Energy/Environment

Republicans decried new smog standards under consideration, calling them most expensive regulations ever.

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) on Wednesday urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to release data it uses to design air pollution regulations, a move that underscores the standstill on confirming a new EPA administrator.

The GOP has threatened to block the confirmation of Gina McCarthy, who is now the EPA’s air quality chief, until it receives more information about the process behind the regulator’s rules. 

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, presents a puzzling scenario for environmentalists who want to curb carbon dioxide emissions, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) President Frances Beinecke said Tuesday.

Beinecke said natural gas played a significant role in dropping United States greenhouse gas emissions to mid-1990s levels last year, as electric utilities burned more natural gas than coal.

Fracking made that switch possible by driving up natural gas production, causing prices to plummet relative to coal. The drilling technology has led to a U.S. energy boom, but it brings fears of groundwater pollution.

“Fracking is about the most complicated thing I’ve encountered,” Beinecke told attendees at an annual Rhode Island energy and environment conference hosted by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) at the Capitol.

Federal wildlife managers are pushing to declare that all chimpanzees are endangered species, an action that would likely significantly reduce their use for entertainment purposes, as pets and in research.

On Tuesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it was proposing to consider all chimpanzees, including those in captivity, to be endangered.

If the proposal is finalized, organizations would need permits before using chimpanzees in any way that could harm them. The agency says it will only grant a permit for scientific reasons or to help chimps' conservation.

The developer for a proposed Alaska mine is meeting with lawmakers and White House officials this week to push for approval of the project.

The Pebble Mine, slated for a watershed for southwestern Alaska’s Bristol Bay, has been generating more Capitol Hill buzz in recent weeks. And Pebble Partnership CEO John Shively is looking to build on that as he heads to congressional and administration offices Tuesday through Friday.

“The decibel level is rising,” Peter Robertson, senior vice president for corporate affairs with the Pebble Partnership, told The Hill. “It’s gaining more attention all the time — and appropriately so because of the momentous decision EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] might make in a relatively short time frame.”

The Interior Department on Friday proposed removing the gray wolf from the endangered species list.

Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) suggested lifting the more than 30-year-old protections because the species had made a “successful recovery.” It noted the species, which numbers at around 6,100 in the contiguous United States, exceeded population targets by as much as 300 percent.

“From the moment a species requires the protection of the Endangered Species Act, our goal is to work with our partners to address the threats it faces and ensure its recovery,” FWS Director Dan Ashe said in a statement. “An exhaustive review of the latest scientific and taxonomic information shows that we have accomplished that goal with the gray wolf.”

Animal advocates are praising new guidelines for pesticide testing that they say should result in fewer animals killed in laboratories.

In the last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released five new policies and guidelines in support of a strategy to use new technologies to test chemicals.

The agency is pushing for computer-aided testing methods that take advantage of new technologies to measure how pesticides can affect human health and the environment. The new methods, the EPA asserts, will allow regulators to test more chemicals in a shorter time frame.

Owners of a troubled Southern California nuclear site are blaming uncertainty from regulators for their decision to permanently retire the plant.

The Friday shuttering of the San Onofre nuclear station, out of commission since January 2012 because of a leak found inside a steam generator, brings an end to a battle over nuclear safety that has roiled regulators and legislators for over a year.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced another delay in finalizing new regulations of hydraulic fracturing, but said there have been few industry objections to the rule, The Hill reports.

The American Petroleum Institute (API), which had pressed for an extension, said the decision to give the public more time to comment was warranted.

“An additional layer of regulation must be carefully scrutinized and the last thing we need are rules that create confusion in the regulatory process,” Erik Milito, API’s director of upstream and industry operations.

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel voted Thursday for eased safety restrictions on the diabetes pill Avandia, according to The Associated Press.

Europe is wrestling with new online privacy regulations, The New York Times reports.

A bank in Nevada has become the 15th closed this year by regulators, according to the AP. 

Republican lawmakers are piling on demands that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) addresses accusations that it discriminated against conservative groups in the fees it charges for retrieving public records.

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, and 34 other House Republicans sent a letter to acting EPA Administrator Bob Perciasepe on Thursday regarding the agency's policy for granting waivers from charges incurred by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

They write that they are "extremely concerned" that the EPA has shown a bias against conservative organizations in deciding whether or not to waive fees for FOIA requests.