Author Archive

Sharon Lerner

Management

The U.S. banned farmers from using a brain-harming pesticide on food. Why has it slowed a global ban?

When officials from around the world gathered in Rome last fall to consider whether to move forward with a proposed global ban on chlorpyrifos, the pesticide had a surprising defender: a senior official from the EPA.

Oversight

The EPA Faces Questions About Its Approval of a Plastic-Based Fuel With an Astronomical Cancer Risk

A senator questioned the EPA chief and a group sued the agency after ProPublica and the Guardian revealed that the EPA gave a Chevron refinery approval to make a fuel that could leave people nearby with a 1-in-4 lifetime risk of cancer.

Oversight

Why the U.S. Is Losing the Fight to Ban Toxic Chemicals

From a powerful chemical industry that helped write the toxic substances law to an underfunded EPA lacking in resolve, the flaws in the American chemical regulatory apparatus run deep.