Tag: EPA

EPA to end controversial contract with conservative ‘media monitoring’ firm

The following article by Brady Dennis was posted on the Washington Post website December 19, 2017:

The firm hired by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to do “media monitoring” has ties to a group that helped promote his confirmation earlier this year. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)

The Environmental Protection Agency is canceling a $120,000 “media tracking” contract it recently signed with a Republican public affairs and opposition-research firm amid questions about the firm’s political work and outrage from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The EPA had defended the contract with Definers Public Affairs, saying it hired the firm merely to act as a sophisticated news clipping service. An agency spokesman confirmed Tuesday that the EPA and the company had agreed to terminate the contract. In a separate conversation, the company’s president, Joe Pounder, said the decision was a mutual one. Continue reading “EPA to end controversial contract with conservative ‘media monitoring’ firm”

While you weren’t looking: 5 stories from the Trump administration that aren’t about taxes

The following article by A.P. Joyce was posted on the mic.com website December 18, 2017:

The news this week was dominated by the historic election of Doug Jonesin Alabama and the ongoing machinations to try to pass the Republican tax bill before the senator is sworn in.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been hard at work making consequential policy decisions that affect the U.S. and its relationship with the rest of the world.

Here’s what you might have missed: Continue reading “While you weren’t looking: 5 stories from the Trump administration that aren’t about taxes”

E.P.A. Contractor Has Spent Past Year Scouring the Agency for Anti-Trump Officials

The following article by Eric Lipton and Lisa Friedman was posted on the New York Times website December 15, 2017:

Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the E.P.A., last week. Many information requests focus on employees known to be questioning management at the agency since Mr. Pruitt was confirmed. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

One of the top executives of a consulting firm that the Environmental Protection Agency has recently hired to help it with media affairs has spent the past year investigating agency employees who have been critical of the Trump administration, federal records show.

The firm, Definers Public Affairs, based in Virginia, specializes in conducting opposition research, meaning that it seeks to find damaging information on political or corporate rivals.

A vice president for the firm, Allan Blutstein, federal records show, has submitted at least 40 Freedom of Information Act requests to the E.P.A. since President Trump was sworn in. Many of those requests target employees known to be questioning management at the E.P.A. since Scott Pruitt, the agency’s administrator, was confirmed. Continue reading “E.P.A. Contractor Has Spent Past Year Scouring the Agency for Anti-Trump Officials”

Under Trump, E.P.A. Has Slowed Actions Against Polluters, and Put Limits on Enforcement Officers

The following article by Eric Lipton and Danielle Ivory was posted on the New York Times website December 10, 2017:

The smokestacks from Heritage Thermal Services in East Liverpool, Ohio. Heritage incinerates hazardous waste at this facility. Credit Andrew Spear for The New York Times

EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio — The highway billboard at the entrance to town still displays a giant campaign photograph of President Trump, who handily won the election across industrial Ohio. But a revolt is brewing here in East Liverpool over Mr. Trump’s move to slow down the federal government’s policing of air and water pollution.

The City Council moved unanimously last month to send a protest letter to the Environmental Protection Agency about a hazardous waste incineratornear downtown. Since Mr. Trump took office, the E.P.A. has not moved to punish the plant’s owner, even after extensive evidence was assembled during the Obama administration that the plant had repeatedly, and illegally, released harmful pollutants into the air.

“I don’t know where we go,” Councilman William Hogue, a retired social studies teacher, said in frustration to his fellow council members. “They haven’t resolved anything.” Continue reading “Under Trump, E.P.A. Has Slowed Actions Against Polluters, and Put Limits on Enforcement Officers”

‘Let us do our job’: Anger erupts over EPA’s apparent muzzling of scientists

The following article by Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin was posted on the Washington Post website October 23, 2017:

Protesters gather Monday outside a meeting where a report on the Narragansett Bay, which included a focus on climate change, was to be released in Providence, R.I. The Environmental Protection Agency prohibited three scientists from speaking at the event. (Michelle R. Smith/AP)

The Trump administration’s decision to prevent government scientists from presenting climate change-related research at a conference in Rhode Island on Monday gave the event a suddenly high profile, with protesters outside, media inside and angry lawmakers and academics criticizing the move.

