KRQE News 13 – Domenici asks EPA to lower arsenic standards
US Senator Pete Domenici has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider new standards for arsenic in water.
reviewjournal.com — News: Despite ruling, DOE says Yucca work will continue
Domenici said he is concerned the ruling could derail the growth of nuclear power as an energy source for U.S. consumers. He said most scientists believe it is unrealistic to model the repository’s performance for hundreds of thousands of years, longer than there has been civilization on the planet.
“I hate to make it sound ominous, but something terribly wrong has been done here and we must fix it,” he said of the court decision.
Domenici said he was contemplating legislation to overrule the court and allow the 10,000 year health standard to remain intact.
Environment News Service ENS Latest Environmental Information Education Current Issues RSS
Domenici Aims to Streamline Oil and Gas Permits
WASHINGTON, DC, March 3, 2003 (ENS) – Senate Energy and Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici plans to file an energy bill this spring that will streamline the federal rules and regulations that govern the permit process for oil and gas development on public lands.
EPA Blocked From Human Pesticide Studies – New York Times
The Senate voted to block the Environmental Protection Agency from using studies that intentionally expose people to pesticides when considering permits for pest killers.
By a 60-37 vote, the Senate approved a provision from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., that would block the EPA from relying on such testing — including 24 human pesticide experiments currently under review — as it approves or denies pesticide applications.
The Bush administration lifted a partial moratorium imposed in 1998 by the Clinton administration on using human testing for pesticide approvals. Under the change, political appointees are refereeing on a case-by-case basis any ethical disputes over human testing. …
Ordinarily, approval by both the House and Senate would ensure the language is retained in the final version of the bill. But GOP floor manager Conrad Burns, R-Mont., opposed Boxer’s amendment, and as the lead Senate negotiator on the bill he is well-positioned to kill it in future talks with the House.
Burns countered with an amendment, adopted 57-40, allowing human testing to continue but instructing the EPA to study if it’s being conducted ethically and whether the benefits outweigh the risks to volunteers. …
[One example is] a pesticide study in Florida. Over the study’s two years, EPA had planned to give $970 plus a camcorder and children’s clothes to each of the families of 60 children in Duval County, Fla., in what critics of the study noted was a low-income, minority neighborhood.
In a week’s time, Domenici works hard to lower arsenic standards, nuclear waste standards, public lands exploitation standards, and, was in the extreme minority voting FOR HUMAN TESTING of pesticides (hey, kid, here’s some clothes, now drink this DDT). When did Saint Pete become the devil himself? Right after the power shifted nauseatingly to the Radical Wrong. mjh
[Thanks, James!]