Pollution

After Congressional Democrats criticized them for suppressing a report on toxic substances in the Great Lakes, and after an independent investigative journalism group published excerpts, the Centers for Disease Control finally published it March 12, 2008.

EPA made public the latest year's data from the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) February 21, 2008, catching a few journalists by surprise, as usual.

Large feedlots would no longer have to report toxic emissions under a rule proposed Dec. 21, 2007, by EPA.

New Jersey filed a lawsuit Feb. 19, 2008, challenging the US-EPA's December 2007 rule that utilities could decide for themselves whether their air pollution increases are significant enough to require detailed record-keeping.

For more than seven months, the nation's top public health agency has blocked the publication of an exhaustive federal study of environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states.

EPA still has not complied with requests from two Congressional investigating committees for documents on its decision to deny California and some 16 other states waivers allowing them to regulate tailpipe greenhouse emissions.

Henry Waxman (D-CA), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has vowed to investigate EPA's decision to prohibit states from regulating greenhouse emissions.

EPA has proposed exempting farms from a law protecting the public from toxic air pollutants. Environmental groups have objected.

Vehicle fuel economy is a major component of the ongoing energy and carbon discussions, so it's helpful to know how the current models are performing.

EPA is required to update its standard for each of the six main "criteria" air pollutants every five years.