A Chicago Tribune investigative series on flame retardant chemicals helps illustrate how federal agency control of what scientists say to reporters can help the chemical and tobacco industries. By reporter Michael Hawthorne.
After backroom lobbying by gas and oil industry groups, the Obama White House watered down the promised fracking-fluid disclosure requirement promised earlier this year — imposing it only after completion of the fracking operation, when the information may have little effect (such as public pressure on BLM to deny a drilling permit).
"Living in the middle of a natural gas boom can be pretty unsettling. The area around the town of Silt, Colo., used to be the kind of sleepy rural place where the tweet of birds was the most you would hear. Now it's hard to make out the birds because of the rumbling of natural gas drilling rigs." ...
"A new report named the Potomac the nation’s most endangered river, saying it is threatened by nutrient and sediment pollution that lowers the quality of drinking water and kills marine life and will only get worse if Congress rolls back regulations in the Clean Water Act."
"PITTSBURGH -- The Pennsylvania Department of Health says it investigates every claim by residents that gas drilling has caused health problems, but several people say the agency's actions don't match its words."
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Freelance writer William Souder has reported on a wide variety of environmental subjects and is the author of three books, including the forthcoming On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson, marking the 50th anniversary of Carson's Silent Spring — and, by extension, a half century of environmentalism.
"In what the White House calls a milestone in its effort to cut red tape, the Obama administration today said it was overhauling or eliminating five regulations -- including a Clinton-era air-pollution rule -- in an effort to save $6 billion in unnecessary costs over the next five years."
"Long involvement in Canada's tar sands has been central to Koch Industries' evolution and positions the billionaire brothers for a new oil boom."
"Six U.S. senators are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to immediately examine the health threats posed by forgotten factory sites featured in a recent USA TODAY investigation."
"The Environmental Integrity Project filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit Tuesday seeking details about dozens of White House meetings with interest groups to discuss Environmental Protection Agency regulations. The non-profit group, which advocates for the enforcement of environmental rules, filed the lawsuit after receiving no response from the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to a January FOIA request seeking more details on the meetings."
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