ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Water in a Warming West
The Environmental Protection Agency identifies key steps to cope with the shrinking Rocky Mountain snow mass and subsequently depleted sources of water in the West.
More Money, Sure. What About Better Science Advice?
“The future is likely to be very similar to the past, regardless of who the President is,” said Dr. John Marburger, the President’s science advisor at the AAAS S&T Policy Forum last Thursday. He was talking about funding, but let’s hope things are very different for scientific integrity under the next administration.
Revisiting the RFS, Part 1: It’s Good, Now Here’s How to Improve It
Tuesday’s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing pitted environmentalists, corn producers, oil refiners, grocery manufacturers, and renewable fuel advocates against one another in a contentious debate over the future of the Renewable Fuel Standard. Science Progress tries to make sense of it all. First up, what’s right with the RFS and ways to make it better.
Does Europe Hold a Solution to the EPA’s Chemical Policy Problem?
The Environmental Protection Agency continued its fall from grace at a Senate hearing earlier this week that investigated political meddling with the Agency’s toxic chemical policies. But in the midst of a rain of criticism, there were suggestions of future policy that could better allow the EPA to protect citizens from hazardous materials.
SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY
Enormously Pathetic Agency
There has been a near-complete breakdown at our central environmental regulatory agency under the Bush administration.
More Unregulated Toxins In Everyday Products
The latest news on industry obfuscation of scientific research and government complicity is that the Food and Drug Administration relied on studies funded by trade groups in decisions on an unsafe compound in common plastic products.
UCS Survey: Hundreds of EPA Scientists Experienced Political Interference
The Associated Press quickly picked up on a report released yesterday by the Union of Concerned Scientists revealing that 889 of nearly 1,600 staff scientists who responded to an online survey indicated that they experienced political interference with their work at some point in the last five years.
The Dish: Sampling Science and Technology News – Mar. 31, 2008
The Bush administration appeals court ruling on mercury pollution; the EPA faces congressional subpoena in wrangle over emissions regulations; Greenwire profiles CDC whistleblower; Tech companies call for increased H-1B visa cap; Al Gore launches new climate awareness campaign.
The Dish: Friday Blog Roundup
A quick look at some of the policy-related stories making the rounds on the science and technology blogs.
EPA Employees Would Like to Have Their Science Recognized
The Washington Post reports that unions at the Environmental Protection Agency have broken with management over Administrator Stephen Johnson’s disregard for scientific integrity. The news comes only a two weeks after Johnson published the official explanation for the agency’s refusal to allow California’s emissions reduction standards, despite the fact that the ruling ignored the “unanimous recommendation of the EPA’s legal and technical staffs.”
ENERGY
Offsets We Can Trust
Provisions in the Lieberman-Warner bill would allow companies to meet some of their emissions targets by purchasing “offset” credits from reductions in emissions not covered under cap-and-trade. But current offsets markets are unregulated and unreliable. Hayes explains how to regulate offsets that will enable verifiable emissions cuts.
ENVIRONMENT
Fishy Government
A strong judicial rebuke to the Bush administration’s indefensible behavior on mercury pollution may mark the end of an embarrassing era during which the toxin poured into our ecosystems.
Looking for Toxins In Your Body, Because You Don’t Know They’re In Your Backyard
The Minnesota legislature recently approved funding for biomonitoring research, which will track environmental contaminants found in the tissue of children and adult volunteers. In related news, the EPA eased reporting requirements for companies that dump toxic chemicals into the environment.
Snap Observations: Mishandling Pathogens, Framing Science, Saying No to Toxic Pesticides
U.S. labs that handle deadly germs have reported “100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003,” reports the AP. No one was hurt, but the number of incidents are going up with number of labs approved to handle the pathogens. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing today.
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Science, Innovation, and Competitiveness
Science Progress and American Progress's Doing What Works project teamed up to produce a set of policy proposals that the Obama administration and Congress can adopt to reinvest in the building blocks of American science, innovation, and economic competitiveness. Read the overview of the five reports.
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