Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; CP staff
A Pennsylvania coal mine was the backdrop for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s announcement of an agency agenda true to Trump administration objectives. “Back-to-Basics means returning EPA to its core mission: protecting the environment by engaging with state, local, and tribal partners to create sensible regulations that enhance economic growth,” he affirmed.
Read MoreEnvironmental Protection Agency aggression fostered an unlikely contingent seeking federal court relief: The American Iron & Steel Institute and American Wood Council joined Portland Cement Association, Brick Industry Association, National Lime Association and 13 other business or industry groups late last month in a National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) legal effort to stop implementation of the Clean Power Plan. Through it, the EPA seeks sharp reductions in carbon dioxide emissions—32 percent by 2030 against 2005 level baseline—from utilities and energy-intensive operations.
Read MoreSources: National Association of Manufacturers, Washington, D.C.; CP staff
Portland Cement Association and peer groups representing enclosure and structure types that compete head to head with concrete methods have joined a National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) legal effort to stop implementation of the Clean Power Plan, through which the Environmental Protection Agency seeks sharp reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from utilities and energy-intensive industries.
Read MoreThe Environmental Protection Agency will be remembered as a favored tool for President Obama to wield his brand of executive authority, most recently demonstrated in sweeping Clean Power Plan (note page 8) and Waters of the U.S. proposals sure to cost consumers and business what critics estimate will be tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. Right behind the EPA will be the National Labor Relations Board, which has indulged a union-friendly White House through such measures as a rule mandating workplace display of posters detailing employees’ rights to representation; adoption of representation case procedures enabling “ambush” elections; and, reinterpretation of long-held standards for what constitutes a bargaining unit.
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