHINGTON, DC, January 24, 2008 (ENS) – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, introduced legislation today that would direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to grant California a waiver under the Clean Air Act to cut global warming pollution from motor vehicles. A host [...]
Read More »First U.S. Climate Emissions Control Bill Heads to Senate Floor
WASHINGTON, DC, December 6, 2007 (ENS) – A Senate committee approved a landmark global warming bill Wednesday night, calling on the nation to cut greenhouse gas emissions some 70 percent by 2050. Although the measure faces an uphill battle in the full Senate, proponents say the vote signals a growing consensus within Congress and among [...]
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