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Full-Text Articles in Law
Testimony Before The Committee On Energy And Commerce, Subcommittee On Environment And Economics, U.S. House Of Representatives, Hearing On Constitutional Considerations: States Vs. Federal Environmental Policy Implementation July 11, 2014, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
No abstract provided.
Testimony Before The Committee On Science, Space, And Technology, Subcommittee On Oversight And Environment, U.S. House Of Representatives Hearing On Status Of Reforms To Epa's Integrated Risk Information System, July 16, 2014, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
No abstract provided.
Winning Safer Workplaces: A Manual For State And Local Policy Reform, Rena I. Steinzor
Winning Safer Workplaces: A Manual For State And Local Policy Reform, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
We set out to compile a list of rules and policies that could be implemented by state and local governments to provide better protections for U.S. workers. This manual includes more than two dozen such ideas, organized into thematic chapters: Chapter 1: Empowering Workers, with proposals designed to strengthen workers' individual and collective power to demand changes in their workplaces; Chapter 2: Making Sure Crime Doesn't Pay, with ideas for strong enforcement of workplace health and safety rules that will punish bad actors and deter similar behavior;Chapter 3: Strengthening Institutions, with recommendations intended to bolster government agencies' efforts to protect …
Consequences For Cleanup: Epa Gets Serious About Weak Watershed Improvement Plans, Rena I. Steinzor, Anne Havemann
Consequences For Cleanup: Epa Gets Serious About Weak Watershed Improvement Plans, Rena I. Steinzor, Anne Havemann
Rena I. Steinzor
In a landmark series of reports issued on June 26, 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put the seven jurisdictions that pollute the Chesapeake Bay on notice that their plans for reducing nitrogen, phosphorous, and sediment fall short of where they must be to make cleanup by 2025 a reality. By EPA’s reckoning, Pennsylvania and Delaware were furthest off the mark, but Maryland, New York, Virginia, and West Virginia face EPA action if they fail to substantially improve their plans. Of the seven jurisdictions, only Washington, D.C. escaped serious criticism.
Falling Behind: Processing And Enforcing Permits For Animal Agriculture Operations In Maryland Is Lagging, Rena I. Steinzor, Anne Havemann
Falling Behind: Processing And Enforcing Permits For Animal Agriculture Operations In Maryland Is Lagging, Rena I. Steinzor, Anne Havemann
Rena I. Steinzor
After decades of failed interstate agreements, the Chesapeake Bay is choking on too many nutrients. The estuary’s last, best chance of recovery is the Environmental Protection Agency's Total Maximum Daily Load (“TMDL”) program, also known as a pollution diet. To meet this deadline, all polluters, including large animal farms, will need to sharply reduce the pollutants they release into the Bay. The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) must ensure that each Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (“CAFO”) has developed a facility-specific permit that details when and where manure is applied to fields and how waste is stored and handled. Then …
Collaborating To Nowhere: The Imperative Of Government Accountability For Restoring The Chesapeake Bay, Rena I. Steinzor, Shana Jones
Collaborating To Nowhere: The Imperative Of Government Accountability For Restoring The Chesapeake Bay, Rena I. Steinzor, Shana Jones
Rena I. Steinzor
This Article opens with an analysis of why the Chesapeake Bay Program will repeat its past failures unless a reliable mechanism for ensuring accountability is created. It then explains how the independent evaluator should be constructed to make possible the overall success of Bay restoration. Finally, it closes with a rebuttal of the arguments in favor of self--auditing and against independent review.
