EPA Would Ease Pollution Reporting Rules

EPA Would Ease Pollution Reporting Rules
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, December 14, 2005
(12-14) 00:44 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

If the Bush administration has its way, some factories won't have to report all the pollution spewed from their smokestacks, making it harder for government scientists to calculate the health risks of the air Americans breathe.

The Environmental Protection Agency, responding to an AP analysis that found broad inequities in the racial and economic status of those who breathe the nation's most unhealthy air, says total annual emissions of 188 regulated air toxins have declined 36 percent in the past 15 years.

But the EPA wants to ease some of the Clean Air Act regulations that have contributed to those results and proposes to exempt some companies from having to tell the government about what it considers to be small releases of toxic pollutants. The EPA also plans to ask Congress for permission to require the accounting every other year instead of annually.

The agency said in September it wants to reduce its "regulatory burden" on companies by allowing some to use a "short form" when they report their pollution to the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/12/14/national/w003653S90.DTL

the people at large. SICK! Disgusting! Evil!

"The inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Next time a repub talks about "regulatory restrictions", show them this quote. Part of "life" is the quality of the air that we breathe, the water we drink, and the land that we live upon, and draw sustinence from. Hypocrites.

K&R