This series aims to identify the cost of inaction and the promise of chemical regulatory reform.

The strikingly ineffective chemical regulatory framework of the status quo has no doubt given rise to some larger systemic issues. Most problematic are “the three gaps”: the chemical data gap, the safety gap and the technology gap.

In a sense, the TSCA was always a bit behind the game – it was constructed as an inherently reactive rather than proactive policy. The primary reason for this is obvious: tens of thousands of environmental chemicals had already been on the market, in their various forms, prior to it even entering its nascent stages. Largely as a result, members of Congress only found it feasible to establish some sort of general public oversight over the daunting number of chemicals in commerce.

In what was seemingly his former life, Florida Governor Charlie Crist instructively warned that “the conditions of weather and rising water levels will have the most profound impact on [his] state than any other.” Being a low-elevation peninsula, surrounded by both the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Gulf of Mexico to the west, sea level rise undoubtedly represents the state’s biggest threat.

Alarming as it may sound, when it comes to the vast majority of the over 81,000 chemicals we can encounter in our daily lives, not only do chemical manufacturers know almost nothing about their associated human and environmental hazards, but federal regulations require almost nothing in terms of pre-marketing test data, labeling, or even the full public disclosure of ingredients.

“The GOP rushed to brand the Gulf Coast disaster “Obama’s Katrina.” But new reports make clear the Bush administration’s lax attitude toward regulation deserves much of the blame.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-14/its-bushs-oil-spill/?cid=hp:mainpromo2

The Sensible Horizon is endorsing Roxanne Conlin (D-IA) in her U.S. Senate race against Chuck Grassley (R-IA)!!!
Below is a copy of a Letter to the Editor I just sent the Grinnell College newspaper, the Scarlett and Black. It elucidates this sensible and important choice:
Sometimes rare opportunities emerge, big and small, to catalyze a transformational change; [...]

Jeffrey Sachs aptly connects the dots in this recent piece, explaining how: “Climate skeptics are recycled critics of controls on tobacco and acid rain.”
On a side note: Sachs will be the commencement speaker at my graduation from Grinnell in May!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2010/feb/19/climate-change-sceptics-science

Depending on who you ask, the Democrat’s health care reform efforts fall somewhere on the political spectrum between “dead” for at least another generation and “at the two-yard line” of reaching a final deal. I tend to believe reality falls somewhere much closer to the later sentiment than the former. On January 30, for example, [...]

A recent letter written by Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) has prompted Politico to ask: “Can Judd Gregg help White House save health bill?”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32814_Page2.html