e.p.a. we have an exclusive interview with gina mccarthy. >> woodruff: plus, the story of a los angeles program bringing parents back to the classroom to help them stay involved in their children's education. >> ( translated ): i want to learn more every day. i want to use what i learn to help my kids at home, be like an additional teacher at home. >> woodruff: those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by bnsf railway. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: the people wh

dominion told us-- and the e.p.a. confirms-- that e.p.a.esting shows no harm to residential wells nearby. >> i invite anybody from the companies who have put it over there to come to my house and have dinner, and i will use that tap water. >> stacy and her neighbors think it's too risky to drink the water, so after dominion refused to provide them with bottled water, they began trudging to a local church where the city pipes in guaranteed clean water. is that how you get your drinking water? >> yeah. we use it to brush our teeth and take baths. >> dominion declined to give us an interview, but most power companies rely on recycling because it cuts the 130 million tons of coal waste every year in half. the industry calls recycling "beneficial use." >> ugh! don't even---beneficial for who? the only people it was beneficial for were for those utility companies that had to get that stuff off their hands because they were already in violation with stockpiling too much. that is what "beneficial use" meant. >> but the e.p.a. and the bush administr

93% of the employees at the e.p.a. have been furloughed. now, what do they do? they make sure the air we breathe is safe, the water we drink is safe, the rivers we swim in are safe. they make sure that superfund sites are being cleaned up, those toxic brews in there, including things like benzene and arsenic and every other bad thing you can imagine. in my state, there's not one single e.p.a. inspector on the ground. i have established that. and that's the same in many othersment -- many others. 505 superfund sites were being cleaned up -- cleanup suspended. many children live near those sites. there are many schools near those sites. there are many homes near those sites. they are toxic waste dumps. no cleanup.

because e.p.a. does not have its people in the office to be able to review this application in a timely way. that's just an example, the environmental protection agency, critically important for public health, critically important for our environment but also for economic growth. i'll give you another example. the bureau of alcohol and tobacco tax. well, they're not at full complement here. now, we have microbreweries in maryland that are doing very well. every time they add a new product, they have on get approval from the alcohol and tobacco tax people. their new labels. that's on hold. their economic growth so hold. -- their economic growth is on hold. i could give you many more examples. you mentioned the -- our refuge. well, blackwater national wildlife refuge located on the eastern shore of maryland, one of the most beautiful spots in the world. this is hunting season. the eastern shore of maryland depends upon the hunting season for its economy. i can't tell you how many hotel operators and r

four days later the e.p.a. issued an order giving b.p. twenty four hours to find a less toxic dispersant b.p. chief operating officer doug suttles responded by saying that b.p. would continue to use carex it. will be shared was a set up to protect the pier. and and sort of do a dance for a few days b.p. use a tremendous amount of this persons and the e.p.a. says you got to cut it back seventy five percent. and so b.p. cut it back seventy five percent but they increased it so much they kept using the same amount. in january of two thousand and nine president obama appointed lisa jackson to head the e.p.a. jackson a louisiana native hold to a graduate degree in chemical engineering from princeton and is very familiar with the a facts of chemicals because there are scientific unknown's we had to make the decisions that are a series of trade offs and basically in common language it was either nothing or in moderation. b.p.'s penalties. are tied to how much oil. has been released who are the head of the v.a. so if you say i would to either ban

four days later the e.p.a. issued an order giving b.p. twenty four hours to find a less toxic dispersant b.p. chief operating officer doug suttles responded by saying that b.p. would continue to use carex it. was a set up to protect the. and and sort of do a dance for a few days b.p. use a tremendous amount of this persons and the e.p.a. says you got to cut it back seventy five percent. and so the people every five percent but they increased it so much they kept using the same. in january of two thousand and nine president obama appointed lisa jackson to head the e.p.a. jackson a louisiana native hold to a graduate degree in chemical engineering from princeton and is very familiar with the a fact of chemicals because there are scientific unknowns we had to make decisions that are a series of tradeoffs and basically in common language it was either nothing or in moderation. b.p. these penalties. are tied to how much oil. has been released why the head of the v.a. he said if you say i would either ban or limit the use of dispersants could y

