While news this week suggests that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is a walking ethics disaster, he’s long been paving the way for actual disasters—chemical disasters that is. A report released today, A Disaster in the Making, by community, environmental, health, workers, and scientist groups, illuminates how Pruitt’s unnecessary delay of the Chemical Disaster Rule continues to harm Americans. Read more >

Court To Decide Fate Of EPA’s Chemical Disaster Rule
February 20, 2018 1:29 PM EDT
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging a 20-month delay EPA Administrator Pruitt put on standards designed to prevent accidents at facilities that use or store hazardous chemicals. On March 16, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is scheduled to hold a public oral hearing on this case, which pits environmental justice communities, scientists, public health advocates, and others against the EPA – whose very mission is to protect public health.

New NOAA Report Shows 2017 Was the Costliest Year on Record for US Disasters
January 8, 2018 2:09 PM EDT
Today NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center released its yearly report on “billion-dollar weather and climate disasters” that affected the US in 2017. Not surprisingly, the numbers were staggering. Read more >

Abnormal and Catastrophic 2017 Hurricane Season Finally Over
December 1, 2017 1:22 PM EDT
The official end of the 2017 North Atlantic hurricane season, November 30th, has finally arrived. This year’s season was not normal. Read more >
Post-Harvey, the Arkema Disaster Reveals Chemical Safety Risks Were Preventable
October 25, 2017 11:15 AM EDT
Halloween is right around the corner, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been a perpetual nightmare to public safety since Administrator Scott Pruitt arrived, sending long-awaited chemical safety amendments to an early grave this year. The Risk Management Plan (RMP) is a vital EPA chemical safety rule that “requires certain facilities to develop plans that identify potential effects of a chemical accident, and take certain actions to prevent harm to the public or the environment”—but delays to the effective date of the long-awaited updates are putting communities, workers, and first responders directly in the way of harm, as we have witnessed from recent events following Hurricane Harvey. Read more >