Before leaving town for its August vacation, Congress stripped $12 million for the commission from an appropriations bill and denied that panel the subpoena power it needs to find out what happened or what should be done to prevent another spill.
St. Petersburg Times' Craig Pittman reports the scientists' announcement in May that research boats had discovered a 6-mile long underwater oil plume was greeted with shushing from the Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
On the National Conference of State Legislatures website, you'll find information on new or proposed environment and natural resources legislation, including consumer laws. Topics include climate change and air quality, water, land use, waste, environmental health, healthy communities, federal issues, and much more.
"The opponents of Pebble, the giant copper and gold prospect in Southwest Alaska, have asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency to invoke its potent and rarely used power to block the potential mine. But U.S. Rep. Don Young late last month filed legislation seeking to strip the EPA of that authority."
"Dozens of environmental and conservation groups were pleased Thursday as Solicitor General Elena Kagan won confirmation as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice on a Senate vote of 63-37, largely along party lines."
"President Obama could invoke strong climate policies, like gasoline carbon limits, without congressional input before world leaders convene this fall to negotiate an international global warming treaty, a research group says in a plan provided to the administration."
Data for the 2009 Toxics Release Inventory, released July 28, 2010, includes only about 80% of the total expected submissions so it's not possible to look at category totals, trends, and other aspects that require 100% of the data until later this year. However, you can report immediately on many local emitters, including evaluations of their totals and trends.
The Firestone company, the second largest employer in Liberia, is so powerful in that country that the people there have little recourse when they complain that it is poisoning their water. Firestone's massive rubber plantation there was set up with help from the U.S. government in the 1920s. Firestone is now owned by the giant Bridgestone Americas, a Japanese company.
"Three out of every four lobbyists who represent oil and gas companies previously worked in the federal government, a proportion that far exceeds the usual revolving-door standards on Capitol Hill, a Washington Post analysis shows."
A senior Washington correspondent for the Huffington Post reveals that NOAA has been giving BP all the raw data its research ships collect — but not releasing the data to the public
