In the news today: Twelve states have sued the U.S. EPA, after the agency rescinded a regulation requiring companies to provide a lengthy, detailed report whenever they store or emit 500 pounds of specific toxins - part of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) law signed by President Ronald Reagan. The new rule adopted this year requires that lengthy accounting only for companies storing or releasing 5,000 pounds of toxins or more. Companies storing or releasing 500 to 4,999 pounds of toxins would have to file an abbreviated form. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the EPA's action cripples a 20-year program that required companies to report the amount of lead, mercury and other toxins they released. "Polluters can release 10 times more toxins like lead and mercury without telling anyone," he said. The states suing the EPA are New York, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. |
