Bush Administration Document Evidencing 2007 "Endangerment Finding" Released

The Environmental Protection Agency released a 2007 report called the "endangerment finding" written by Bush administration officials that concluded that the government should begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions because global warming posed serious risks to the country.  The Bush administration refused to make the report public because it opposed new governmental efforts to regulate greenhouse gases.

The report was released pursuant to a FOIA request by the environmental trade publication Greenwire.   

Get more information here. 

EPA puts status of FOIA requests online

From the Society of Environmental Journalists:

You may still be waiting for EPA to fulfill your FOIA request, but you can at least check easily on the status of your request -- thanks to a new online status report.

The Web page, browsable here, may state the obvious, but it could also save you time on the phone. You have to know your Request Identification Number, since that's how the requests are listed.

The report lists the date the request was received, the date a response is due, and the status (pending, closed, etc.)

It does not identify the requester or the information requested -- so you can not browse the status of other people's requests.

Asbestos report released one week after lawsuit

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility sued the Environmental Protection Agency for not releasing a report on the asbestos cleanup in Libby, Montana, the AP reported. The EPA has since released the document.

The government has released a report identifying communication gaps and other problems in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's asbestos cleanup in Libby.

The EPA's Office of Inspector General released the document Tuesday, about a week after the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility sued, charging the government withheld the report improperly.

The suit sought a court order requiring the document be made public because attempts to obtain it under the federal Freedom of Information Act were fruitless.

More here.

Pollution violations fines totaled $55 million in 17 years

FOI at work!
In 17 years, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control handed out $55 million in fines among more than 6,000 violations, the AP reported. FOIA records made the analysis possible.

An analysis by a Charleston newspaper shows that South Carolina health and environmental regulators have imposed about $55 million in fines for pollution violations since 1991.

The Post and Courier reported Tuesday that it reviewed 17 years of records from the Department of Health and Environmental Control that included more than 6,000 violations.

The records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act shows the state issues about 350 civil citations a year for about $3 million in fines.

More here.

An Interesting Symposium Article on Access...

This is a nice summation of the current law of access as it applies to environmental issues, and a call for reform...

A glance at the piece reveals some nice arguments:

Where does this leave us? In my view, there is now a significant and growing dissonance between the promises made by our federal right-to-know laws and their performance. Part of the problem, of course, is entrenched resistance by government officials (of both political parties) to giving the public the ability to stand over their shoulders while they do their jobs. People do not want to do their work in a fishbowl. Legislation cannot change human nature. Nor can legislation safeguard access-to-information laws from subversion by administrations hostile to the ideal of openness. But there is much that legislation could do to recalibrate the way our right-toknow laws work in practice. In my view, it is time to overhaul our nation's right-to-know laws in three important ways:First, right-to-know laws should place an affirmative duty on the government to make environmental information available to the public.

The article is here.