Environmental laws like the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Food Quality Protection Act improve America’s environment and protect public health. These landmark laws have helped provide Americans cleaner air, cleaner water, and safer food. While these environmental laws have been successful, a number of recent investigations for members of Congress by the Special Investigations Division have highlighted ongoing environmental problems.
U.S. Representative Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY), Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the massive coal ash spill at a facility operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Kingston, Tennessee, one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James L. Oberstar wrote to President-elect Obama regarding their investigation into the drastic deterioration of the Clean Water Act enforcement program.
EPA announced it would not go forward with regulation that would have degraded air quality in our National Parks and other areas with clean air.
EPA announced that it would not go forward with the regulation that would allow older power plants to increase their emissions of air pollutants and exacerbate global warming.
In a letter to EPA Administrator Johnson, Chairman Waxman quantifies EPA’s extensive losses in federal court, details the harms they have caused, and urges EPA not to exacerbate those harms by issuing another legally reckless rule to weaken air pollution controls on power plants.
152 Members of Congress, led by Rep. Waxman, Rep. Markey, and Rep. Inslee, sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi detailing a set of principles to guide Congress as it produces legislation to establish an economy-wide mandatory program to address the threat of global warming.
The Committee will hold a hearing on September 24, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. to examine the implementation and enforcement of the Clean Water Act. To date, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have failed to provide the Committee with important documents. Chairman Waxman invited both agencies to testify and requests that documents be provided prior to the hearing.
Update: This hearing has been canceled.
Chairman Waxman issued a subpoena to compel the EPA to provide documents relating to the agency’s faltering enforcement of the Clean Water Act.
In a letter to EPA, Chairman Waxman reiterates and expands his request for information on the costs of EPA’s numerous losses in court, which include taxpayer dollars wasted and delays in public health and environmental protections.
In a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, Chairman Waxman and Chairman Oberstar requested information about whether the Corps is undermining the Clean Water Act with recent decisions affecting the Los Angeles River and Santa Cruz River.
In response to Chairman Waxman’s inquiry, EPA provided analyses EPA had conducted of reductions that would be necessary from the transportation sector to meet a range of global warming goals.
Chairman Waxman sent letters seeking additional information about documents withheld from the Committee under claims of executive privilege by President Bush, including documents relating to whether the White House complied with the Clean Air Act on important environmental decisions and documents relating to the outing of covert CIA official Valerie Plame Wilson.
In a letter to EPA Administrator Johnson, Chairman Waxman and Chairman Oberstar requested that documents regarding EPA’s faltering enforcement of the Clean Water Act be provided to the Committees by August 14, 2008.
Chairman Henry A. Waxman released a statement in response to the Environmental Protection Agency issuance of an air permit for the Desert Rock Energy Facility, a new coal-fired power plant.
In response to Chairman Waxman’s inquiry, EPA reveals that its proposed rule to weaken the Clean Air Act new source review requirements for power plants could allow power plants to increase their CO2 emissions by up to 74 million tons per year, which is roughly equivalent to the total annual CO2 emissions of about 14 average coal-fired power plants.
In a letter to EPA Administrator Johnson, Chairman Waxman and Chairman Oberstar requested that EPA work with the Committee to set a timeline for the production of documents regarding EPA’s faltering enforcement of the Clean Water Act.
Chairman Waxman wrote to EPA Administrator Johnson to request a full analysis of the environmental and public health impacts of a controversial proposal that threatens to degrade air quality in national parks and other areas with clean air. Citing concerns raised by EPA’s own staff, Chairman Waxman requested that that no proposals be finalized that would increase pollution in parks, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas or other clean air areas.
Today, Chairman Waxman and Chairman Oberstar requested documents and information relating to EPA’s enforcement of the Clean Water Act. An internal EPA document obtained by the Chairmen show that EPA’s enforcement actions across the country have severely suffered as a result of a Supreme Court case and guidance issued by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
President Bush has asserted executive privilege over thousands of pages of documents that would show whether the President and his staff complied with the Clean Air Act in overruling EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on important environmental decisions.
Today, Chairman Waxman urged EPA Administrator Johnson and White House official Dudley to produce subpoenaed documents in light of tomorrow’s scheduled vote to hold them in contempt.
A Committee hearing into uranium contamination on the Navajo Reservation prompted the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies to begin assessing the extent of contamination and to prepare clean up plans.
In response to a request by Chairman Waxman and Ranking Member Davis, five federal agencies jointly submitted to the Committee a five-year action plan to begin cleaning up the widespread uranium contamination in the Navajo Nation.
In letters to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson and White House official Susan Dudley, Chairman Waxman announces that the Committee will consider holding them in contempt for their repeated refusal to provide subpoenaed documents to the Committee. The subpoenaed documents involve the White House role in EPA’s ozone standards and rejection of California’s motor vehicle emission standards.
Chairman Waxman wrote to EPA Administrator Johnson to request information regarding the effects of a proposed rule to weaken the “new source review” requirements governing power plants, which would allow older power plants to increase their emissions of air pollutants and exacerbate global warming.
The Committee held holding a hearing titled, “EPA’s New Ozone Standards” at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20, 2008, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.
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