The Governor's Holiday Gift to the Chemical Industry - a gutted Green Chemistry Initiative in California.

In 2008, in the absence of federal action to rein in exposure to toxic chemicals in our every day products, the California legislature, with Governor Schwartzenegger’s support, initiated a process for identifying harmful chemicals and safer alternatives in consumer products. This process was called the Green Chemistry Initiative and the implementation has been done by a state agency called the Department of Toxic Substances and Control (DTSC). Over the past 2 years, more than thirty environmental and environmental justice groups, health organizations, labor advocates, community based groups, parent organizations, and others have been faithfully participating in a stakeholder process which promised to look upstream to create a system that would be able to act quickly to get toxic chemicals out of products and prevent toxic chemicals from becoming the replacements. As an example of what this regulation promised, is to remove BPA from baby bottles and infant formula and ensure that the replacements were safe.

While the previous draft regulations that resulted from this process were not perfect, they were a step in the right direction.

Then in a classic bait and switch, on November 16, 2010, only two weeks after the last public comment period closed, DTSC put out a fundamentally restructured and drastically revised set of draft regulations, without even notifying their own scientific advisory group. DTSC has gutted previous drafts and betrayed by the public trust by issuing a new set of regulations which are unenforceable and fail to remove known toxic hazards. They gave the public just 15 days (over the Thanksgiving holiday) to comment on a set of regulations which are a giant step backwards and make a mockery of the public participation process. These new draft regulations would be worse than nothing because they give the impression of having a comprehensive chemical program, when in fact they would be very ineffective and unenforceable.

This is a last minute dirty trick by a lame duck administration to try to sneak through a big giveaway to the chemical industry.

Today, Californian’s across the state are taking a stand by holding a press conference in Sacramento. You can learn more about the opposition to these new regulations by visiting the Californian’s for a Healthy and Green Economy website and by taking action to let the Governor and DTSC know that this last minute sneaky attempt to derail a public process will not be tolerated.

CHANGE says it best, “Californians deserve a chemical policy framework that protects them by removing the most pervasive and hazardous chemicals from the market, promoting the use of safer alternatives, and protecting the health of workers and those most at risk. We need legitimate regulations that account for the concerns of all Californians – not just those of the makers of harmful chemicals.”

I agree.