The following article by Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis and Josh Dawsey was posted on the Washington Post website June 5, 2018:
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt faces rising scrutiny over several ethics issues, including his use of taxpayer money. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Three months after Scott Pruitt was sworn in as head of the Environmental Protection Agency, his scheduler emailed Dan Cathy, chief executive of the fast-food company Chick-fil-A, with an unusual request: Would Cathy meet with Pruitt to discuss “a potential business opportunity”?
Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been quietly working with climate change deniers at a conservative think tank to discredit climate science, according to a slew of newly released emails.
The emails, which were unveiled as part of a lawsuit filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), reveal a new level of coordination between Scott Pruitt’s EPA and the Heartland Institute, a fossil fuel-funded think tank that has spent years manufacturing an alternative body of pseudoscientific research meant to call into question mainstream climate science. Continue reading “New emails show EPA scheming with climate change deniers”
The following article by Megan R. Wilson was posted on the Hill website June 1, 2018:
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt Credit: Andrew Harnik/AP
A lobbyist whose wife rented a condo to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt lobbied the agency for three clients last year, apparently contradicting his claim that he hadn’t represented clients at the EPA during the Trump administration, according to new disclosure forms filed by his former employer.
The following article by Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin was posted on the Washington Post website June 1, 2018:
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt faces rising scrutiny over several ethics issues, including his use of taxpayer money. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
The account manager at the Tiny Jewel Box, which calls itself Washington’s “premier destination for fine jewelry and watches,” had promised to expedite the order of a dozen customized silver fountain pens — each emblazoned with the seal of the Environmental Protection Agency and the signature of its leader, Scott Pruitt.
The following article by Coral Davenport was posted on the New York Times website May 31, 2018:
Scott Pruitt, Environmental Protection Agency administrator, second from left, with auto executives and President Trump in May. Credit: Jonathan Ernst, Reuters
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration took a major step toward dramatically weakening an Obama-era rule designed to cut pollution from vehicle tailpipes, setting the stage for a legal clash with California that could potentially split the nation’s auto market in two.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday submitted its proposal to roll back climate change rules that required automakers to nearly double the fuel economy of passenger vehicles to an average of more than 50 miles per gallon by 2025. The rules, which would have significantly lowered the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, were opposed by automakers who said they were overly burdensome. Continue reading “E.P.A. Takes a Major Step to Roll Back Clean Car Rules”
The following article by Emily London was posted on the Center for American Progress website May 22, 2018:
Credit: Pete Marovich/Getty Images
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt is facing at least 16 federal investigations based on his established pattern of harmful actions against the environment and the manipulation of his position of power for personal gains. Throughout the first year of his appointment as the head of the EPA, Pruitt has continually and wrongfully attempted to legitimize his dangerous ideologies and actions under the guise of religion. He has consistently quoted scripture to justify his attacks on public health that will have lasting consequences for the environment. Continue reading “Pruitt’s Misuse of Religion to Sell Out Our Air and Water”
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt is facing at least 16 federal investigations based on his established pattern of harmful actions against the environment and the manipulation of his position of power for personal gains. Throughout the first year of his appointment as the head of the EPA, Pruitt has continually and wrongfully attempted to legitimize his dangerous ideologies and actions under the guise of religion. He has consistently quoted scripture to justify his attacks on public health that will have lasting consequences for the environment. Continue reading “Pruitt’s Misuse of Religion to Sell Out Our Air and Water”
The following article by Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis was posted on the Washington Post website May 20, 2018:
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has faced setbacks on more than half a dozen actions to reverse Obama-era rules. Credit: Andrew Harnik/AP
In March, as part of Scott Pruitt’s aggressive campaign to roll back federal regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed relaxing standards for storing potentially toxic waste produced by coal-burning power plants.
EPA officials cited a study indicating that forcing utilities to get rid of unlined coal ash ponds too quickly could strain the electrical grid in several regions of the country.
But when environmental advocates scrutinized the specifics, they discovered a problem: The evidence cited was not established scientific research. Instead, the agency was relying on a four-page document by the utility industry’s trade association, the Edison Electric Institute, which has acknowledged that its conclusions were not “part of or a summary of a larger study.”
Lisa Evans, a lawyer for the group Earthjustice, was among the advocates who seized on that omission, as well as on gaps in technical data and other evidence, to argue that the agency’s action was ill-advised and legally flimsy.
“The record does not support the proposal,” Evans said, noting that the Obama administration’s 2015 requirement on coal ash drew on years of public input and peer-reviewed scientific studies. “I’ve never seen a rule like this, in terms of the thinness of the evidence.”
The coal ash proposal is among the more than half-dozen major EPA moves that have been snagged by procedural and legal problems. The delays threaten to tarnish Pruitt’s image as an effective warrior in President Trump’s battle against federal regulations, a reputation that has so far saved the EPA administrator his job amid an array of investigations into ethical and management lapses.
Earlier this month, the White House Office of Management and Budget sent back a proposal to ease emissions restrictions for refurbished heavy-duty trucks and ordered the agency to analyze the proposal’s economic impact. That move followed a separate OMB request in April that the EPA offer “some analysis” to show that it would actually yield environmental benefits.
The EPA’s own science advisers have called for a reviewof the “adequacy” of research used not only to justify revoking the truck rule but to reverse fuel-efficiency standards for cars. And over the past year, courts have halted or reversed multiple Pruitt initiatives, in one case forcing the EPA to restore limits on methane leaks from oil and gas operations after a federal appeals panel concluded that their suspension was illegal.
Jeffrey Holmstead, a partner at the law firm Bracewell LLP, who headed the EPA’s air and radiation office under President George W. Bush, thinks it is “premature” to evaluate how durable Pruitt’s policy changes will be.
“Early on, before they really had their folks in place, they sent over a lot of rules that didn’t have a lot of technical support,” Holmstead said, adding that in recent months the Senate has confirmed numerous appointees who previously served at the EPA and so are more experienced in working with career staff. “A lot more work is getting done.”
The following article by Josephine Marcotty was posted on the StarTribune website May 16, 2018:
Proposed limits on research would threaten lives, they say in a blistering letter to the federal agency.
Credit: Kaster/AP Photo
Minnesota’s top health and environmental officials sent a blistering letter Wednesday to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, charging that its controversial plan to impose broad new restrictions on the types of scientific research it uses to craft regulations will cause confusion, mistrust and “threaten the lives of real people.”
The following article by Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin was posted on the Washington Post website May 14, 2018:
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt faces rising scrutiny over several ethics issues, including his use of taxpayer money. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
This post has been updated.
Scott Pruitt began receiving round-the-clock security from the moment he stepped foot inside the Environmental Protection Agency in February 2017, at the behest of a Trump administration political appointee, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.
The EPA’s inspector general said in a letter Monday that Pruitt got extensive protection from the very start of his tenure but did not clarify who requested it. The separate series of emails obtained by The Washington Post shows that the decision to provide Pruitt with 24/7 coverage was made by Don Benton, a Republican former Washington state senator who served as the agency’s senior White House adviser in the first weeks of the new administration. Continue reading “Scott Pruitt requested, received 24/7 security starting on his first day at EPA”
