Cruising the Willamette River on a perfectly sunny summer afternoon, it was tempting to forget that we were in the middle of a Superfund site.
But as one of our tour guides reminded me, “It’s what you can’t see that will hurt you.”
Cruising the Willamette River on a perfectly sunny summer afternoon, it was tempting to forget that we were in the middle of a Superfund site.
But as one of our tour guides reminded me, “It’s what you can’t see that will hurt you.”
So far, most of the questions about bisphenol-A have focused on its possible impacts on human heath – particularly unborn and very young children.
But Tuesday’s announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency opens a whole new front. The agency says it will study BPA’s impact on the environment.
An interesting story is playing out in Northwest Portland, where Oregon DEQ has seriously backpedaled on a statement it made about air toxins from the ESCO foundry.
According to the NW Examiner, DEQ told residents almost a year ago that air pollution from the foundry was “only a sliver of the area’s air pollution.” But now DEQ is saying that it’s much higher, and for people who live close to ESCO, 95% of the toxins they breathe come from the foundry.
Oregon’s Senator Merkley and Rep. Blumenauer are introducing legislation to reduce pollution in the Columbia River.
At a cost of about $40 million a year, the bill creates a team at the EPA office in Portland that will work with states, tribes, local governments and other federal agencies across the Columbia River Basin.
It gets a hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday morning – about 6:30am our time. Merkley is a member of the committee.
Once again, Chris Lehman of OPB and the Northwest News Network is on top of this one.
Lehman reports on his Capitol Currents blog that the latest revival of a BPA ban died today in House Rules Committee. He says the committee chair didn’t bother bringing up HB 3703 for a vote today, so the bill missed a deadline to get out of committee.
The first attempt to protect Oregon’s children from bisphenol A made it as far as a vote on the Senate floor last week. But the tally came in at 15-15, and in the legislature, a tie counts as a defeat.
That mysterious HB 3703 comes up before the House Rules Committee again this afternoon.
This is the latest version of the bisphenol A ban, the one the Senate voted down earlier this week. But rather than accepting defeat, supporters found a new home for it before the Rules Committee. It’s been sitting on the agenda for three days now. It’s scheduled for a work session today at 3pm in Hearing Room C, which means they could be taking a vote.
But before that, the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee takes another look at a bill designed to update Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credits. At 1pm in Hearing Room A, the committee considers HB 3680, the BETC rewrite. The bill slowly phases out tax credits for large wind farms, and puts a cap on how much credits can be handed out for all renewable energy projects.
While BETC has been given credit for creating a renewable energy boom in Oregon, as well as hundreds of new jobs, the costs have spiraled out of control over the past couple of years.
A reborn version of the bisphenol A ban comes up this afternoon in the House Rules committee. HB 3703 bans the use of BPA lined bottles and cans if the food or drinks they contain are meant for children under the age of three. It’s a slightly different version of the BPA ban that was voted down by the Senate Tuesday. The hearing begins at 3:30pm in Hearing Room F.
The Senate Finance and Revenue Committee begins what could be two days of hearings on HB 3680, an update of Oregon’s famed Business Energy Tax Credit. BETC provides tax breaks for companies developing renewable energy project. But the costs of the program have grown faster than anyone anticipated. This new bill caps overall BETC spending, phases out credits for large wind farms, and closes some loopholes. This hearing begins at 1pm in Hearing Room A.
OPB’s capitol correspondent is on to something. In his Capitol Currents blog, Chris Lehman notes a ban on bisphenol A (BPA) may have found a new life in the House Rules Committee.
The Rules Committee has scheduled a hearing Wednesday afternoon on HB 3703, which among other things, contains language banning BPA.
The BPA issue appeared dead for the season Tuesday morning when the Senate voted down SB 1032.
Three Democrats and all the Republican members of the Oregon Senate combined forces today to block a bill designed to protect young children from exposure to bisphenol A (BPA).
The vote on SB 1032 was 15-15.
The bill was one of the top goals of the special session for the environmental movement in Oregon. We are waiting for a statement from the Oregon Environmental Council, which worked hard in favor of the bill.
The Senate is expected to vote today on SB 1032, the BPA ban. The bill prohibits the manufacture and sale of baby plastic bottles and cups that contain bisphenol A.
But just before the Senate opens for business, OPB’s Think Out Loud program features a discussion about BPA, the new concerns about its health impacts on young children, and if regulating the chemical should be up to the states, or to the federal government. The program begins at 9am and features speakers from the Oregon Environment Council, Northwest Grocery Association, the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families Coalition, and Eden Foods.