“This type of political interference, or scientific censorship — whatever you want to call it — is ill-advised and does a real disservice to the American public and public health,” Sen. Jack Reed (D), Rhode Island’s senior senator, said at an opening news conference for the State of Narragansett Bay and Its Watershed event in Providence. “We can debate the issues. We can have different viewpoints. But we should all be able to objectively examine the data and look at the evidence.” Continue reading “‘Let us do our job’: Anger erupts over EPA’s apparent muzzling of scientists”

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s claim that the U.S. is ‘leading the world’ in ‘C02 footprint’ reductions

The following article by Nicole Lewis was posted on the Washington Post website October 23, 2017:

Environmental Protection Agency Administer Scott Pruitt boasted of America’s shirking CO2 footprint, but he neglected to mention that the country is also among the world’s highest emitters. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

“We are leading the nation — excuse me — the world with respect to our CO2 footprint in reductions.”
— Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, during an interview on Fox News’s “Your World,” Oct. 17, 2017

“We have reduced our CO2 footprint by over 18 percent, almost 20 percent, from 2000 to 2014.”
— Pruitt, remarks during an interview on Fox News’s “Your World,” Oct. 17

When the host of “Your World” pressed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on his views on climate change, Pruitt dodged the question and instead spoke about President Trump’s reasons for leaving the Paris climate accords. He expressed frustration that “China and India didn’t have to take any steps with CO2 reductions until the year 2030,” before asserting that the United States was a leader in reducing carbon emissions. Continue reading “EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s claim that the U.S. is ‘leading the world’ in ‘C02 footprint’ reductions”

Courts Thwart Administration’s Effort to Rescind Obama-Era Environmental Regulations

The following article by Eric Lipton was posted on the New York Times website October 6, 2017:

Flaring is a technique oil and gas companies use to burn off leaking methane but is blamed for its contributions to climate change. Credit Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The rapid-fire push by the Trump administration to wipe out significant chunks of the Obama environmental legacy is running into a not-so-minor complication: Judges keep ruling that the Trump team is violating federal law.

The latest such ruling came late Wednesday, when a federal magistrate judge in Northern California vacated a move by the Department of Interior to delay compliance with rules curbing so-called flaring, a technique oil and gas companies use to burn off leaking methane. Flaring is blamed for contributing to climate change as well as lost tax revenues because the drilling is being done on federal land. Continue reading “Courts Thwart Administration’s Effort to Rescind Obama-Era Environmental Regulations”

Fancy dinners, far-flung speeches: Calendars detail EPA chief’s close ties to industry

The following article by Brady Dennis and Juliet EIlperin was posted on the Washington Post website October 3, 2017:

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt shakes hands with miners during an April visit to a Consol Pennsylvania Coal Co. mine in Sycamore, Pa. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)

During his seven months in office, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has filled his days meeting with executives from many of the companies he regulates, while all but sidestepping environmental and public health groups. But the face time with industry representatives has extended well beyond his Washington office.

On April 26, for example, Pruitt had lunch with executives from Southern, one of the nation’s biggest coal-burning utilities. They dined at Equinox, a restaurant near the White House, where the baby-carrot-and-red-beet salad with shrimp runs $28. Later that day, Pruitt met with senior leaders at Alliance Resource Partners, a major coal-mining operation, for a dinner at BLT Prime, a steakhouse in the Trump International Hotel, just across from EPA headquarters. Continue reading “Fancy dinners, far-flung speeches: Calendars detail EPA chief’s close ties to industry”

EPA’s Pruitt took charter, military flights that cost taxpayers more than $58,000

The following article by Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin was posted on the Washington Post website September 27, 2017:

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt (second from left) join President Trump during an event in Cincinnati on June 7. Afterward, Pruitt flew by military jet to New York. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has taken at least four noncommercial and military flights since mid-February, costing taxpayers more than $58,000 to fly him to various parts of the country, according to records provided to a congressional oversight committee and obtained by The Washington Post.

“When the administrator travels, he takes commercial flights,” EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman said Wednesday, explaining that the one charter flight and three government flights were due to particular circumstances.

The EPA provided documents that outlined how its Office of General Counsel had given legal authorization for each trip. “The administrator, and any Cabinet secretary, is the face of that agency. They’re very outward facing, and we have an obligation to get out throughout the country,” Bowman said. Continue reading “EPA’s Pruitt took charter, military flights that cost taxpayers more than $58,000”

At EPA, guarding the chief pulls agents from pursuing environmental crimes

The following article by Juliet EIlperin and Brady Dennis was posted on the Washington Post website September 20, 2017:

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Scott Pruitt’s round-the-clock personal security detail, which demands triple the manpower of his predecessors at the Environmental Protection Agency, has prompted officials to rotate in special agents from around the country who otherwise would be investigating environmental crimes.

The EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance has summoned agents from various cities to serve two-week stints helping guard Pruitt in recent months. While hiring in many departments is frozen, the agency has sought an exception to hire additional full-time staff to protect Pruitt. Continue reading “At EPA, guarding the chief pulls agents from pursuing environmental crimes”