The rule will “ensure that the regulatory science underlying agency actions is fully transparent, and that underlying scientific information is publicly available in a manner sufficient for independent validation.”
New FDA Report on BPA: It is Still Safe
On February 23, 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a statement by Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine Stephen Ostroff, M.D., regarding a draft report issued by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) on the compound bisphenol A, more commonly referred to as BPA. The report concluded that BPA, the compound used to […]
What a Concept! New Ideas and Diverse Opinions Coming to the EPA!
On October 31, 2017, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced a new directive to ensure anyone serving on a Federal Advisory Committee (FAC) for the agency are “independent and free from any real, apparent, or potential interference with their ability to objectively serve as a committee member.” The new directive requires that anyone […]
Getting Back to Basics at the EPA
Over the last decade, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been the poster child for government waste, employee misconduct, and job-killing policies. This pitiful legacy offers new EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt a golden opportunity to turn around the troubled agency.
Au Revoir, Paris Accord
On June 1, 2017 President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Treaty, often called the Paris Agreement or Accord. Based on the caterwauling and wringing of hands by environmentalists, the media, state and local officials, and foreign leaders, you would have thought that floods would be ensuing within days due to the polar ice caps melting overnight and the end of the world was nigh.
We Won’t Always Have Paris
Yesterday, President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Treaty or, as it is often called, the Paris Accord. He righted what has been a bone of contention since the agreement’s birth at the Paris climate change meeting in November 2015. Many senators and policy analysts have rightfully argued the climate agreement was a treaty and should have been submitted to the Senate for advice and consent, as the Constitution requires. But, President Obama did not want to submit it to the Senate because he knew it would not be ratified. Instead, he continued his executive overreach and implemented the policy illegally with his “pen and his phone.” Chris Horner and Marlo Lewis of the Competitive Enterprise Institute discuss in their May 2017 report the serious legal and economic consequences to the U.S. if President Obama’s actions were not reversed.
Waste Abounds in the Land of the Midnight Sun
On Wednesday, April 5, 2017 the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a hearing to consider the construction of a road linking the town of King Cove to Cold Bay, and the latter’s all-weather airport. At issue is H.R. 218, introduced by Federal Lands Subcommittee member Don Young (R-Alaska) in January 2017, which […]
Beware of Midnight Regulations
As President Barack Obama’s term comes to an end, many federal agencies and departments are attempting to beat the clock by jamming a flurry of new regulations onto the books before January 20, 2017.
NPS Ban on Bottled Water – “Going Forward”
For more than a year, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has been investigating the National Park Service’s (NPS) ban on the sale of bottled water, believing it was an obtrusive inconvenience to visitors and a waste of taxpayer dollars. To date, 23 parks have decided to follow NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis’s December 14, 2011 NPS Policy Memorandum 11-03. This policy allows parks, on a case-by-case basis, and after an extensive review and approval by their respective regional directors, to ban the sale of water contained in disposable plastic bottles. The stated purpose of the ban was to reduce plastic in the parks’ waste stream and to decrease the carbon footprint as part of the NPS’s “Go Green” initiative.
President Trump Must Submit Paris Climate Agreement to the Senate
On November 14, President Obama made the following remarks in a press conference before his final foreign trip. When asked about legal constraints placed on him by Congress (specifically with respect to prisoners housed at Guantanamo Bay and his belief that the limitations were unconstitutional), he said, “One of the things you discover about being […]