Tomorrow, the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee will vote on advancing Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s nomination to the full Senate. But putting a coal lobbyist like Andrew Wheeler in charge of the EPA is like giving a bank robber the keys to the vault, making Tony Soprano the head of the FBI, hiring Palpatine to run the Galactic Senate, or putting the Hamburglar in charge of McDonalds.
A recent Sierra Club FOIA request of Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s emails and calendars show’s he is all too friendly with the industries he is supposed to be regulating. Here is a sampling of the findings from the first batch of newly-released documents:
Baltimore, MD-- Baltimore City Councilmember Kristerfer Burnett (District 8), in partnership with the Sierra Club, introduced a resolution today calling for the Maryland General Assembly to pass, and Governor Hogan to sign, legislation establishing a clear and enforceable commitment to move Maryland beyond coal-fired power and create a Coal Community Transition Fund to support impacted communities and workers. The fund would support investments in job retraining and assistance for those affected, as well as increased investments in clean energy sources that will provide good-paying, local jobs.
WASHINGTON, D.C. --Today, the Trump Administration announced it would withdraw the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia. The INF Treaty is one of the most successful nuclear weapons treaties, achieving the destruction of more than 2, 690 short and medium range missiles. As recently as 2017 the U.S. Department of Defense advised that the U.S. “should not unilaterally withdraw from the INF.”
Las Vegas, NV-- Late yesterday, Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto introduced legislation to protect the state’s Ruby Mountains from potential oil and gas development. According to her staff, the bill would prohibit oil and gas leasing anywhere within the Ruby Mountains Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The bill marks the first piece of federal legislation to safeguard the Rubies-- a unique landscape that is under threat of leasing to fossil fuel development.
Albuquerque, NM -- Today, New Mexico Senators Heinrich and Udall introduced a three-bill package addressing environmental and community concerns related to the border wall. Included in the legislation aimed to protect wildlife, Native American sites and people, one bill would amend the Real ID Act to prohibit the federal government’s ability to waive environmental, health and safety laws to build more border wall.
Today, Georgia Power, the state’s largest utility, filed a new draft long-term energy plan with the state Public Service Commission that calls for the retirement of two of its polluting coal plants and the addition of 1 gigawatt in renewable resources.
BOZEMAN, Mont.– Conservation groups today called on the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee’s Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee to update a decade-old report on grizzly bear conflict prevention after a record number of bears died last year.
This week, Politico reported that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler will not consider federal limits on per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemicals that are fueling a water contamination crisis in hundreds of communities across the country, including in North Carolina. According to the article, “EPA's decision means the chemicals will remain unregulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, according to sources familiar with a still-unreleased draft plan that acting administrator Andrew Wheeler signed off on in late December.” Wheeler also failed to answer questions from Democratic leadership about his plans for regulating the chemical, which is in the bloodstream of an estimated 98% of Americans, and is linked to thyroid and kidney damages, pregnancy complications, as well as cancer.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur announced that she would not be seeking a third term and that she plans to leave the Commission later in 2019.