Congress

November 16, 2022

Guest column: EPA has lost its way

By Tim Whitehouse

It has been more than 20 years since I worked as a senior attorney at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), using my legal training to help enforce the Clean Water Act, and advise agency managers on a range of hazardous waste issues.

When I joined the regulatory agency in 1992, I felt my work would matter; that I would play a small role in protecting public and environmental health. And during the ten years I worked there, I always felt I was making a positive difference and my managers were usually able to apply the law in ways that balanced the interests of various stakeholders.

Over the years, however, it has become more apparent that this is often no longer the case, and that powerful corporate interests have taken too much control over EPA’s decision-making processes. Nowhere is this more apparent than in EPA’s chemicals and pesticides programs.

The last 30 years have brought countless examples of EPA’s appalling incompetence and willful corruption as the agency routinely capitulates to the interests of the chemical industry and ignores or minimizes human health and environmental risks.

Newly unearthed documents regarding one such chemical – the weed killer paraquat – provide just the latest example of how inept the agency has become in protecting public health.

At the organization I work for now – Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility – we are currently representing EPA scientists who have bravely put their careers on the line to speak out publicly about the wrongdoing they’ve witnessed with the agency.

Through a series of disclosures to EPA’s Inspector General and Congress these scientists have provided extensive evidence of a system that operates in a black box where threats to human health from chemicals are routinely deleted from risks assessments, where agency managers routinely bow to industry wishes, where key managers move back and forth between jobs at the EPA and the chemical industry with scant scrutiny, and where managers ignore risk indicators and intimidate staff into signing off on assessments with insufficient data to reach a conclusion.

October 28, 2022

Postcard from California: Carbon capture won’t solve climate crisis

Four miles from my house, a Silicon Valley company wants to drill an 8,000-foot-deep well to store millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), the greenhouse gas identified as the main cause of the climate crisis.

The well, planned at the site of a former Army ammunition plant in Riverbank, Calif., could be one of a network of CO2 storage wells California is hoping will help the state reach its ambitious climate goals.

The idea is to trap emissions from petrochemical refineries, power plants and other industrial and agricultural sources, super-chill them into liquids that are piped through earthquake-vulnerable terrain, and pumped deep underground to to keep them from heating up the atmosphere.

This Rube Goldberg-like scheme is called carbon capture and sequestration. The captured CO2 can also be used in other industrial processes. A related scheme, direct air capture, sounds even more like science fiction, making use of giant vacuums to suck existing CO2 out of the atmosphere.

At first carbon capture may sound like a smart idea: The company seeking a permit to drill in Riverbank is named Aemetis, which it says means “one prudent wisdom.” But the type of carbon capture Gov. Gavin Newsom’s climate policy counts on to reach “net-zero” CO2 emissions by 2045, is neither wise or prudent.

August 30, 2022

Citing “irreversible harm,” lawmaker introduces bill to ban class of pesticides

By Carey Gillam

US Rep. Nydia Velazquez on Tuesday introduced a bill that would ban organophosphates in food production, citing harm to children, farmworkers and other vulnerable communities exposed to the group of chemicals.

“The science has been clear for decades: this type of pesticide is a dangerous neurological threat to farmworkers and our children,” Velázquez said in a statement. “These pesticides during early life have been shown to lead to irreversible harm to the developing brain, which can result in long-term effects like attention disorders, autism, and reduced IQ.”

The move is the latest in a series of actions aimed at reducing US pesticide use, and comes as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is evaluating continued use of organophosphates, which commonly leave residues in finished food products.

Pesticide manufacturers and agricultural industry groups oppose a ban. A coalition of more than two dozen such groups sent a letter to the EPA in late July, arguing that organophosphates act as an “essential tool” for managing insect pests.

“The continued availability of this group of pesticides is important to US growers due the safety and effectiveness of these proven pesticides,” the coalition said in the letter.

The EPA recently banned food uses of a type of organophosphate called chlorpyrifos, an insecticide popular with farmers but shown by scientific research to cause neurodevelopmental harm to children. Critics say there are more than a dozen other organophosphates that should be similarly banned.

