JANUARY 7, 2008
wastenews.com
AT DEADLINE
And now, the weather ...
Calif.
Ex-WM exec fined for
securities violations
sues

A former Waste Management Inc. chief financial officer has been permanently barred from acting as an officer or director of a public company and must pay $4 million for securities laws violations in the 1990s, the U.S. Securities and Exchange

See At Deadline, Page 21

EPA
Agency’s tailpipe
ruling illegal,
state contends

IN THIS ISSUE

By Bruce Geiselman

SOLID WASTE

Waste Industries
founder Lonnie C.
Poole Jr. and CEO Jim
W. Perry are being
sued over their at-
tempt to privatize the
company. Page 4

Waste Management CEO David Steiner says increased dividends and buybacks will return cash to shareholders. Page 6

HAZARDOUS WASTE

The EPA is considering a change to farm waste laws that would put less emphasis on hazardous waste created by animals. Page 15

AIR

Which way will the wind blow in ’08? Our annual forecast section begins on Page 12.

California and several environmental groups have filed lawsuits against the U.S. EPA for “wrongfully and illegally” blocking the state’s tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions standards.

California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown

Jr. filed the state’s lawsuit Jan. 2 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the

Ninth District.

California wanted to implement standards for new _Johnsoncars sold in the state that would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2016. However, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson in a letter last month rejected the state’s plan, writing that

See Calif., Page 20

A British study points to improving traffic flow as a large consideration in improving fuel efficiency. Page 7

Report: Toxics rule would imperil public

WATER

Increasing drought conditions are spurring new innovations, like the creation of a water cooling unit that uses less water and energy. Page 16

By Elizabeth McGowan

WASHINGTON — Federal auditors have confirmed what some senators and representatives long suspected — a White House-backed watering down of the country’s flagship pollutant database would benefit business and endanger the public’s right to know.

The investigative arm of Congress found that Bush administration officials forced the Environmental Protection Agency to reform reporting requirements for what is known as the Toxics Release Inventory.

Some 3,500 facilities would no longer be re-

quired to provide detailed reports about toxic industrial emissions and waste management practices, Government Accountability Office investigators wrote in their December report. That means 22,000 fewer reports, a 25 percent reduction, would be issued annually.

Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., called for the GAO probe after EPA officials weakened reporting requirements in late 2006. Public outcry led to a tightening up of the initial set of reporting changes first

See Toxics, Page 21

CREDIT

TOUGH CRITIC: Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., charges that the Bush administration is “letting facilities hide critical data about toxic chemicals.”