Donald Trump's School for Scandal
Why did Scott Pruitt's huge security detail have to accompany him to Disneyland?
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt is investigated for the following: a sweetheart rental arrangement with an energy lobbyist, a $43,000 soundproof phone booth for his office, the large security contingent that accompanied him on a trip to Disneyland, and huge raises given to close aides. Five EPA officials who questioned these and other expenditures are demoted or reassigned.
The EPA says it will roll back the Obama-era auto-fuel-efficiency standards. The agency threatens to revoke California's waiver under the Clean Air Act, which allows it to require cleaner cars.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke denies that his department censors science. A National Park Service report on how it will deal with climate change omits all references to human causation.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't want to give threatened species as much protection as endangered ones.
The Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program wins multiple court rulings: Now the BLM must disclose the climate impacts of fossil fuel development in the Powder River Basin; the Trump administration can't overturn the ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic without judicial review; and the administration can't delay increased penalties for automakers who violate fuel-economy standards.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry calls moving away from fossil fuels "immoral."
The Bureau of Land Management blames a "breakdown of technology" for its failure to note 42,000 public comments in support of protections for the greater sage-grouse.
"I really don't know" if humans cause climate change, says the head of the EPA's scientific advisory board.
Trump Watch is funded by the Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program (sc.org/law).