andrew WHEELER

<div>=</div><div>1018 tag whlr</div><div>epa # 2 --> 1</div><div>
</div><div>see bak new info incl inhofe comm client list</div><div>bak capt 619</div><div>=</div><div>sob --> mofo --> evil on hypocrisy [judges say...?] also asbestos --> furies?</div><div>
</div><div>kid killer on asthma? now neuro-toxin , coal ash</div><div>
</div><div></div><div>see bak mofo</div><div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem6" data-id="6" data-reload-ads="false" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-epa-2647067465.html?rebelltitem=6#rebelltitem6" data-basename="6-pressured-epa-scientists-to-drop-evaluations-of-toxic-chemicals-including-formaldehyde" data-post-id="2647067465" data-published-at="1598221956" data-use-pagination="False"><h3 data-role="headline">6. Pressured EPA Scientists to Drop Evaluations of Toxic Chemicals – Including Formaldehyde</h3>The Trump EPA is undermining the work of independent scientists within the Integrated Risk Information System program, known as IRIS. The program's work is supposed to be impartial and non-political. Its scientific assessments are intended to support the work of other EPA program offices and regional offices. IRIS is a <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/02/03/epa-iris-toxic-chemicals/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">frequent target of chemical industry attacks</a> because its independent safety assessments often don't align with industry objectives.In 2018, the Trump EPA tried to <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3534381/Combined.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">defund</a> the IRIS program. EPA leadership also pressured IRIS to drop critical health assessments. In March 2019, <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/697212.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); outline: none;">a Government Accountability Office report</a> disclosed that EPA leadership directed agency offices to limit the number of chemicals they wanted IRIS to review, and cut in half the number of IRIS's ongoing or upcoming assessments.One of the halted assessments was IRIS's decades-long review of formaldehyde, a widely used chemical and <a href="https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/content/profiles/formaldehyde.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">known human carcinogen</a>. This is surprising because former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt indicated to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in January 2018 that the report was complete and <a href="https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Pruitt%20Letter%20formaldehyde%20assessment.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">ready for release</a>. However, answering <a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2019/01/29/document_pm_02.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">questions for the record</a> following a 2019 Senate hearing, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said formaldehyde was "not a top priority."Instead of releasing the IRIS study on formaldehyde to the public, the EPA has instead decided that the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention – under the leadership of Nancy Beck – should <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-finalizes-list-next-20-chemicals-undergo-risk-evaluation-under-tsca" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; outline: none;">conduct its own assessment</a> of formaldehyde. As with TCE, this action will give the agency an opportunity to distort the science and minimize risks. Because these reviews take years, it will also significantly delay any EPA regulatory action on formaldehyde.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" id="rebelltitem7" data-id="7" data-reload-ads="true" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-epa-2647067465.html?rebelltitem=7#rebelltitem7" data-basename="7-rolled-back-clean-water-protections" data-post-id="2647067465" data-published-at="1598221956" data-use-pagination="False" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 data-role="headline">7. Rolled Back Clean Water Protections</h3></div></div><div> <a href="https://cen.acs.org/environment/pesticides/Atrazine-renewal-moves-forward-US/97/web/2019/12" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://cen.acs.org/environment/pesticides/Atrazine-renewal-moves-forward-US/97/web/2019/12</a>
industryAtrazine renewal moves forward in the USRegulators propose slight changes to widely used herbicideby Britt E. EricksonDECEMBER 20, 2019
The US Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to renew approval of the herbicide atrazine, with a few modifications. The agency claims that the changes will reduce exposure to the chemical, which has been linked to developmental and reproductive toxicity in aquatic organisms and people. Environmental groups, however, argue that the proposed changes will weaken protections for aquatic organisms and human children.Atrazine is a chlorotriazine herbicide widely used on corn, sorghum, and sugarcane in the US to control grasses and broadleaf weeds. The EPA concluded in a draft assessment in 2016 that the pesticide poses reproductive risks to aquatic plants, fish, amphibians, mammals, birds, and reptiles. In a 2018 draft assessment, the agency concluded that cumulative exposure to atrazine from food, drinking water, and residential uses poses reproductive and developmental risks to humans, particularly children.To mitigate the risks to humans, the EPA proposes mandatory spray drift controls and a reduction in the amount of atrazine that can be applied to residential lawns and turf. Environmental groups say that will not be enough to protect children. Instead, they are urging the EPA to ban all residential uses of atrazine.Environmental groups also point out that the EPA’s proposal will allow more atrazine to enter US waterways by increasing the level of concern for aquatic organisms from 10 ppb to 15 ppb. “It’s absolutely shameful that while other countries are banning atrazine, the Trump administration is opening up the tap,” Nathan Donley, a scientist with the advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity, says in a statement. “This disgusting backward step ignores decades of research and will inflict untold damage on people, wildlife and waters across the country.”In contrast, farm groups welcome the proposed changes. “We appreciate the EPA’s proposal to re-register atrazine,” Gary Marshall, CEO of the Missouri Corn Growers Association and chair of the Triazine Network, says in a statement released by the EPA. “This product is tremendously important to farmers across the country, especially for weed control in conservation practices.”
Chemical & Engineering NewsISSN 0009-2347Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society</div><div> =<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trumps-epa-moves-jettison-any-regulation-of-a-chemical-linked-to-child-brain-damage-report/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trumps-epa-moves-jettison-any-regulation-of-a-chemical-linked-to-child-brain-damage-report/</a>no lnxtrump’s EPA moves jettison any regulation of a chemical linked to child brain damage: report[ June 3, 2019: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler speaks at the National Press Club.Written by Julia Conley / Common Dreams May 15, 2020Environmental campaigners vowed to fight President Donald Trump’s EPA Thursday after the agency said it would propose that the rocket-fuel chemical perchlorate does not need to be regulated, despite its links to cognitive damage in fetal and child development.According to the New York Times, the EPA plans to tell the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that it is “not in the public interest” to regulate the chemical at all, a year after the agency recommended the allowable amount in drinking water be limited to 56 parts per billion (ppb).The 2019 proposal was already 10 to 50 times higher than what water safety experts recommend, the Times reported.The new recommendation defies a court order, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said, which was issued in 2018 after the group sued over the Obama administration’s inaction on regulating perchlorate.“EPA’s cynical decision to defy a court order and the law, and to ignore the science that, as the American Academy of Pediatrics has said, dictates a strong perchlorate standard to protect vulnerable kids, is a deeply disturbing violation of the agency’s mission,” Erik Olson of the NRDC told The Hill.“We will fight this,” the organization added on Twitter.NRDC ????@NRDCBREAKING: @EPAAWheeler & Trump’s @EPA are choosing NOT to regulate #perchlorate, a dangerous chemical linked to fetal & infant brain damage and found in the tap water of millions of Americans. This decision ignores science and the law. We will fight this. https://on.nrdc.org/2WyYvgV 
Andrew Wheeler, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, on Capitol Hill in March.E.P.A. Opts Against Limits on Water Contaminant Tied to Fetal DamageA new E.P.A. policy on perchlorate, which is used in rocket fuel, would revoke a 2011 finding that the chemical should be regulated.
nytimes.com1359:56 AM - May 14, 2020Twitter Ads info and privacy105 people are talking about thisThe Obama administration proposed limiting perchlorate, which can interfere with the thyroid gland and hormone production necessary for development, to 15 ppb in 2011. The EPA revealed that same year that between five million and 16 million people in at least 26 states were exposed to toxic levels of perchlorate. People who live near military facilities where the chemical is used in rocket fuel are especially at risk.The Department of Defense and military contractors including Northrup Grumman and Lockheed Martin, which have worked closely with the Trump administration, have spent years fighting regulation of the substance.When former President Barack Obama’s EPA still had not released official regulations on the chemical by 2016, the NRDC filed a lawsuit, resulting in the court order requiring the agency to announce limits by June 2020. The order left the responsibility to regulate perchlorate in the hands of President Donald Trump and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.
Some states have taken matters into their own hands during the delay, limiting perchlorate in drinking water to as low as 2 ppb. The action by states is being used by Trump’s EPA to argue that the chemical now poses little health risk.
The agency’s new draft policy states that monitoring and limiting perchlorate “does not present a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public water systems.”
Food and Water Watch called the EPA’s refusal to regulate the chemical “yet another abdication of duty by those that are entrusted with protecting Americans from needless and preventable harm.”
“It’s also yet another example of Trump and his cronies prioritizing corporate profit above all else—even the health and safety of children,” the group’s media relations director, Seth Gladstone, told Common Dreams. “Shameful does not even begin to describe this president and this administration.”</div><div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/05/epa-decides-reject-latest-science-endanger-public-health-and-ignore-law-keeping-outdated-fine-particle-air-pollution">https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/05/epa-decides-reject-latest-science-endanger-public-health-and-ignore-law-keeping-outdated-fine-particle-air-pollution</a></div><div>
</div><div>no lnx many</div><div>
</div><div><div>EPA Decides to Reject the Latest Science, Endanger Public Health and Ignore the Law by Keeping an Outdated Fine Particle Air Pollution Standard</div><div>
</div><div>By Guest • Tuesday, May 5, 2020 </div><div>
</div><div>By H. Christopher Frey, North Carolina State University</div><div>
</div><div>The COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdown have temporarily produced clearer skies across the U.S. Meanwhile, however, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been busy finding reasons not to pursue long-lasting air quality gains.</div><div>
</div><div>On April 30, 2020, the agency published a proposed new rule that retains current National Ambient Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter without any revisions. It took this action after a five-year review process, in which scientific evidence showed unequivocally that these standards are not adequate to protect public health.</div><div>
</div><div>I have studied air pollution and air quality for over 30 years, and have been directly involved for a decade with EPA’s reviews of scientific findings on air pollution. This includes serving on the agency’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, or CASAC, and on 10 specialized panels focused on individual pollutants.</div><div>
</div><div>As I have written previously, the Trump administration has watered down the role of science in what is supposed to be a science-based process of setting national air quality standards. This new proposal — which I expect will be challenged in court when finalized — is the result.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Recent studies indicate that reducing PM2.5 standards below current levels could avert thousands of premature deaths.</div><div>
</div><div>Fine Particle Air Pollution Is Deadly</div><div>
</div><div>Fine particles, known as PM2.5 because they measure 2.5 microns or less in diameter, can penetrate deeply into the lungs and bloodstream. EPA staff scientists have reaffirmed that daily and annual exposure to PM2.5 causes premature death and a variety of illnesses.</div><div>
</div><div>Scientists have known this for decades, but since the national standard was last revised in 2012, new studies have strengthened these findings. They include an epidemiologic study with the largest ever number of subjects and several that include PM2.5 concentrations well below the current standard.</div><div>
</div><div>EPA’s scientific staff estimates, based on multiple epidemiologic studies, that currently an average of 13,500 to 51,300 people die prematurely each year from breathing fine particles. Although these numbers are uncertain, the likelihood of thousands of deaths per year would typically spur regulators to tighten existing standards. However, EPA’s current political leadership disagrees.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, has asserted that uncertainty around recent studies suggesting that current PM2.5 standards don’t adequately protect public health justifies retaining the current standard. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite</div><div>
</div><div>What the Law Requires</div><div>
</div><div>The Clean Air Act directs the EPA to set air quality standards based on an accurate and thorough review of the latest science. This function is performed by CASAC, which I chaired from 2012 to 2015.</div><div>
</div><div>CASAC has seven members, which isn’t enough to provide the breadth, depth and diversity of expertise, experience and perspectives needed for these complex reviews. Recognizing this, for four decades the EPA has augmented the committee by convening expert review panels for each pollutant. They include scientists with extensive knowledge of epidemiology, toxicology, medicine, air quality, exposure, risk, statistics and other fields. I served on the 20-member CASAC PM Review Panel that was appointed in 2015 to help CASAC review the PM2.5 standard.</div><div>
</div><div>EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler disbanded that panel in October 2018. Wheeler also continued a makeover of CASAC, started by his predecessor, Scott Pruitt, that removed leading researchers from the committee. Now CASAC has no epidemiologists — a key discipline for assessing PM2.5 health effects.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>What Our Expert Panel Recommended</div><div>
</div><div>Realizing that EPA would not otherwise get the science advice it needs, the disbanded PM review panel reconvened itself in October 2019. We found that current fine particle standards are not protective of public health.</div><div>
</div><div>The studies published since 2012 demonstrating that exposure to fine particles causes premature death at concentrations below current standards were key to our decision. We advised the EPA that the annual standard should be reduced from its current level of 12 micrograms per cubic meter to a range of between 10 and 8 micrograms per cubic meter.</div><div>
</div><div>For the 24-hour standard, which regulates short-term air quality spikes, we recommended reducing the limit from the current level of 35 micrograms per cubic meter to between 30 and 25 micrograms per cubic meter. These scientific findings were based on multiple epidemiologic studies, augmented with evidence from controlled experiments with animals and humans.</div><div>
</div><div>Failing to Protect the Public</div><div>
</div><div>Administrator Wheeler claims that recent studies since the last time the standards were revised “do not provide a basis for revising the standards.” Wheeler acknowledges that studies based on long-term exposures below the current standards show “associations” between air quality and premature death. However, he argues that this research does not show a causal relationship. Yet, based on the overall body of evidence, he acknowledges that “a causal relationship exists between long-term PM2.5 exposure and total mortality.” In my view, his rationale is illogical and is inconsistent with the evidence.</div><div>
</div><div>The Clean Air Act requires regulators to set standards that will provide an “adequate margin of safety.” This means that they should be stringent enough to protect sensitive populations, such as older adults, people with preexisting cardiovascular or respiratory diseases and children with asthma.</div><div>
</div><div>The EPA proposal acknowledges that these groups exist, but does not specify how it will protect them from PM2.5 in the air. Wheeler is also silent regarding the role of racial and ethnic differences in exposure and risk, even though a federal court called EPA to task in 2009 for not specifically addressing at-risk groups.</div><div>
</div><div>Preliminary evidence suggests that exposure to particles worsens the effects of COVID-19. While this finding needs peer review and additional study, existing evidence of risk for sensitive populations shows the need for a more protective standard.</div><div>
</div><div>EPA currently faces lawsuits for multiple instances in which it has either sought to weaken, or failed to strengthen, air pollution regulations. They include rolling back motor vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards, failing to implement stringent rules limiting interstate air pollution and repealing the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan to limit carbon emissions from power plants. Unless EPA modifies its position on particle air quality to address the law and the science, I expect that this regulation too will end up in court.</div><div>
</div><div>H. Christopher Frey is Glenn E. Futrell Distinguished University Professor of Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University.</div><div>
</div><div>This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.</div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div></div><div>=</div><div>OMG more evil?</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/holy-crap-this-is-insane-citing-coronavirus-pandemic-epa-indefinitely-suspends-environmental-rules/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/holy-crap-this-is-insane-citing-coronavirus-pandemic-epa-indefinitely-suspends-environmental-rules/</a></div><div>
</div><div><div>no lnx</div><div>
</div><div>‘Holy crap this is insane’: Citing coronavirus pandemic, EPA indefinitely suspends environmental rules</div><div>
</div><div>Royalty-free stock photo ID: 1417570841 Washington, DC/USA - June 3, 2019: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler speaks at the National Press Club.]</div><div>
</div><div>Written by Common Dreams March 28, 2020</div><div>
</div><div>“The EPA uses this global pandemic to create loopholes for destroying the environment. This is a schoolbook example for what we need to start looking out for.”</div><div>
</div><div>The Environmental Protection Agency, headed by former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, announced on Thursday a sweeping and indefinite suspension of environmental rules amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic, a move green groups warned gives the fossil fuel industry a “green light to pollute with impunity.”</div><div>
</div><div>Under the new policy (pdf), which the EPA insisted is temporary while providing no timeframe, big polluters will effectively be trusted to regulate themselves and will not be punished for failing to comply with reporting rules and other requirements. The order—applied retroactively beginning March 13, 2020—requests that companies “act responsibly” to avoid violations.</div><div>
</div><div>“Outrageous. Suspending all environmental regulations indefinitely? This has nothing to do with coronavirus. This has everything to do with protecting Big Business.”</div><div>—Rep. Mark Pocan</div><div>
</div><div>“EPA is committed to protecting human health and the environment, but recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements,” Wheeler said in a statement. “This temporary policy is designed to provide enforcement discretion under the current, extraordinary conditions, while ensuring facility operations continue to protect human health and the environment.”</div><div>
</div><div>Critics, such as youth climate leader Greta Thunberg, accused the Trump administration of exploiting the coronavirus crisis to advance its longstanding goal of drastically rolling back environmental protections.</div><div>
</div><div>“The EPA uses this global pandemic to create loopholes for destroying the environment,” tweeted Thunberg. “This is a schoolbook example for what we need to start looking out for.”</div><div>
</div><div>Cynthia Giles, former head of the EPA’s Office of Enforcement under the Obama administration, told The Hill that the new policy is “essentially a nationwide waiver of environmental rules for the indefinite future.”</div><div>
</div><div>“It tells companies across the country that they will not face enforcement even if they emit unlawful air and water pollution in violation of environmental laws, so long as they claim that those failures are in some way ’caused’ by the virus pandemic,” said Giles. “And it allows them an out on monitoring too, so we may never know how bad the violating pollution was.”</div><div>
</div><div>Holy crap this is insane: The Trump administration just waived enforcement of the EPA’s environmental rules during the coronavirus pandemic for the indefinite future. Obama’s EPA enforcement chief strongly condemned it as an abdication of duty https://t.co/5JLDjeZb5K pic.twitter.com/mTgoiCDyxP</div><div>
</div><div>— Stephen Wolf (@PoliticsWolf) March 27, 2020</div><div>
</div><div>The EPA’s order, for which the oil industry aggressively lobbied, represents the latest effort by the Trump administration to use the coronavirus pandemic to advance right-wing policies that would likely not be permitted—or would at least face greater scrutiny—under normal circumstances.</div><div>
</div><div>As Common Dreams reported last week, the White House is advancing an assault on public-sector unions, xenophobic border policies, and other objectives amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has officially infected more than 85,000 people in the United States as of Friday morning.</div><div>
</div><div>“Outrageous,” tweeted Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in response to the EPA’s new policy. “Suspending all environmental regulations indefinitely? This has nothing to do with coronavirus. This has everything to do with protecting Big Business.”</div></div><div>
</div><div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/superfund-sites-climate-disaster-2641394009.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.ecowatch.com/superfund-sites-climate-disaster-2641394009.html</a></div><div style="font-size: small;"><div class="widgetbrief" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">climate crisis</a> has put at least 945 designated toxic waste sites at severe risk of disaster from escalating wildfires, floods, rising seas and other climate-related disasters, according to a new <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/702158.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">study</a> from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), as the <a href="https://apnews.com/dc5ac3832512435cb863897b5c1a0fe6" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">AP reported</a>.</div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); transition: all 350ms ease 0s; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;">The country's most contaminated spots that pose an imminent threat to human health or the environment are designated Superfund sites. That means cleaning them up is a national priority. The EPA has identified more than 500 contaminants at Superfund sites, including arsenic, lead and mercury.</div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); transition: all 350ms ease 0s; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;">...</div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); transition: all 350ms ease 0s; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;">