August 12, 2022

House vote on Inflation Reduction Act sets stage for big climate gains

With the US House of Representatives positioned to approve on Friday the largest investment by the US government to combat climate change, some analysts are projecting the measures contained in the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) could reduce greenhouse gas emissions even more than the government has projected.

The measure, which passed the US Senate on Sunday, contains $369 billion earmarked for a range of energy and climate investments over the next decade.

The bill could slash emissions from the electricity sector by as much as 75% below levels seen in 2005 by 2030, according to Kevin Rennert, a fellow at Resources for the Future, based on an initial analysis. Absent the new investment, their forecast predicted that current policies would cut emissions more modestly — about 48.5%. Rennert shared these numbers during a seminar this week sponsored by Resources for the Future.

The US government has said the measures would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.

The bill expands a tax credit for carbon capture, incentivizes the production of sustainable aviation fuel, provides for grant programs aimed at decarbonizing emissions-heavy sectors, and includes a methane reduction program for oil and gas facilities, among other provisions.

July 29, 2022

“A clear injustice,” hearing calls for leaded aviation fuel ban

Just five blocks away from the Reid-Hillview Airport in Santa Clara County, California, Maricela Lechuga lives among a community of 52,000 residents who are predominantly Latino, many also immigrants.

The general aviation airport does not serve commercial air travel, but does serve a range of other public aviation activities; in 2019 it had more than 200,000 take-offs and landings.

It is also known as one of the highest lead emitting airports in the United States, a fact spotlighted Thursday in a U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing called to examine health harms associated with leaded aviation fuel.

The Clean Air Act banned leaded gas for passenger cars in 1996 after phasing in an unleaded gasoline. However, lead fuel continues to power over 170,000 piston-engine aircrafts mainly flown for hobbyist, private, emergency, or training purposes. These planes and helicopters contribute about 70% of all lead emissions to the air in the United States, according to a 2021 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Despite petitions calling to ban leaded aviation fuel that date back to 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to address the issue through regulation, a delay that is creating injustice and danger for people living not just near Reid-Hillview Airport, but numerous others around the country, according to critics.

July 21, 2022

Farmers testify in Congress for policies to support regenerative agricultural practices

Farmer Kara Boyd and her husband maintain 1,500 acres of land in southern Virginia for growing crops and livestock. Their farm employs regenerative agriculture practices such as no-till farming and conservative pesticide use that are meant to build healthy soil and increase food production.

Many researchers state that regenerative agriculture can also help farms build resilience against climate change and sequester carbon. But farmers like Boyd who hope to use regenerative methods face a lack of economic resources and restrictive policies.

Boyd was among a group of five farmers, ranchers, and a researcher who testified this week before a congressional subcommittee about a need for policies that support regenerative agriculture.

June 2, 2022

Warning of food and gas price hikes, critics fight EPA rule to boost biofuels

With the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) poised to finalize a rule setting annual biofuel production goals, industry players from jet fuel producers to pet food makers are warning the rule will hike already rising food and gas prices and exacerbate supply shortages.

The renewable fuel standard (RFS) rule, due to be finalized Friday under a deadline set in an April 22 consent decree, is seen by its supporters as a key step in lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fighting climate change. Biofuels proponents say there is sufficient feedstock – renewable material which can be used or converted to use as transportation fuel, such as corn – to satisfy ambitious RFS goals while also meeting needs for non-fuel uses like food.

But critics say anticipated RFS annual production target increases will have massive and widespread negative effects on everything from grocery store prices to fuel supplies.

May 20, 2022

Guest column: Fragmented FDA leadership contributed to formula failure

By Scott Faber

America’s infant formula shortage has raised urgent questions about the safety of our food supply. Most Americans believe America has the safest food supply in the world. But, the tragic failure to address contaminated infant formula as well as a hard-hitting investigation about the failures at FDA’s food safety division has revealed dangerous holes in our food safety net.

May 4, 2022

Environmentalists cite “political indifference;” call for Senate to confirm EPA enforcement chief

A coalition of 55 environmental groups is urging the U.S. Senate to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the enforcement office within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), citing a need for stronger agency actions to protect vulnerable communities from illegal pollution.

Biden nominated former Department of Justice (DOJ) environmental crimes division head David Uhlmann to take the top EPA enforcement spot in June 2021 and then renominated him in January, but Republican opposition has stalled the move.