"The lack of a permanent home for the nation's radioactive waste is dampening prospects for a resurgence of the U.S. nuclear industry, federal commissioners said at their first public hearing on the subject."
"President Obama's top aides huddled yesterday with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic committee leaders to map out a strategy for cobbling together 60 votes on a comprehensive energy and climate change bill once lawmakers return next month from their spring break."
"Approximately 87 million Americans who live near major seaports are breathing some of the nation's dirtiest -- and most dangerous -- air, the Environmental Protection Agency says. But help is on the way, thanks to initiatives across the USA to cut pollution coming from ships, vehicles and other sources within the ports themselves."
"The U.S. Energy Department's push to scrap a long-planned national nuclear waste dump in Nevada has run into stiff opposition as lawmakers on Wednesday questioned the Obama administration's decision."
"BP America Inc. and two other oil and gas companies are lobbying for the new Senate climate and energy bill to recommend against federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing." A draft would bar public disclosure of chemicals in fracturing fluid, some of which are toxic.
The Health and Environmental Research Online database compiles references to scientific studies that EPA uses in making regulatory decisions.
But the list — the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Substance Inventory — is still minus some 17,000 chemicals that manufacturers allege are trade secrets.
A March 23, 2010, Greenwire article reports that the draft Kerry-Lieberman-Graham climate bill may include language to keep potentially toxic ingredients from gas drilling secret from the public whose health may be harmed by them.
SEJ's suggestions included an end to requiring Saddam-style "minders" and press-office permissions before reporters could talk to EPA scientists and staff; prompter PIO callbacks and interviews; an end to automatic "background;" and more.
Bill S 3111, introduced on March 15, 2010, by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy and cosponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), would create a panel to study ways to reduce FOIA delays.