four days later the e.p.a. issued an order giving b.p. twenty four hours to find a less toxic dispersant b.p. chief operating officer doug suttles responded by saying that b.p. would continue to use carex it. was a set up to protect the. and and sort of do a dance for a few days b.p. use a tremendous amount of this persons and the e.p.a. says you got to cut it back seventy five percent. and so the people back seventy five percent but they increased it so much they kept using the same. in january of two thousand and nine president obama appointed lisa jackson to head the e.p.a. jackson the louisiana native holds a graduate degree in chemical engineering from princeton and is very familiar with the a facts of chemicals because there are scientific unknowns we had to make the decisions that a series of trade us and basically in common language it was either nothing or in moderation. b.p.'s penalties. are tied to how much oil. has been released and why the head of the ts he said if you said i would to either ban or limit the use of dispersant

use a tremendous amount of dispersants and the e.p.a. says you've got to cut back seventy five percent. and so b.p. cut back seventy five percent but they increased it so much they kept using the same amount. in january of two thousand and nine president obama appointed lisa jackson to head the e.p.a. jackson the louisiana native hold to a graduate degree in chemical engineering from princeton and is very familiar with the a fact of chemicals because there are scientific unknowns we had to make the decisions that are a series of tradeoffs and basically in common language it was either nothing or in moderation. b.p.'s penalties. are tied to how much oil. has been released and why the head of the v.a. he said if you say i would to either ban or limit the use of dispersants could you have the power to act unilaterally i believe i did chairman but i do want my lawyers to get you a response i know going in but but that's a question you needed to know from day one ms jackson forget about cleanup forget about the natural resource the average ju

signs are going crazy but i just don't understand why the e.p.a. allowed banks to be involved in a market that has nothing to do with energy or if i mean you would think would be if you would say hey people i can get these credits are the energy companies or the refiners and that is exactly who can get the credits however while the they do issue these credits it goes back to what you were saying before this market is built for what wall street salivate for this poorly regulated not a lot of transparency it's built for corruption if you will but it's not corrupt because it's not illegal because the e.p.a. really doesn't have any oversight created this in an effort you know for like you said renewable energies but then when they created the market they then said oh let's let's let the free markets dictate it you can't create be the market creator and then spout about free markets just don't work that way you have to come in with some sort of regulation but basically they allow the banks to get involved it doesn't function like a regular commodity on

on may fifteenth two thousand and ten the e.p.a. approved use carex at under the surface of the water b.p. and its contractors started injecting thousands of gallons of corrected a day into the cult when they decided to do the subsurface injection the use of robots or to shoot the dispersants down at the blowout site five thousand feet below the surface of the gulf that it never did for. four days later the e.p.a. issued an order giving b.p. twenty four hours to find a less toxic dispersant b.p. chief operating officer doug suttles responded by saying that b.p. would continue to use carex it. was a set up to protect the. and and sort of do a dance for a few days b.p. use a tremendous amount of this persons who need says you got to cut back seventy five percent. and so b.p. cut back seventy five percent but they increased it so much they kept using the same amount. in january of two thousand and nine president obama appointed lisa jackson to head the e.p.a. jackson a louisiana native hold to a graduate degree in chemical engineering

air and water, they could lose 94% of its work force. >> stephen: no e.p.a.? okay, well, time to dump some old house paint down the storm drain! (laughter) there we go. there we go. (laughter) this will take a second. sorry. there you go. (cheers and applause) sorry. sorry, dolphins. you had a good run. (laughter) you know what? water used to be blue until i dumped this (bleep) in there. there you go. now, folks, the federal government may be shuttered, but the colbert nation is alive and well. (cheers and applause) and i am proud and prepared to fill the power vacuum as you are lord of the afterscape! (cheers and applause) ur-lord lord of the afterscape. bow before me! bring me tributes of sheep and unsoiled daughters! i also accept visa! (laughter) i will seize all government functions. who needs the f.d.a.? just send me your drugs. i'll test them for you. (laughter) for instance, these right here belong to -- these belong to brenda, my stage manager. (laughter) (cheers and applause) i will let her know in 14 days if i love late. (laughter) if i ovulate. i'm

no one showing up at the e.p.a. just one of the places whe no one is going to work. >> all kinds of government activities suspended. no flu monitoring. no irs audits, either. but social security and unemployment checks will go out for now. we have team coverage right now from the white house to capitol hill. let's start with abc's jon karl. >> reporter: george, the shutdown is here. this morning, some 800,000 federal workers are being told to stay home, as government buildings and national parks across the country are closing down. overnight, there was no stopping the shutdown or the finger-pointing. >> senate democrats have offered nothing. yesterday, mr. speaker, they didn't even show up for work. >> what a shameful day this is in the history of the house of representatives. >> reporter: all of the fighting is over a bill that would fund the government for a matter of just six weeks. republicans tried yet again to pass a bill that would tie funding to delaying the key

