Tomorrow, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a full committee hearing on Michael Dourson, Matthew Leopold, David Ross, and William Wehrum, Trump’s nominees to be Assistant Administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as Jeffery Baran, Trump’s nominee to be a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Instead of protecting public health and the environment, a new rule will only serve the coal industry, community members and advocates say. After the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) unreasonable request to delay the long overdue deadline for the final Texas Regional Haze plan, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is doubling down and putting the health of Texas and Oklahoma’s families and public lands at risk for the benefit of Texas coal plants. While claiming to address sulfur dioxide pollution from Texas coal plants, the final rule issued by EPA today actually allows more pollution from these plants than they produced in 2016. By failing to finalize and implement the 2016 proposed plan that required actual pollution reductions in Texas, Administrator Pruitt is putting the interests of polluters over public health in Texas, Oklahoma and across the central United States.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Scott Pruitt’s schedule is packed with meetings with the fossil fuel industry and chemical companies, according to hundreds of pages of his schedule uncovered by open records requests filed by the nonprofit group American Oversight. According to reporting by the New York Times, the revelations “for the first time, create a direct link between Mr. Pruitt’s meetings and actions that the industry wants him to take.” Among the lowlights of Pruitt’s schedule:
OAKLAND, CA -- Last night, the worst mass shooting in modern American history occurred at a music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada. At least 59 people were killed and more than 500 were wounded. The Sierra Club is with all who were affected by this terrible act.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Volkswagen (VW) Settlement Agreement Environmental Mitigation Trust has been approved, starting the process whereby billions of dollars of trust money can be allocated to states for clean transportation efforts. States must identify a lead agency (“Beneficiary”) to supervise the distribution of settlement money no later than Friday, December 1, 2017, which is 60 days after the Environmental Mitigation Trust Effective Date.
Albany, N.Y.— The New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) released a report today identifying two new “areas for consideration” which could host an additional 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind.
Tomorrow morning, as Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan testifies before the US Senate Banking Committee, DC residents will gather outside the Dirksen Senate Office Building to call on elected officials to hold Wells Fargo accountable for financing projects that threaten our communities and climate.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This morning, amid a growing humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico, Donald Trump chose to launch a twitter attack on citizens in Puerto Rico and the Mayor of San Juan from the comforts of his golf club in New Jersey.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price resigned amid scandals over his abuse of private travel funded by taxpayers - abuse mirrored in the travel habits of Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. The Washington Post reported that -- among other taxpayer-funded trips - Zinke booked a $12,000 charter flight on an oil executive’s jet -- a flight that had commercial options available for as cheap as $300. Pruitt meanwhile has already racked up nearly a million dollars in abusive spending since taking office, maintaining a massive personal security detail, an unnecessary soundproof phone booth and nearly $58,000 worth of private chartered and military flights.
Washington, DC - The Senate Budget Committee today released a budget resolution that opens the door to drilling in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and also provides tax cuts to corporate polluters at the expense of public health and communities across the nation.