ReZoom

The Environmental Protection Agency is no longer in the protection business?

It used to be that businesses and industries were required to report the toxic chemicals they use, store and release. That was then, this is now. Bush’s version of the EPA thinks we need to know less. Last December, the EPA came up with new rules that permitted shorter and less detailed forms for companies that store or release less than 5,000 pounds of toxic chemicals. The old rules required a longer, more comprehensive form whenever a company stored or discharged as little as 500 pounds.

That truly stinks. So much so that twelve states have filed suit against the EPA for weakening regulations. The twelve states being Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

Molly A. O’Neill, an administrator for the agency’s Office of Environmental Information, defended the new rules in a statement November 28th, saying they were “making a good program better.”

Better for who?

What a sad state of affairs it is when states feel forced to sue the federal government.