Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
Unleashing Corporate Spies
By Tom Conway, United Steelworkers Google’s computers are spying on its workers. Anytime a Google employee uses an online calendar to schedule a meeting involving more than 100 co-workers, management gets an alert—a great way for the anti-union corporation to sniff out union organizing efforts. Lots of other employers also would like to put union organizing campaigns under surveillance. […]
Missing the Point (Source): A Pollution Case in Hawai’i Threatens to Upend the Clean Water Act Nationwide
By American Rivers Today the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of County of Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, a case that could fundamentally change how the Clean Water Act (CWA) has been implemented for decades. At issue is whether the CWA has jurisdiction over pollution that discharges from a point source and takes an […]
Big Tech Wants a Privacy Law Rigged in Their Favor. Here’s How We’ll Know If It’s a Scam.
By Emily Peterson-Cassin and David Rosen, Public Citizen New digital privacy legislation is expected to be introduced in Congress in the next few weeks, and there’s every chance the legislation will be the result of a con job. With California’s digital privacy law taking effect in January 2020, federal lawmakers in both parties are under […]
The Part of Capitalism CEOs Hate
By Bartlett Naylor and Rachel Curley, Public Citizen There’s an iconic New Yorker cartoon that pictures a CEO at his annual shareholder meeting, and he’s listening to an apparently unhappy, bepearled, matronly investor. At the dais, one senior executive mutters to another: “This the part of capitalism I hate.” If Chair Jay Clayton and his […]
Civil Servants Are Becoming More Visible Heroes, and the Public is Noticing
By Andrew Rosenberg, Union of Concerned Scientists It’s tough reading or listening to the news these days, from impeachment to racial attacks to sidelining science. But what is that? I think I see one! A ray of hope in all of the storm clouds: a growing appreciation for the role of civil servants in our country. […]
Feeling the Heat on Climate Policy from Members and the Public, Chamber Announces Climate Task Force
By Craig Sandler, Public Citizen A decade ago, Apple Inc. and three large power utility companies famously ended their membership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its policy of obstructing any and all meaningful climate action. This may have stung for the Chamber, but not enough to move the dial: Under President and CEO Tom Donohue, […]
9 Justices, 30 Minutes: Our Lawyer’s Big Moment at the Supreme Court
By Jessica A. Knoblauch, Earthjustice One out of thousands. That’s the chance of having your legal case picked to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The odds are so long you’re more likely to be struck by lightning. Oddly enough, Earthjustice attorney David Henkin has experienced both phenomena. The latter occurred in 1988. The former is playing out now. […]
Trump’s SEC Chairman Proposes to Disenfranchise Investors and Reduce Shareholder Democracy
By Brandon Rees, AFL-CIO In a partisan 3-2 vote, the Trump administration’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed to curtail the rights of investors to file proposals for a vote at company annual meetings. If adopted, these changes will hinder shareholder proposals by union members and their pension plans to hold corporate management accountable. “We strongly oppose […]
A Light in Dark Places: NRDC Sues to Defend Efficient Bulbs
By Joe Vukovich, Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC and our allies are suing the Department of Energy (DOE) to stop a harmful and unlawful attack on light bulb efficiency standards for many of the most commonly used bulbs in America. On September 5th, DOE finalized the creation of loopholes in the standards for many of the most […]
Silenced No More, A Champion of Transparency Speaks Out
By Rachel Curley, Public Citizen “We should consider giving investors much more transparency into how public companies spend their money on politics,” declared Robert Jackson of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in front of the House Financial Services in September. This was the first time in four years a sitting Commissioner raised this issue in front […]
Pipeline Spill Cleanup Plans Deserve a Hard Look
By Ann Alexander, Natural Resources Defense Council If you had to pick the worst possible environmental disaster that could befall the Great Lakes, a major oil pipeline spill would have to be near the top of the list. And if a spill does happen to our inland waters, it’s absolutely critical that we get the cleanup response right. Without complete […]
Trump Is Stuck in Reverse on Clean Cars
By Luke Tonchel, Natural Resources Defense Council No big change in Trump-ville when it comes to increasing pollution and making us all pay more for gas at the pump. Recent reports of some tweaks to Trump’s rollback of clean car standards show that this administration is still on the road to nowhere. Last year, the […]
“Resiliency” Revealed: It’s a Ploy to Bailout the Coal Industry
By Mary Anne Hitt, Sierra Club For years the coal industry has been claiming, without evidence, that the large-scale retirement of coal plants would leave us freezing in the dark, putting the electricity grid at risk. Coal executives and coal-based utilities have repeatedly used this “resiliency” argument to push energy officials to bail out uneconomic coal […]
Banking Regulators Should Not Give Wall Street’s Five Biggest Banks a $40 Billion Deregulatory Gift for Their Dangerous Derivatives Trading
By Better Markets The five US banking regulators have proposed to eliminate initial margin requirements on interaffiliate derivatives. This is a deregulatory gift worth more than $40 billion to Wall Street’s five largest banks who have been lobbying for this because they are also the five largest derivatives dealers, handling about 90% of all U.S. derivatives transactions. The […]
On Tap: Seth Siegel’s Masterful Examination of America’s Drinking Water Crisis
By Ken Cook, Environmental Working Group Top officials at the Environmental Protection Agency had a bold idea: Require water companies to run the nation’s most polluted tap water through the treatment plant equivalent of a Brita water pitcher. It was 1975. A few years earlier, an upstart public interest outfit called Environmental Defense Fund, fresh […]
Investors and Retirees Deserve Better Than Conflicted Public Officials Delivering Wins for Private Sector Clients
By Better Markets This is a perfect illustration of why people look at Washington as a rigged system greased by the revolving door and cash that benefit Wall Street’s biggest banks and insiders and hurt hardworking Main Street Americans. Eugene Scalia, on behalf of his financial industry clients, worked overtime to weaken, gut or kill […]
As Administration Considers New Plan to Severely Weaken Vehicle Pollution Rules, Several Automakers Align With Plan to Undermine Clean Air Act
By Consumer Reports This week, several major automakers revealed where they really stand when it comes to protecting consumers. General Motors, Toyota, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, among other automakers who are members of Global Automakers (with the notable exception of Honda), formally aligned themselves with the effort to undo parts of the 1970 Clean Air Act that […]
Better Markets Supports the SEC Fight for Investors Over the Industry for the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT)
By Better Markets The Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) promises to be a revolutionary game-changer for the SEC in detecting, deterring, and punishing market manipulation and predatory behavior. Done right, its importance for investor protection, market stability and capital formation cannot be overstated. It will, finally, move the SEC’s grossly inadequate and outdated market surveillance and enforcement […]
EPA Contradicts Its Own Statements on FOIA Rule
By Sean Moulton, Project on Government Oversight The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a new final rule in late June updating its regulations implementing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The agency had issued no prior notice that it was working on the rule; nor did it give the public any opportunity to weigh in on proposed […]
Chemical Hazards Make Every Day at Work a Fright Fest
By Katie Tracy, Center for Progressive Reform On Halloween, nothing seems spookier than a chance encounter with a ghost or goblin, except maybe a zombie. But there is something much more haunting that happens every day. Across the United States, an average of 137 people die daily from occupational diseases caused by on-the-job exposures to toxic chemicals […]