</div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="transition: all 350ms ease 0s; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;">However, the GAO found that efforts to secure the toxic waste have weakened as the Trump administration plays down their threat, according to the <a href="https://apnews.com/dc5ac3832512435cb863897b5c1a0fe6" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">AP</a>.<div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem3" data-id="3" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/superfund-sites-climate-disaster-2641394009.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3" data-basename="particle-3" style="">Senate Democrats responded to the <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-73" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">report</a> in a letter to the EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler demanding an explanation for agency leaders' "failure to embrace addressing climate change as a strategic objective," according to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/11/18/about-percent-superfund-sites-could-be-hit-by-climate-change-new-government-report-finds/" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Washington Post</a>.</div><div class=" rebellt-item is--desktop col1" id="rebelltitem2" data-id="2" data-is-image="False" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/superfund-sites-climate-disaster-2641394009.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" data-basename="particle-2" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"We believe that EPA's refusal to implement GAO's recommendations could result in real harm to human health and the environment as the effects of climate change become more frequent and intense," the lawmakers wrote to Wheeler, as the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/11/18/about-percent-superfund-sites-could-be-hit-by-climate-change-new-government-report-finds/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Washington Post</a> reported.The GAO <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-73" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">report</a> looked at 1,571 Superfund sites and found that six out of 10 are vulnerable to extreme weather caused by the climate crisis. The GAO produced an <a href="https://www.gao.gov/multimedia/GAO-20-73/interactive/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">interactive map</a> that shows each of the 945 vulnerable sites. It is color-coded to show if the site is threatened by wildfires, hurricanes, storm surge, sea-level rise, or coastal and river flooding, as <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/18/20970979/climate-change-epa-superfund-sites-gao-toxic-pollution" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">the Verge</a> reported.The <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-20-73" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">study</a> recommended that the EPA start incorporating the climate crisis into its decision making for toxic waste sites and its risk assessments for the Superfund sites....</div></div></div></div><div>=icn 11191119<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04112019/trump-war-california-auto-standards-environment-violations-justice-department-wildfires">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04112019/trump-war-california-auto-standards-environment-violations-justice-department-wildfires</a>As fierce Santa Ana winds whipped the wildfires outside of Los Angeles, stirring exactly the kind of infernos that scientists expect in a hotter, drier California, President Donald Trump was gloating over the new allies he has won in his epic battle to block that state's efforts to fight climate change.California has been a world innovator in crafting environmental policy, and its pioneering approach to the difficult issue of carbon emissions from cars helped put the United States on course to cleaner, more efficient vehicles. But a multi-pronged assault by the Trump administration now seeks both to hobble California's climate efforts and to shred the state's reputation as an environmental leader.In its latest move, the Trump administration doubled down on <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18092019/trump-auto-standards-rollback-california-waiver-electric-vehicles-climate-change" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">its fight to eliminate the state's carbon emissions rules</a> for vehicles. It had already revoked California's authority to set higher standards. Now it was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/climate/general-motors-toyota-emissions-white-house.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">pressuring carmakers</a> to take its side in California's lawsuit over the move. When GM, Fiat Chrysler and Toyota made the surprise decision to comply last week,Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1189592785311223815?s=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">tweeted</a>: "California has treated the Auto Industry very poorly for many years, harming Workers and Consumers. We are fixing this problem!"The attack isn't just on auto standards. On Sunday, Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1190995034163892226?s=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">tweeted </a>a threat to cut U.S. aid for fighting California wildfires, reiterating his previous <a href="https://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2018/nov/12/donald-trump/trumps-overly-simplistic-and-false-claim-californi/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">false </a>claim that they are due to the state (which owns of just 2 percent of the forest land within its borders) failing to "clean" its forest floor. Trump's Justice Department sued the state a week earlier, arguing that California exceeded its authority when it launched a cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec to lower fossil fuel emissions.At the same time, Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has threatened to use its authority under the Clean Air Act to withdraw federal highway funds from the state over air pollution, and to initiate enforcement action for water pollution violations. In a flourish, the EPA blamed the latter on human waste and needles from homeless people in San Francisco.Those warnings, issued directly from the desk of EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, were at odds with the agency's hands-off approach under Trump. At a time when EPA is weakening environmental standards on both air and water pollution and enforcement activity is at its <a href="https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/enforcement-annual-results-fiscal-year-2018" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">lowest level in a decade</a>, the agency was invoking one of the most severe penalties available, for a state that has <a href="http://www.capradio.org/articles/2015/08/05/san-joaquin-valley-hits-air-quality-milestone/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">invested billions</a> in improved air quality and has among the best compliance records in the nation on water pollution.California's governor has called the moves "<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-california/trump-epa-blasts-california-air-quality-threatens-to-withdraw-highway-funds-idUSKBN1W91ZO" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">pure retaliation</a>," while former federal officials say that the unusual nature of the enforcement actions, and the management of the cases by top Trump appointees in Washington, reeks of political score-settling.Together, the Trump administration's actions try to deliver the message that California is a laggard in addressing visible air pollution and sewage, and that the state's aggressive focus on global warming is a misguided distraction at best.But the Trump administration's California narrative falls apart with a cursory review of the science and the state's record as a national leader in environmental protection. And it remains to be seen whether it has the legal arguments to persuade the courts, which will have the final say.<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">How Did We Get Here?</h3>This is not the first time that politicians have sought to caricature California as a victim of its own progressive policies.Former Vice President Dick Cheney <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/01/us/cheney-promotes-increasing-supply-as-energy-policy.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">famously used </a>California's electricity crisis of 2001 as a pretext for expanded U.S. oil and natural gas production. Only later did it become clear that California's power shortages were created, not by conservation-oriented policies, but by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/04/us/tapes-show-enron-arranged-plant-shutdown.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">profit-hungry energy traders like Enron</a> who took advantage of the state's experiment with deregulation.The same administration also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/washington/20epa-web.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">sought to block</a> California's effort to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles, but the auto industry's collapse in 2008 forced it into the arms of the federal government for help. President Barack Obama's administration brokered an historic $80.7 billion bailout of the carmakers, which included an agreement to put California's standards into effect nationwide. It forced a gradual fleet-wide improvement in fuel economy that by 2025 would have cut 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide, the biggest step any nation has taken to reduce greenhouse gases.Soon after Trump was elected, the carmakers <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4954121-Auto-Alliance-Letter-to-Trump-Transition.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">sought to partially undo that deal</a>—they still wanted a nationwide standard, but more flexibility. The Trump administration, however, sought a head-on battle with California that the automakers had long said they hoped to avoid.Launching such a war runs counter to the Trump administration's stated goal of giving more environmental authority to the states. Just last month, for example, the Trump EPA <a href="https://www.kxnet.com/news/state-news/north-dakota-epa-agree-to-let-nd-companies-self-report-minor-violations/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">delegated increased authority</a> to North Dakota for oversight of oil and gas sites, and waste facilities, and power plants. But EPA Administrator Wheeler has portrayed California as a different case—a rogue state that needed to be reined in.[long] see bak 2...<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">California's Environmental Record</h3>Although the allegations by the Trump administration each contain a grain of truth, they paint a misleading picture of California's record on clean air and water.California does indeed have the largest backlog of Clean Air Act implementation plans, but that is in part because the state has 35 regional authorities responsible for pollution regulation. In many of the backlogged cases, California is <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6535947-Carb-Response-Letter-to-Epa.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">awaiting EPA action </a>on proposed implementation plans, state authorities pointed out in a letter to Wheeler.As the nation's most populous state and the largest by far in the size of its economy (by GDP it is larger than <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-california-economy-gdp-20180504-story.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">all but four nations</a>), California indeed has more metropolitan areas than any other state that <a href="https://www3.epa.gov/airquality/greenbook/jncty.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">fail to meet</a> the national air quality standard for smog. But California, so prone to poor air quality in the valleys between its coastlines and mountain ranges, has been ahead of the nation in setting standards to control air pollution, greatly reducing it over the past 50 years."California historically has had the worst air quality in the nation," said Paul Billings, senior vice president for advocacy for the American Lung Association. "Also, since the late 1950s, no state has done more to reduce air pollution than the state of California. And they have done it as their population and economy have grown."Ironically, the greenhouse gas standards that Trump is seeking to overturn would have the benefit of further improving urban air quality. The rules are designed to drive greater adoption of electric cars, which would further reduce the fossil fuel pollutants that are precursors to smog.The Trump administration's attacks belie its stated concern on clean air, argues Billings. "It seems to be politically motivated and about scoring points in some game and not about trying to improve the air quality in California," he said.The threat to withhold federal highway funds from California was a shock for those familiar with EPA history, since that is a <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/97-959ENR.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">rarely imposed</a> nuclear option in Clean Air Act enforcement."Sanctions are appropriate when a state is basically refusing to do what the law requires," said Janet McCabe, who served as acting assistant administrator in charge of the air pollution program at EPA during the Obama administration. "Almost all the time, states are working very hard to implement their responsibilities under the Clean Air Act. It's hard, and it takes a long time. As long as a state is working in good faith, I would say that is not a sanction situation."Similarly, the EPA's allegations and threatened action against California on water pollution run counter to the administration's hands-off approach. EPA enforcement actions, inspections and penalties all are at their <a href="https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/enforcement-annual-results-fiscal-year-2018" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">lowest levels in a decade</a> under the Trump administration. Moreover, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6535940-Giles-Letter-to-Administrator-Wheeler-9-30-19.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">45 states</a> have a higher percentage of water systems or dischargers in significant violation of federal water standards than California, according to an analysis of EPA's own data by Cynthia Giles, a guest fellow at Harvard Law School who headed the EPA enforcement office during the Obama administration."You target California despite the fact that California has one of the best compliance records in the country," Giles said in a letter to Wheeler.<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Political Appointees Spearheading Attacks</h3>The EPA notice of violation to San Francisco came only days after the city's water board adopted a more stringent water treatment permit, aimed at eliminating discharges of partially treated wastewater to the ocean. The EPA and California authorities had been working together on an enforcement action on San Francisco's sewage system, but the EPA dropped the joint effort. "This development is confounding, and contrary to [a] long history of productive state-federal cooperative enforcement," California Environmental Protection Secretary Jared Blumenfeld wrote in <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6535943-Letter-to-US-EPA-Administrator-Wheeler-10-25-19.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">an Oct. 25 letter</a> to Wheeler. Wheeler had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/15/climate/epa-trump-california.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">reportedly bypassed</a> the EPA's West Coast team to handle the actions against California from headquarters in Washington, D.C.Likewise, the Justice Department action seeking to dismantle California's cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec is being advanced by an <a href="https://legal-planet.org/2019/10/29/looking-into-usdojs-lawsuit-to-dismantle-the-california-quebec-greenhouse-gas-cap-and-trade-linkage-program/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">unusually limited team of lawyers</a>, pointed out Sean Hecht, a former deputy attorney general for California who is co-executive director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the University of California, Los Angeles, Law School.That case is being led by Trump's appointee to Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division, Jeffrey Bossert Clark, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06062017/trump-names-bp-oil-spill-lawyer-climate-policy-foe-top-doj-environment-attorney" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">a</a><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06062017/trump-names-bp-oil-spill-lawyer-climate-policy-foe-top-doj-environment-attorney" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">former lawyer for oil giant BP</a> who has characterized Obama-era greenhouse gas regulation as "reminiscent of kind of a Leninistic program." Only members of Clark's own team are listed on the case. It doesn't list members of the civil division of the Justice Department, who would ordinarily handle foreign treaty or compact cases, nor personnel from the local U.S. Attorney's office."The idea the case 'isn't political' seems fanciful," <a href="https://legal-planet.org/2019/10/29/looking-into-usdojs-lawsuit-to-dismantle-the-california-quebec-greenhouse-gas-cap-and-trade-linkage-program/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Hecht wrote</a> on UCLA and Berkeley's<a href="https://legal-planet.org/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;"> Legal Planet blog</a>.Newsom, a Democrat, has described the Trump administration's moves as "<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-california/trump-epa-blasts-california-air-quality-threatens-to-withdraw-highway-funds-idUSKBN1W91ZO" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">pure retaliation</a>" against a state that has sued the Trump administration <a href="https://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2019/sep/25/xavier-becerra/california-really-winning-court-against-trump-admi/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">60 times</a>. Nearly <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2019-10-10/former-epa-officials-trump-versus-california-pollution" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">600 former EPA officials</a> also signed a letter to the House Committees on Oversight and Government Reform and Energy and Commerce calling for a probe into whether the agency's recent actions were improper uses of its authority to punish a state for opposing Trump's political agenda.California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris have asked the <a href="https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=64182EE9-0148-419A-BE58-5D41BF5D9581" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">EPA inspector general for an investigation</a> into "whether the White House pressured the agency to abuse its law enforcement authority to single out California and the city of San Francisco." San Francisco is home to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat who is now presiding over Trump's impeachment inquiry.<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Turning to the Courts</h3>It will likely be the courts that decide the outcome of the Trump administration's battles with California. And on the state's greenhouse gas emissions standards for autos, the legal hurdle that the Trump administration faces is high.=
</div><div><div> </div><div>
</div><div><span style="color: rgb(25, 31, 36); font-family: Roboto, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The Environmental Protection Agency is slated to roll back key Obama-era regulations to protect waterways near coal-fired power plants from being flooded with toxic coal ash today. Coal ash contains mercury, arsenic and other toxic chemicals. Food & Water Watch has vowed to sue the Trump administration over the rollback of the rules, which it says would “lead directly to more water contamination,<span style="color: rgb(25, 31, 36); font-family: Roboto, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> more birth defects, more childhood cancer<span style="color: rgb(25, 31, 36); font-family: Roboto, " helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> and more pain and suffering for American families — all for the sake of a dirty industry’s last grasp at profits.”</div><div>=</div></div><div></div><div><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07082019/oil-executive-mcqueen-appointed-epa-region-administrator-texas-new-mexico-louisiana-oklahoma-arkansas-tribes">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07082019/oil-executive-mcqueen-appointed-epa-region-administrator-texas-new-mexico-louisiana-oklahoma-arkansas-tribes</a></div><div>
</div><div>swamp thing xl</div><div><div>=</div><div>ew 719</div><div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2639209982" style="margin-top: -15px; line-height: 1.5;"><div class="body-description" style="clear: both;"> Elliott NeginOn July 8, President Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/politics/trump-environment-climate-change.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">hosted</a> a White House event to unabashedly tout his truly abysmal environmental record. The following day, coincidentally, marked the one-year anniversary of Andrew Wheeler at the helm of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), first as acting administrator and then as administrator after the Senate confirmed him in late February.The good news, if there is any, is that Wheeler is an Eagle Scout compared to his <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-25/here-s-a-scorecard-of-the-scott-pruitt-investigations-quicktake" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">ethically challenged</a> predecessor, Scott Pruitt. The bad news is, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/climate/wheeler-epa-pruitt.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">as predicted</a>, Wheeler has been more effective than Pruitt in rolling back and eliminating EPA safeguards.My organization, the Union of Concerned Scientists, has compiled a <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/center-science-and-democracy/state-of-science-trump-era" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">list</a> of 80 Trump administration attacks on science since taking office, and Wheeler has been the driving force behind many of them. Below are 10 of the more egregious ways he has undermined the EPA's time-honored role to protect public health and the environment so far.<div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="1" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center;">1. Sidelined Scientists</h3>Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, has taken a number of steps to systematically reduce the role of scientists in the agency's policymaking process. Last fall, for example, he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/climate/epa-science-adviser.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">eliminated</a> the agency's Office of the Science Advisor, which counseled the EPA administrator on research supporting health and environmental standards, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/climate/epa-etzel-children-health-program.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">placed</a> the head of the EPA's Office of Children's Health Protection on administrative leave. He also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/climate/epa-disbands-pollution-science-panel.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">disbanded</a> a 20-member scientific advisory committee on particulate matter, or soot; <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060102455" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">failed</a> to convene a similar panel on ozone; and <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060102455" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5; background-color: initial;">packed</a> a seven-member advisory committee on air quality standards with industry-friendly participants.
