After the Bush administration’s long fight to deter regulation of perchlorate, a toxic fuel ingredient found in everyday tap water, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it will likely regulate and set a safe standard for the substance, which for years has been widely known to cause thyroid problems in young children and pregnant women. Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator, said today that “[c]lean water is critical to the health and prosperity of every American community and a fundamental concern to every American family,” and outlined the Obama administration’s new standards for the chemical (which could take up to two years to develop).

As a result of rocket fuel testing sites improperly disposing the fuel ingredient, significant levels of perchlorate have been found in more than four percent of public water systems, and an estimated 5 to 17 million people may be drinking water contaminated with the rocket fuel component right now.

Back in 2003, in the name of military “readiness,” the Bush administration asked Congress to shield the Pentagon and other defense contractors from an array of environmental laws, and specifically those pertaining to perchlorate, even though EPA’s assessment at the time was that the chemical could cause serious health risks at one part per billion. The Pentagon and several of its suppliers, which would have faced clean up costs in the billions of dollars, argued that concentrations of perchlorate are safe in drinking water up to 200 times what the EPA proposed.

Then, in 2008, the EPA released a proposal outlining the safe contamination levels of perchlorate, which was heavily edited by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). That same year, Melanie Marty, a representative of California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and chair of EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, said that the EPA’s recommended standard on perchlorate “is not supported by the underlying science and can result in exposures that pose neurodevelopmental risks in early life.”

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) characterized the EPA’s move as “wonderful news”:

‘After calling for this standard for over eight years, I was so pleased to hear Administrator [Lisa] Jackson’s wonderful news that we are finally going to protect our families from perchlorate,’ said Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer. ‘Exposure to perchlorate in drinking water is dangerous, especially for pregnant women, infants and children, because it can harm the body’s production of hormones necessary for mental and physical development.’

It’s important to note that a final decision on perchlorate’s regulation won’t be made until EPA’s public health assessment has been peer-reviewed and finalized, but based on current studies, Jackson said, “it is likely that we will tighten our drinking water standards for this chemical.”

– Paul Breer

Fox also hosts Joe Bastardi to push ‘utter nonsense’ on climate — but fails to question his unscientific claims about cooling.

In December, we learned that Fox News managing editor Bill Sammon required journalists and producers that report on even the most unequivocal scientific facts about global warming to dispute those facts  “IMMEDIATELY.”  This has now been carried to its illogical extreme.

Gawker reports that Fox News anti-science columnist Gene Koprowski is “seeking sources to to explain the ‘ridiculousness’ of the idea of global warming causing snow.”  Koprowski “posted this request to Profnet, the service that brings together desperate journalists and publicity-hungry sources” [italics added]:

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The Washington Post’s Andrew Freedman is an excellent reporter and a good person with whom to share a beer. In the past, he has understood that part of his role as a journalist is to help readers defend themselves from the anti-science propaganda campaign intended to defeat climate policy. However, in an execrable post today, he attacks leading climate scientist Dr. Kevin Trenberth for daring to use the word “deniers” to describe people who deny that humans are dangerously warming the planet. Seemingly arguing that “civility” is more important than whether people are telling the truth, Freedman lets pollution operative Marc Morano slander top climate scientists as “con men.” Professor Scott Mandia, a climate scientist who has organized the Climate Science Rapid Response Team to help journalists like Freedman do a better job, responded succinctly in the comments:

The world is round, smoking is strongly linked to lung cancer, and humans are causing the planet to warm. To insist otherwise is to be in denial. Trenberth is dealing with reality.

For the record, Watts along with McIntyre attempted to trash Dr. Keith Briffa’s reputation while Briffa was seriously ill in the hospital during the Yamal non-conspiracy.

Watts also claims that scientists are rigging the thermometer record to promote false warming.

Watts has no place to complain when he calls scientists frauds. By the way, Watts is not a “meteorologist.” He does not hold that degree. He is a weatherman.

Why would you give Marc Morano any space? Worse, you allowed him to segue from the Arizona shooting to calling scientists “con men”.

Andrew, this is just a bad piece and I think you will look back on this as one of your low moments.

Freedman seems to think that the path to “a more civil dialogue on climate science” lies in a “Reconciliation in the Climate Change Debate” conference, ignoring the fact that the conference is funded by the oil industry and populated by climate deniers like Steve McIntyre and Steve Goddard. In fact, a civil dialogue requires an acceptance of reality by all participants — instead of the toxic propaganda of the pollution-funded climate deniers.