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Good news
A round up of the latest good news, progress and actions in the public interest.
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Some much-needed good news from Texas
Working to stop plastic waste: From store shelves to state capitols
Updates
Energy Conservation & Efficiency
Court upholds national furnace efficiency standards
Energy Conservation & Efficiency
Heat pumps continue outselling gas furnaces
Energy Conservation & Efficiency
Congress proposes continued funding for Energy Star efficiency program
Featured Resources
Less coal, more oil: Climate pollution trends by state
The Latest
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Senator: Consumers Should Have More Control Over Credit Reports. We Agree.
Throughout the anger and frustration over the Equifax breach debacle, consumers, reporters and legislators have repeatedly asked me: "Ed, why don't consumers, not credit bureaus, control when their credit reports can be shared or sold?" Now comes U.S. Senator Jack Reed (RI) with a PIRG-backed bill to do just that!
We Back Legislation to Hold Credit Bureaus Accountable To Consumer-Victims For Breaches
Since the massive Equifax data breach, three things, among others, have been made very clear: (1) A credit bureau breach is worse than other breaches, because the bureaus hold a vast trove of our personal information useful to identity thieves; (2) The bureaus treat us with disdain, as products, not customers; (3) The credit bureaus are largely unaccountable to consumers. Our statement in suppport of the Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Mark Warner "Data Breach Prevention and Compensation Act" to hold large credit reporting agencies (CRAs) - including Equifax - accountable for data breaches involving consumer data."
The End for “Rent-A-Tribe” Payday Lending Schemes?
This month, Scott Tucker, a payday lender who used his proceeds to fund a LeMans racing team, was sentenced to 16 years in jail on federal racketeering and other charges. Last fall, his former business partner Charles Hallinan, known as the Philadelphia Main Line "godfather" of payday lending, was also convicted of federal racketeering charges. Tucker and Hallinan's main business model? Their claim that their payday loan enterprises were for the benefit of Native American tribal partners and therefore subject to tribal immunity. The authoritative public interest law firm Public Justice speculates: "Tribal Immunity" may no longer be a Get-Out-of-Jail Free Card for payday lenders." It's about time.
CFPB Is On The Job Protecting Consumers
While powerful special interests, Senators, the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and the White House call for dismantling the CFPB, firing its excellent director, or worse, CFPB continues to be an agency that is on the job, conducting business as usual to protect consumers. Its latest "Monthly Complaint Snapshot" is an open window into the many reasons we need a strong CFPB.
Good news! CFPB Adding Consumer Ratings of Company Responses to Complaint Database
The CFPB is making a good public consumer complaint database better. In 2015, the CFPB added optional consumer narratives, or stories, to its public consumer complaint database, giving other consumers, researchers and even other firms a new way to help study complaint patterns. Now, it will give consumers a chance to “rate the company’s handling of his or her complaint on a one-to-five scale and provide a narrative description in support of the rating.”