OECD / by Sam Hill http://bit.ly/10D8aPP China’s exceptional economic expansion has led to rising energy demand and pollution as well as other environmental pressures. Strong efforts by the government have moderated emissions of some types of air and water pollution from high levels but others, including greenhouse gas emissions, continue to rise. Poor air and … Continue reading »
Tagged with Environmental Health …
Draft US Bureau of Land Management Rules for Fracking on Public Lands
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 »
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 »
Stress Relief: Prescriptions for a Healthier Delta Ecosystem
Public Policy Institute of California / by Ellen Hanak et al. http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=1051 California is at a critical juncture on policy for the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. This report summarizes the results of a wide-ranging study of cost-effective ways to improve the health of the Delta ecosystem. It highlights the need for science-based, integrated management of the … Continue reading »
Assessing Risks to Endangered and Threatened Species from Pesticides
National Academies Press http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=18344 The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) are responsible for protecting species that are listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and for protecting habitats that are critical for their survival. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for … 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 »
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 »
The Limits of Liability in Promoting Safe Geologic Sequestration of CO2
Duke Environmental Law Journal (2013, v22 n1) / by David E. Adelman and Ian J. Duncan http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1189&context=delpf [From a Climate Wire article by Christa Marshall, sub. req'd] The federal government should established a “two-tiered” system outlining who would be responsible in future cases of water contamination and leakage associated with the underground storage of carbon … Continue reading »
