Is it my imagination, or has the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gone out of its way this year to live down its name? Already criticized by many green types for doing more to protect the Bush administration agenda than the environment, the EPA made 2007 a banner year … in a bad way.
One of its most recent decisions — its denial of California’s effort to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles — was also one of its most deplorable. But the agency found plenty of other ways to disappoint over the past 12 months:
There’s its latest proposal to exempt livestock operations from the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act. That’s the regulation that requires facilities to make it public when they release more than 500 pounds of a hazardous substance — like the noxious ammonia and other gases and chemicals that spew from factory farms. Established in the wake of the 1984 Bhopal disaster, the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act is being loosened, apparently, in an effort to save on paperwork;
During this past year, the EPA also continued forging ahead with its plan to dismantle its network of technical and research libraries, shuttering libraries in 23 states along with the headquarters in Washington, D.C. Happily, Congress this month ordered the EPA to restore its library services, budgeting $3 million for just that purpose;
Then there’s the EPA’s ongoing failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from large, ocean-going vessels. A coalition of environmental groups this fall petitioned the EPA to either set pollution standards for cargo and cruise ships … or explain why it will not do so. This month, the same coalition sent a similar petition the EPA’s way, this one seeking emissions standards for aircraft;
Did I mention Superfund yet? Earlier this year, the Center for Public Integrity reported that, despite two years of requests from Congress, the EPA still won’t release information about which Superfund sites pose the greatest threats to public health. In addition to the 114 sites Congress has been asking about, there are another 181 sites for which the EPA claims to have “insufficient data” to assess health risks.
Not a great record, by any means, for an agency charged with protecting the environment. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait until a new administration for the EPA to start doing its job again.
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Shirley Siluk Gregory
Shirley Siluk Gregory, a transplanted Chicagoan now living in Northwest Florida, represents the progressive half of Green Options' Red, Green and Blue segment. She holds a bachelor's degree in Geological Sciences from Northwestern University but graduated in 1984, just when the market for geologists was flatter than the Florida landscape. Just as well, though: she had little interest in spending her life either in a laboratory or, heaven forbid, an oil field. So, of course, she went into journalism. After extremely low-paying but fun and educational stints at several suburban Chicago weeklies and dailies, Shirley and her then-boyfriend/now-husband Scott found themselves displaced by a media buyout and spending the next several years working as freelancers. Among their credits: The Chicago Tribune, a publication for the manufactured-housing industry, and Web Hosting Magazine, a now-defunct publication that came and went with the dotcom era. Shirley's always been concerned about nature and conservation (and an avid pack-rat, as her family can attest to), but became even more rabidly interested in the environment primarily due to two factors: the growing signs that global warming was real and threatening, and the birth of her son, Noah, in 2003. Suddenly, the prospect of a world that might not be quite as habitable in 40 or 50 years took on a whole new, and personal, meaning. Living where she lives now also helped light the fire of Shirley's environmental awareness: her hometown was severely damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and beaten up again by Hurricane Dennis in 2005. That, and the fact that she and her family were vacationing in New Orleans until the day before Katrina -- and spent 12 hours driving home for a trip that normally takes 3 -- has made Shirley deeply appreciate how fragile our lifestyles are, and how dependent they are on sound management of natural resources and sustainable living practices. That's why she's become a passionate reader and writer about all things green and sustainable.
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[...] Although the media reported on it earlier this year, on Sept. 18 the Government Accountability Office made public a March report finding a number of alarming shortcomings in the EPA’s system – the only nationwide system the United States uses to assess household chemicals. And it’s a system that’s already behind that of the European Union, which lists more chemicals as dangerous – meaning we may be putting on makeup and using household products made of substances banned for their toxicity by our counterparts in Europe. So, this report has some grave implications that go beyond merely pointing out flaws in the EPA. [...]