EPA and the U.S. Justice Department announced yesterday that BP Products North America Inc. has agreed to pay a $15 million penalty to resolve federal Clean Air Act violations at its Texas City, Texas petroleum refinery. The penalty is both the largest ever assessed for civil violations of the Clean Air Act’s chemical accident prevention regulations, also known as the risk management program regulations, and the largest civil penalty recovered for Clean Air Act violations at an individual facility.
Yesterday EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson addressed the newly-appointed members of the Farm, Ranch, and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee (FRRCC) during their first official meeting since being appointed. The FRRCC is an independent committee, established by EPA in 2008, that advises the agency on a wide range of environmental issues of importance to agriculture and rural communities. EPA also announced the new committee members, who were appointed in May.
On September 28, EPA’s independent Science Advisory Board (SAB) released its first draft review of EPA’s research into the water quality impacts of valley fills associated with mountaintop mining. In their draft review, the SAB supports EPA’s scientific research and agrees with EPA’s conclusion that valley fills are associated with increased levels of conductivity (a measure of water pollution for mining practices) in downstream waters, and that these increased levels of conductivity threaten stream life in surface waters, according to press release from EPA.
Fifty-two percent of drivers said they feel less safe on the roads now than they did five years ago, according to the third-annual 2010 Traffic Safety Culture Index recently released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The leading reason cited by American drivers was distracted driving, with 88 percent of motorists rating drivers who text and email as a very serious threat to their safety.
It's illegal to text while driving in most U.S. states. Yet a new study by researchers at the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) finds no reductions in crashes after laws take effect that ban texting by all drivers, a press release states. In fact, such bans are associated with a slight increase in the frequency of insurance claims filed under collision coverage for damage to vehicles in crashes. This finding is based on comparisons of claims in four states before and after texting ban, compared with patterns of claims in nearby states.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently determined that the June 2009 fatal multivehicle collision involving a 2008 Volvo truck-tractor semitrailer and a traffic queue near Miami, Oklahoma, was caused by the truck driver's fatigue stemming from his acute sleep loss, circadian disruption associated with his shift work schedule, and mild sleep apnea, a press release states. The 76-year-old driver failed to react to slowing and stopped traffic ahead by applying brakes or performing any evasive maneuvers to avoid colliding with the traffic queue.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano has announced Cyber Storm III — a three-day long, DHS-sponsored exercise that brings together a diverse cross-section of the nation’s cyber incident responders to assess U.S. cyber response capabilities, according to a recent press release.
“Next month, OSHA will formally launch a new policy that increases our proposed penalties,” agency boss Dr. David Michaels told the Occupational Safety & Health Review Commission Annual Judicial Conference in Charleston, SC this past Tuesday, September 14.
Speaking at the Occupational Safety & Health Review Commission Annual Judicial Conference in Charleston, SC this past Tuesday, September 14, OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels explained the agency’s use of the General Duty Clause:
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