Courtesy of Kelley Campaigns
DCL
Protesters gathered at a Brookings Institution event on Wednesday, "The Power of Open Government," where Cass Sunstein of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) was asked what the holdup to regulating coal ash disposal is all about.
One of the protesters told me that, while Sunstein could not talk specifically about the coal rule because it is currently under review, he did say that the question suggests the limits of openness.
The protest is part of a new campaign to expose Sunstein as the reason the EPA's proposal to regulate coal ash as hazardous waste has not become law. It hit a dead end in his office, where Grist reports his staff has met with coal industry executives, lobbyists, and state highway administrators who want to use coal ash in road construction.
The hazardous waste label has been a source of contention since the 1980s, when the EPA was instructed to rule on the issue but procrastinated for two decades, and then shelved the issue completely under Bush. Yet, Grist continues, there is "rock solid evidence that when coal ash waste is collected in unlined pits in the ground, it is extraordinarily dangerous to people, livestock, and wildlife, not to mention water quality."
Stay tuned for news on the EPA proposal and the Sunstein campaign, while we all wait for the next indicator of how protective of the environment the EPA under Obama can be.
