EPA Relied on Industry for Plywood Plant Pollution Rule

[papau]

I like the comment by Eric Schaeffer, a longtime EPA enforcement official who resigned in protest in 2002 and now heads the Environmental Integrity Project, a watchdog group: "EPA decisions now have a consistent pattern: disregard for inconvenient facts, a tilt toward industry, and a penchant for secrecy." Not that Bush the EPA career attorney's memo that exemption ran counter to the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, or the confidential March 2003 memo from a lawyer in the general counsel's office that highlighted its legal vulnerability, proves him correct - but it sure seems to!

:-)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-plywood21may21.story

EPA Relied on Industry for Plywood Plant Pollution Rule
By Alan C. Miller and Tom Hamburger Times Staff Writers May 21, 2004

WASHINGTON — Pushing aside new scientific studies of possible health risks, the Environmental Protection Agency approved an air pollution regulation this year that could save the wood products industry hundreds of millions of dollars.

In doing so, the agency relied on a risk assessment generated by a chemical industry-funded think tank, and a novel legal approach recommended by a timber industry lawyer(at Latham & Watkins). The regulation was ushered through the agency by senior officials with previous ties to the timber and chemical industries. <snip>

"This rulemaking veers radically from standard scientific and regulatory practices," said David Michaels, an epidemiologist who was assistant Energy secretary for environment, safety and health in the Clinton administration. Others say it may violate the Clean Air Act.

The regulation addresses emissions of formaldehyde, a chemical used by plywood manufacturers and other industries. Exposure to formaldehyde may cause cancer and lead to nausea and eye, throat and skin irritation. At the time the regulation was being drafted, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health disclosed new studies showing that exposure to formaldehyde might also cause leukemia in humans.

The EPA rule, signed in February, did not mention the possible link to leukemia. Instead, it adopted a standard for exposure based on a cancer risk model developed by the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology. That assessment is about 10,000 times less stringent than the level previously used by the EPA in setting general standards for formaldehyde exposure.<snip>

The rule initially exempts eight wood products plants from controls on formaldehyde and other emissions. Ultimately, 147 or more of the 223 facilities nationwide could avoid the pollution-control requirements. The exemptions will save the industry as much as $66 million annually for about 10 years in potential emission control costs.<snip>