The Sierra Club and its allies mobilized more than 60 local community leaders from around the country to attend the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) public hearing on coal ash, to demand national clean water protections from coal ash be kept in place. Local leaders from communities polluted by coal ash traveled to D.C. from states including IL, GA, IN, OK, NC, Puerto Rico, and Navajo Nation.
Scandal ridden EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announce today that he is ordering staff to limit their use of scientific studies to those where the underlying data is publicly available, disqualifying the use of long-standing, landmark studies linking air pollution and pesticide exposure to harmful health impacts. These studies had long protected the confidential health information findings were based on which protected patients and scientists. This announcement has long been on polluters’ wishlists since medical science, which generally guarantees the anonymity of patients participating in studies, has repeatedly proven that smog, particulate matter, and heavy metals - all hallmarks of the fossil fuel and chemical industries - can cause death and severe health complications. Pruitt, who has also repeatedly been granted favors and career advancement through his relationship with polluting industries, is seeking to hide medical science from the public which would ordinarily force EPA to develop and enforce new protections against harmful pollution.
Today, Senator Jim Inhofe, a former staunch Scott Pruitt ally, was asked whether Pruitt should resign if the allegations of his abuse of taxpayer funds, illegal spending, and other misconduct are true. Inhofe responded saying it "depends on which ones we are talking about."
A crowd of activists rallied today outside of a meeting of Wells Fargo’s shareholders and executives to call on the bank to drop its financing of dirty and destructive fossil fuel projects.
The walls of Scott Pruitt’s support keep tumbling down. Yesterday, Politico reported that even staunch Pruitt ally Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) is supportive of holding hearings by the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee to look into the former Oklahoma attorney general's actions.
Today, an administrative law judge stopped short of recommending that the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approve all of Enbridge’s requests to build a new tar sands oil pipeline in Northern Minnesota.
The public comment period closed today on an attempt by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to gut a key safeguard that would limit methane pollution and other harmful emissions from oil and gas drilling operations on public lands.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Mike Pompeo’s nomination for Secretary of State. In an unprecedented move, Committee Chairman Bob Corker previously said that he will move Pompeo to the Senate Floor for a confirmation vote, regardless of the committee vote outcome.
Bloomberg is reporting that the White House, has “discouraged lawmakers from vigorously defending” Pruitt.
Embattled Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt again ignored science and announced that burning trees from managed forests will be considered carbon-neutral. This announcement comes in spite of the fact that biomass emits large amounts of carbon dioxide and exacerbates the worst effects of climate change.