they won't release the data so these studies are hidden but once they're put out there for review the e.p.a. is worried it might not be as conclusive if we actually make it public that's interesting take i agree with you that there should be transparency i don't know that i can't verify that those are the facts i was unfamiliar with but there's doing you know anything about this and you know i'm not super familiar with this thing with the study but it's very interesting especially and i can truly see this in especially in a lot of industrialized countries in southeast asia and china and countries where they have these huge industry you know where there's a lack of industrial regulation with these huge industrial plants that are emanating these gases and poisons and things like that out into the hemisphere that is causing adverse effect to the population that you know just said hey you know. catalytic converters on cars and i remember you used to fly into l.a. and it was like. you know you can actually see the city when you fly it was just a simple thing and i wasn't that a good thing i mean

again, here's an e.p.a. decision since 2012 jeremy jacobs reports that the agency has won 60% of the cases that have been reviewed by the d.c. circuit court of appeals. 60% of the lawsuits where the environmental protection agency has been taken to court for exceeding its authority. 60% of the time the e.p.a. position has prevailed. that's a better performance than the e.p.a. had at the circuit during george w. bush's administration. in particular, the e.p.a. has scored landmark victories on cases relating to greenhouse gas regulations, ethanol-blended gasoline, and mountaintop removal coal mining. but beyond energy and environmental issues, the d.c. circuit court has upheld president obama's executive order regarding embryonic stem cell research on two separate occasions, in 2011 and 2012. again, these aren't my preferred outcomes, but i think it demonstrates that the d.c. circuit court has learned to strike a balance and certainly is not pro-administration or anti-administration. it epitomizes what a court

now the e.p.a. part of our water we didn't know they had their mitts in. >> this is what government does. government overreach. it is a power grab. but what the e.p.a. is doing is they're being the judge, jury and executioner because they're writing the laws for the clean water act. and the clean water act is so broad, vague and confusing that the e.p.a. is stepping in to try to impose regulations on bodies of waters like wetlands that don't connect to bigger bodies of water or streams that don't run all year round. it is a power grab. >> as we look at some lakes and we look at some streams and rivers right here, what does the e.p.a. want to do with those? >> if this is on your property, this is about control. the e.p.a., and a lot of them are environmentalists. they care about rocks and trees. they don't care about hard-working americans who own property, who pay taxes. these regulations could be -- keep you from developing your property, keep you from perhaps fixing a storage issue, drain issue on

if there's a horrible coal ash spicialg the e.p.a. will have to respond. if there is a a disastrous hot spot, the e.p.a. will have to respond. open up the government. don't just say to peernlings you'll get paid, so you don't have to bother coming to work. open up the government. let people work for the pay they're supposed to get. this is an outrage. you know, i have to say, when they passed over there "pay the workers," we know why they did it. it was political. because the heat in virginia is so hot in this gubernatorial race. even the far-right republican over there said, open up the government and fight about health care later. so i have to say, when i went home and i saw people waiting to sign up for coveredcalifornia.com and i learned that on the first day, mr. president, coveredcalifornia had 5 million hits and 500,000 distinct workers, 17,000 people called coveredcalifornia's telephone centers and over 6,000 californians began to sign up on the first day. on the second day they had 200,000 distinct users. they are training thousands -- thousands -

how do we work with e.p.a. to make it easier to convert more vehicles in the existing fleet to run on fuels from natural gas. we are supporting a good deal of research e technical motor engine research. i just came from a meeting yesterday. we are trying to provide the intellectual infrastructure to go to e.p.a. to cause them to come to the view that this would be a good thing for their mission as well as the rest of the country. >> we sponsored a study na concluded that the idea of widespread conversion of existing vehicles to liquid fuels from natural gas is both economically desireable and regulatoryly feasible. that is one of the early published studies on this and there are others coming. 250 million existing vehicles is a heck of a market for people to look at natural gas and converting it to a fuel that will go into those cars and our little bumper sticker is cheaper, cleaner american made fuels. >> thank you. over to umarty. you are at ba tell heading the energy and environment group there. and i'm goin

