EPA Politics, Federal Courts and Chemical Safety

1. ENVIRONMENT

The Senate fails to pass Lisa
Murkowski’s resolution of disapproval against the EPA.

CEI Expert Available
to Comment: Senior Fellow Marlo
Lewis on why senators who focused on the oil spill during floor debate were
distracting
from the issue at hand.

“The vote on S.J.Res. 26 is not “about oil.” The
endangerment rule, which the Murkowski resolution would overturn, would
not create a single tool or authority that could have averted the BP oil spill.
It would not tighten a single petroleum industry safety standard or
improve a single emergency response program. It would not create a single
incentive that might have made BP more diligent in
implementing safety standards.”

2. LEGAL

The Senate Judiciary Committee approves
Obama’s nomination of Robert Chatigny to the federal bench despite Chatigny’s
questionable judgment on violent crime cases.

CEI Expert Available
to Comment: Senior Counsel Hans
Bader on why the Judiciary Committee made a mistake.

“The Judiciary Committee ignored objections from
victims-rights advocates like Edward Smart of the Surviving Parents Coalition,
who noted that Judge Chatigny had not just opposed the execution of ‘Roadside
Strangler’ Michael Ross, but also gone further, to question his very conviction,
based on silly reasons: ‘Judge Chatigny claimed Ross was incompetent to stand
trial based on the prison environment and Ross’s sexual sadism.’  This
sort of making excuses for dangerous criminals to overturn their convictions
(and potentially set them free) is extremely disturbing.”

3. HEALTH

Green activists are calling for bans on the use of bisphenol A
(or BPA), a chemical found in common plastics.

CEI Expert Available
to Comment: Warren Brooks Fellow Ryan
Young on why anti-BPA hysteria is unfounded.

“There is a problem with this bed-wetting level of hysteria;
there hasn’t exactly been a rash of death and disease attributable to BPA. In
fact, breast cancer rates have actually been declining by 2 percent per year since
1999. The FDA notes that ‘current levels of exposure to BPA through food
packaging do not pose an immediate health risk.’”