Back to the Drawing Board
Former President Clinton’s last minute “ergonomics rule” got the boot by a never-before-used law on the books since l996: the Congressional Review Act. Both the House and Senate, under terms of that law, voted to “disapprove” the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Ergonomics Regulatory Program.
President Bush called the OSHA rule an “unduly burdensome and overly broad regulation.” Bush’s Labor Secretary Elaine Chao pledged to come up with an “effective strategy” for dealing with workplace injuries due to repetitive motion.
Long Road Ahead
Another law passed in the waning days of the Clinton administration – that would cut down emissions from diesel engines – got a reprieve. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is going ahead with the schedule to require heavy-duty trucks and buses to cut pollution by a whopping 95 percent. In order to do this, EPA says that the sulfur content in diesel fuel must be cut by 97 percent.
Refiners and engine manufacturers get quite a bit of lead time to meet such stringent requirements. Manufacturers may phase in their engine changes between 2007 and 2010. The sulfur-reduced fuel standard kicks in June 2006, but refiners have until the end of 2009 to fully comply.
In a Holding Pattern
An EPA study that’s been more than l0 years in the making – the results of which were floated a year ago – appears destined for an indefinite hold. Reason: It links dioxin with an increase in cancer.
The American Meat Institute, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the chemical industry dispute the findings. Gary Weber, spokesman for the cattlemen’s association, said, “We are alarmed at any study that reaches conclusions not based on science.”
The beef industry is loath indeed to suffer any more adverse publicity what with foot-and-mouth disease, “mad cow” disease, and food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli making the news.
To wit, the first paragraph on the front page of The Washington Post story on the EPA dioxin study:
“The chemical, beef, and poultry industries are waging an intense campaign to delay further an Environmental Protection Agency study showing that consumption of animal fat and dairy products containing traces of dioxin can cause cancer in humans.”
One Hurdle Down
EPA’s proposal to re-write industry ELGs – Effluent Limitations Guidelines — probably won’t hit renderers that qualify as small businesses. The EPA defines “small” as any company with fewer than 500 employees. EPA is still processing data to decide whether or not to make large off-site rendering facilities adhere to ELGs.
This summer, EPA will be poring over survey results from selected rendering companies as well as analyzing test results from wastewater samples at nine different rendering sites. EPA will need to draft a proposal by September so that the Office of Management and Budget will have time to review it and then EPA can issue a formal proposed rule by December 15. That is a court-ordered date.
Conservation Out; Building In
The Bush administration has made it clear that building more power plants and generating more energy is its preferred modus operandi — not pushing conservation. “Conservation,” Vice President Cheney said, “may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis — all by itself — for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.”
Officials figure that over the next 20 years, 1,300 to 1,900 more plants need to be built. To help spur such expansion, the administration plans to push for a legislative mix of some executive action as well as private initiatives. This administration, noted Cheney, plans to hammer out a comprehensive energy plan — blaming current shortages and high prices on past “short-sighted” policies or no policies at all.
Note: Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions has tossed into the legislative hopper on Capitol Hill a bill that would help — for one time only — livestock producers and farmers burdened by high energy prices.
Calling All Cows
“Washington Calls On Its Cows To Ease Energy Crises,” was the tag line for a recent Reuters news service article — referring to the state of Washington, not the cowless town of Washington, DC.
According to Reuters, Washington state officials think that “clean-burning, environmentally friendly dung deposited by the state’s 246,000 cows could be just the ‘green’ fuel needed to fill the growing hydro-electric gap.” The Dairy Federation figures that dairy herds from just one Washington county could provide enough manure to generate electricity to light 8,000 homes.
Editor’s note: Just think how many American homes could light up from the manure generated in Washington, DC!
Briefly:
• In a recent Washington Post comic strip, “Frank and Ernest,” a guy sitting at the counter in “Al’s Hamburger Shack” is startled to see the sign, “Most of Our Beef USDA Approved.”
• Studies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Research Service warn that if you cut back on meat or dairy products — foods that are rich in vitamin A — that you’d better make sure that you eat plenty of beta-carotene-rich fruits and vegetables. The body can convert beta-carotene from spinach, for example, into vitamin A.
• Speaking of dark green veggies, Vice President Richard Cheney, who has had four heart attacks in just over 20 years and had a blocked artery cleared this spring, told the press: “I’m eating a lot of greens.” He added that he had given up steak, a favorite of his. “Unfortunately,” said Cheney, “no more big, juicy steaks.”
• And this from The Washington Post: “Hikers in the Austrian Alps will no longer have to worry about being hit by bits of flying cows. The province of Vorarlberg will ban the practice of blowing up dead cattle with explosives.” Seems that when a cow dies in that rugged landscape, either a helicopter must be rented to remove the body or farmers blow it up. Blowing it up is far cheaper but local officials, fearing that tourists won’t like the idea, have stopped the explosions.
• Italians in Tuscany, when faced with complying with the European ban on sales of beef on the bone, wore black as if in mourning for their famed Florentine steak. The European Union voted to ban bone-in beef as a precaution against transmitting “mad cow” disease.
• USDA wants comments on its draft of new scrapie eradication uniform methods and rules. Check it out online at www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/scrapie. Comments are due June 19.
June 2001 Render