Government Roundup

Federal grant reforms designed to streamline oversight and reporting requirements have been proposed by the White House Office of Management & Budget. Among the changes are standardizing information collection across agencies and narrowing audit requirements for smaller grants. Comments on the reforms are due March 29.

REACH, the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & Restriction of Chemical substances law in the European Union, received an overall good review from the European Commission. The review recommended several modifications to improve implementation of REACH.

An energy plan that is heavily dependent on fossil fuels was released last week by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), top Republican on the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee. The plan’s goal is to make the U.S. independent of OPEC oil imports by 2020.

EPA has proposed 2013 production targets for cellulosic, biomass-based diesel, and advanced biofuels. The target for cellulosic ethanol of 14 million gal was criticized for being far beyond current production capacities.

A federal court threw out a lawsuit by the libertarian group American Tradition Institute that sought to shut down an EPA study on the human health effects of particulate air pollution. The institute claimed that volunteers were not properly warned about the risks of participating in the research study.