Updated rule provides extensive public health protections, slashes costs of compliance
January 15, 2013
Today, in compliance with settlement agreements, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized revisions to standards to reduce air pollution from stationary engines that generate electricity and power equipment at industrial, agricultural, oil and gas production, power generation and other facilities.
The number of federally-approved OSHA Voluntary Protection Program sites has declined in the past two years, after peaking at 1,720 in 2010. As of December 31, 2012, 1,633 sites were enrolled in the VPP. At the end 0f 2011, the number stood at 1,688 sites, according to data posted on OSHA’s web site.
I2P2, confined spaces and walking working surfaces are all items on the regulatory agenda issued by OSHA last month. The agenda identifies issues that are being considered for or are in the process of rulemaking – although the agency stresses that rules for some of the items on it might not be issued this year, and some might never be issued.
In the spring of 2010, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who announced her resignation January 9th, 2013, put her name on the Department of Labor’s Regulatory Agenda Narrative, where she endorsed a strategy of “Plan/Prevent/Protect.”
It’s official: Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has announced in a letter to colleagues dated January 9th that she is leaving her cabinet seat to “begin a new future” back in her home state of California. She submitted her resignation to President Obama on the 9th.
The American Public Health Association (APHA) is throwing its support behind the EPA’s bid for a tough new air quality standard that the organization says will protect the health of all Americans by curbing harmful emissions of fine particulate matter, also known as soot. On the other side of the issue, manufacturers are predicting that it will “crush” growth.
The EPA has released for public comment draft risk assessments, for particular uses, on five chemicals found in common household products. The draft risk assessments were developed as part of the agency’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Work Plan, which identified common chemicals for review over the coming years to assess any impacts on people’s health and the environment.
The company whose rig crew ignored “clear warning signs” at the Macondo well site has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) and to pay a total of $1.4 billion in civil and criminal fines and penalties.
During the holiday break, on December 27, EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced her departure from the Obama administration cabinet after the President’s State of the Union address in late January. Jackson issued this statement:
Congressional opponents of public protections spent much of 2012 attempting to increase the procedural hurdles to establishing new rules that would implement federal laws and standards according to the regulatory watchdog group OMB Watch. Efforts to attack the scientific evidence employed by agencies continued.
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