WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Yesterday, at the White House press briefing, a reporter with the Washington Post asked Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about cabinet abuses of power by Scott Pruitt, David Shulkin, and Ben Carson. Sanders repeatedly said that all three were “under review”, but did not clarify whether the White House is reviewing these cases independently of individual reviews and investigations at their respective agencies.
VIRGINIA - Between March 6 and March 19, Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) will be holding six public hearings on Virginia’s Carbon Reduction Plan, or Executive Directive 11 (ED 11). Virginia is the first southern state to take initiative on limiting and capping carbon pollution from fossil fuel- burning power plants. The Virginia Carbon Reduction Plan is designed to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuel-burning power plants by 30 percent by the year 2030, help generate new clean energy jobs, and put the Commonwealth on track for continued reductions beyond 2030.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Friday, the White House announced that Trump has nominated Peter Wright, a corporate lawyer for Dow Chemical Company, to serve as EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Land and Emergency Management. The office of Land and Energy Management oversees emergency response to hazardous spills and cleanups of the nation’s most toxic sites, including the Superfund program.
Washington, DC -- Today, E&E News reported that one of Scott Pruitt’s top political aides, Deputy Associate Administrator for the Office of Public Affairs John Konkus, has been serving as a media consultant outside the Agency, but is refusing to disclose his clients.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will consider Marco Rajkovich Jr, a coal industry attorney, nomination to be the chairman of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. The commission provides administrative trial and appellate review of legal disputes arising under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Amendments Act. If confirmed, Rajkovich would serve a term of six years.
Last week, ThinkProgress reported that an equity firm that loaned Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner, $184 million and advised the Trump administration on infrastructure also stood to directly benefit from three Trump administration rule changes to roll back pipeline safety regulations.
Yesterday, the Department of the Interior announced the cancellation of an oil and gas lease sale near Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a UNESCO Heritage Site in northern New Mexico. The controversial leases would have auctioned off an additional 4,434 acres in the Greater Chaco region for industrialized fracking, exposing local communities to increased pollution and threatening ancient ruins considered sacred by Indigenous Nations.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt proposed weakening vital clean water protections against toxic coal ash. His proposal clears the way for polluters, and polluter funded politicians to write weak standards for groundwater monitoring and coal ash cleanups, and attack the core health and environmental protections of the 2015 coal ash safeguards.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This morning, Politico reported on a series of 2005 Oklahoma talk radio interviews in which Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt dismissed evolution as unproven, denounced gun control measures, voiced islamophobic statements, and advocated for a constitutional convention to ban abortion and same-sex marriage
Washington, DC -- On Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s one year anniversary on the job, new scandals have emerged and past ones have grown, continuing the trend Zinke has established this year. Yesterday, CNN reported that Zinke was warned he was on pace to exceed his travel budget by $200,000 -- despite, as Zinke claims, his office being understaffed.