then if you care about farming -- and i know most of us do -- e.p.a. is responsible for the inventory of pesticides that are imported from abroad. this means that millions of dollars of imported agricultural chemicals have been stuck at u.s. ports because e.p.a. personnel are not on hand to approve them for entry. this could be devastating for our agricultural economy and further raise food prices for consumers. somebody explain to me how a government shutdown helps the farmers who are waiting for these pesticides to be cleared by the e.p.a.. somebody explain it to me. somebody explain it to me how it helps to have a government shutdown when we have many, many road projects that are just getting ready to go forward, but we don't have any of the agencies ready to complete the studies to make sure they are safe enough to go forward. there are hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake, and most of it, when it comes to the highway bill, in the private sector. and here's one we just learned yesterday. i say to my colleagues, 92% of workers at the nuclear regul

physically walked over and got an exemption from the e.p.a. you know clean air and clean water regulations for the fracking industry for the for this technique that halliburton had invented is there something fundamentally wrong with that you know i the evidence again is just so inconclusive the head of the e.p.a. lisa jackson says there's never been a study that shows that fracking causes water pollution the same thing from the department of energy same thing from president obama's science adviser they're all saying that there are no conclusive studies on this issue yet it's hard to say that we're back to cigarettes in the one nine hundred eighty you know we're still waiting for these studies to come out because these are these are still relatively new studies or josh fox to go around with the camera over a shoulder walk into people's houses in neighborhoods that are getting fracking and light their their faucets on what actually happens even in neighborhoods where there is no fracking that's something that's common in a lot of these areas wh

protectist attorney abbott says the e.p.a.ng too fast on this legislation and without congressional input. >> this is part and parcel to what president barack obama has said and that is he's going to use the e.p.a. in ways congress has not gone along with him on. >> the new regulations expected to be issued in a few months. >>> a study claims one of the most common bacterias in the world might be a trigger for multiple sclerosis. it is commonly found in the soil and has dangerous forms which can destroy your neurological system. the study was small but the team started to research treatments to destroy and to block this bacteria. >>> scientists say they may have found a cure for baldness in a study published in the journal pams, scientists said they have discovered how to grow hair in a lab. they took cells in human donors, cloned them and grafted them into human skin grafted on to the backs of mice. this could lead to hair transplants. >>> kim kardashian got a birthday surprise of a lifetime. she is engaged to kanye west. the

. >> reporter: she works for the e.p.a., a mother and grandmother. her husband is recently laid off. >> congress needs to be turned over somebody's knee and spanked hard because they are acting like small children. >> there won't be any business here. >> reporter: the shutdown's most visible effects, padlocking our national parks from coast to coast along with the national zoo and museums in the nation's capitol. the shutdown will also put federally backed loans on hold, delay tax audits and refunds and suspend the nutrition program for women, infants and children. >> how are we going to feed our kids? >> reporter: services which won't be effected include essentials such as mail delivery, tsa, air traffic control. while more than 800,000 federal workers stand to lose a paycheck the president and members of congress will still receive them. >> i think they can take their paychecks away. >> if you feel government employees shouldn't be paid you should give up your check. >> reporter: she will need to report to work to find out if she will be sent home.

if the e.p.a. gets involved.y are going to be prohibited from going all kinds of things from perhaps leveling their property, filling in a ditch, fixing a drainage system. expanding a house, building a house, that's the last thing we need our government involved in is telling people what to do with their private property. >> if you have a wet land or small stream on your property, as i understand in real estate law you don't actually own that stream to begin with right? if i wanted to come on to your land and fish, i have the right to walk into your land. when i lived in montana that was a big water ways rights issue. i want to fly fish on your land can i. now the government could gain control of that so they could say hey, you can't come down here and fish anymore. >> that's the thing. again, we don't need the government getting involved in private property issues such as. this i'm sure it varies across different states around the country, clearly this is a power grab anyone that's a property owner should be con

they're worried at e.p.a. that, you know, letting the public know about inspections and about conditions of water and other things in the environment, in communities across this country, is not happening because the e.p.a. is not in business. the worker who was in my office, julia, who worked at the department of health and human services, mr. speaker, is worried because in the work that she does, her specific job is to train medicare providers so that they indicate the right codes when they submit for payment so that there's not fraud. and the other part of her job is that she's supposed to look through those claims and make sure that if there is any indication of a problem or fraud, that it gets referred to the inspector general and gets referred to the department of justice. and at a time when we're both implementing health care, but also when medicare is being used, it's really important that that actually -- her job, julia's job actually saves taxpayers money. and yet she's at home. the worker who came to

