EPA relaxes industry pollution-reporting rules

Relax, It's Just Pollution

In a holiday gift to industry, the U.S. EPA has relaxed rules on reporting toxic pollution. Under rule amendments approved yesterday, industrial plants will not have to file detailed public Toxic Release Inventory reports unless they spew 2,000 pounds of pollution or more, four times the previous limit, and they'll face looser requirements for reporting on their most toxic emissions, including lead, mercury, and dioxin. "[This] rule makes a good program better," said EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus Peacock, with a straight face. EPA officials had considered upping the baseline to 5,000 pounds, and were originally going to let companies report every two years instead of annually, but backed off those changes after intense criticism. A mere 0.03 percent of 122,420 comments submitted to the EPA about the rule changes were in favor of them, according to advocacy group OMB Watch. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who plans to introduce legislation to disallow the rule changes, said, "The administration's proposed changes are nothing more than a giveaway to corporate polluters at the cost of everyday Americans' health." But what's new?

straight to the source: The News Journal, Jeff Montgomery, 19 Dec 2006

straight to the source: The Record, Alex Nussbaum, 19 Dec 2006

straight to the source: The Roanoke Times, Tim Thornton, 19 Dec 2006

straight to the source: Chemical & Engineering News, Glenn Hess, 01 Dec 2006

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Comments: (4 comments)

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Big wind farms

Has anyone given any thought to how many birds will meet their death as a result of these wind farms? Or have the wind farms been planned so as to avoid migratory routes of birds?

by organicgardener at 2:37 PM on 19 Dec 2006

Indeed

From The Independent:

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds dropped its objection to the Thames Estuary plans after it was assured that a wintering colony of birds would not be harmed.

From The Guardian:

The Royal Societ for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) ... has also given its backing to the London Array project, after plans were modified to protect an endangered bird, the red-throated diver.

From The Telegraph:

Mark Avery, the conservation director at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "The co-operation of the developers has been exceptional and we are confident that the birds will not be affected by this first stage of the development.
"If monitoring shows that they are, then the developers have accepted that their plans for additional turbines will have to be dropped."

by Sarah K. Burkhalter at 3:06 PM on 19 Dec 2006

Relax it's just pollution - New EPA rules

I'm on an SBA listserv, and I got a note today about how great the new EPA rules will be for small business. (http://www.sba.gov/advo/)

I went to the EPA websit...) to understand what kind of impact it might actually have on a small business. Not for nothing, but I have a graduate business degree...even Wall Street has to write prospectuses (prospectii?) that the average bear can actually read...

But on another note, how in the heck did the EPA and SBA manage to get their PR so coordinated so quickly, when we're hearing that intelligence agencies still can't communicate with one another?

Anne L

by Anne L at 7:45 PM on 19 Dec 2006

Homeland security?

The good folk at the various branches engaged in homeland security do not have email yet do they?

The SBA and EPAers probably bring in their own laptops to work. That is no doubt a breach of security, remember the stolen laptop with all the personal information of thousands of veterans?

But the secret police at father..er homeland security never got the email about the other agencies using computers!! Somebody's gonna end up at gitmo if Rove's "guckert" squad finds out. Shhhhh!

The internet is a liberal plot. Just like "pollution" and "global warming".

Maybe some faithbaser (like a freebaser or "crackhead", but high on jesus instead of crack)will drop 37 cents on a stamp and expose this looming disaster!

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

by amazingdrx at 6:24 AM on 20 Dec 2006

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