The Environmental Protection Agency this week banned a toxic chemical commonly used in dry cleaning and other consumer products.

Trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene have been used for decades and are known to affect the liver, brain, kidney and immune and nervous systems. Research shows dry-cleaning and laundry workers are at increased risk of dying from cancer.

Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, former principal deputy assistant administrator for science at the EPA Office of Research and Development, said businesses will be required to use alternatives and employees will be safer at work, adding the changes also affect surrounding communities.

"If you happen to live near a dry-cleaning facility, you know there would be the potential for the ground to be contaminated and for these chemicals to get into the water supply," Orme-Zavaleta pointed out.

California has been ahead of the curve. In 2007, the state banned installations of new perchloroethylene dry-cleaning machines, required existing ones be shut down by 2010, and required a complete ban of use of the chemical by 2023.

Orme-Zavaleta noted many environmental statutes are aimed at cleaning up hazardous chemicals. While recent legislation has enabled the EPA to more effectively reduce exposures or prevent them from happening in the first place, she stressed the effort takes time and resources.

"The agency's been playing a lot of catch up," Orme-Zavaleta acknowledged. "They need to keep going, but they also need to be looking to the future, especially looking at some of the new chemicals coming into commerce."

According to the advocacy group Heal the Planet, the dry-cleaning industry uses hundreds of millions of gallons of solvents such as perchloroethylene every year, the chemical's airborne particles are difficult to detect in the air and can linger for weeks.


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Insurance premiums have gone up a lot and according to a new report, Arizona is one of the states where homeowners are being hit hardest.

The Consumer Federation of America's latest report found from 2021 to 2024, annual insurance premiums for a typical Arizona homeowner increased by more than $700.

Diane Brown, executive director of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group, called the situation dire and fears the severity and increasing frequency of wildfires plaguing the state could only exacerbate the problem. She called the report "a wake-up call for consumers and policymakers across the nation."

"Policymakers should recognize it is no accident that wildfires are contributing to increased insurance costs," Brown urged. "And should not accept claims by the utilities that they should be left off the hook for basic legal responsibility."

Arizona lawmakers are currently debating a bill to protect utilities from wildfire-related lawsuits and could have the unintended consequence of shifting the burden of wildfire claims from utilities onto homeowners' insurers.

Brown argued the approach is wrong and if found negligent, utilities should have to cover costs to those affected. Many Arizonans have seen their rates skyrocket this year or have been dropped from coverage altogether as insurance companies try to recover losses.

Doug Heller, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, pointed out there is not a "strong culture of rate review in Arizona." He said insurance companies will take advantage of the places in which advantage is allowed.

"Arizona needs to step up and be more aggressive in its inspection of the insurance companies' rates," Heller emphasized. "In Arizona, as in other parts of the West, to be honest, it's all around the country, the wildfire risk has increased with climate change, there is no question about that."

Heller added it is going to take a "concerted effort" to get things on the right track. The report recommended requiring insurance companies to release data on pricing, coverage and claims annually, for federal and state governments to expand grant-based and loan risk mitigation programs as well as the creation of a "reinsurance program" to stabilize the market.

Experts advised homeowners to shop around for the best rates and also maintain homes by utilizing vital fire-reduction measures.


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People gathered outside Rocky Mountain Power headquarters in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, calling out the company for what they describe as "a strategy to keep Utah locked into high-cost, polluting fossil fuels."

The utility just released a new Integrated Resource Plan, which outlines how it will meet the state's energy demands.

Jonathan Whitesides, spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Power, acknowledged previous plans included more renewable resources but said the company tries to plan 20 years into the future and changes are almost inevitable. Electric rates could soon increase by more than 15% for residential customers if the Utah Public Service Commission approves a rate-hike request later this month.

"The commission has to determine, were we prudent in what we spent on behalf of the customers?" Whitesides explained. "Even though it is a 15.5%, the commission will determine whether that is reasonable and prudent."

Whitesides pointed out the rate increase would help cover costs associated with maintenance as well as energy projects, like the Rock Creek Wind Project in Wyoming. The company's latest plan also extends, rather than shortens, the life of coal operations in the state.

Stan Holmes, volunteer for the group Utah Needs Clean Energy, was at Tuesday's Salt Lake City event. He thinks costs will be passed onto Utahns if Rocky Mountain Power moves forward with its latest plan.

"It's not just the environmental community and the business community that's saying, 'What's going on here?' It's folks that have been tracking Rocky Mountain Power for a long time, saying, 'something smells wrong here,'" Holmes emphasized. "We're hoping the commissioners do now what they did 10 years ago, when they stopped Rocky Mountain Power from slapping a monthly surcharge on its rooftop solar customers."

Holmes called the utility's latest plan "terrible," but added he and others feel optimistic their message will be heard.

"When you take a look from an economic standpoint at what the future holds for Utah if we shift to clean renewables -- like geothermal, for example, which is given short shrift in this 20-year plan -- we wouldn't have any argument," Holmes contended.

President Donald Trump's administration has targeted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, so advocates for people in rural communities are pressing California lawmakers to step in.

Trump's new bureau director has moved to close the agency, claiming it had been weaponized against certain industries and individuals. The Republican-controlled House Financial Services Committee just voted to roll back a bureau rule on high bank overdraft fees.

Christine Chen Zinner, senior consumer policy counsel at the nonprofit Americans for Financial Reform, explained the rule's importance.

"This is a rule that would bring overdraft fees from $35 down to $5," Chen Zinner pointed out. "That would now save families $5 billion a year, or $225 per household per year that pays these overdraft fees."

Rural communities are often considered "banking deserts" with limited options for people to do their banking, making them more vulnerable to unfair business practices, which had been regulated by the bureau.

Zinner called on Rep. Adam Gray, R-Calif., Rep Jim Costa, D-Calif., and Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., all from districts in the Central Valley, to oppose efforts to weaken banking rules.

"They can either represent their constituents who need these protections, especially as they live in these rural banking deserts or they could side with big banks," Zinner contended. "This is really an opportunity to show who they answer to."

A recent report from the HEAL Food Alliance found since 2011, the bureau has returned $21 billion to people who had been scammed and handled nearly 850,000 consumer complaints from the Golden State alone.

Navina Khanna, executive director of the HEAL Food Alliance, said people who are the most in need would feel the brunt of the cuts.

"Weakening or eliminating the CFPB is going to harm rural communities and working families the most," Khanna argued. "We're trying to make sure that our policymakers defend us by defending the CFPB."

The bureau has also worked to keep medical debt off people's credit reports and handled a deluge of fraud complaints after natural disasters like the Los Angeles wildfires.