Tag Archives: EPA

CONE OF SILENCE: EPA Spends $25K To Build “Secure And Soundproof” Communications Booth For Scott Pruitt

The Washington Post reports: The Environmental Protection Agency is spending nearly $25,000 to construct a secure, soundproof communications booth in the office of Administrator Scott Pruitt, according to government contracting records. The agency signed a $24,570 contract earlier this summer with Acoustical Solutions, a Richmond-based company, for a “privacy booth for the administrator.” The company sells and installs an array …

Read More »

Federal Executive Staffers Take Anti-Leaking Classes

The Associated Press reports: Employees at the Environmental Protection Agency are attending mandatory training sessions this week to reinforce their compliance with laws and rules against leaking classified or sensitive government information. It is part of a broader Trump administration order for anti-leaks training at all executive branch agencies. The Associated Press obtained training materials from the hourlong class. Government …

Read More »

EPA To Roll Back Wastewater Toxic Metals Rules

Poison-free water is for snowflake cucks: The Environmental Protection Agency plans to scrap an Obama-era measure limiting water pollution from coal-fired power plants. A letter from EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt released Monday as part of a legal appeal said he will seek to revise the 2015 guidelines mandating increased treatment for wastewater from steam electric power-generating plants. Acting at the …

Read More »

Federal Court Caves To Trump Administration, Suspends Ruling On Challenge To EPA’s Carbon Emissions Rules

The Associated Press reports: At the Trump administration’s request, a federal appeals court agreed Friday to postpone a ruling on lawsuits challenging Obama-era restrictions on carbon emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency had asked the court to put a hold on the case shortly after President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to roll back the Clean Power Plan. Trump …

Read More »

EPA Chief Continues Climate Change Denials, Claims States Will Pick Up Slack From Gutted Budget [VIDEO]

Raw Story reports: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt faced a grilling from Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday over his climate change denials and plans to do away with scores of environmental regulations. “You think that rewriting and, in fact, doing away with the clean power plan is going to improve air quality, which you say is a major goal?” …

Read More »

US House Votes To Curtail EPA’s Use Of Science

The Hill reports: The House voted Wednesday to restrict the kind of scientific studies and data that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can use to justify new regulations. The Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act, or HONEST Act, passed 228-194. It would prohibit the EPA from writing any regulation that uses science that is not publicly available. It’s …

Read More »

Trump Signs Order Rescinding EPA Regulations [VIDEO]

Reuters reports: U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to undo a slew of Obama-era climate change regulations that his administration says is hobbling oil drillers and coal miners, a move environmental groups have vowed to take to court. The decree’s main target is former President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan that required states to slash carbon …

Read More »

Trump To Sign Order Rescinding EPA Regulations On Climate Change, Allow Coal Mining On Federal Lands

CNN reports: President Donald Trump will sign a sweeping executive order Tuesday at the Environmental Protection Agency, which looks to curb the federal government’s enforcement of climate regulations by putting American jobs above addressing climate change. Tuesday’s order will initiate a review of the Clean Power Plan initiative, rescind the moratorium on coal mining on US federal lands and urge …

Read More »

John Oliver Tees Off On Trump’s Budget [VIDEO]

The Week recaps: “Look, there is nothing wrong with cuts in principle, but with budgets, as with haircuts, it’s where and how you cut that matters,” Oliver said. For example, you don’t slash the EPA, State Department, USAID, public broadcasting, and the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities as a cost-cutting measure — together they make up 1.62 percent …

Read More »

Proposed Trump Budget: Massive Cuts For The Arts, Scientific Research, Programs For The Poor [VIDEO]

The Washington Post reports: President Trump on Thursday will unveil a budget plan that calls for a sharp increase in military spending and stark cuts across much of the rest of the government including the elimination of dozens of long-standing federal programs that assist the poor, fund scientific research and aid America’s allies abroad. Trump’s first budget proposal, which he …

Read More »

EPA Head Denies CO2 Causes Climate Change [VIDEO]

The guy who sued the EPA thirteen times on the bidding of his fossil fuel cronies again denies CO2 causes climate change and people are shocked? CBS News reports: The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said he does not believe that carbon dioxide is a main driver of climate change. “I think that measuring with precision human activity …

Read More »

SWAMP THING: Senate Confirms Climate Change Denier And Big Oil Crony Scott Pruitt To Head EPA

The Washington Post reports: Scott Pruitt, who as Oklahoma’s attorney general spent years suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its efforts to regulate various forms of pollution, was confirmed Friday as the agency’s next administrator. Pruitt cleared the Senate by a vote of 52-46, winning support from two Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. …

Read More »

TRUMP BLOCK: Obama “Permanently” Bans Offshore Drilling Along Most Of Arctic And Atlantic Seaboard

The New York Times reports: President Obama announced on Tuesday what he called a permanent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along wide areas of the Arctic and the Atlantic Seaboard as he tried to nail down an environmental legacy that cannot quickly be reversed by Donald J. Trump. Mr. Obama invoked an obscure provision of a 1953 law, …

Read More »

Climate Change-Denying Big Oil Crony To Head EPA

The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump has selected Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general and a close ally of the fossil fuel industry, to run the Environmental Protection Agency, a transition official said, signaling Mr. Trump’s determination to dismantle President Obama’s efforts to counter climate change. Mr. Pruitt, a Republican, has been a key architect of the …

Read More »

Astroturf Email Of The Day

This just hit my inbox: Dear Fellow Patriot, We need you to take action today to stop the EPA and President Obama from destroying our great nation. Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. are waging a war on affordable energy, and President Obama himself declared he would bankrupt the coal industry. The President has followed through on his promise; this is …

Read More »

A Message From Seamus Romney

(Via Andrew Belonsky)

Read More »

Crazy Eyes: As Your President I Will Abolish The EPA & Destroy Environment

Speaking to an audience of wealthy retirees at an “upscale Florida retirement community,” Michele Bachmann yesterday vowed to dismantle the “jobs killing” EPA and allow energy companies to ravage pristine federally-protected lands. With untapped oil reserves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off the nation’s coasts, shale oil in Western states, and rich natural gas and coal deposits, she …

Read More »

Koch Brothers-Backed House GOP Works To Abolish EPA Rules On Climate Change

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is now chaired and dominated by Republicans funded by the oil industry Koch Brothers, is working to abolish EPA rules designed to reduce climate change. (More billions for the Kochs!) Despite daylong expert scientific testimony, GOP committee members repeatedly denounced the evidence and declared that Democrats want to destroy the nation’s energy supply. …

Read More »

NYC’s Tap Water Isn’t Kosher

Gizmodo reports that NYC’s famously delicious tap water is full of jillions of microscopic shellfish called copepods, rather alarming news for city’s Orthodox, especially as the High Holy Days approach. As NYC’s water supply is of such high quality that the EPA does not require mechanical filtering, the nation’s “leading kosher certification organization” has issued the following instructions: • Tap …

Read More »