</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="2" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem2" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center;">2. Proposed to Restrict the Use of Scientific Data</h3>Claiming his intent is to increase "transparency," Wheeler is promoting a rule Pruitt proposed that would dramatically limit the scientific studies the agency considers when developing health standards. If adopted, the rule would restrict the use of scientific studies in EPA decisions if the underlying data are not public and reproducible, which would disqualify many epidemiological and other health studies the EPA relies on to set science-based public safeguards. Given that EPA health standards often rely on studies that contain private patient information, as well as confidential business information that cannot be revealed, the rule would significantly hamper the agency's ability to carry out its mission. Wheeler <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/421479-epa-to-pursue-final-science-transparency-rule-in-2019" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">plans</a> to finalize the rule sometime this year.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="3" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem3" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center;">3. Gutted the Coal Ash Rule</h3>The first major <a href="https://www.epa.gov/coalash/coal-ash-rule" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">rule</a> Wheeler signed as acting administrator refuted his claim that he could fulfill President Trump's <a href="https://www.apnews.com/0012648e385d41f481f0af20a90f0666" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">directive</a> to "clean up the air, clean up the water, and provide regulatory relief" at the same time. By rolling back the Obama-era coal ash rule, Wheeler provided regulatory relief to his old friend the coal industry by weakening environmental protections established in 2015 to clean up coal ash ponds, which are laced with toxic contaminants that leak into groundwater. The move was a <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060083703" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">top priority</a> for coal baron Bob Murray, owner of Murray Energy, Wheeler's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/epas-acting-administrator-has-long-lobbying-record-on-issues-before-the-agency/2018/07/05/a591cd40-6a6b-11e8-bea7-c8eb28bc52b1_story.html?utm_term=.07ea8ecca216" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">most lucrative client</a> when he worked for the Faegre Baker Daniels law firm.Coal-fired power plants have been dumping this residue from burning coal into giant, unlined pits for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/07/02/us/ap-us-coal-ash-liability.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">decades</a>. According to the EPA, there are more than <a href="https://www.epa.gov/coalash/frequent-questions-about-2015-coal-ash-disposal-rule#3" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">1,000 coal ash disposal sites</a> across the country, and a recent <a href="https://www.environmentalintegrity.org/news/first-comprehensive-national-study-of-coal-ash-pollution-finds-widespread-groundwater-contamination/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">analysis</a> by Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project found that 91 percent of the coal plants filing monitoring data required by the 2015 rule are polluting water with unsafe levels of toxic contaminants. Wheeler's EPA <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-finalizes-first-amendments-coal-ash-disposal-regulations-providing-flexibilities" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">says</a> the new rule—which extends the deadline for closing some leaking ash ponds and allows states to suspend groundwater monitoring and set their own standards—will save utilities as much as $31 million. But the agency ignored the enormous costs of cancer and neurological and cardiovascular diseases <a href="https://www.psr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/coal-ash-hazardous-to-human-health.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">linked</a> to coal ash ingredients, which include arsenic, chromium, lead and mercury.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="4" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center;">4. Recommended Unsafe Levels of Drinking Water Contaminants</h3>Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are used in firefighting foam and a variety of nonstick, cleaning, packaging and other household products, have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/23/pfas-everyday-products-toxics-guide" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">linked</a> to thyroid disease and kidney, liver, pancreatic and testicular cancer. According to a recent <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drinking-water-may-contain-pfas-chemicals-in-43-states-according-to-new-study-by-environmental-working-group/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">study</a> by the Environmental Working Group and Northeastern University, these chemicals threaten the drinking water supplies of an estimated 19 million Americans. A 2018 Union of Concerned Scientists <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/center-science-and-democracy/preserving-science-based-safeguards/toxic-threat-pfas-contamination-military-bases" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">report</a>, meanwhile, found that PFAS water contamination at 130 military bases across the country exceed the 11-parts-per-trillion safety threshold determined by the Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Nearly two-thirds of the sites had contamination that was more than 100 times higher than the safe level.In February, Wheeler <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-acting-administrator-announces-first-ever-comprehensive-nationwide-pfas-action-plan" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">announced</a> the "first-ever nationwide action plan" to regulate PFAS chemicals in water, saying the agency would develop and set a limit for two of the most prevalent PFAS chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid. During the announcement, he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/14/politics/epa-pfas-water-plan/index.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">told</a> reporters he believes the agency's voluntary 70-part-per-trillion health-advisory level for the chemicals is "a safe level for drinking water," despite the fact that this level is more than six times higher than what the Disease Registry considers safe.While Wheeler slow-walks the EPA's response, members of Congress have introduced at least a <a href="https://saferchemicals.org/2019/05/29/communities-call-on-congress-to-act-on-pfas/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">dozen</a>bills to address PFAS contamination, and the <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/450706-senate-vote-requires-military-epa-to-deal-with-harmful-forever" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Senate recently passed</a> a defense bill that would require the EPA to set a science-based standard for PFAS in drinking water.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="5" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem5" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center;">5. Rolled Back Clean Water Act Protections</h3>Clearing up a decade-long dispute over the scope of the Clean Water Act, the Obama EPA <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/us/obama-epa-clean-water-pollution.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">adopted</a> a broad, science-based definition of the law that included protecting intermittent and ephemeral streams and wetlands that do not have surface water connections to other waterways. A <a href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/risk/recordisplay.cfm?deid=296414" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">2015 EPA meta-analysis</a> of more than 1,200 peer-reviewed studies concluded that even infrequently flowing small streams and isolated wetlands can affect "the integrity of downstream waters." Trash them and that pollution could wind up in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and estuaries.Regardless, Wheeler <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-and-army-propose-new-waters-united-states-definition" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">announced</a> plans during a December telephone press briefing to reverse the Obama EPA definition of waters protected by the Clean Water Act, a thinly disguised gift to land developers and the agriculture industry. When asked what wetlands would no longer be protected, Wheeler <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060109323/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">replied</a>, "We have not done … a detailed mapping of all the wetlands in the country." Likewise, EPA Office of Water head David Ross—who <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060058019" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">represented industry clients</a> against the EPA before joining the Trump administration—<a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060109323/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">told</a> reporters on the call that the agency had no idea how many streams would be dropped from Clean Water Act protection under the proposal.In fact, Wheeler and Ross were well aware of the damage their new definition would do. At least 18 percent of streams and 51 percent of wetlands across the country would not be covered under their proposed definition, according to an internal 2017 <a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2018/12/11/document_gw_05.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">slideshow</a> prepared by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers and <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060109323" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">obtained by E&E News</a> under the Freedom of Information Act.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="6" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem6" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center;">6. Suppressed an Inconvenient Formaldehyde Report</h3>Last August, Wheeler disingenuously told a Senate committee that the EPA was holding up the release of a report on the risk of cancer from formaldehyde to confirm its veracity. "I am sure we will release it," he <a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/cache/files/a/f/afffe2f0-6008-4c2a-af13-87d1cb26d6be/7564C79E99E118F3853D747150119932.spw-080118.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">said</a>, "but I need to make sure that the science in the report is still accurate."In fact, the report—which concluded that formaldehyde can cause leukemia and nose and throat cancer—was completed by EPA scientists a year before Wheeler testified, according to <a href="https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Pruitt%20Letter%20formaldehyde%20assessment.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">a Senate investigation</a>, and their conclusion was hardly a surprise. Both the World Health Organization's <a href="https://monographs.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/mono100F-29.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">International Agency for Research on Cancer</a> and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services <a href="https://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsroom/releases/2011/june10/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">National Toxicology Program</a> have already classified formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen.The EPA's review process normally takes <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/climate/epa-mercury-emissions.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">60 to 90 days</a>. The formaldehyde report has been in limbo for at least a year and a half, a blatant giveaway to the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/toxic-influence-how-a-che_b_8307272" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">American Chemistry Council</a>, the U.S. chemical industry's premier trade association, which has <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/sowing-uncertainty-about-science-formaldehyde-decades" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">blocked tighter restrictions</a> on formaldehyde for decades.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="7" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem7" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center;">7. Ignored EPA Scientists’ Advice to Ban Asbestos</h3>Instead of <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/815-e-p-a-memos-on-asbestos/12c87a96be998db10048/optimized/full.pdf#page=1" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">heeding the advice</a> of agency scientists and lawyers to follow the example of <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y5x2k32p" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">55 other countries</a> and ban asbestos completely, the EPA <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-strengthens-regulation-asbestos-close-loophole-and-protect-consumers" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">announced</a> in April that it would tighten restrictions on asbestos—not ban it—despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its dangers. Manufacturers will be able to continue to use the substance if they obtain EPA approval.Asbestos has not been produced in the United States <a href="https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/risk-evaluation-asbestos-0" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">since 2002</a>, but is still imported for use in a wide range of commercial and consumer products, including auto brake components, roofing, vinyl floor tile, fire-resistant clothing, and cement pipes, sheets and shingles. One of the deadliest known carcinogens, asbestos kills <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180416005884/en/ADAO-Announces-New-Findings-Show-Asbestos-Related-Deaths" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">nearly 40,000</a> Americans annually, mainly from lung cancer.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="8" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem8" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center;">8. Weakened the Mercury Emissions Rule</h3>In late December, the EPA proposed to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/climate/mercury-coal-pollution-regulations.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">significantly weaken</a> a rule restricting mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants by recalculating its costs and benefits. The Obama EPA, which issued the rule in 2011, estimated it would cost utilities <a href="https://www.epa.gov/mats/regulatory-actions-final-mercury-and-air-toxics-standards-mats-power-plants" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">$7.4 billion to $9.6 billion</a> annually to install pollution controls and lead to <a href="https://www.epa.gov/mats/healthier-americans#impacts" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">$37 billion to $90 billion</a> in health benefits by reducing not only mercury, a potent neurotoxin, but also sulfur dioxide and soot, thus preventing 130,000 asthma attacks, 4,700 heart attacks, and as many as 11,000 premature deaths. The Wheeler EPA ignored the "co-benefits" of limiting sulfur dioxide and soot, and flagrantly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/climate/mercury-coal-pollution-regulations.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">lowballed</a> the health benefits of curbing mercury alone at only $4 million to $6 million annually.Most utilities have already complied with the mercury rule at <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y5885qy4" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">a fraction of the estimated cost</a>, but health advocates fear that this new, industry-friendly accounting method, which makes it appear that the cost to polluters far outweigh the rule's benefits, will <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/12/28/epa-make-it-harder-tighten-mercury-rules-future/?utm_term=.84be4559d80d" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">set a precedent</a> for the EPA to sabotage an array of other public health protections.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="9" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem9" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center;">9. Slammed Vehicle Emission Rules Into Reverse</h3>Last August, the EPA and the Transportation Department <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2018/08/02/trump-epa-fuel-economy-standards/887683002/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">issued</a> a proposal to freeze vehicle tailpipe pollution and fuel efficiency standards, rolling back a 2012 Obama-era rule requiring automakers to boost passenger vehicle fuel economy to a fleetwide average of 54 miles per gallon by 2025. In a Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/make-cars-great-again-1533170415" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">opinion piece</a> titled "Make Cars Great Again" published a few days before the two agencies announced their proposal, Wheeler and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao charged that the Obama-era standards—the first to limit vehicle carbon emissions—are too burdensome for automakers and "raised the cost and decreased the supply of newer, safer vehicles."Parroting the Trump administration's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/climate/trump-fuel-economy.html?module=inline" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">line of reasoning</a>, Wheeler and Chao argued that fuel-efficient cars—which weigh less than gas-guzzlers—are not as safe, a contention that has been widely <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/climate/trump-fuel-economy.html?module=inline" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">debunked</a>. In fact, a 2017 <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w23340" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">study</a> concluded that reducing the average weight of new vehicles could result in fewer traffic fatalities.In any case, freezing the standards at 2020 levels would be hard on the planet, not to mention Americans' wallets, <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/dave-cooke/new-epa-administrator-same-bad-idea-car-standard-rollbacks-would-be-awful" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">according to</a> the Union of Concerned Scientists. It would result in an additional 2.2 billion metric tons of global warming emissions by 2040, amounting to 170 million metric tons in 2040 alone—the equivalent of the annual output of 43 average size coal-fired power plants. It also would cost drivers billions of dollars. In 2040 alone, they would have to pay an additional $55 billion to fill their gas tanks. Meanwhile, the design improvements automakers have made so far to meet the standards have already saved drivers more than <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/fuel-economy-ticker?ga=2.130369487.1908070918.1561988567-899698819.1546975208" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">$86 trillion</a> at the pump since 2012, and off-the-shelf technological fixes, the Union of Concerned Scientists says, would enable automakers to meet the original 2025 target.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="10" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem10" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center;">10. Rescinded the Clean Power Plan</h3>Perhaps Wheeler's most damaging move to date came late last month when he <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/6/19/18684054/climate-change-clean-power-plan-repeal-affordable-emissions" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">signed</a> a final rule to repeal and replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would have required coal-fired power plants to dramatically cut their carbon emissions. Yet another gift to the coal industry, Wheeler's so-called Affordable Clean Energy rule grants states the authority to determine emissions standards but sets no targets, leaving them the option to do absolutely nothing.Before Wheeler released the final rule, an April <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aafe25" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">study</a> in the journal Environmental Research Letters found that his draft version would boost carbon emissions in 18 states and the District of Columbia and increase sulfur dioxide emissions in 19 states. The EPA's own <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/climate/epa-coal-pollution-deaths.html?module=inline" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">analysis</a> of the draft rule, meanwhile, found that the proposal could have led to as many as 1,400 premature deaths annually by 2030 due to an increase in soot, and as many as 15,000 cases of upper respiratory problems.</div><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-id="11" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem11" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 style="display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: center;">Reversing Decades of Bipartisan Protections</h3>If Wheeler truly cared about transparency, he would petition the Trump administration to change the name of his agency to "Every Polluter's Ally." In just 12 months, he has killed or weakened dozens of safeguards with the sole intention of bolstering polluting industries' profit margins even after Congress slashed the corporate tax rate. As a result, millions of Americans will be drinking filthier water and breathing dirtier air, and more will suffer from serious diseases, according to his agency's own accounting.Wheeler and his predecessor Pruitt have sullied the bipartisan track record of one of the nation's agencies entrusted with protecting public health and safety. So it is little wonder that three former EPA administrators who, notably, served under Republican presidents, recently <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11062019/epa-climate-change-anti-science-rebuke-gop-former-administrators-thomas-whitman-reilly-mccarthy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">sounded the alarm</a> on Capitol Hill, urging legislators to step up their oversight of the agency and denouncing its attempts to hamstring science."There is no doubt in my mind that under the current administration the EPA is retreating from its historic mission to protect our environment and the health of the public from environmental hazards," former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, who served under President George W. Bush, stated in her <a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/sites/democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/files/documents/Testimony%20-%20Todd%20Whitman%2020190611.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">written testimony</a> for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. "This administration, from the beginning, has made no secret of its intention to essentially dismantle the EPA…. Therefore, I urge this committee, in the strongest possible terms, to exercise Congress's oversight responsibilities over the actions and direction of the EPA."</div>This article was produced by <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute, and originally published by <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/10-ways-andrew-wheeler-has-decimated-epa-protections-in-just-one-year/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Truthout</a>.Elliott Negin is a senior writer at the <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>.<div class="post-pager js-listicle-pager" data-async_load_parameters="platform=desktop&display_ads=1&settings=%7B%22enter_url%22%3A+false%2C+%22no_post_section%22%3A+false%2C+%22ads_breaks%22%3A+null%2C+%22prevent_last_break_repetition%22%3A+false%2C+%22use_numeration%22%3A+false%2C+%22ads_order%22%3A+%5B%5D%2C+%22pagination_order%22%3A+%5B%5D%2C+%22list_breaks%22%3A+null%2C+%22reorder_voting%22%3A+false%2C+%22cooldown_in_seconds%22%3A+null%2C+%22source%22%3A+%22post_listicle_settings%22%2C+%22next_post_url%22%3A+null%2C+%22up_down_voting%22%3A+false%2C+%22show_columns_on_mobile%22%3A+false%2C+%22numeration_sort%22%3A+-1%2C+%22use_pagination%22%3A+false%2C+%22body_text_above%22%3A+false%2C+%22use_ads%22%3A+false%2C+%22items_as_posts%22%3A+false%2C+%22multiple_answers%22%3A+false%2C+%22no_redirect%22%3A+false%2C+%22is_guest_voting_allowed%22%3A+true%2C+%22layout_type%22%3A+1%7D" data-listicle-style="" style="display: table; width: 780px;"></div><div class="tags" style="margin: 20px 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">epa</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/andrew-wheeler" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">andrew wheeler</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/environment" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">environment</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">donald trump</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scott-pruitt" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">scott pruitt</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">fossil fuels</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pollution" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">pollution</a> <a class="tagsitem" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/health" style="text-decoration-line: none; margin: 4px 2px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; border-radius: 20px; border: 2px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); padding: 6px 11px;">health</a></div></div><div></div></div><div> i put this in a record number of nodes, some sort of tipping pt? trump admin officially just does not give a shit about public opinon (outside its base? farmers want this toxin?)could be announced anytime, but day after bernhardt scandal broke (but only cnn trms); trump trying to dig out of send her back; friday dump?not so much suppressed as ignoredtrump epa fail<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/a-total-disgrace-outrage-as-trump-epa-says-it-wont-ban-pesticide-linked-to-brain-damage-in-children">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/a-total-disgrace-outrage-as-trump-epa-says-it-wont-ban-pesticide-linked-to-brain-damage-in-children</a>no lnx
