Tag: EPA

EPA Begins Rollback of Obama Clean Power Plan

The following article was posted on the TrumpAccountable.org website September 9, 2017:

The EPA took significant steps this week to repeal the Obama Clean Power Plan that seeks to cut carbon emissions from the energy sector by 32% by 2030. EPA Chief Scott Pruitt actively opposed the Clean Power Plan as Attorney General of Oklahoma and now, as the head of the EPA, he faces few obstacles as he dismantles one of President Obama’s signature environmental policies.

President Trump signed an executive order in March requiring the EPA to review the Clean Power Plan with the clear intent of repealing it. Since then the EPA has been reviewing the rule and, according to reporting from The Hill, intends to reverse it later this year. The EPA has quietly filed the repeal policy with the Office of Management and Budget for regulatory review.

While a window for public discussion will open after the new rule is entered into the Federal Register, the “EPA expects that the administrator will sign the proposed rule in the fall of 2017.”

View the post here.

EPA now requires political aide’s sign-off for agency awards, grant applications

The following article by Juliet Eilperin was posted on the Washington Post website September 4, 2017:

The Environmental Protection Agency has taken the unusual step of putting a political operative in charge of vetting the hundreds of millions of dollars in grants the EPA distributes annually, assigning final funding decisions to a former Trump campaign aide with little environmental policy experience.

In this role, John Konkus reviews every award the agency gives out, along with every grant solicitation before it is issued. According to both career and political employees, Konkus has told staff that he is on the lookout for “the double C-word” — climate change — and repeatedly has instructed grant officers to eliminate references to the subject in solicitations. Continue reading “EPA now requires political aide’s sign-off for agency awards, grant applications”

Federal court blocks Trump EPA on air pollution

The following article by Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson was posted on the Washington Post website July 3, 2017:

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

An appeals court Monday struck down the Environmental Protection Agency’s 90-day suspension of new emission standards on oil and gas wells, a decision that could set back the Trump administration’s broad legal strategy for rolling back Obama-era rules.

In a 2-to-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concluded that the EPA had the right to reconsider a 2016 rule limiting methane and smog-forming pollutants emitted by oil and gas wells but could not delay the effective date while it sought to rewrite the regulation.

The agency has proposed extending the initial delay to two years; the court will hold a hearing on that suspension separately. Continue reading “Federal court blocks Trump EPA on air pollution”

Trump Administration Makes Key Decision That Threatens Water Supply of Millions (Video)

The following article by Reynard Loki was posted on the AlterNet website June 27, 2017:

Repealing the Clean Water Rule will make it easier for polluters to contaminate the water supply for millions of Americans.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is reportedly issuing a proposed rule to undo the Clean Water Rule that was enacted in May 2015, under President Obama’s last term. The rule protects the water supply for more than 117 million Americans.

Also known as the Waters of the United States (WOTUS), the Clean Water Rule puts limits on pollution in the wetlands, rivers and streams that feed the nation’s larger waterways. Those limits are essential for protecting the safety of the drinking water on which millions of American rely. Continue reading “Trump Administration Makes Key Decision That Threatens Water Supply of Millions (Video)”

China Poised to Take Lead on Climate After Trump’s Move to Undo Policies

The following article by Edward Wong was posted on the New York Times website March 29, 2017:

Burning coal at an unauthorized steel factory in Inner Mongolia in November. China consumes as much coal as the rest of the world combined. Credit Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

For years, the Obama administration prodded, cajoled and beseeched China to make commitments to limit the use of fossil fuels to try to slow the global effects of climate change.

President Obama and other American officials saw the pledges from both Beijing and Washington as crucial: China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, followed by the United States.

In the coming years, the opposite dynamic is poised to play out. President Trump’s signing of an executive order on Tuesday aimed at undoing many of the Obama administration’s climate change policies flips the roles of the two powers. Continue reading “China Poised to Take Lead on Climate After Trump’s Move to Undo Policies”

EPA chief, rejecting agency’s own analysis, declines to ban pesticide despite health concerns

The following article by Brady Dennis was posted on the Washington Post website March 29, 2017:

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt called chlorpyrifos “crucial to U.S. agriculture.” (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency refused Wednesday to ban a commonly used pesticide that the Obama administration had sought to outlaw based on mounting concerns about its risks to human health.

The chemical compound chlorpyrifos, also known as Lorsban, has been used by farmers for more than a half-century to kill pests on crops including broccoli, strawberries and citrus. The EPA banned its spraying indoors to combat household bugs more than a decade ago. But only in recent years did the agency seek to ban its use in agriculture, after mounting scientific evidence that prenatal exposure can pose risks to fetal brain and nervous system development. Continue reading “EPA chief, rejecting agency’s own analysis, declines to ban pesticide despite health concerns”

Pruitt Disbelief in Global Warming

The following letter to the editor was submitted to, but did not appear in, the Minneapolis Star Tribune March 10, 2017:

Did I just mishear a comment by Scott Pruitt, the new GOP approved EPA Administrator, on CNBC regarding his disbelief in the science of global warming and the impact of human generated greenhouse gases on the planet?

I thought I heard him say: “I think that measuring with precision that the earth is round is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of roundness, if any. So no, I would not agree that it’s primarily round as we see it. We don’t know that its round yet. We need to continue the debate if its round and continue the review and the analysis.”

This reminds me of a line from Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl – “You’re off the edge of the map, mate. Here there be monsters.”

J. Albers

E.P.A. Head Stacks Agency With Climate Change Skeptics

The following article by Coral Davenport was posted on the New York Times website March 7, 2017:

Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, last month. He built a career suing the agency he now leads. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Days after the Senate confirmed him as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference and was asked about addressing a group that probably wanted to eliminate his agency.

“I think it’s justified,” he responded, to cheers. “I think people across the country look at the E.P.A. the way they look at the I.R.S.”

In the days since, Mr. Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general who built a career out of suing the agency he now leads, has moved to stock the top offices of the agency with like-minded conservatives — many of them skeptics of climate change and all of them intent on rolling back environmental regulations that they see as overly intrusive and harmful to business. Continue reading “E.P.A. Head Stacks Agency With Climate Change Skeptics”

Thousands of emails detail EPA head’s close ties to fossil fuel industry

The following article by Brady Dennis and Steven Mufson was posted on the Washington Post website February 22, 2017:

In his previous role as Oklahoma’s attorney general, the Environmental Protection Agency’s new administrator regularly huddled with fossil fuel firms and electric utilities about how to combat federal environmental regulations and spoke to conservative political groups about what they called government “overreach,” according to thousands of pages of emails made public Wednesday.

“The newly released emails reveal a close and friendly relationship between Scott Pruitt’s office and the fossil fuel industry, with frequent meetings, calls, dinners and other events,” said Nick Surgey, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy, which has sued to compel the release of the emails. Continue reading “Thousands of emails detail EPA head’s close ties to fossil fuel industry”