Go Lautenberg!

From EEI:

EPA Tells Senators It Will Retain Annual Reporting Rule for Toxics

EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson informed Sens. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., that his agency will retain an annual reporting requirement for its Toxics Release Inventory rather than adopt a biannual requirement, the Washington Post reported.

In his letter, Johnson did not indicate whether EPA also plans to cancel its proposal to increase the inventory's reporting threshold for some toxins from 500 pounds to 5,000 pounds. Lautenberg called the letter "welcome news," and the two senators withdrew their hold on the consideration of the nomination of Molly O'Neill to head EPA's Office of Environmental Information.

Lautenberg said he will join Menendez next week in introducing a bill to block EPA's remaining proposed changes to the inventory, Congressional Quarterly Today reported. EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Wood said a final rule on the program should be released by 2007 and that the agency seeks to make "a good program better."

Lautenberg warned: "Democrats will now control the EPA's budget and will run the committees that oversee the agency's activities. EPA will be held accountable for every abuse and misreading of the law it engages in."
Washington Post , Congressional Quarterly Today , Nov. 30.

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This is long, long overdue. Under the Bush junta, EPA has become an enabler of polluters, rather than the watchdog and clean-up agency that it was supposed to be. There are likely now so many corporate plants and lobbyists working at EPA, that it will take years to root them out and revise the agency's culture. Lautenberg has his work cut out for him.