' A total disgrace’: Outrage as Trump EPA says it won’t ban pesticide linked to brain damage in childrenWritten by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams July 19, 2019In a move environmentalists denounced as yet another case of the Trump administration putting industry profits over public health, the Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday that it will not ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to brain damage in children.“By allowing chlorpyrifos to stay in our fruits and vegetables, Trump’s EPA is breaking the law and neglecting the overwhelming scientific evidence that this pesticide harms children’s brains,” Patti Goldman, attorney with Earthjustice said in a statement. “It is a tragedy that this administration sides with corporations instead of children’s health.”EPA chief Andrew Wheeler’s decision to reject a petition by environmental groups calling for a ban on the neurotoxic chemical ignores the assessments of his agency’s own scientists, said Tiffany Finck-Haynes, pesticides and pollinators program manager for Friends of the Earth.“The EPA’s refusal to ban chlorpyrifos ignores decades of science showing that this pesticide has irrevocable effects on human health and the environment,” said Finck-Haynes. “The EPA is endangering the lives of children to protect pesticide industry profits.”Friends of the Earth@foe_us Today Trump's @EPA announced that it will not #BanChlorpyrifos — a brain-damaging pesticide that EPA's own scientists have deemed unsafe at any level."The EPA is endangering the lives of children to protect pesticide industry profits."https://foe.org/news/trumps-epa-continues-delay-federal-ban-brain-damaging-pesticide-chlorpyrifos-leaving-states-take-action/ …Trump’s EPA continues to delay federal ban on the brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos, leaving...Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will not ban the neurotoxic, brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos. Last summer, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals...foe.orgChlorpyrifos has been banned for household use since 2000, but the pesticide is still used by farmers on “more than 50 fruit, nut, cereal, and vegetable crops,” according to the New York Times.“In 2016,” the Times reported, “more than 640,000 acres were treated with chlorpyrifos in California alone.”The Obama administration in 2015 proposed banning use of the pesticide on food crops, but former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt authorized its continued use in 2017.“This is a total disgrace,” Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) tweeted in response to the EPA’s decision on Thursday.Finck-Haynes of Friends of the Earth said that as the federal government continues to work on behalf of chemical interests, states must take immediate action to protect the public and the environment.“While the federal government refuses to act, we urge states to step in, ban chlorpyrifos, and demonstrate that they will safeguard public health and the environment,” said Finck-Haynes. “We call on [New York] Governor [Andrew] Cuomo to sign the chlorpyrifos ban bill sitting on his desk and protect New Yorkers from this toxic pesticide.”In a statement on Thursday, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) highlighted the Trump administration’s ties to Dow Chemical, the largest producer of chlorpyrifos in the United States.“The relationship between President Trump and Dow Chemical… has been called into question,” the group said. “Among other things, the chemical manufacturing giant reportedly donated $1 million for Trump’s inauguration, and its CEO previously played a chief advisory role to the president, heading up his now defunct American Manufacturing Council.”Erik Olson, senior director of health and food at NRDC, said the effort to achieve a ban on chlorpyrifos will continue.“Until EPA gets this stuff out of our fields and off our food,” said Olson, “this fight is not over.”=</div><div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/10-ways-epa-chief-andrew-wheeler-has-decimated-epa-protections-in-just-one-year/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/10-ways-epa-chief-andrew-wheeler-has-decimated-epa-protections-in-just-one-year/</a></div><div>
</div><div>On  July 8, President Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/08/us/politics/trump-environment-climate-change.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">hosted</a> a White House event to unabashedly tout his truly abysmal environmental record. The following day, coincidentally, marked the one-year anniversary of Andrew Wheeler at the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), first as acting administrator and then as administrator after the Senate confirmed him in late February.</div><div class="p1_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The good news, if there is any, is that Wheeler is an Eagle Scout compared to his <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-25/here-s-a-scorecard-of-the-scott-pruitt-investigations-quicktake" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">ethically challenged</a> predecessor, Scott Pruitt. The bad news is, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/climate/wheeler-epa-pruitt.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">as predicted</a>, Wheeler has been more effective than Pruitt in rolling back and eliminating EPA safeguards.My organization, the Union of Concerned Scientists, has compiled a <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/center-science-and-democracy/state-of-science-trump-era" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">list</a> of 80 Trump administration attacks on science since taking office, and Wheeler has been the driving force behind many of them. Below are 10 of the more egregious ways he has undermined the EPA’s time-honored role to protect public health and the environment so far.<div class="p3_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ol style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Sidelined Scientists</li></ol>Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, has taken a number of steps to systematically reduce the role of scientists in the agency’s policymaking process. Last fall, for example, he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/climate/epa-science-adviser.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">eliminated</a> the agency’s Office of the Science Advisor, which counseled the EPA administrator on research supporting health and environmental standards, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/climate/epa-etzel-children-health-program.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">placed</a>the head of the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection on administrative leave. He also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/climate/epa-disbands-pollution-science-panel.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">disbanded</a> a 20-member scientific advisory committee on particulate matter, or soot; <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060102455" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">failed</a> to convene a similar panel on ozone; and <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060102455" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">packed</a> a seven-member advisory committee on air quality standards with industry-friendly participants.<div class="p4_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ol start="2" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Proposed to Restrict the Use of Scientific Data</li></ol>Claiming his intent is to increase “transparency,” Wheeler is promoting a rule Pruitt proposed that would dramatically limit the scientific studies the agency considers when developing health standards. If adopted, the rule would restrict the use of scientific studies in EPA decisions if the underlying data are not public and reproducible, which would disqualify many epidemiological and other health studies the EPA relies on to set science-based public safeguards. Given that EPA health standards often rely on studies that contain private patient information, as well as confidential business information that cannot be revealed, the rule would significantly hamper the agency’s ability to carry out its mission. Wheeler <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/421479-epa-to-pursue-final-science-transparency-rule-in-2019" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">plans</a> to finalize the rule sometime this year.[rooted in part holocaust and ozone?]3 Gutted the Coal Ash RuleThe first major <a href="https://www.epa.gov/coalash/coal-ash-rule" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">rule</a> Wheeler signed as acting administrator refuted his claim that he could fulfill President Trump’s <a href="https://www.apnews.com/0012648e385d41f481f0af20a90f0666" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">directive</a> to “clean up the air, clean up the water, and provide regulatory relief” at the same time. By rolling back the Obama-era coal ash rule, Wheeler provided regulatory relief to his old friend the coal industry by weakening environmental protections established in 2015 to clean up coal ash ponds, which are laced with toxic contaminants that leak into groundwater. The move was a <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060083703" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">top priority</a>for coal baron Bob Murray, owner of Murray Energy, Wheeler’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/epas-acting-administrator-has-long-lobbying-record-on-issues-before-the-agency/2018/07/05/a591cd40-6a6b-11e8-bea7-c8eb28bc52b1_story.html?utm_term=.07ea8ecca216" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">most lucrative client</a>when he worked for the Faegre Baker Daniels law firm.<div class="p6_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Coal-fired power plants have been dumping this residue from burning coal into giant, unlined pits for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/07/02/us/ap-us-coal-ash-liability.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">decades</a>. According to the EPA, there are more than <a href="https://www.epa.gov/coalash/frequent-questions-about-2015-coal-ash-disposal-rule#3" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">1,000 coal ash disposal sites</a> across the country, and a recent <a href="https://www.environmentalintegrity.org/news/first-comprehensive-national-study-of-coal-ash-pollution-finds-widespread-groundwater-contamination/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">analysis</a> by Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project found that 91 percent of the coal plants filing monitoring data required by the 2015 rule are polluting water with unsafe levels of toxic contaminants. Wheeler’s EPA <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-finalizes-first-amendments-coal-ash-disposal-regulations-providing-flexibilities" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">says</a> the new rule—which extends the deadline for closing some leaking ash ponds and allows states to suspend groundwater monitoring and set their own standards—will save utilities as much as $31 million. But the agency ignored the enormous costs of cancer and neurological and cardiovascular diseases <a href="https://www.psr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/coal-ash-hazardous-to-human-health.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">linked</a> to coal ash ingredients, which include arsenic, chromium, lead and mercury.<div class="p7_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ol start="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Recommended Unsafe Levels of Drinking Water Contaminants</li></ol>Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are used in firefighting foam and a variety of nonstick, cleaning, packaging and other household products, have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/23/pfas-everyday-products-toxics-guide" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">linked</a> to thyroid disease and kidney, liver, pancreatic and testicular cancer. According to a recent <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drinking-water-may-contain-pfas-chemicals-in-43-states-according-to-new-study-by-environmental-working-group/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">study</a> by the Environmental Working Group and Northeastern University, these chemicals threaten the drinking water supplies of an estimated 19 million Americans. A 2018 Union of Concerned Scientists <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/center-science-and-democracy/preserving-science-based-safeguards/toxic-threat-pfas-contamination-military-bases" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">report</a>, meanwhile, found that PFAS water contamination at 130 military bases across the country exceed the 11-parts-per-trillion safety threshold determined by the Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Nearly two-thirds of the sites had contamination that was more than 100 times higher than the safe level.<div class="p8_31" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In February, Wheeler <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-acting-administrator-announces-first-ever-comprehensive-nationwide-pfas-action-plan" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">announced</a> the “first-ever nationwide action plan” to regulate PFAS chemicals in water, saying the agency would develop and set a limit for two of the most prevalent PFAS chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid. During the announcement, he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/14/politics/epa-pfas-water-plan/index.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">told</a> reporters he believes the agency’s voluntary 70-part-per-trillion health-advisory level for the chemicals is “a safe level for drinking water,” despite the fact that this level is more than six times higher than what the Disease Registry considers safe.<div class="p9_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-10" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While Wheeler slow-walks the EPA’s response, members of Congress have introduced at least a <a href="https://saferchemicals.org/2019/05/29/communities-call-on-congress-to-act-on-pfas/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">dozen</a> bills to address PFAS contamination, and the <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/450706-senate-vote-requires-military-epa-to-deal-with-harmful-forever" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Senate recently passed</a> a defense bill that would require the EPA to set a science-based standard for PFAS in drinking water.<div class="p10_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ol start="5" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Rolled Back Clean Water Act Protections</li></ol>Clearing up a decade-long dispute over the scope of the Clean Water Act, the Obama EPA <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/us/obama-epa-clean-water-pollution.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">adopted</a> a broad, science-based definition of the law that included protecting intermittent and ephemeral streams and wetlands that do not have surface water connections to other waterways. A <a href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/risk/recordisplay.cfm?deid=296414" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">2015 EPA meta-analysis</a> of more than 1,200 peer-reviewed studies concluded that even infrequently flowing small streams and isolated wetlands can affect “the integrity of downstream waters.” Trash them and that pollution could wind up in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and estuaries.<div class="p11_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Regardless, Wheeler <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-and-army-propose-new-waters-united-states-definition" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">announced</a> plans during a December telephone press briefing to reverse the Obama EPA definition of waters protected by the Clean Water Act, a thinly disguised gift to land developers and the agriculture industry. When asked what wetlands would no longer be protected, Wheeler <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060109323/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">replied</a>, “We have not done … a detailed mapping of all the wetlands in the country.” Likewise, EPA Office of Water head David Ross—who <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060058019" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">represented industry clients</a> against the EPA before joining the Trump administration—<a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060109323/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">told</a> reporters on the call that the agency had no idea how many streams would be dropped from Clean Water Act protection under the proposal.<div class="p12_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In fact, Wheeler and Ross were well aware of the damage their new definition would do. At least 18 percent of streams and 51 percent of wetlands across the country would not be covered under their proposed definition, according to an internal 2017 <a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2018/12/11/document_gw_05.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">slideshow</a>prepared by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers and <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060109323" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">obtained by E&E News</a> under the Freedom of Information Act.<div class="p13_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ol start="6" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Suppressed an Inconvenient Formaldehyde Report</li></ol>Last August, Wheeler disingenuously told a Senate committee that the EPA was holding up the release of a report on the risk of cancer from formaldehyde to confirm its veracity. “I am sure we will release it,” he <a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/cache/files/a/f/afffe2f0-6008-4c2a-af13-87d1cb26d6be/7564C79E99E118F3853D747150119932.spw-080118.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">said</a>, “but I need to make sure that the science in the report is still accurate.”<div class="p14_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-14" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In fact, the report—which concluded that formaldehyde can cause leukemia and nose and throat cancer—was completed by EPA scientists a year before Wheeler testified, according to <a href="https://www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Pruitt%20Letter%20formaldehyde%20assessment.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a Senate investigation</a>, and their conclusion was hardly a surprise. Both the World Health Organization’s <a href="https://monographs.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/mono100F-29.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">International Agency for Research on Cancer</a> and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services <a href="https://www.niehs.nih.gov/news/newsroom/releases/2011/june10/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">National Toxicology Program</a> have already classified formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen.<div class="p15_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The EPA’s review process normally takes <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/29/climate/epa-mercury-emissions.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">60 to 90 days</a>. The formaldehyde report has been in limbo for at least a year and a half, a blatant giveaway to the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/toxic-influence-how-a-che_b_8307272" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">American Chemistry Council</a>, the U.S. chemical industry’s premier trade association, which has <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/sowing-uncertainty-about-science-formaldehyde-decades" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">blocked tighter restrictions</a> on formaldehyde for decades.<div class="p16_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ol start="7" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Ignored EPA Scientists’ Advice to Ban Asbestos</li></ol>Instead of <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/815-e-p-a-memos-on-asbestos/12c87a96be998db10048/optimized/full.pdf#page=1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">heeding the advice</a> of agency scientists and lawyers to follow the example of <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y5x2k32p" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">55 other countries</a> and ban asbestos completely, the EPA <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-strengthens-regulation-asbestos-close-loophole-and-protect-consumers" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">announced</a> in April that it would tighten restrictions on asbestos—not ban it—despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its dangers. Manufacturers will be able to continue to use the substance if they obtain EPA approval.<div class="p17_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-18" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Asbestos has not been produced in the United States <a href="https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/risk-evaluation-asbestos-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">since 2002</a>, but is still imported for use in a wide range of commercial and consumer products, including auto brake components, roofing, vinyl floor tile, fire-resistant clothing, and cement pipes, sheets and shingles. One of the deadliest known carcinogens, asbestos kills <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180416005884/en/ADAO-Announces-New-Findings-Show-Asbestos-Related-Deaths" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">nearly 40,000</a>Americans annually, mainly from lung cancer.<div class="p18_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ol start="8" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Weakened the Mercury Emissions Rule</li></ol>In late December, the EPA proposed to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/climate/mercury-coal-pollution-regulations.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">significantly weaken</a> a rule restricting mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants by recalculating its costs and benefits. The Obama EPA, which issued the rule in 2011, estimated it would cost utilities <a href="https://www.epa.gov/mats/regulatory-actions-final-mercury-and-air-toxics-standards-mats-power-plants" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">$7.4 billion to $9.6 billion</a> annually to install pollution controls and lead to <a href="https://www.epa.gov/mats/healthier-americans#impacts" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">$37 billion to $90 billion</a>in health benefits by reducing not only mercury, a potent neurotoxin, but also sulfur dioxide and soot, thus preventing 130,000 asthma attacks, 4,700 heart attacks, and as many as 11,000 premature deaths. The Wheeler EPA ignored the “co-benefits” of limiting sulfur dioxide and soot, and flagrantly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/climate/mercury-coal-pollution-regulations.