Got Smog?

President Obama continues his efforts to cave to the Republicans and disappoint his supporters. The White House has overturned the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules on smog. Brad Plumer states in his blogpost that:

” Right now, most states are still operating under the old 1997 standards. The EPA had earlier directed states not to follow the (somewhat stricter) 2008 Bush standards, because it was working on even tighter rules. But now those tighter rules aren’t happening. As Bill Becker of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies told me, the EPA now has the option of directing states to follow the Bush-era rules, but that seems unlikely, given the White House’s preference to wait until the 2013 review. Which means states would keep operating under the old 1997 standards, which are more lax than even what the Bush administration had proposed. “We would have stricter protections right now if we had just followed the Bush-era rules back in 2008,” says Becker.”

Here‘s the White House official statement if you want to get riled up.

Upcycling

I had an Odwalla bar the other day and found out that if you collect the wrappers, you can raise money for a charity of your choice. You can send hard-to-recycle waste materials, like candy wrappers or chip bags to Terracycle, where they will be converted to new products. For each unit of waste, the company donates $0.02 to your favorite charity.

Sign up for their Brigades and start collecting!

PERC

In line with Dr. Oz‘s Toxic 10 challenge, New York and New Jersey residents can bring dry cleaning bags to the parking lot of the Chart House Restaurant in Weehawken, NJ tomorrow, 19 August between 11 AM and 1 PM. (The restaurant is located at 1500 Harbor Boulevard.)

Dry cleaning bags may contain toxins like PERC (perchloroethylene or tetrachloroethylene), a suspected carcinogen. Long-term exposure can cause neurological, liver, and kidney damage.