Critics call EPA's new rule a loophole for big business

A new reporting rule, aimed to ease the burden on small firms, may instead help Ashland and other giant companies.

By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

In a bid to trim the regulatory burden on small businesses, the Environmental Protection Agency is set to relax the rules on what toxic chemicals they have to report.

But in a twist, the EPA's newly revised Toxics Release Inventory rule will also make it possible for hundreds of large corporations to avoid reporting specific amounts of toxic chemicals they release into the air, land, or water, environmentalists warn.