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">lowballed</a> the health benefits of curbing mercury alone at only $4 million to $6 million annually.<div class="p19_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Most utilities have already complied with the mercury rule at <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y5885qy4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a fraction of the estimated cost</a>, but health advocates fear that this new, industry-friendly accounting method, which makes it appear that the cost to polluters far outweigh the rule’s benefits, will <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/12/28/epa-make-it-harder-tighten-mercury-rules-future/?utm_term=.84be4559d80d" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">set a precedent</a> for the EPA to sabotage an array of other public health protections.<div class="p20_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ol start="9" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Slammed Vehicle Emission Rules Into Reverse</li></ol>Last August, the EPA and the Transportation Department <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2018/08/02/trump-epa-fuel-economy-standards/887683002/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">issued</a> a proposal to freeze vehicle tailpipe pollution and fuel efficiency standards, rolling back a 2012 Obama-era rule requiring automakers to boost passenger vehicle fuel economy to a fleetwide average of 54 miles per gallon by 2025. In a Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/make-cars-great-again-1533170415" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">opinion piece</a> titled “Make Cars Great Again” published a few days before the two agencies announced their proposal, Wheeler and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao charged that the Obama-era standards—the first to limit vehicle carbon emissions—are too burdensome for automakers and “raised the cost and decreased the supply of newer, safer vehicles.”<div class="p21_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_block story-page-in-content-graph-22" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Parroting the Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/climate/trump-fuel-economy.html?module=inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">line of reasoning</a>, Wheeler and Chao argued that fuel-efficient cars—which weigh less than gas-guzzlers—are not as safe, a contention that has been widely <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/climate/trump-fuel-economy.html?module=inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">debunked</a>. In fact, a 2017 <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w23340" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">study</a> concluded that reducing the average weight of new vehicles could result in fewer traffic fatalities.<div class="p22_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In any case, freezing the standards at 2020 levels would be hard on the planet, not to mention Americans’ wallets, <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/dave-cooke/new-epa-administrator-same-bad-idea-car-standard-rollbacks-would-be-awful" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">according to</a> the Union of Concerned Scientists. It would result in an additional 2.2 billion metric tons of global warming emissions by 2040, amounting to 170 million metric tons in 2040 alone—the equivalent of the annual output of 43 average size coal-fired power plants. It also would cost drivers billions of dollars. In 2040 alone, they would have to pay an additional $55 billion to fill their gas tanks. Meanwhile, the design improvements automakers have made so far to meet the standards have already saved drivers more than <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/fuel-economy-ticker?ga=2.130369487.1908070918.1561988567-899698819.1546975208" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">$86 trillion</a> at the pump since 2012, and off-the-shelf technological fixes, the Union of Concerned Scientists says, would enable automakers to meet the original 2025 target.<div class="p23_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ol start="10" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 2px; padding: 0px; list-style: decimal;">Rescinded the Clean Power Plan</li></ol>Perhaps Wheeler’s most damaging move to date came late last month when he <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/6/19/18684054/climate-change-clean-power-plan-repeal-affordable-emissions" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">signed</a> a final rule to repeal and replace the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which would have required coal-fired power plants to dramatically cut their carbon emissions. Yet another gift to the coal industry, Wheeler’s so-called Affordable Clean Energy rule grants states the authority to determine emissions standards but sets no targets, leaving them the option to do absolutely nothing.<div class="p24_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Before Wheeler released the final rule, an April <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aafe25" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">study</a> in the journal Environmental Research Letters found that his draft version would boost carbon emissions in 18 states and the District of Columbia and increase sulfur dioxide emissions in 19 states. The EPA’s own <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/climate/epa-coal-pollution-deaths.html?module=inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">analysis</a> of the draft rule, meanwhile, found that the proposal could have led to as many as 1,400 premature deaths annually by 2030 due to an increase in soot, and as many as 15,000 cases of upper respiratory problems.<div class="p25_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reversing Decades of Bipartisan Protections<div class="p26_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If Wheeler truly cared about transparency, he would petition the Trump administration to change the name of his agency to “Every Polluter’s Ally.” In just 12 months, he has killed or weakened dozens of safeguards with the sole intention of bolstering polluting industries’ profit margins even after Congress slashed the corporate tax rate. As a result, millions of Americans will be drinking filthier water and breathing dirtier air, and more will suffer from serious diseases, according to his agency’s own accounting.<div class="p27_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wheeler and his predecessor Pruitt have sullied the bipartisan track record of one of the nation’s agencies entrusted with protecting public health and safety. So it is little wonder that three former EPA administrators who, notably, served under Republican presidents, recently <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11062019/epa-climate-change-anti-science-rebuke-gop-former-administrators-thomas-whitman-reilly-mccarthy" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">sounded the alarm</a> on Capitol Hill, urging legislators to step up their oversight of the agency and denouncing its attempts to hamstring science.<div class="p28_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“There is no doubt in my mind that under the current administration the EPA is retreating from its historic mission to protect our environment and the health of the public from environmental hazards,” former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, who served under President George W. Bush, stated in her <a href="https://energycommerce.house.gov/sites/democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/files/documents/Testimony%20-%20Todd%20Whitman%2020190611.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">written testimony</a> for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. “This administration, from the beginning, has made no secret of its intention to essentially dismantle the EPA…. Therefore, I urge this committee, in the strongest possible terms, to exercise Congress’s oversight responsibilities over the actions and direction of the EPA.”<div class="p29_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Elliott Negin is a senior writer at the <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>.<div class="p30_31" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This article was produced by <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute, and originally published by <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/10-ways-andrew-wheeler-has-decimated-epa-protections-in-just-one-year/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Truthout</a>.<div></div></div><div></div><div><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-wheeler-tells-agency-science-advisors-not-to-believe-the-media-a9d8587fc5f5/">https://thinkprogress.org/epa-wheeler-tells-agency-science-advisors-not-to-believe-the-media-a9d8587fc5f5/</a></div><div>
</div><div>The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Andrew Wheeler, chose to go “off script” Wednesday morning when he warned the agency’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) against trusting the media.“I caution you to be careful what you read in the media,” Wheeler said, concluding his remarks to the public meeting — the first time the SAB has meet in a year.Wheeler was specifically referring to a <a href="https://twitter.com/alexnazaryan/status/1135646520601120768" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">tweet by Yahoo News journalist Alexander Nazaryan</a> on Monday which quoted Wheeler telling the National Press Club, “‘The media does a disservice to the American public’ by reporting on global warming, says EPA head Andrew Wheeler. Wants more positive coverage.”And indeed, on Monday, Wheeler did take time to list five things he believes the press “consistently gets wrong” — this included reporting that the environment is getting worse. Instead, the press should be talking more about how it’s been getting better since the 1970s, Wheeler argued.Nazaryan’s tweet was quickly circulated around the internet, including by a New York Times journalist and the Sierra Club. In response, the EPA sent out a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/national-correspondent-misleads-wheelers-remarks" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">press release</a> stating that the tweet was “misleading,” and accused the Yahoo journalist of choosing to “deliberately spread false information on Twitter.”This argument was reiterated on Wednesday by Wheeler, who said the fact that the Sierra Club started promoting the tweet made him wonder whether the media and environmental groups were “colluding” for fundraising purposes.Under the Trump administration, however, the EPA has actively worked to rollback environmental protections, often in line with fossil fuel or other industry interests. Most recently this includes challenging the underlying risk calculations that support clean air rules.The media has played a critical role in reporting on, and investigating, not just these various policy decisions but also potential ethics controversies and conflicts of interest plaguing the agency.But Wheeler urged scientists not to trust the media and come to him or other top EPA officials if they had questions or concerns.This isn’t the first time that the Trump administration’s EPA has “fact-checked” the media or been antagonistic toward reporters. Last year, reporters from major news outlets, including the Associated Press and CNN, were <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-bans-reporters-chemical-summit-38df2278334a/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">banned</a> from attending a summit on harmful chemicals; one journalist was even forcibly removed by security.And in September 2017, the EPA’s press office <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-response-aps-misleading-story" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">sent out a press release</a> titled “EPA Response To The AP’s Misleading Story,” which accused AP reporter Michael Biesecker of writing an “incredibly misleading story” about Superfund sites and Hurricane Harvey. (The EPA did not, however, contradict any facts in Biesecker’s story.)Meanwhile, the EPA has used articles <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/under-scott-pruitt-epa-uses-editorials-as-press-releases-4d7d9b88d685/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">written by climate science deniers</a>, including the Heartland Institute and the Daily Caller, as their own press releases rather than citing expert staff members — a move which the National Association of Science Writers labeled “unprofessional” and “unethical.”All of this is part of the larger confrontational relationship with the press promoted by President Donald Trump, who consistently calls media “fake news” and has <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trump-sarah-sanders-violence-media-christopher-paul-hasson-coast-guard-0c2a21b9d24a/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">repeatedly encouraged</a> violence against the media.</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=85f77dc2ad&e=06876ede6b" style="text-decoration-line: none;">EPA Science Advisers Push Back on Wheeler, Saying He's Minimizing Their Role</a> BY: MARIANNE LAVELLE
Under Trump, the EPA administrator — a former coal lobbyist — is also pushing a plan to reduce the use of science in policy making. <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=dfe9d794ae&e=06876ede6b" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Read More</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05062019/epa-wheeler-science-advisory-board-meeting-limiting-scientific-studies-trump-methane-rule">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05062019/epa-wheeler-science-advisory-board-meeting-limiting-scientific-studies-trump-methane-rule</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler vowed on Wednesday to make greater use of the agency's official board of science advisers. But soon after he spoke, some of those advisers and other outside experts protested that the agency was instead limiting their role.Wheeler took the unusual step of addressing the first meeting in a year of the Science Advisory Board (SAB), a group of advisers established by law who should be holding six to eight meetings annually, according to its charter. The reason he was there, Wheeler said, was to show his commitment to a better process."I'm glad to be here to lay out a new direction for how EPA interacts with and uses the SAB," he said. "I will be the first to admit we have not utilized you the way that we should. We can and we will do better."The <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31052018/epa-science-advisory-board-review-pruitt-climate-change-clean-power-plan-auto-standards-secret-science-policy" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Science Advisory Board</a> has become a center of controversy as President <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/donald-trump" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Donald Trump</a>'s administration has sought to remake the federal agencies. Researchers who receive EPA grant money have been barred from serving on the board, while several industry consultants and contrarian scientists have been brought aboard. Although some holdovers remain from previous administrations, Trump-era appointees now make up a large portion of the 44-member body. Some of them are known for their outlying views beyond the prevailing scientific consensus, or for representing the interests of regulated businesses.Noting the lengthy vetting process for appointees, Wheeler said, "Why should we have talented public servants go through all of that only to use you sparingly? Today we are beginning the transition to a new process. It's no secret that the process was broken, and was not beneficial to the EPA, the board, or the public we all serve."But some members of the board parried with Wheeler and other EPA officials at the meeting over exactly what part of the process is broken—the advisory process, or how the Trump administration is proceeding with a deregulatory agenda that gives less weight to some of the science that has guided the agency for years.One SAB member who is a holdover from before Trump, Steven Hamburg, chief scientist of the Environmental Defense Fund, asked Wheeler why the Science Advisory Board had not had an opportunity to weigh in on some of the latest science in the agency's repeal of the Obama administration's regulations on control of methane emissions from oil and gas operations. The SAB raised concerns over that proposal when it met a year ago, and it had an opportunity to confer with another group of outside EPA experts, the Clean Air Science Advisory Committee, but Hamburg said their focus was more on technology than science. EDF, an environmental group, has been involved in a number of large scientific studies on the extent of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, released by the oil and gas industry.Wheeler said that in the future, he hoped to involve the Science Advisory Board earlier in the process—soon after proposals are made public, but he couldn't change what happened in the past."The one you cite—I'm sorry, it's too late in the regulatory process," Wheeler said. "I can't go back and reopen some of the regulations we've already done." The agency finished taking public comment on its <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0483" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">methane proposal </a>last December, but has not yet finalized a rule.One public commenter, John Bachmann, a 33-year veteran of the EPA who is now retired, said that under the 1978 law that governs the EPA's use of its science advisory board, the agency is actually required to provide its regulatory proposals and the underlying science to the Science Advisory Board before a proposal is made public. Bachmann now works with the Environmental Protection Network, a group of former agency scientists and other staffers who have been critical of the EPA's moves under the Trump administration.<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;">Wheeler's Controversial 'Secret Science' Plan</h3>But much of the debate at the first day of a two-day meeting centered on a controversial policy proposal that Wheeler said he was committed to finalizing this year even though it had provoked an outcry that left him "a little shocked."The proposal, called "Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science," would limit the kinds of science the agency can use in its decision-making. The agency received <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/15082018/epa-secret-science-rule-opposition-health-environmental-data-public-comments" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">some 600,000 comments</a> on the proposal, including from leading scientific journals, professional organizations and universities. Because many human health studies rely on information gathered under confidentiality agreements, and the raw data has not been made public, the proposal could <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22032018/epa-air-pollution-soot-rules-scott-pruitt-secret-science-policy-health-regulations" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">prevent the agency </a>from using some of the seminal studies underpinning air pollution regulations, for example.Barbara Morrissey, of Washington State's Department of Health, sitting on the board on an ex officio basis as chair of another advisory group, the Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, told Wheeler she was concerned about how EPA could meet its legal requirement of using the best available science, if that science can't be replicated in the manner the EPA envisions.Wheeler said there would be "a safeguard" in the system, giving the EPA Administrator the discretion to include an important study even if it can't be replicated. "I do fundamentally believe that the more information we put out, the more sound our decisions will be and the more easily understood and accepted by the public," Wheeler said.But one public commenter, Veena Singla, associate director of the reproductive and environmental health program at the University of California, San Francisco, said her concerns about the proposal were not assuaged."Having a political appointee deciding what science is in or out of policymaking is not a safeguard, but rather a fundamentally biased process," Singla said.Before the meeting, the EPA had given the Science Advisory Board a charge to weigh in on two narrow aspects of that rule—how the agency should deal with confidential business information, and how to shield personally identifiable information in the large health studies that in the past have been the basis for much of the agency's decision-making.<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;">SAB 'Should Be Giving an Independent Look'</h3>Allison Cullen, associate dean of the school of public policy and governance at the University of Washington, was one of several board members who objected to the fact that the scope of comments that the EPA sought from the SAB was being limited—in contrast, she said, the public had been asked to comment on the proposed regulation broadly."The SAB is an independent body that should be giving an independent look at this, not necessarily responding to what the public comments are," Cullen said.Hamburg said that the time frame that the SAB had been given to weigh in on the measure was also too compressed for the board to weigh in effectively. "There's a lack of transparency about this 'transparency' proposal," said Hamburg. "It's inconsistent with what the administrator says about wanting to fix a broken system."<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;">New Appointees Side with Wheeler</h3>But several of the board members who were appointed by Wheeler and by his predecessor, former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, praised the agency for its effort.New SAB member Robert Phalen, an air pollution researcher at the Irvine campus of the University of California, has long been critical of the air pollution studies that the EPA has relied on, which use raw data not available to the public. "A short cut—if a study cannot be replicated for privacy concerns, probably the alternative is to simply drop that from consideration and rely on the vast amount of other studies. That's just a raw suggestion from an SAB member."Stanley Young, a statistician who did work for the pharmaceutical industry and others before being appointed to the SAB by Pruitt, said that there should be no privacy concerns in epidemiology studies that track mortality. "Once a person is dead, they are not considered a person," he said. He said he hoped that the agency was prepared for "epidemiological foot dragging and stonewalling" about release of its data.The SAB will be holding a teleconference with the EPA later this summer to further discuss the transparency rule.</div></div></div></div><div class="tagged-with" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-transform: uppercase; margin-bottom: 1em;"><label style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; line-height: 1.2;">PUBLISHED UNDER:</label><div class="field field-name-field-topics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/regulation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">REGULATION</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/andrew-wheeler" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">ANDREW WHEELER</a></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/epa" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">EPA</a></div> <div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">DONALD TRUMP</a></div></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-asbestos-ban-2636681458.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-asbestos-ban-2636681458.html</a>Trump EPA Ignored Its Own Scientists' Calls to Ban Asbestos, 'Bombshell' Report ShowsCommon Dreams May. 09, 2019 08:49AM EST HEALTH + WELLNESSBronwyn8 / iStock / Getty Images PlusBy Jessica Corbett
In a report that elicited calls for congressional action, The New York Times revealed Wednesday that "senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency disregarded the advice of their own scientists and lawyers in April when the agency issued a rule that restricted but did not ban asbestos."
