Yesterday, as the Executive Council for the Chesapeake Bay Program held its annual meeting, President Obama issued an Executive Order on Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration (a first), declaring the Chesapeake Bay a national treasure and signaling that EPA will play a strong role in leading Bay cleanup. For years, federal leadership on the Bay has been missing in action. President Obama's move is dramatic, and we dare to hope that this could be a turning point.
Among other things, the order:
We have long advocated for many of these actions. Last fall, we issued a memo to the Principals Staff Committee for the Bay Program outlining a series of options for an independent entity to improve Bay Program accountability, and also proposed metrics for the entity to use to monitor Bay cleanup progress. This spring we worked with an emerging coalition of 40 environmental groups, who wrote a letter last week to Administrator Jackson advocating for her to exercise EPA’s authorities to the fullest to protect the Bay and calling for the creation of an independent evaluator for the Bay Program.
As Rena Steinzor noted here recently, EPA is the only Bay partner with the legal clout to make the states in the Bay watershed toe the line – its leadership is crucial if we want a clean Bay. The Executive Order on the Bay is a welcome and critical step in establishing EPA’s leadership role. Now it’s time for EPA, the Federal Leadership Committee, and the states to respond to the President’s order with decisive action.
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Shana Campbell Jones | May 13, 2009
Yesterday, as the Executive Council for the Chesapeake Bay Program held its annual meeting, President Obama issued an Executive Order on Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration (a first), declaring the Chesapeake Bay a national treasure and signaling that EPA will play a strong role in leading Bay cleanup. For years, federal leadership on the Bay […]
Rena Steinzor | May 13, 2009
Cass Sunstein had his confirmation hearing Tuesday; it was well-attended and anti-climactic. President Obama’s nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) testified for about an hour, and Senate approval of the nomination seems assured. Ironically, in a perfect example of timing being everything, at about […]
Rena Steinzor | May 13, 2009
With his attractive family and a phalanx of top aides in tow, Professor Cass Sunstein had a cordial, 45-minute hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee yesterday. He was introduced by former student and current Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) who praised Sunstein as a teacher, mentor, and eclectic thinker, all qualities for […]
Ben Somberg | May 12, 2009
With Cass Sunstein’s confirmation hearing for “regulatory czar” set for today, CPR Member Scholars Catherine O’Neill and Amy Sinden have an op-ed on the subject in this morning’s Philadelphia Inquirer — “The cost-benefit dodge.” They write: Beginning in the Reagan administration, any regulation with a significant impact has had to pass through Information and Regulatory […]
Shana Campbell Jones | May 11, 2009
Cattle, chickens, and hogs create more than 500 million tons of manure in the United States annually – three times more than the sanitary waste produced by people. Yet, in contrast to a concerted federal and state effort to fund and build sewage treatment plants since the Clean Water Act was enacted in 1972, dealing […]
Holly Doremus | May 7, 2009
This item is cross-posted by permission from Legal Planet. The National Environmental Policy Act, which became law on January 1, 1970, is the oldest of the major federal environmental laws. It has been a model for environmental assessment laws in numerous states and other nations, but it still comes in for a lot of criticism […]
Rena Steinzor | May 6, 2009
Cass Sunstein, President Obama's controversial nominee for Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), will go before the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for his confirmation hearing on Tuesday (May 12). The “Regulatory Czar,” as this position is known, wields enormous influence over the substance of federal regulations affecting matters […]
Ben Somberg | May 6, 2009
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will mix it up with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show tomorrow (Thursday) night. CNN.com reports: Interior spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff told CNN that Salazar is looking forward to talking about “his work implementing President Obama’s vision for building a clean energy economy and his efforts to protect America’s treasured landscapes. Time […]
Matt Shudtz | May 5, 2009
At long last, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is getting the injection of new blood that it has needed for years. President Obama announced today that he will nominate a new Chairwoman and a new Commissioner for the agency. This is great news. CPSC has been operating with just two commissioners for several years. […]