LAT: Thousands of Firms Could Stop Reporting Emissions (new Bush policy)

[DeepModem Mom]

NOTE: Any DUers interested in signing a MoveOn petition protesting the firing of 85 LAT reporters who write stories such as this, firings that will send more profit to the Times's corporate Chicago owners, please see this post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5495142


Thousands of Firms Could Stop Reporting Emissions
By Marla Cone, Times Staff Writer

Thousands of companies throughout the nation, including many in the Los Angeles region, would no longer have to provide the public with details of toxic chemicals they release into the environment under a Bush administration proposal to streamline the nation's environmental right-to-know law.

For nearly 20 years, the national Toxics Release Inventory has allowed people to access detailed data about chemicals that are used and released in their neighborhoods. In about 9,000 communities, the annual reports identify which industrial plants emit the most toxic substances, whether their emissions are increasing and what compounds may be contaminating their air and water.

Seeking to ease the financial burden on industry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed eliminating some requirements for smaller facilities that must monitor their emissions and file the complex annual reports. The EPA will make a final decision on the proposal next year, after a public comment period....

***

Kim Nelson, an assistant administrator at the EPA, said the companies that would benefit from the proposal are "tiny, tiny businesses, mom-and-pop shops operating on Main Street, that, in an aggregate, amount to less than 1% of the emissions in this country."

But according to the agency's electronic inventory, many of the facilities are near residential areas, in communities with large low-income or minority populations. Many are owned by large corporations, including Pepsi Bottling Group in Buena Park, Clorox Products in Los Angeles, Raytheon in Goleta, U.S. Gypsum Co. in Santa Fe Springs and Foamex in the Bay Area city of San Leandro....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-chemicals2dec02,0,4428901.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews

[Neocondriac]

1. An essential part of the "Clear Skys Initiative"

[Polemonium]

2. EPA used to have the word protection in it

now I guess it stands for pollution :shrug:

[pinniped]

3. The b in his stupid name stands for backwards and something else,...

which I will get in trouble for saying.

Backwards in science and environmental protections seem to be a favorite of these twisted monkey punks.