The End Game Of Deregulation: Myopic Risk Management And The Next Catastrophe, Thomas O. Mcgarity, Rena I. Steinzor
The End Game Of Deregulation: Myopic Risk Management And The Next Catastrophe, Thomas O. Mcgarity, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
On December 22, 2008, the contents of an enormous impoundment containing coal-ash slurry from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Kingston Fossil Fuel Plant poured into the Emory River. The proximate cause of the spill was the bursting of a poorly reinforced dike holding back a pit of sludge that towered 80 feet above the river and 40 feet above an adjacent road. The volume and force of the spill were so large that 1.1 billion gallons of the inky mess flowed across the river, inundating 300 acres of land in a layer four to five feet deep, uprooting trees, destroying …
Evaluating Rules And How We Measure Their Effects, Rena I. Steinzor, Michael Patoka
Evaluating Rules And How We Measure Their Effects, Rena I. Steinzor, Michael Patoka
Rena I. Steinzor
The Center for Progressive Reform undertook an empirical study of the Office of Information of Regulatory Affairs, the White House office that reviews every significant regulation issue by Executive Branch agencies. The study assembled an unprecedented portrait of its behavior during the decade from October 16, 2001, when notices of meetings with outside parties were first available on the Internet, until June 1, 2011. OIRA conducted 6,194 separate reviews of regulatory submissions, holding 1,080 meetings that involved 5,759 appearances by outside participants. Both the final report and the database we assembled are available on the CPR website, at progressivereform.org. OIRA …
Fairness In The Bay: Environmental Justice And Nutrient Trading, Rena I. Steinzor, Robert R.M. Verchick, Nicholas W. Vidargas, Yee Huang
Fairness In The Bay: Environmental Justice And Nutrient Trading, Rena I. Steinzor, Robert R.M. Verchick, Nicholas W. Vidargas, Yee Huang
Rena I. Steinzor
Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and other states in the Chesapeake Bay region, with support from the Environmental Protection Agency, are working toward developing water quality trading programs intended to help meet federal pollution limits for the Bay. This white paper from the Center for Progressive Reform warns that even if a trading system succeeds in reducing overall pollution in the Bay, it might still have a dire effect on low-income and minority communities in the Bay region. If trading programs are not carefully designed and monitored, trading can cause localized concentrations of nutrients and accompanying contaminants in local waters, posing a …
Agricultural Secrecy: Going Dark Down On The Farm: How Legalized Secrecy Gives Agribusiness A Federally Funded Free Ride, Rena I. Steinzor, Yee Huang
Agricultural Secrecy: Going Dark Down On The Farm: How Legalized Secrecy Gives Agribusiness A Federally Funded Free Ride, Rena I. Steinzor, Yee Huang
Rena I. Steinzor
This briefing paper examines the agricultural secrecy granted by section 1619 of the 2008 Farm Bill, its implications for transparency and oversight, and its impact on other federal agencies such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In an era of fiscal responsibility, tight budgets, and increasing pressure on the environment, the public has a right to know whether the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is making the best decisions about how to allocate public funds. Each year, agricultural producers in the United States receive billions of dollars in federal payments: crop subsidies, crop insurance, conservation payments, disaster payments, loans, …
Back To Basics: An Agenda For The Maryland General Assembly To Protect The Environment, Rena I. Steinzor, Lee Huang
Back To Basics: An Agenda For The Maryland General Assembly To Protect The Environment, Rena I. Steinzor, Lee Huang
Rena I. Steinzor
Maryland has a long-held reputation as a regional and national leader in environmental protection. But in some areas, especially enforcement, that reputation warrants scrutiny. For example, Maryland charges less than Pennsylvania and Virginia for some pollutant discharge permits, and the state does not assess permit fees for municipalities despite the resources required to administer those permits. The penalties for violating the Clean Water Act have remained chronically below the level allowed under federal law. Maryland law does not require MDE to penalize polluters for the full amount of the economic gain they achieved by flouting the law, unlike laws in …
Manure In The Bay: A Report On Industrial Animal Agriculture In Maryland And Pennsylvania, Rena I. Steinzor, Yee Huang
Manure In The Bay: A Report On Industrial Animal Agriculture In Maryland And Pennsylvania, Rena I. Steinzor, Yee Huang
Rena I. Steinzor
This report provides a substantive and detailed look at the concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) and other animal feeding operations (AFO) programs in Maryland and Pennsylvania, as well as a general overview of the federal CAFO program. The information in this report was gathered through publicly available resources as well as a series of interviews with agency officials and other individuals who work with the animal agricultural sector. This report identifies concrete and practical recommendations for improving how the waste generated by animal industrial agriculture is managed and controlled by EPA, the Maryland Department of Environment (MDE), and the Pennsylvania …
Too Big To Obey: Why Bp Should Be Debarred, Rena I. Steinzor
Too Big To Obey: Why Bp Should Be Debarred, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
No abstract provided.
The Legislation Of Unintended Consequences, Rena I. Steinzor
The Legislation Of Unintended Consequences, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
No abstract provided.
