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Showing 12 results

Lena Pons

Former Policy Analyst

Lena Pons | October 11, 2011

EPA Should Move Forward on Naming Priority Chemicals

EPA’s chemical management efforts have been under attack on every front. Chemical safety was one of Lisa Jackson’s priorities from her first day as EPA administrator. But during her tenure, efforts to improve chemicals policy at the agency have been met with fierce resistance. One recent attack was on EPA’s efforts to identify priority chemicals for risk assessment […]

Lena Pons | September 8, 2011

White House Review of ‘Chemicals of Concern’ List A Full Year Past Due

In May 2010, EPA sent a draft “Chemicals of Concern” list, including bisphenol A (BPA) and five other chemicals, to the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review. The proposed list would be the first time EPA has used its authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to publish such a […]

Lena Pons | July 18, 2011

Regulatory Plans Show Agencies at Risk of Failing to Finish Numerous Critical Rules During President Obama’s First Term

In April, CPR released a paper that looked at 12 critical rulemaking activities that we urged the Obama administration to finish by June 2012. The new regulatory agendas released by the agencies earlier this month show that instead of moving forward, the agencies are often slowing down.  Contrary to the “tsunami” of regulations that the Chamber […]

Lena Pons | July 13, 2011

Some Pleasant Surprises in Agency Regulatory Plans

Last week, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) of the Office of Management and Budget released the semiannual regulatory agenda. I pointed out that the agenda, which contains the regulatory agencies’ planned actions, was quite late. Although the plans share problems from past years, like simply pushing back the target dates for regulatory actions, there […]

Lena Pons | July 7, 2011

Looking Back, But How Much Looking Ahead? Agencies Release Regulatory Agendas Months Late

The Administration has been busy promoting President Obama’s new approach to regulatory review, which required federal regulatory agencies to produce plans for how they would review existing regulations and look for regulations to cut. But while the mad dash to find regulations the administration can trot out as misguided or outdated continued, the agencies were delayed […]

Lena Pons | June 2, 2011

New CPR White Paper Tackles Industry Myths About BPA

For the last two decades, scientists have amassed evidence that bisphenol A (BPA) poses a threat to human health. BPA is a chemical used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastic, can liners for food and beverages, and thermal paper used for register receipts. It is used in so many applications that the Centers for Disease […]

Lena Pons | December 20, 2010

New CPR White Paper Proposes 47 Priority Chemicals for EPA’s IRIS Toxic Chemical Database

In October, EPA requested nominations for substances that it should evaluate under the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). Today CPR releases Setting Priorities for IRIS: 47 Chemicals that Should Move to the Head of the Risk-Assessment Line — a paper that we've submitted to EPA as our nominations for priority chemicals. Following up on our recent […]

Lena Pons | December 1, 2010

Procedural Maze Continues for Vehicle Efficiency Regulation

Update: EPA and NHTSA have issued the Supplemental Notice of Intent. The regulatory process is often complex: agencies must balance opportunities for public comment, complex scientific information, and economic analysis, all while trying to craft a program that fulfills a legal mandate. But when it comes to crafting proposals for vehicle fuel economy and greenhouse gas […]

Lena Pons | November 9, 2010

CPR White Paper Identifies Hundreds of Toxic Chemicals Insufficiently Studied by EPA

A new CPR white paper released today evaluates EPA’s performance in improving its database of human health information on toxic substances. The Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) contains “profiles” with bottom-line health effects information for 540 substances; federal regulators, as well as state and local governments and regulated industry itself, rely on the assessments to make […]