[Source: The Daily Signal/Diane Katz] Environmental regulations constitute a hefty portion of America’s regulatory burden, in large part because “reform” is an alien concept within the Environmental Protection Agency. But the House GOP on Tuesday unveiled a new policy agenda that, with any luck (and political fortitude), will reverse decades of regulatory excess and abuse. Read More…
Tag: environment
‘Environmental Justice’: Obama-era politics override rule of law
[Source: The Daily Signal/Todd G. Young, Southeastern Legal Foundation] In every Soviet-era military unit, the long shadow of totalitarian political control hung over day-to-day operations. A political commissar served alongside commanding military officers to ensure that communist purity was maintained. We’re seeing the same political strong-arm in President Barack Obama’s executive agencies, particularly in the Read More…
Federal environmental regulators dispel fracking fears
[Source: Forbes] Last month, the Obama Administration’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (“BSEE”) in a ruling found no significant environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing off the California shores. The debate over the safety and implications of fracking has grown over several years to include issues of water Read More…
Major environmental group endorses Clinton
[Source: SFGATE] Hillary Clinton has secured the endorsement of the political arm of the Natural Resources Defense Council — one of the nation’s leading environmental organizations — in her White House bid, marking the first presidential endorsement in the 46-year-old group’s history, The Chronicle has learned. Not only does the organization back Clinton’s Democratic candidacy, Read More…
EPA releases final draft of Environmental Justice 2020 strategy
[Source: Bloomberg BNA] The Environmental Protection Agency released today the final draft of its environmental justice strategy that would run through 2020. The final draft of the agency’s EJ 2020 Action Agenda, which builds off the EPA’s previous, Plan EJ 2014 strategy, has three key tenets: further infuse environmental justice into agency processes and decision-making, Read More…
Union members don’t oppose environmental protections
[Source: In These Times] Union workers attacking environmentalists—it has become a trope of our time. But what do union members actually think about the environment? In a study soon to be published in Labor Studies Journal, we report our findings on workers’ attitudes and behaviors regarding a variety of environmental issues. In particular, we examine Read More…
Latest draft Prop. 65 warning regulations take several steps backwards
[Source: California Chamber of Commerce] The latest proposed revisions to the state’s Proposition 65 warning regulations are problematic and unworkable, the California Chamber of Commerce and a broad coalition explain in a letter to the agency leading the rule drafting. The revisions proposed by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) take several steps Read More…
How good environmental legislation goes wrong
[Source: Los Angels Times Op-Ed] The California Environmental Quality Act is a valuable protector of this state’s resources. It guides planning by forcing agencies to consider the environmental implications of proposed projects. CEQA is also a woefully blunt instrument that thwarts economic growth and, perversely, can actually harm the environment. That’s exactly what’s happening with Read More…
Don’t put AQMD under CARB’s thumb
[Source: Orange County Register] A 20-year study released last week by the USC Environmental Health Centers found “that millennial children in Southern California breathe easier than ones who came of age in the ’90s, for a reason as clear as the air in Los Angeles today,” in the school’s summary. It’s a major achievement for Read More…