The Case For Abolishing Centralized White House Regulatory Review, Rena I. Steinzor
The Case For Abolishing Centralized White House Regulatory Review, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
A series of catastrophic regulatory failures have focused attention on theweakened condition of regulatory agencies assigned to protect public health, worker and consumer safety, and the environment. The destructive convergence of funding shortfalls, political attacks, and outmoded legal authority have set the stage for ineffective enforcement, unsupervised industry self-regulation, and a slew of devastating and preventable catastrophes. From the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the worst mining disaster in forty years at the Big Branch mine in West Virginia, the signs of regulatory dysfunction abound. Many stakeholders expected that President Barack Obama would recognize and ameliorate …
Hearing On The American Energy Initiative Transparency In Regulatory Analysis Of Impacts On The Nation Act Of 2011, Rena I. Steinzor
Hearing On The American Energy Initiative Transparency In Regulatory Analysis Of Impacts On The Nation Act Of 2011, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
No abstract provided.
Epa's Iris Program: Evaluating The Science And Process Behind Chemical Risk Assessment, Rena I. Steinzor
Epa's Iris Program: Evaluating The Science And Process Behind Chemical Risk Assessment, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
No abstract provided.
Lessons From The North Sea: Should "Safety Cases" Come To America?, Rena I. Steinzor
Lessons From The North Sea: Should "Safety Cases" Come To America?, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
The catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last spring and summer has triggered an intense search for more effective regulatory methods that would prevent such disasters. The new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) is under pressure to adopt the British “safety case” system, which requires the preparation of a facility-specific plan that is typically several hundred pages long. This system is supposed to inculcate a “safety culture” within companies that operate offshore in the British portion of the North Sea because it overcomes a “box-ticking” mentality and constitutes “bottom up” implementation of safety measures. …
From Ship To Shore: Reforming The National Contingency Plan To Improve Protections For Oil Spill Cleanup Workers, Rebecca Bratspies, Alyson Flournoy, Thomas Mcgarity, Sidney A. Shapiro, Rena I. Steinzor, Matthew Shudtz
From Ship To Shore: Reforming The National Contingency Plan To Improve Protections For Oil Spill Cleanup Workers, Rebecca Bratspies, Alyson Flournoy, Thomas Mcgarity, Sidney A. Shapiro, Rena I. Steinzor, Matthew Shudtz
Rena I. Steinzor
Eleven workers died on April 20, 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform exploded beneath them. Since then, tens of thousands of workers have toiled under difficult conditions to stop the leak and clean up the mess. For these workers, the spill is more than an environmental and economic disaster; it poses straightforward and serious risks to their health and safety. Oil is toxic, as are the dispersants used liberally by BP to contain it. BP’s foul up is not the first significant oil spill in the nation’s history, nor even the first in the Gulf. The oil companies …
Corrective Lenses For Iris: Additional Reforms To Improve Epa's Integrated Risk Information System, Rena I. Steinzor, Wendy E. Wagner, Lena Pons, Matthew Shudtz
Corrective Lenses For Iris: Additional Reforms To Improve Epa's Integrated Risk Information System, Rena I. Steinzor, Wendy E. Wagner, Lena Pons, Matthew Shudtz
Rena I. Steinzor
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) is the most important toxicological database in the world. Not only is it the single most comprehensive database of human health information about toxic substances, it also serves as a gateway to regulation, as well as to a range of public and private sector efforts to protect against toxic substances. IRIS “profiles” of individual substances include a number of scientific assessments of the substance’s toxicity to humans by various means of exposure – by inhalation, contact with the skin, and so on. Federal regulators rely on the assessments to do …
Regulatory Blowout: How Regulatory Failures Made The Bp Disaster Possible, And How The System Can Be Fixed To Avoid A Recurrence, Alyson Flournoy, William Andreen, Rebecca Bratspies, Holly Doremus, Victor Flatt, Robert Glicksman, Joel Mintz, Daniel Rohlf, Amy Sinden, Rena I. Steinzor, Joseph Tomain, Sandra Zellmer, James Goodwin
Regulatory Blowout: How Regulatory Failures Made The Bp Disaster Possible, And How The System Can Be Fixed To Avoid A Recurrence, Alyson Flournoy, William Andreen, Rebecca Bratspies, Holly Doremus, Victor Flatt, Robert Glicksman, Joel Mintz, Daniel Rohlf, Amy Sinden, Rena I. Steinzor, Joseph Tomain, Sandra Zellmer, James Goodwin
