Environmental Law

Environmental Protection Agency Reviewing Petition to Ban Lead Bullets | The Weekly Standard

By STEPHEN HOLZER

Will Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson make a back door move to ban lead bullets the day before the November 2 elections? 

Several environmentalist groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) are petitioning the EPA to ban lead bullets and shot (as well as lead sinkers for fishing) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Although EPA is barred by statute from controlling ammunition, CBD is seeking to work farther back along the manufacturing chain and have EPA ban the use of lead in bullets and shot because non-lead alternatives are available. But here's the catch: the alternatives to lead bullets are more expensive. A ban on the sale of lead ammunition would force hunters and sport shooters to buy non-lead ammunition that is often double the cost of traditional lead ammunition.  A box of deer hunting bullets in a popular caliber could be upwards of $55.

via weeklystandard.com

Full post as published by Environmental Legal Blogs on August 27, 2010 (boomark / email).