The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has asked the Environmental Protection Agency to suspend plans to place Bisphenol A (BPA) on a list of substances that may harm the environment, the Detroit Free Press reports. The EPA said last year that it would study the effects of BPA and consider putting it on a “concern list”.
President Obama has nominated Rebecca Wodder, the long-time CEO of conservation group American Rivers, to replace Tom Strickland as assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. The selection could be opposed by some in the Senate because of American Rivers’ positions on hydroelectric power and river restoration, the New York Times says. A few weeks ago Obama nominated Natural Resources Defense Council co-founder and former Edison International CEO John Bryson for the post of commerce secretary, drawing ire from some Republicans.
The New Hampshire Senate on Wednesday sent governor John Lynch a bill that would withdraw the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The governor has said he will veto the bill, and the Senate does not have the votes to override his veto, the New Hampshire Union Leader said. Last month New Jersey governor Chris Christie announced he was pulling the state from RGGI, which is the only mandatory cap-and-trade system in the U.S.
Canada on Wednesday joined Japan and Russia in saying that it would not support proposals to extend the Kyoto Protocol past 2012, Reuters reports. Developing countries and emerging economies want to extend the protocol, creating a deadlock at the U.N.’s climate talks in Bonn. The talks run until June 17.
Developing countries are likely to contribute over 60 percent of the emissions cuts that will be achieved by 2020, according to a study conducted for Oxfam, reported in Sustainable Business.
Pfizer Inc. said on Wednesday that it will pull from the market a chicken feed that contains arsenic, ABC News reports. The Food and Drug Administration said that some chicken meat may contain small amounts of arsenic because of the feed, though it stressed that the amount is not enough to be dangerous to consumers. If Pfizer had not pulled the product, the FDA could have chosen to ban the feed, since it contains a known carcinogen.
EU member states will soon be allowed to charge trucking companies for air and noise pollution costs, after the European Parliament approved a directive to ensure that revenue from these charges is used to improve transportation systems and cut pollution, Environment News Service reports.
