Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Western Congress Reps. Call for EPA to Ban Web Links   Two conservative House Republicans have attacked EPA for offering links from its website to environmental groups, demanding they be removed. The two, Reps. Barbara Cubin (R-WY) and Jim Gibbons (R-NV), made no comparable demand for removal of links to businesses, trade associations, or conservative political groups. The two wrote EPA Jan. 20, 2004, demanding that EPA remove links to "two non-government, extremist, activist groups" from EPA's Web page on the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Both groups offer public online access to EPA databases on toxics and other pollution. Full story ... 11:07:27 AM

USDA Refuses to Allow Thorough Mad Cow Testing   Advocates of the right-not-to-know won a skirmish when USDA decided April 8, 2004, that it would not permit a Kentucky-based beef processing company, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, to test for mad cow disease in 100% of the cattle it slaughters.   Creekstone had proposed the testing Feb. 19, 2004, in order to sell its products to Japan, which had accounted for about 20% of its sales. Japan banned imports of U.S. beef following the discovery of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE) in Washington state Dec. 23, 2003. Japan now insists that it will not lift its ban on U.S. beef until the U.S. adopts 100% testing -- which has caused the U.S. to threaten a formal complaint of unfair trade practices. USDA says 100% testing isn’t necessary because testing far fewer cattle can catch the vast majority of diseased cattle, at less expense. Full story ...   9:45:59 AM