Asbestos is a group of fibrous, heat-resistant minerals used in manufactured goods, particularly building materials. According to the World Health Organization, "All types of asbestos cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, cancer of the larynx and ovary, and asbestosis (fibrosis of the lungs)."
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement last month that the agency's new rule "gives us unprecedented authorities to protect public health" and block certain products from the market. However, environmental and public health advocates raised concerns at the time about loopholes that remain, with one critic calling the regulation "toothless."
Criticism of the rule resurfaced Wednesday when the Times reported on a pair of internal EPA memos from last August, in which more than a dozen agency experts wrote:
Rather than allow for (even with restrictions) any new uses for asbestos, EPA should seek to ban all new uses of asbestos because the extreme harm from this chemical substance outweighs any benefit — and because there are adequate alternatives to asbestos.Melanie Benesh, legislative attorney at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), was among those who demanded action from federal lawmakers following the "bombshell" report.
"The sheer number of lives cut short and families destroyed from asbestos exposure demand nothing less than an outright ban," Benesh said in a statement. "I can't think of an easier vote for members of Congress to cast than for a bill that bans a substance responsible for the deaths of so many."
The reporting came as a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing Wednesday morning to consider legislation that would amend the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) "to prohibit the manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce of asbestos and asbestos-containing mixtures and articles."
"If Administrator Wheeler and the Trump administration won't act," said Benesh, "then Congress must by passing this critical piece of legislation that finally bans asbestos."
Sharing a link to the Times article on Twitter, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), the committee's chairman, said, "This is exactly why we need to ban asbestos and why my committee is holding a hearing today on legislation that would fully ban this toxic material."

Rep. Frank Pallone This is exactly why we need to ban asbestos and why my Committee is holding a hearing today on legislation that would fully ban this toxic material. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/08/climate/epa-asbestos-rule-scientists.html …</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ew</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><div class="widgetbrief" style=""> Senate voted to confirm former <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">coal</a> lobbyist <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/andrew-wheeler" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Andrew Wheeler</a> as official head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">EPA</a>) Thursday.
Wheeler has run the agency since July, when he replaced former administrator <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scott-pruitt" target="self" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Scott Pruitt</a> following a resignation prompted by numerous scandals. As acting administrator, Wheeler has confirmed the fears of environmentalists that he would be a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wheeler-pruitt-epa-2584262490.html?utm_campaign=RebelMouse&socialux=facebook&share_id=3732636&utm_medium=social&utm_content=EcoWatch&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1mCu4jOXPO1xkMhFCpc7vSZlQwQjDlwf4R8vl5hALkSiNtGYh_LRd06WA" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">"smarter" threat</a>, pursuing President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Donald Trump</a>'s deregulatory agenda without the distraction of Pruitt's more obvious corruption.</div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); transition: all 350ms ease 0s; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;">"Unlike with some nominees, we do not have to speculate about what Mr. Wheeler will do in office," <a href="https://www.edf.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Environmental Defense Fund</a> (EDF) senior vice president for political affairs Elizabeth Gore told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/02/28/andrew-wheeler-former-energy-lobbyist-confirmed-nations-top-environmental-official/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c4f1471b6735" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">The Washington Post in an email</a>. "From his actions as acting administrator for the past eight months, we have clear evidence of his agenda: undermine rules to limit toxic <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/mercury" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">mercury</a>, allow more smog and water pollution, and roll back protections against the threat of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">climate change</a>. The senators who voted to entrust Mr. Wheeler with our environment know exactly what he will do with that power."The Senate voted to confirm Wheeler 52 to 47, almost entirely on party lines. Republican Maine Senator Susan Collins was the only member of her party to vote against Wheeler's confirmation."I believe that Mr. Wheeler, unlike Scott Pruitt, understands the mission of the EPA and acts in accordance with ethical standards; however, the policies he has supported as Acting Administrator are not in the best interest of our environment and public health, particularly given the threat of climate change to our nation," Collins said in a statement.Some of Wheeler's most controversial acts include <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-fuel-efficiency-proposal-2592345279.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">rolling back Obama-era emissions standards</a> for cars and light trucks, replacing Obama's landmark <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/clean-power-plan" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Clean Power Plan</a> with a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-epa-dirty-power-plan-2597804270.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">version</a> that would both increase greenhouse gas emissions and cost more than a thousand lives a year due to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">air pollution</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/clean-water-act-trump-epa-2622946246.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">weakening</a> the protections of the Waters of the United States rule, and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-mercury-air-toxics-standards-2624797110.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">allowing coal plants</a> to emit more mercury."His actions worsened the air we breathe, jeopardized the water we drink and increased our exposure to toxic chemicals," <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a> senior director of federal affairs John Bowman said <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/nrdc/senate-confirms-pro-polluter-andrew-wheeler-epa-chief" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">in a statement</a>.[vid 100 days]California Air Resources Board leader Mary Nichols, who has negotiated with Wheeler over changes in vehicle emissions standards and whether the EPA would challenge California's waiver under the Clean Air Act to make its own, stricter regulations, said the difference between Pruitt and Wheeler was all style and no substance."I have to say that I don't find him materially different than Scott Pruitt in his policies or the mission that he has taken on," Nichols told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/climate/andrew-wheeler-epa-confirmation.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">The New York Times</a>. "The only difference really is that he is more polished and more professional to deal with."Many Republicans and industry representatives, on the other hand, praised Wheeler's efforts."He's been a very solid follow on to Scott Pruitt." Republican energy lobbyist Michael McKenna told The New York Times. "He's followed through in a fairly aggressive fashion on everything Scott started."...</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">EW</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...Here are some of Wheeler's most controversial decisions as acting-administrator, as cited by the Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups.</div>1. In August, he <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-fuel-efficiency-proposal-2592345279.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none;">released a proposal</a> rolling back Obama-era vehicle emissions standards and revoking California's waiver under the Clean Air Act to set its own.2. Also in August, he <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-epa-dirty-power-plan-2597804270.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none;">unveiled a replacement</a> for former President Barack Obama's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/clean-power-plan" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Clean Power Plan</a> that would increase greenhouse gas emissions and cost more than a thousand lives a year, according to the EPA's own calculations.3. In December, Wheeler<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/clean-water-act-trump-epa-2622946246.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> released an attack</a> on the Obama-Era Waters of the U.S. rule that would deny protections to streams that only flow if it rains and wetlands not connected to larger waterways.4. Also in December, Wheeler offered a major boon to the coal industry, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-mercury-air-toxics-standards-2624797110.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none;">rolling back another Obama-era rule</a>meant to limit the emissions of Mercury and other toxins from coal-fired plants, the <a href="https://www.edf.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Environmental Defense Fund</a> (EDF) pointed out.Wheeler earned the dubious honor of being only the second nominee for EPA head that the EDF has ever opposed. Pruitt was the first. [img?] "We evaluate executive appointments with the presumption that every President has a right to name his team unless a nominee would threaten the health and safety of the American people. Unfortunately, Andrew Wheeler's record puts him in that category," EDF President Fred Krupp said in a <a href="https://www.edf.org/media/edf-opposes-nomination-andrew-wheeler-lead-epa" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">statement</a>.Wheeler worked for the EPA in the 1990s before joining the staff of Oklahoma Senator and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-denier" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">climate denier</a>James Inhofe. He then moved to the private sector, where he lobbied for Murray Energy Corp, the nation's most prominent underground mining company, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/trump-nominates-acting-epa-head-an-ex-coal-lobbyist-to-run-agency.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">CNBC reported</a>. Wheeler has said he is "not at all ashamed" of his work for Murray.Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso, who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee responsible for taking the initial vote on Wheeler's nomination, said he was excited to get Wheeler appointed."Acting Administrator Wheeler has done an outstanding job leading EPA and is well qualified to run the agency on a permanent basis. I will work with committee members to get him confirmed," he said in a statement reported by <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/424555-trump-formally-nominates-wheeler-to-head-epa" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Hill</a>.The committee announced plans Wednesday to hold a hearing Jan. 16, despite the fact that the EPA is <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-government-shutdown-2624595019.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">still in shutdown mode</a>, <a href="https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/wheeler-to-face-hill-hearing-next-week-despite-epa-shutdown" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Bloomberg Environment reported</a>. The decision to hold the hearing despite the shutdown was criticized by Democrats and environmental groups."There is no clearer statement of the priorities of Donald Trump and Senate Republican leadership than their abdication of their duty to keep the public safe and the government running while ramming through a toxic nominee like coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler during a government shutdown," <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/home" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Sierra Club</a> Legislative Director Melinda Pierce said in a <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2019/01/holding-wheeler-nomination-hearing-during-shutdown-insult-and-threat-public" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">statement</a>. "This is an insult to every EPA employee and federal contractor who has been furloughed or forced to go without a paycheck during this shutdown and a threat to the public that deserves clean air and clean water. Senate Republicans confirming Andrew Wheeler to lead the EPA is the equivalent of leaving the EPA shut down, because he will do nothing to protect the health of the public and everything to enrich corporate polluters."<div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-government-shutdown-2624595019.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">EPA Runs Out of Funds as Government Shutdown Drags On ... ›</a></li></ul></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-wheeler-emails-polluting-industries-2625417216.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-wheeler-emails-polluting-industries-2625417216.html</a>many lnxCourt Rules EPA Must Release 20,000 Emails Between Wheeler, Other Top Officials and Polluting IndustriesA federal court has ordered that top officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—including Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler—must release about 20,000 emails exchanged with industry groups, The Washington Post reported Monday.The December 26 decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California was the result of a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club after the EPA missed its deadline in responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The environmental group had sought the emails to see how industry contacts might be influencing decisions by officials like Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, to roll back Obama-era regulations on climate-change causing emissions and other pollutants."The law is clear: the EPA must produce these documents, it must do so quickly, and if necessary it must re-allocate staff to speed things up and lift the curtain on the toxic relationship between Trump's appointees and the polluters they are supposed to be protecting us from," Senior Sierra Club Attorney Elena Saxonhouse, who helped argue the case, said in a press release.The court mandated a 10 month timeline for the release of the documents, which will begin as soon as the federal government fully reopens pending the end of the ongoing shutdown. The FOIA request targeted 25 Trump administration officials at the EPA including Wheeler, Office of Air and Radiation head and former corporate lawyer Bill Wehrum, top Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention official and former chemical industry lobbyist Nancy Beck and Albert "Kell" Kelly, who was formerly in charge of a task force on improving the way the EPA cleans toxic sites and has a lifetime ban from working in banking, The Washington Post reported.The EPA had said it was so inundated with FOIA requests that it needed until 2022 to release the documents, but the Sierra Club argued successfully that the release could not wait that long, in part because President Donald Trump has indicated he will nominate Wheeler to officially replace former Administrator Scott Pruitt, who resigned in part because of scandals revealed through previous Sierra Club FOIA requests."The Senate should not act on Wheeler's expected nomination until we know exactly what he is up to behind the scenes. The revelations which FOIA'd emails uncovered about Scott Pruitt were unprecedented, shocking, and helped bring about his rapid downfall," Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in the press release. "Now, we await tens of thousands of emails between Andrew Wheeler, his industry-conflicted deputies, and the polluters they are supposed to be protecting us from. Given Wheeler and Wherum's history of exclusively protecting polluter profits, we can only imagine what abuses these documents are likely to uncover."RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEBEPA: Wheeler's calendar sheds light on industry meetings -- Monday ... ›In Andrew Wheeler, Trump Gets a Cannier E.P.A. Chief | The New ... ›These conflicts of interest make Wheeler wrong for EPA ... ›EPA Cuts Science Panel That Reviewed Deadly Air Pollutants ›<div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">...ucs</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="width" style="" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" max-width="max-width" display="display" block="block"><tbody><tr><td><div style="font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" em="em" color="color" rgb="rgb"><div style="line-height: 1.5em;">The shakeup of the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) is just one of many threats to science-based decision-making under the Trump administration. Trump's political operatives—Wheeler and others—are also trying to roll back clean water protections, fuel economy standards, and more.

Acting EPA Administrator Wheeler is particularly threatening. Unlike his scandal-ridden predecessor, Scott Pruitt, Wheeler spent years working in Washington—including 14 years working with climate denier, Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma.

Wheeler is disciplined and knows how to get things done. We'd consider that an asset at EPA if Wheeler was working with scientists and everyday people to protect the environment and our health… but he's not.³

In just six months, Wheeler has significantly weakened the Clean Power Plan and stifled efforts to reduce methane pollution. He eliminated the EPA's office of chief science advisor and is eager to finalize his predecessor's plan to restrict the use of science in policymaking.⁴

No matter who's in charge at EPA and other agencies, UCS scientists, analysts, and organizing staff will continue to monitor anti-science activities, putting our unparalleled expertise in science watchdogging to use to expose—and stop—mis-guided policies. We'll alert the media and science champion lawmakers to Trump administration attempts to sideline science, and rally our 500,000 members and activists to push for accountability.

We've already organized more than hundreds of scientists to protest changes to the way EPA will approach updating the air pollution standard.⁵ We can do this—and quickly—because of the years we've spent developing relationships with experts around the country and making sure we stay a trusted, truly independent source for science advocacy.

You make that independence possible, when you contribute to UCS. We don't solicit funding from governments or corporations. We truly are powered by our members' generosity.

