Gee, thanks Red Staters. These sorts of policy decisions are what you voted for, just a shame that I have to live in the same country as you.
Op-Ed Contributors: A Dark Cloud Over Disclosure
President Bush and the Environmental Protection Agency want to make it easier for polluters to hide.President Bush and the Environmental Protection Agency want to weaken the largely successful Toxics Release Inventory program, which requires companies to tell the public how they dispose of or release nearly 650 chemicals that may harm human health and the environment. The disclosure program makes data available for anyone — journalists, policymakers, investors or parents — to learn exactly which chemicals are being released from corporate smokestacks and discharge pipes.
...the Environmental Protection Agency is now proposing three detrimental changes that could go into effect within the next year.
The first would relax the current annual reporting requirement and let companies make reports every other year instead; the second would allow polluters to release 10 times more toxic chemicals — up to 5,000 pounds annually — without disclosing the volume released or where the pollutants went; and the third would permit companies to conceal releases of up to 500 pounds annually of particularly dangerous toxic materials, like PCB's, lead and mercury, which can accumulate in people's bodies. All three changes effectively increase the amount of pollution that companies can emit without telling anyone
...
The E.P.A.'s weakening of the Toxics Release Inventory program does not require Congressional approval, only notification. This is just one more example of the Bush Administration's efforts to quietly undermine our nation's environmental protections. Washington should be working to expand corporate disclosure and accountability, rather than moving to allow polluters to conceal their toxic releases.Jim Jeffords, independent of Vermont, is the ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Julie Fox Gorte is a vice president and the chief social investment strategist for the Calvert Group.
Jes' dandy.
Tags: environment, /EPA
That's jsut...wrong. Unbelievable. More unbelievable that it isn't electoral suicide.
I can't believe that more people don't care about having their bodies poisoned with pollution.
Things are begiining going the other way here particularly since the BSE crisis and other food scares. There is a general feeling that doubt over the effects means play it safe rather than giving business the benefit of that doubt. Increasingly companies are feeling the need to marketing the health or green credentials of their products. About time too. Added to which EU regulations on pollution are quite stringent.