Rena I. Steinzor
The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is destined to take its place as one of the greatest environmental disasters in the history of the United States, or for that matter, of the entire planet. Like so many other disasters on that list, it was entirely preventable. BP must shoulder its share of the blame, of course. Similarly, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) – since reorganized and rebranded – has come under much deserved criticism for its failure to rein in BP’s avaricious approach to drilling even where it was unable to respond to a worst-case scenario in …
Workers At Risk: Regulatory Dysfunction At Osha, Thomas Mcgarity, Rena I. Steinzor, Sidney A. Shapiro, Matthew Shudtz
Workers At Risk: Regulatory Dysfunction At Osha, Thomas Mcgarity, Rena I. Steinzor, Sidney A. Shapiro, Matthew Shudtz
Rena I. Steinzor
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was born with a heavy load to bear – the obligation of ensuring that every worker in America has a safe and healthful workplace for his or her entire working life. In its early years, OSHA acted with great vigor, establishing important standards for occupational health and safety that have prevented hundreds of thousands of injuries and illnesses. But the agency has not aged gracefully. Today its enforcement staff is stretched thin and the rulemaking staff struggle to produce health and safety standards that can withstand industry legal challenges. In short, OSHA is a …
Bad Science, Linda Greer, Rena I. Steinzor
Will Superfund Rise Again?, Rena I. Steinzor
Will Superfund Rise Again?, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
The federal hazardous waste cleanup program and its state progency have been in decline for more than a decade, victims to a campaign of sabotage waged by industry and neglected by the Bush administration. Meanwhile, stakeholders do their best to ignore the program's sorry state. A sad story, but there may be a surprise ending in store.
Regulatory Dysfunction: How Insufficient Resources, Outdated Laws, And Political Interference Cripple The 'Protector Agencies', Sidney A. Shapiro, Rena I. Steinzor, Matthew Shudtz
Regulatory Dysfunction: How Insufficient Resources, Outdated Laws, And Political Interference Cripple The 'Protector Agencies', Sidney A. Shapiro, Rena I. Steinzor, Matthew Shudtz
Rena I. Steinzor
In the last several years, dramatic failures of the nation’s food safety system have sickened or killed tens of thousands of Americans, and caused billions of dollars of damages for producers and distributors of everything from fresh vegetables to granola bars and hamburger meat. In each case, the outbreak of food-borne illness triggered what can only be described as a frantic scramble by health officials to discover its source. Inevitably, the wrong lead is followed or a recall is too late or too narrow to prevent further illnesses, and the government has to defend itself against withering criticism. Americans expect …
A Return To Common Sense: Protecting Health, Safety, And The Environment Through 'Pragmatic Regulatory Impact Analysis', Rena I. Steinzor, Amy Sinden, Sidney A. Shapiro, James Goodwin
A Return To Common Sense: Protecting Health, Safety, And The Environment Through 'Pragmatic Regulatory Impact Analysis', Rena I. Steinzor, Amy Sinden, Sidney A. Shapiro, James Goodwin
Rena I. Steinzor
Health and safety regulations have a more powerful impact on the quality of life in America than any other affirmative decision the government makes, except perhaps decisions to go to war or pull in the social safety net. To a great extent, the purity of the food we eat and all the medicines we take, the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink, the safety of industrial workplaces, and the preservation of the myriad natural systems that support life as we know it are dependent on how effectively government polices the side effects of manufacturing. Yet …
Myths Of The Reinvented State, Rena I. Steinzor
Myths Of The Reinvented State, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
No abstract provided.
The Reauthorization Of Superfund: The Public Works Alternative, Rena I. Steinzor
The Reauthorization Of Superfund: The Public Works Alternative, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
No abstract provided.
Reinventing Environmental Regulation: Back To The Past By Way Of The Future, Rena I. Steinzor
Reinventing Environmental Regulation: Back To The Past By Way Of The Future, Rena I. Steinzor
Rena I. Steinzor
No abstract provided.
Reinventing Environmental Regulation Via The Government Performance And Results Act: Where's The Money?, Rena I. Steinzor, William F. Piermattei
Reinventing Environmental Regulation Via The Government Performance And Results Act: Where's The Money?, Rena I. Steinzor, William F. Piermattei
Rena I. Steinzor
No abstract provided.