Help keep us strong and independent as we hit the ground running in 2019. <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://click.everyaction.com/k/3942702/30048574/-1194026650?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9VQ1MvVUNTLzEvNTgwOTciLA0KICAiRGlzdHJpYnV0aW9uVW5pcXVlSWQiOiAiY2ZhY2E0NzMtN2EwYi1lOTExLTlmMmEtMjgxODc4MzkxZWZiIiwNCiAgIkVtYWlsQWRkcmVzcyI6ICJwYXRtY2sxM0B5YWhvby5jb20iDQp9&hmac=hIdUZ9victJSG6zCPSNt6TR2NZcZpro-7GqqwJ0DSsU=&emci=a11a7762-9605-e911-9f2a-281878391efb&emdi=cfaca473-7a0b-e911-9f2a-281878391efb&fn=Padraig&mn=&ln=McKerrachar&em=patmck13%40yahoo.com&add1=&ci=Providence&st=CA&pc=84332&hp=&mp=&wp=&ep=&oc=&p=&s=&amtOpts=1000,500,250,100,60,35" style="">Make a matched, year-end gift before time runs out.</a>

Thank you,

John Mace
Membership Director
Union of Concerned Scientists</div></div> <div id="yiv4773091587_two50"> </div><img height="1" id="yiv4773091587_two50_img" src="https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=http%3A%2F%2Fanalytics.ucsusa.org%2Fea%2FkLjy3uSkZn%2F%3Fe%3Dpatmck13%40yahoo.com%26c%3DAppeal-Dev-FY19-12-Appeal-7&t=1546102858&ymreqid=b783708d-3ee7-b602-1cd3-3603d8017d00&sig=2XLjjvBSn8UwvlZp1YA0Ng--_C" width="1" style="margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; border: 0px !important; min-height: 1px !important; width: 1px !important;" /><div style="font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" em="em" color="color" rgb="rgb">1.<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://click.everyaction.com/k/3942703/30048575/-131588769?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9VQ1MvVUNTLzEvNTgwOTciLA0KICAiRGlzdHJpYnV0aW9uVW5pcXVlSWQiOiAiY2ZhY2E0NzMtN2EwYi1lOTExLTlmMmEtMjgxODc4MzkxZWZiIiwNCiAgIkVtYWlsQWRkcmVzcyI6ICJwYXRtY2sxM0B5YWhvby5jb20iDQp9&hmac=hIdUZ9victJSG6zCPSNt6TR2NZcZpro-7GqqwJ0DSsU=" style="">https://blog.ucsusa.org/gretchen-goldman/scientists-call-out-epa-over-ozone-pollution-standards</a>
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clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px) !important; height: 0.0625rem !important; margin: -0.0625rem !important; overflow: hidden !important; padding: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; width: 0.0625rem !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shares</font></span></font></font></em></div><div class="sharecount__value sharecount__value--full" style="line-height: 1.125rem; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: -0.0625rem; padding-top: 0.15rem;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">687</font></font></font></em></div></div><div class="u-h meta__number" data-discussion-id="/p/a5gc7" data-commentcount-format="content" data-discussion-closed="true" style="border-left: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); border-top-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-right-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); border-bottom-color: rgb(220, 220, 220); margin-left: 0.3125rem; padding-top: 0.375rem; padding-left: 0.3125rem; text-align: right; float: left; min-width: 0.9375rem; border-top-width: 0px !important; border-right-width: 0px !important; border-bottom-width: 0px !important; border-top-style: initial !important; border-right-style: initial !important; border-bottom-style: initial !important; border-image: initial !important; clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px) !important; height: 0.0625rem !important; margin-top: -0.0625rem !important; margin-right: -0.0625rem !important; margin-bottom: -0.0625rem !important; overflow: hidden !important; padding-right: 0px !important; padding-bottom: 0px !important; position: absolute !important; width: 0.0625rem !important;"><figure itemprop="associatedMedia image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" data-component="image" class="media-primary media-content ()  " data-media-id="a4a6a924047ddc79312fd6bbdd369990f3e2c7b5" id="img-1" style="margin: 0px 0px 0.375rem; position: relative; grid-area: main-media / main-media / main-media / main-media;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></font></font></em></figure></div></div></div></div></header><div class="content__article-body from-content-api js-article__body" itemprop="articleBody" data-test-id="article-review-body" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; position: relative; line-height: 1.5rem; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 4.5rem; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The&nbsp;<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-timing-function: ease-out; transition-property: border-color;">Trump administration</span>&nbsp;is rolling back a climate change regulation that restricted new coal plants.</font></font></font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The change is mostly symbolic – but nevertheless sends a strong signal. Companies in the US are not building plants that burn coal because burning natural gas is cheaper and creates less pollution. Renewable power has also eaten into coal’s market share.</font></font></font></em></p><aside class="element element-rich-link element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded" data-component="rich-link" data-link-name="rich-link-1 | 1" style="float: left; margin: 0.3125rem 1.25rem 0.75rem -15rem; clear: both; width: 13.75rem;"><div class="rich-link tone-news--item rich-link--pillar-news" style="margin: 0px; position: relative; overflow: hidden;"><div class="rich-link__container" style="position: relative;"><div class="rich-link__image-container u-responsive-ratio" style="width: 220px; padding-bottom: 132px; position: relative; overflow: hidden; transition: background-color 0.25s ease 0s;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><img src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1492fa740fcda3086387b1f771530a1c95f87eee/0_41_1152_691/master/1152.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=6498c5e833c42ca118f334c38d183fd5" itemprop="contentURL" style="border: 0px; width: 220px; height: 132px; position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px;" /></font></font></em></div><div class="rich-link__header" style="line-height: 1.5rem; padding: 0.125rem 0.3125rem 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 2.25rem;"><h2 class="rich-link__title" style="margin: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 102); touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer;">The 'great dying': rapid warming caused largest extinction event ever, report says</font></font></font></em></h2></div><div class="rich-link__read-more" style="padding-left: 0.3125rem;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" /></font></font></em><div class="rich-link__arrow" style="display: inline-block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="inline-arrow-in-circle inline-icon " style="fill: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><svg width="24" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" class="inline-arrow-in-circle__svg inline-icon__svg"><path class="rich-link__arrow-icon" d="M12 0C5.373 0 0 5.373 0 12s5.373 12 12 12 12-5.373 12-12S18.627 0 12 0m.21 19l-.637-.668 4.888-6.326H4.996v-1.01h11.465l-4.888-6.333.637-.668L19 11.153v.685l-6.79 7.157" fill-rule="evenodd" /></svg></span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div>&nbsp;<div class="rich-link__read-more-text" style="display: inline-block; height: 1.875rem; line-height: 1.625rem; padding-left: 0.125rem; vertical-align: top;">Read more</div></div></div></div></aside><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 102); touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-indent: 200%; white-space: nowrap; position: absolute; z-index: 0; opacity: 0;">But the Obama-era rule for new coal plants has long been a target of the industry. It would have effectively required technology to capture the carbon dioxide that traps heat on earth and causes climate change. That technology is not in use on a commercial scale. A&nbsp;</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 102); touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-indent: 200%; white-space: nowrap; position: absolute; z-index: 0; opacity: 0;"><span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; touch-action: manipulation; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-timing-function: ease-out; transition-property: border-color;">draft replacement rule</span>&nbsp;would allow new coal plants that meet certain efficiency requirements.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The acting Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Andrew Wheeler, said the Obama administration was “disingenuous” when it decided coal-plant carbon capture technologies were adequately demonstrated. He said the change to require efficiency efforts instead of carbon capture will encourage “clean coal” in the US and worldwide through technology exports.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“You will see a decrease in emissions worldwide because of an increase in investments in new energy technologies,” Wheeler argued.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The&nbsp;<b>EPA’s own&nbsp;<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-timing-function: ease-out; transition-property: border-color;">economic analysis</span>&nbsp;contradicts him</b>. It concludes that the rollback will not do anything to boost coal power in the US because any new fossil fuel plants will burn natural gas, not coal.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Wheeler argued affordable energy benefits low-income people most and invited the National Black Chamber of Commerce to speak as a supporter. Experts say, however, that coal plants are shutting down because they aren’t as affordable as other options.</b></font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michelle Bloodworth, CEO of the coal industry group the American Coalition for Clean&nbsp;<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-timing-function: ease-out; transition-property: border-color;">Coal</span>&nbsp;Electricity, said ahead of the event that “there is no silver bullet when it comes to developing new coal units in today’s marketplace but in announcing this proposal the EPA has outlined a regulation that both follows the law and allows new more efficient coal plants to be a viable option in the future.”</font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nixing the rule could invigorate coal backers worldwide, sending a message to negotiators of an international climate pact in Poland that the US is trying to bolster the future of the fossil fuel. Trump, who has&nbsp;<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-timing-function: ease-out; transition-property: border-color;">questioned</span>&nbsp;manmade climate change, has said he will exit that pact, the Paris agreement.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>David Doniger, a climate director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the move “will be judged harshly by future generations”.</b></font></em></p><aside class="element element-rich-link element-rich-link--tag element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded" data-component="rich-link-tag" data-link-name="rich-link-tag" style="float: left; margin: 0.3125rem 1.25rem 0.75rem -15rem; clear: both; width: 13.75rem;"><div class="rich-link tone-news--item rich-link--pillar-news" style="background-color: rgb(246, 246, 246); margin: 0px; position: relative; overflow: hidden;"><div class="rich-link__container" style="position: relative;"><div class="rich-link__image-container u-responsive-ratio" style="width: 220px; padding-bottom: 132px; position: relative; overflow: hidden; transition: background-color 0.25s ease 0s; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);"><em><img src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0a70489bd935dfd218c5ef94fcabd43c6cf3019d/0_86_5256_3154/master/5256.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c21b983b12ed0754239a420faec07b36" itemprop="contentURL" style="border: 0px; width: 220px; height: 132px; position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px;" /></em></div><div class="rich-link__header" style="line-height: 1.5rem; padding: 0.125rem 0.3125rem 0.5em; box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 2.25rem;"><h2 class="rich-link__title" style="margin: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer;">Sign up to the Green Light email to get the planet's most important stories</font></em></h2></div><div class="rich-link__read-more" style="padding-left: 0.3125rem;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></em><div class="rich-link__arrow" style="display: inline-block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="inline-arrow-in-circle inline-icon " style="fill: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><svg width="24" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" class="inline-arrow-in-circle__svg inline-icon__svg"><path class="rich-link__arrow-icon" d="M12 0C5.373 0 0 5.373 0 12s5.373 12 12 12 12-5.373 12-12S18.627 0 12 0m.21 19l-.637-.668 4.888-6.326H4.996v-1.01h11.465l-4.888-6.333.637-.668L19 11.153v.685l-6.79 7.157" fill-rule="evenodd" /></svg></span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div>&nbsp;<div class="rich-link__read-more-text" style="display: inline-block; height: 1.875rem; line-height: 1.625rem; padding-left: 0.125rem; vertical-align: top;">Read more</div></div></div></div></aside><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-indent: 200%; white-space: nowrap; position: absolute; z-index: 0; opacity: 0;">“The science is clear: operating large fossil fuel plants without carbon capture and storage is a disaster for the climate. What we need instead is swift and decisive action to curb dangerous climate change,” Doniger said.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-indent: 200%; white-space: nowrap; position: absolute; z-index: 0; opacity: 0;">Fifteen health and medical groups, including the<b>&nbsp;American Lung Association, opposed the EPA announcement.</b></font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-indent: 200%; white-space: nowrap; position: absolute; z-index: 0; opacity: 0;">Across the federal government, Trump agencies have sought to&nbsp;</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background: transparent; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; overflow: hidden; text-indent: 200%; white-space: nowrap; position: absolute; z-index: 0; opacity: 0;"><span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; touch-action: manipulation; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-timing-function: ease-out; transition-property: border-color;">slash rules</span>for fossil fuel production and use. The environmental protection agency is also&nbsp;<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; touch-action: manipulation; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-timing-function: ease-out; transition-property: border-color;">rescinding</span>&nbsp;an Obama rule that aimed to shift the US away from coal use and toward more natural gas and renewable power. And the agency is expected to roll back a standard requiring coal plants to limit their&nbsp;<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; touch-action: manipulation; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-timing-function: ease-out; transition-property: border-color;">toxic mercury pollution</span>. Many plants shut down in 2015, in part so that they wouldn’t have to spend money to comply with that rule.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This year, coal use in the US is expected to be at its lowest point since 1979, according to the&nbsp;<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; touch-action: manipulation; cursor: pointer; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(220, 220, 220); transition-duration: 0.15s; transition-timing-function: ease-out; transition-property: border-color;">energy information administration</span>. Coal consumption has fallen 44% since its peak in 2007, the agency said.</font></em></p></div><div style=""><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://yyy.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/06/trump-rolls-back-climate-change-rule-that-restricted-new-coal-plants</font></em></div><div style=""><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></div><div style=""><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></em></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">blk friday BS scam sci supp</font></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">icn</font></em></div><div style=""><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fact-Checking the Attacks</font></em></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The administration and its allies appear to be repeating one main talking point in their effort to discredit the National Climate Assessment: They claim, inaccurately, that the report represents only a worst-case scenario. It actually reflects a broad range of possible future outcomes—along with an enormity of direct, present-day observations of the impacts of global warming.</font></em></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The naysayers are trying to build that falsehood on a number of misleading assertions:</font></em></p><ul style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em 3em; padding: 0px; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial;"><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">White House&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/press-briefing-press-secretary-sarah-sanders-director-nec-larry-kudlow-nsc-advisor-john-bolton-112818/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders</a>&nbsp;said "even Obama's undersecretary for science didn't believe the radical conclusions of the report that was released." This appears to be a reference to Steven Koonin, a former chief scientist for BP, who spent 18 months as an undersecretary in the Obama administration's energy department. Koonin has long maintained climate science is not "settled," and has argued the government should have a red-team/blue-team debate—an idea championed unsuccessfully by former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />&nbsp;</font></em></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sanders also said that the National Climate Assessment "is based on the most extreme modeled scenario, which contradicts long-established trends." But in fact the report considered the&nbsp;<a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/2/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">full range of climate scenarios</a>&nbsp;set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, looking at what will happen if carbon emissions decline, if they stabilize, and if they continue to grow unabated. As Hayhoe noted in<a href="https://twitter.com/KHayhoe/status/1067458211576496129" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">&nbsp;her Twitter thread,</a>&nbsp;"the observed increase in global carbon emissions over the past 15–20 years has been consistent with higher scenarios."<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />&nbsp;</font></em></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Trump EPA put out a news release it called a "fact check" on Wednesday, citing an article on the conservative website The Daily Caller </b>to try to bolster an assertion by<b> Wheeler</b> that Obama administration's science adviser John Holdren instructed the report's authors in 2015 to look at worst-case scenarios. "Mr. Wheeler's insinuation is absolutely false," Holdren, now at Harvard, responded in a&nbsp;<a href="https://mahb.stanford.edu/breaking-news/john-holdrens-comment-andrew-wheelers-allegation-fourth-national-climate-assessment/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">statement.</a>&nbsp;"Assertions by high officials of the Trump administration that these are 'worst case' reports are nothing more than a flimsy attempt to discredit the careful and comprehensive work of some of the best climate scientists in the country, inside and outside of government," Holdren said.</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" />&nbsp;</font></em></li><li style="box-sizing: inherit;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, said the administration might intervene in future climate reports</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> "Going forward, I think we need to take a look at the modeling that's used for the next assessment," Wheeler&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/28/epa-trump-next-climate-study-992872" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">said.</a>&nbsp;But the report underwent<a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/chapter/front-matter-about/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;several rounds of technical and policy review&nbsp;</a>by the 13 federal agencies involved. There was a series of regional engagement workshops that reached more than 1,000 people in over 40 cities, with listening sessions, webinars and public comment. An<a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/25013/chapter/3" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;expert external peer review</a>&nbsp;of the whole report was performed by a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span></font></em></li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c7acc346-7fff-817b-d6e4-e4e67f79f293" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b>Roger Pielke Jr.</b>, a political scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://twitter.com/RogerPielkeJr/status/1067209652205641728" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">took issue with the report&nbsp;</a>for including a figure that was widely quoted in the media: that U.S. GDP could take a 10 percent hit by 2100 due to climate change. The estimate was derived from an innovative, cutting-edge modeling of climate impacts on the U.S. economy&nbsp;<a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6345/1362" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">published in the journal&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Science</em></a>. Pielke, who often says he agrees with the core science on global warming but disputes how it is applied, argued this headline-grabbing data point should not have been included, since it reflected a scenario of more global warming than is commonly reckoned in modeling.&nbsp;<span id="docs-internal-guid-b9ece3fe-7fff-7bf5-d3bd-96ec452628f0" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Robert Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University and co-author of the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Science&nbsp;</em>paper, said the team purposefully took into account the unlikely</span>—<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">though not impossible</span>—<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">scenario at the end of the charted curve because of its potentially large consequences. "We were deliberately trying to include tail risks, not just 'most likely' outcomes, because consideration of tail risks is crucial to sound risk management," Kopp said in an email.</span></font></em></li></ul><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The arguments of the Trump administration have been&nbsp;<a href="https://weather.com/science/environment/news/2018-11-29-climate-deniers-found-themselves-on-tv" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">amplified in media</a>&nbsp;coverage in the aftermath of the report's release. &nbsp;</font></em></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Danielle Pletka of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute prefacing her remarks with the caveat, "I'm not a scientist," before delivering a blizzard of inaccuracies on Sunday's "Meet the Press"&nbsp;</span>on NBC aimed at undermining the report's credibility. Pletka said the last two years have been the coldest on record, when in fact they have been among the warmest. She said the U.S. "is not using dirty coal anymore," when in fact about 30 percent of U.S. power is still generated by coal and only&nbsp;<a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44902.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit;">one</a>&nbsp;U.S. coal plant has technology in place to capture some of its carbon emissions.</font></em></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hayhoe pre-taped an appearance on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 show to talk about the National Climate Assessment on Tuesday, but her appearance—<a href="https://twitter.com/windbarb/status/1068178498345418753" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">though posted online</a>—was bumped from the TV broadcast. CNN instead aired a segment with paid&nbsp;<a href="http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2017/01/18/cnn-adds-to-its-roster-of-commentators-and-contributors/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent;">contributor Rick Santorum</a>, a former Republican U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, who accused climate scientists of stoking alarm to make money.</font></em></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenhouse-gas-emissions-decline-2613089491.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/greenhouse-gas-emissions-decline-2613089491.html</a></font></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">T<a class="widget__headline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenhouse-gas-emissions-decline-2613089491.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 31px;">rump EPA Takes Credit For Obama-Era CO2 Reductions</a></font></em></div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url expanded" data-elid="2613089491" data-authors="Lorraine Chow" data-headline="Trump EPA Takes Credit For Obama-Era CO2 Reductions" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description"><div class="widget__brief"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Total U.S.