"White House, EPA at Odds Over Coal-Waste Rules" reads a headline in Saturday's Wall Street Journal. It's worth a look.
The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has in fact continued to host meetings with outside groups regarding EPA’s work on a rule for controlling the disposal of hazardous coal ash waste. Since my last post on this topic, OIRA has hosted 10 more meetings on this topic. (These latest meetings were held between December 9 and January 4.) This brings the grand total of OIRA coal ash meetings to 21—all in a time span of less than 3 months!
The meetings are particularly significant since the industry is lobbying OIRA before EPA has even issued a proposed rule. By law, a proposed agency rule is followed by a public comment phase, where industry would have the full opportunity to make their case (see my previous post for more detail on the process).
Seven of the recent meetings were with industry groups, including representatives of industries that “reuse” coal ash, and the power industry (see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). OIRA held an additional three meetings on the topic with public interest groups (see here, here, and here). In all then, OIRA has hosted 17 meetings with industry groups on coal ash and four meetings with public interest groups.
The WSJ's assessment is that the White House and EPA are "at odds" over the issue. EPA’s decision in December to postpone the completion of a proposed rule was certainly notable. And one thing is clear: The industry will continue to try to use OIRA to push EPA into developing a weak coal ash rule that benefits its own parochial interests at the expense of the public’s interest. We'll continue to keep an eye on it.
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James Goodwin | January 9, 2010
“White House, EPA at Odds Over Coal-Waste Rules” reads a headline in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. It’s worth a look. The White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has in fact continued to host meetings with outside groups regarding EPA’s work on a rule for controlling the disposal of hazardous coal ash waste. […]
Ben Somberg | January 7, 2010
A few months ago Rena Steinzor wrote skeptically here about state (as opposed to federal) regulation of hydraulic fracturing: … the idea that after doing all this research, EPA should stand back and let the gas-producing states take the lead, stepping in only after much more delay, would amount to a rollback of environmental protection […]
Holly Doremus | January 5, 2010
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. As I pointed out three months ago, the federal government has awakened from its 8-year Bush administration slumber to notice that the SF Bay-Delta is an important environmental and economic resource whose management requires federal input. On December 22, the Obama administration issued an Interim Federal Action Plan for the California […]
Ben Somberg | January 4, 2010
A group of organizations who work to eliminate health hazards in housing have sent a letter to OMB chief Peter Orszag expressing concern over the “detailing” of Randall Lutter to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). The letter focuses on Lutter’s writings on the economics of lead poisoning: Mr. Lutter’s statement, “…the children […]
Holly Doremus | December 31, 2009
Cross-posted from Legal Planet. On Sunday, 60 Minutes had a long story on the California water crisis, featuring Lesley Stahl interviewing (among others) Arnold Schwarzenegger and UC Davis professor Jeff Mount. On the positive side, the story accurately portrayed the vulnerability of California’s fragile through-Delta water delivery system to a major earthquake or catastrophic levee […]
Matt Shudtz | December 30, 2009
EPA today took an important step toward reversing one of the Bush Administration’s “midnight regulations,” announcing a proposed rule that would improve monitoring standards for airborne lead. Under EPA’s new proposal, any establishment that emits lead into the air at a rate of a half a ton per year or more could be required to […]
Matt Shudtz | December 30, 2009
CPRBlog asked some of our regular bloggers to give us some suggestions for the high and low points of the regulatory year. We began by taking the Bush Administration’s “midnight regulations” off the table, so that we could focus in on the Obama Administration’s impact to date. CPR Policy Analyst Matt Shudtz offers up a number of […]
Rena Steinzor | December 29, 2009
CPRBlog asked some of our regular bloggers to give us some suggestions for the high and low points of the regulatory year. We began by taking the Bush Administration’s “midnight regulations” off the table, so that we could focus in on the Obama Administration’s impact to date. CPR President Rena Steinzor begins. The high point of […]
Daniel Farber | December 23, 2009
cross-posted from Legal Planet Rob Stavins has a good, concise overview of the session and the outcome on the Belfer Center website. Not as negative as some other observers, he highlights the extraordinary procecess that resulted in the Copenhagen Accord: It is virtually unprecedented in international negotiations for heads of government (or heads of state) […]