at the e.p.a. where the e.p.a. might be making referrals to the department of justice or working with the department of energy. people of -- our government, we have a lot of interactions among agencies. that's actually a good thing. it saves taxpayers money. i think we have to restart all of government for all americans. not part of government for some americans. all government for all americans. host: harris from mansville, ohio, and he's a federal worker. caller: my big question is that the house of representatives, why do their senator -- the bill was passed. the shame of this government. host: thank you. guest: i think that issue is going to be resolved again. that's a perfect example you think you're fixing kind of one thing, paying our military. we moved that through the house and senate an on to the president. it turns out this is one area that's not covered by that law but it's part of the function of the department of defense. we realize that we missed that. we have to go back and fix that. that's why it's

in the safe drinking water act thanks to that car about let's call it the halliburton loophole the e.p.a. cannot regulate fracking poisons even when they get into our water supply today eight years after cheney's giveaway to big oil fracking has become a huge part of the economy and it's become a huge part of the american landscape a new wall street journal report looked at eleven of the country's biggest energy producing states and found that at least fifteen point three million americans live within a mile of a well that has been drilled since two thousand that is more people than live in michigan or new york city in johnson county texas alone more than thirty nine hundred wells dot the county and some ninety nine and a half percent of its one hundred fifty thousand residents live within a mile of a well. that region is now basically one big drill site if nothing changes the dick cheney created fracking boom will continue to grow over the coming decades and the stakes couldn't be higher a recent investigation of western pennsylvania as fracking industry has found dangerous levels of ra

they proposed getting rid of the e.p.a., the congress department -- commerce department, the department of education, fema, the department of energy, not reforming these agencies, not changing their missions, not making them more efficient, more effective, but just doing away with them. and that spirit is animating the house today, unfortunately. i am particularly glad that that view did not prevail in the last election because these agencies are vital to all americans. looking back at rhode island, we were victims of serious historic flooding over the last several years. if fema was not the -- there to step in and help us, we would still be trying to pull ourselves together. as a small state, like connecticut, like other states, we wouldn't have the resources to do it. we saw the same thing with hurricane sandy. they were there helping efficiently, effectively, and those are one of the agencies that my colleagues are not allowing to operate today. many of the small business men and women in my community, manufacturers, et cetera, have been aided immensely by the department of commerce.

e.p.a. officials were not just concerned abt the immediat health eexposue methyl parathion. we, however, have also been concerned about, and the scientific literature is incomplete and inconclusive on this, is whether or not we can be exposed to a pesticide in less than an acute fashion, just below an acute level, and end up having chronic health effects later. we were concerned that children might have subtle neurobehavioral effects that you would be able to observe years down the road, but the parent might not necessarily notice at the time of the exposure. in their assessment, children and pets were at greatest risk because of their smaller body weights and more frequent contact with contaminated surfaces such as the floor. aonce methyl parathion,ct or a pticide, has been sprayed to wood or anyurface such th's rous,or. it soaks in, and you rely can't cln it. it basicly has to be remov to ban efftive dcon. so, thwe w.. they were taking out drywall, baseboards, flooring... at some point, ye

i say to the veterans, and i say to people served by e.p.a. stock portfolios because of the securities and exchange commission. and people with fire protection, i say to all of them, open the government up and let's negotiate like americans do. and let's not negotiate by harming other people and saying that unless you have it your way, you're going to keep hurt go these innocents. putting an end that to. i think we have good news on that. >> we are going to keep you here. we have a least one more question for our guests and we'll be right back. don't go anywhere. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. that's why liberty mutual insurance offers accident forgiveness if you qualify, and new car replacement standard with our auto policies. so call liberty mutual today. and if you switch, you could save up to $423. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? rep. rokita: obamacare hurts this country much more than any government shutdown. vo: reckless. rep. blackburn: people are probably going to r

pulls hundreds of samples we pull hundreds of samples a month along with our federal partners the e.p.a. no one and they've been. drug administration one. this is louisiana. you'll notice. here for this entire area here this green area we're testing for the hydrocarbons in the water and the dispersants literally at this point thousands of tests have been run on. one shrimp sample not a single one has reached a level of of concern for human hail the fraud they hire laboratories who set artificially high minimum detection levels that say that background is five parts per billion of a chemical they set the sensitivity at twenty so when all the tests come back it says nine detect neither fact not in fact they needed that kind of fifteen. if they do it. is still in the trial the wall of the gulf of mexico is the toilet of the oceans for the whole country safety requirements that are all political in florida you know on the east coast are not the political inside the gulf of mexico we're the most deregulated portion of the entire country when it comes to offshore drilling. they say we're more