In the ongoing debate over coal ash, environmentalists fear that intense industry lobbying may prevent the EPA from adopting its preferred approach of declaring the material hazardous. Industry claims that a ruling that coal ash is “hazardous” would decimate industries that currently use the waste materials in construction materials.
In an InsideEPA.com report by Dawn Reeves, an industry source notes that “industry is a lot more happy than environmentalists are right about now.”
Activists are seeking a meeting with Cass Sunstein, head of the White House Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs, to highlight Sunstein’s support for the “precautionary principle” favoring regulation.
In the same report, one activist says the EPA’s preferred approach is being undermined by “unsubstantiated claims…by those who benefit from no regulations…They have a lot to gain by exaggerating.”
