US Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management http://on.doi.gov/10TauUv [PDF of Draft Rules] http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2013/may/nr_05_16_2013.html [BLM Press Release] [InsideEPA.com, sub. req'd] …DOI Secretary Sally Jewell May 16 unveiled the long-awaited proposed rule governing fracking operations on public land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and tribal lands. The proposal would update decades-old requirements … Continue reading »
Filed under Human Health …
Benchmarking Air Emissions of the 100 Largest Electric Power Producers in the United States
Ceres | Natural Resources Defense Council http://bit.ly/142EPie [From Press Release] A major new report on U.S. power plant emissions from the top 100 power producers shows that the electric industry cut emissions of NOx, SO2 and CO2 in 2011 even as overall electricity generation increased, largely due to increased use of natural gas and growing … Continue reading »
Regulatory Red Herring: The Role of Job Impact Analyses in Environmental Policy Debates
Institute for Policy Integrity /Contributing Authors: Michael A. Livermore, Elizabeth Piennar, and Jason A Schwart http://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/regulatory-red-herring/ The current debate on jobs and environmental regulation too often relies on thinly-supported forecasts about jobs “killed” or “created” by public protections. In this debate, the larger costs and benefits of protections for clean air or water can get … Continue reading »
MATCH: Metadata Access Tool for Climate and Health
United States Global Change Research Program http://match.globalchange.gov/geoportal/catalog/main/home.page [Yale Environment 360] The Obama Administration this week introduced an online tool to improve research into the link between climate change and human health and promote innovative responses to future threats. As climate change triggers more extreme weather events and temperature shifts, it is becoming increasingly important to determine how these … Continue reading »
Green Economy and Trade: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities
United Nations Environment Programme http://unep.org/greeneconomy/Portals/88/GETReport/pdf/FullReport.pdf [From Press Release] …At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) held in June 2012, governments agreed to the outcome document The Future We Want, which makes a commitment to help countries implement clear and practical measures for transitioning to green economies. This document affirms international trade as an … Continue reading »
Toxic Substances: EPA Has Increased Efforts to Assess and Control Chemicals but Could Strengthen Its Approach
US Government Accountability Office http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-249 Since 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made progress implementing its new approach to managing toxic chemicals under its existing Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) authority; particularly by increasing efforts to obtain chemical toxicity and exposure data and initiating chemical risk assessments..The results of EPA’s data collection activities, in … Continue reading »
Legal Fractures in Chemical Disclosure Laws: Why the Voluntary Chemical Disclosure Registry FracFocus Fails as a Regulatory Compliance Tool
Harvard Law School, Environmental Law School / by Kate Konschnik, with Margaret Holden and Alexa Shasteen http://hvrd.me/17gbfam [Business Week] FracFocus, the website used by Exxon Mobil Corp. and other energy companies to disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, fails as a compliance tool for the 11 states that rely on it, a Harvard Law School … Continue reading »
A Method to Estimate the Chronic Health Impact of Air Pollutants in U.S. Residences
Environmental Health Perspectives (February 2012, v120, n2, p216–222) / by Jennifer M. Logue, Phillip N. Price, Max H. Sherman, and Brett C. Singer http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3279453/ [From Press Release] For decades, no one worried much about the air quality inside people’s homes unless there was secondhand smoke or radon present. Then scientists at the U.S. Department of … Continue reading »
Globalization, Climate Change, and Human Health
New England Journal of Medicine (April 4, 2013; v368, p1335-1343; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra1109341) / by Anthony J. McMichael http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1109341 The global scale, interconnectedness, and economic intensity of contemporary human activity are historically unprecedented, as are many of the consequent environmental and social changes. These global changes fundamentally influence patterns of human health, international health care, and … Continue reading »
Analysis of Recent Proposals to Amend the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to Create a Coal Combustion Residuals Permit Program
Congressional Research Service bit.ly/Yu6XtE [InsideEPA.com, sub. req'd] The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is outlining a host of unanswered questions about the efficacy and regulatory impacts of legislation to circumvent EPA’s pending coal ash disposal rule with state-crafted standards, which environmentalists say raises potential new hurdles that could further dampen the bills’ prospects for approval. But … Continue reading »