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/greenhouse-gases" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">greenhouse gas</a>&nbsp;emissions decreased by 2.7 percent between 2016 and 2017, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgreporting/ghgrp-reported-data" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">report</a>released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">EPA</a>) released on Wednesday.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/andrew-wheeler" target="_self" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Andrew Wheeler</a>, the acting administrator of the EPA, touted that the report shows that regulations are unnecessary to slash carbon emissions.</font></em></p></div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="transition: all 350ms ease 0s; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Thanks to President Trump's regulatory reform agenda, the economy is booming, energy production is surging, and we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions from major industrial sources," Wheeler said in a&nbsp;<a href="http://createsend.com/t/d-53D201CBFD53B2C12540EF23F30FEDED" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">press release</a>. "These achievements flow largely from technological breakthroughs in the private sector, not the heavy hand of government. The Trump Administration has proven that federal regulations are not necessary to drive CO2 reductions."</font></em></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.axios.com/epa-climate-change-carbon-emissions-trump-136ca2f5-7625-44f9-8630-75783f17e52f.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Axios</a>' Amy Harder reported:</font></em></p><blockquote style="margin: 1em 0px 1em 25px; border-left: 5px solid rgb(82, 149, 70); padding: 0px 0px 0px 25px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">"This drop, between 2016 and 2017, is due largely to market forces and moves by President Obama and Congress, and occurred before President Trump officially took office. EPA's announcement contrasts with Trump, who in recent days has dismissed climate change as an issue."</font></em></blockquote><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-emissions-carbon/u-s-greenhouse-emissions-fell-in-2017-as-coal-plants-shut-idUSKCN1MR2J4" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Reuters</a>&nbsp;reporter Timothy Gardner also pointed out that the country's falling carbon emissions coincides with the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coal-is-going-down-even-without-the-clean-power-plan-2496008088.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">decline of coal</a>, which produces more pollution than any other energy source.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America's coal plants are closing despite the Trump administration's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-military-bases-coal-export-2612777989.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">efforts to bolster the struggling industry</a>. The coal industry has also been unable to compete with the rise of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy" target="_self" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">renewable energy</a>&nbsp;sector as well as cheap&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/natural-gas" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">natural gas</a>, which emits less carbon dioxide than coal, Gardner said.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">"In 2017 utilities shut or converted from coal-to-gas nearly 9,000 megawatts (MW) of coal plants," he noted. "The trend of U.S. coal plant shutdowns is expected to pick up this year, with power companies expecting to shut 14,000 MW of coal plants in calendar year 2018."</font></em></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/john-walke" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">John Walke</a>, a senior attorney and Clean Air Director for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>, was skeptical of the new EPA report.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walke&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/jwalkenrdc/status/1052587554506190848" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">tweeted</a>&nbsp;Wednesday that the Trump EPA "deserves zero credit" for falling greenhouse gas emissions and that the president's pro-fossil fuel agenda will actually "increase" emissions.</font></em></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed" style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. have been&nbsp;<a href="https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/inventoryexplorer/index.html#allsectors/allgas/gas/all" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">falling steadily since 2007</a>&nbsp;but environmentalists warn that the trend could reverse. The president intends to kill the Obama-era<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/clean-power-plan" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Clean Power Plan</a>, which caps coal plant emissions; he is letting fracking companies&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-methane-fracking-obama-2606229276.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">emit more methane</a>, a greenhouse gas more potent than CO2; and he has blocked new fuel economy standards.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last month, the Trump administration quietly released a&nbsp;<a href="https://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/national-highway-traffic-safety-administrations-2100-climate-scenario/3218/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">study</a>&nbsp;admitting that carbon pollution from cars and other sources will trigger a 7-degree rise in average worldwide temperatures by 2100.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Trump also announced he's pulling the U.S. out of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-paris-agreement-exit-2390600642.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Paris agreement</a>&nbsp;after his advisors&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-paris-agreement-exit-2390600642.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">reportedly</a>warned to him that the U.S. could not lower its emissions reductions commitments while remaining in the international climate accord.</font></em></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed" style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><span style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></span></em></p><div class="around-the-web"><ul class="around-the-web__list" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-web__item"><em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/global-carbon-emissions-2017-2577808055.html" class="around-the-web__link" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Global Carbon Emissions on the Rise Again Due to Coal Comeback ›</font></a></em></li><li class="around-the-web__item"><em><a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/jun/18/environmental-protection-agency/are-greenhouse-emissions-down-under-donald-trump-e/" class="around-the-web__link" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Are greenhouse emissions down under Donald Trump, as EPA says ... ›</font></a></em></li></ul></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p class="print-title"><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;==</font></em></p><p class="print-title"><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-house-brain-damaging-pesticides-2613568873.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-house-brain-damaging-pesticides-2613568873.html</a></font></em></p><div class="headline-container" style="margin-top: 10px;"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump White House Pushes to Let Minors Spray Brain-Damaging Pesticides on Farms</font></em></h1></div><div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px;"><p class="print-title"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="js-scroll-trigger" data-target="body" data-triggers="render-rebelbar" data-toggle-class="with-floating-shares" data-loaded="true" style="margin-top: 10px;" /></font></em></p><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2613568873" data-authors="Environmental Working Group" data-headline="Trump White House Pushes to Let Minors Spray Brain-Damaging Pesticides on Farms" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description"><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The White House's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaMain" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">just-released list</a>&nbsp;of planned environmental and public health rollbacks includes letting high-school-age kids spray brain-damaging pesticides on commercial farms.</font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The plan would drop the age of workers permitted to spray&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-10/documents/rup-report-oct2017.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">restricted-use pesticides</a>&nbsp;on crops from 18 to 16. Minors would be allowed to apply dangerous chemicals such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chlorpyrifos" style="text-decoration-line: none;">chlorpyrifos</a>, which U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists say can cause brain damage in children even in small doses.</font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The move, which would take effect&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201810&RIN=2070-AK37" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">next September</a>, was first announced last year by Scott Pruitt, the former head of the EPA, who was forced in July to resign after a string of ethical scandals.<b>&nbsp;In one of the first acts of the Trump administration, Pruitt aborted a scheduled ban of chlorpyrifos just weeks after meeting with the CEO of Dow, chlorpyrifos's manufacturer.</b></font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Pruitt's reversal of the ban was recently overturned by a federal appeals court. Under acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, the EPA is fighting the court's order to ban the pesticide.</b></font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The minimum age rules were enacted by the Obama administration to protect minors who work on farms. Many of these teenagers are migrant workers who speak little English, making it harder to understand directions on how to apply pesticides safely. The rules were championed by physicians and farmworker-rights advocates, who led a multi-year effort to improve protections for farmworkers.</font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Letting younger teenagers handle dangerous pesticides fits perfectly with the Trump administration's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2018/10/trump-s-war-children-s-health-escalates-wheeler-s-epa" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">war on children's health protection</a>," said EWG President Ken Cook. "There are other farm jobs they could do that don't involve strapping containers of dangerous chemicals on their backs that they will inhale and ingest. But this administration will let unscrupulous farm bosses risk these kids' health."</font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Maybe the president should pick up a spray nozzle for a day and see what it's like walking through a plume of pesticide fumes," said Cook. "But the closest he gets to a farm is flying over them on the way to his golf resorts and MAGA rallies."</font></em></p><div class="around-the-web"><div class="around-the-web__headline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></em></div><ul class="around-the-web__list" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-web__item"><em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/chlorpyrifos-ban-hawaii-2578016885.html" class="around-the-web__link" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Hawaii Bans Use of Toxic Pesticide Chlorpyrifos ›</font></a></em></li><li class="around-the-web__item"><em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-administration-chlorpyrifos-2607820657.html" class="around-the-web__link" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump Administration Asks Court to Re-Hear Case That Banned ... ›</font></a></em></li></ul></div></div></div><p class="print-title"><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></em></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1018</font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">icn</font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">EPA to Unveil Plans to Weaken Rule Limiting Toxic Mercury Pollution</span></span>&nbsp;-&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Guardian</span></font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://YYY.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/17/epa-to-unveil-plans-to-weaken-rule-limiting-toxic-mercury-pollution</font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">US Environmental Protection Agency next month will unveil plans to start weakening the economic justification for a rule limiting toxic mercury pollution from coal plants.</font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The EPA isn’t rescinding the standard as of yet but has finished deciding to reconsider the underlying analysis for the 2011 rule, according to the government’s newly published agenda.</font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump races against clock to roll back major Obama-era environment rules</font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">&nbsp;Read more</font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Donald Trump’s administration is revoking major environmental protections enacted by the Barack Obama administration, arguing Obama rules overestimated health benefits and undercounted costs.</font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Conservatives say Obama’s EPA shouldn’t have counted health improvements from the mercury rule that would have come from eliminating other kinds of pollution from coal plants, including soot and nitrogen oxide linked to respiratory illnesses and early deaths.</font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Power companies have already spent the money to comply with the mercury standard, but the EPA wants to rework the cost-benefit analysis behind the regulation anyway. Air law experts say the move could set the agency up to roll back other pollution protections that depend on the mercury rule math. It could also throw settled other regulations into question, setting off a frenzy of lawsuits against the government and businesses, they say.</font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Obama’s EPA estimated the rule would result in $37bn to $90bn in annual health benefits but that only a small portion of that would be from reducing mercury levels. The agency expected that installing mercury controls would cost industry $9.6bn per year, so the benefits would outweigh the costs. Excluding those secondary benefits would imply the rule cost more than it was worth.</font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>The supreme court in 2015 ruled the EPA broke the law in deciding to regulate mercury without first considering the costs. The EPA in 2016 responded to that with a new analysis. The agency now wants to reassess.</b></font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></font></em></p><p><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The EPA is still working on its required follow-up review of the risks from mercury and the technologies available to limit it and will issue a draft along with the proposal to re-evaluate the cost-benefit analysis in November.</font></em></p><p><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></em></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style=""><div><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></em></div><div><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-science-panel-air-pollution-2611852549.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-science-panel-air-pollution-2611852549.html</a></font></em></div><div><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></div><div><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></div><div><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></em></div><div><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><br /></b></font></em></div><div><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></em><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>EPA Cuts Science Panel That Reviewed Deadly Air Pollutants</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>It seems that every day scientists discover more about the dangers of air pollution. It is well known that it causes heart and lung disease, but studies this year have linked it to dementia and found soot particles in placenta. Most recently, a study published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine found a connection between particulate matter and mouth cancer risk.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) doesn't seem to be paying attention. The agency, under the direction of former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, is moving to disband a panel of scientists that advise the agency on setting safe levels of particulate matter pollution, The New York Times reported Wednesday.</b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>An EPA official confirmed to The New York Times that the 20-person Particulate Matter Review Panel, which advises the agency on setting safe levels of the microscopic pollutants, was not listed as continuing to meet next year.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"To me this is part of a pattern," Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) Research Director Gretchen Goldman told The New York Times. "We're seeing EPA trying to cut science out of the process."</span></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Goldman cited recent agency decisions such as nixing the senior science advisor position and issuing a proposal that would limit the types of scientific studies the EPA can use to make decisions. In the case of particulate matter, this could have deadly consequences</b>, as Goldman explained in a Twitter thread about the decision.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The end result here could be a weaker particulate standard, not based on science and not protective of public health. PM is responsible for thousands of premature deaths annually in the US. A weaker standard does not help," she wrote.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>In a separate blog post, Goldman explained more of the nuances of the EPA's most recent polluter-friendly move.</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The U.S. has succeeded in reducing deadly particulate matter pollution because of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which are reviewed every five years with the help of scientific experts. The teams working on those reviews include the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) and the separate pollution review panels.</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Goldman explained why both are essential:</div><div><br /></div><div>These review panels are comprised of experts on the pollutant under review specifically, allowing the agency to benefit from subject matter expertise. For example, CASAC will include folks with air pollution modeling or monitoring expertise and epidemiologists, but the PM review panel might include experts on the toxicology of particulates or an expert on particulate measurement error. This is especially important because CASAC is small (seven people). No matter how expert, it would not be possible for this group to have working expertise of all elements of the relationship between a pollutant and health AND have that knowledge for all six criteria pollutants under CASAC's purview. As a result, EPA decisions on pollution standards can benefit from scientific expertise on all facets of the science on particulates and health.</div><div>But in a Wednesday news release, Wheeler announced that he would add five people to CASAC and task that group with revising particulate matter and ozone standards, with no mention of the separate advisory panels.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Goldman speculated that the Trump administration was attempting to fast-track the air quality standards review process in order to set new standards before the end of its time in office. That would be a boon to polluting industries at the expense of America's lungs.</b></div></div></div><div style=""><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></em></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omfg</font></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></div><div><em><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trump-accused-of-waging-a-war-on-children-through-epa-regulatory-rollbacks-293fe0edc2e9/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://thinkprogress.org/donald-trump-accused-of-waging-a-war-on-children-through-epa-regulatory-rollbacks-293fe0edc2e9/</font></a></em></div><div><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></div><div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Child Health Day, celebrated on Monday, was meant to highlight efforts taken by the nation to protect children’s health. As it turned out,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-proclamation-child-health-day-2018/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">Child Health Day</a>, which kicked off&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/childrens-health-month-epa-offers-nearly-30-million-support-cleaner-water-and-air" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">Children’s Health Month</a>, served as a moment for the nation to come to terms with how the&nbsp;<b>Trump administration has prioritized the removal of industry regulations over health protections for children.</b></font></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2017, his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken numerous actions that&nbsp;do not bode well for the future health of American children.</font></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And in the past week alone, the administration has introduce plans to rollback back key pollution rules,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;removed the head of the EPA’s&nbsp;<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">children’s health office</a>, and was shown to have scrubbed any mention of the impact of climate change on children from a draft document.</span></font></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">it was revealed that the Trump administration is&nbsp;</span><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-rollback-mercury-rule-trump-obama-health-coal-e66b43ec1501/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">moving forward</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;with a proposal to&nbsp;<b>rollback limits on lead, mercury, and other dangerous air pollution from the nation’s coal-fired power plants, putting children at risk from known brain poisons and toxic pollutants.</b></span></font></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, finalized in 2011, were&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2018/181001" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">projected to prevent</a>up to 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, and 130,000 asthma attacks yearly, while delivering annual health benefits totaling up to $90 billion.</font></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“What the Trump EPA is pursuing — the fraudulent denial of real-world benefits from clean air and climate safeguards — is the unholy grail of the polluting industry and its lobbyists,” John Walke, clean air director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said Monday in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2018/181001" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">statement</a>.</font></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then on Tuesday, E&E News&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2018/10/02/stories/1060100339" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">reported</a>&nbsp;that the&nbsp;<b>Trump administration removed language about how climate change affects children’s health from a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2018/10/02/document_pm_02.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">draft</a>&nbsp;EPA proposal on heat-trapping chemicals.</b></font></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">An earlier draft of an EPA proposal on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)&nbsp;</span>contained language about how children are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. 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text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump’s EPA makes ‘sneaky’ move to hamstring its children’s health office</font></a></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></h3></div></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Every day we see more evidence that this administration is actively working against the health and safety of the most vulnerable Americans — our children,” Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said Wednesday in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ewg.org/release/white-house-strikes-discussion-impacts-climate-change-children-s-health-draft-epa-rule#.W7TwS3tKgdU" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">statement</a>. “Tragically, it’s not an exaggeration to say that the Trump administration is waging a war on children.”</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HFCs are used in refrigeration and air-conditioning appliances and are a significant contributor to the depletion of the ozone layer.&nbsp;Their atmospheric concentrations and contribution to&nbsp;greenhouse gas&nbsp;emissions&nbsp;<a href="http://time.com/4673826/greenhouse-gas-emissions-epa-hfcs/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">are known</a>&nbsp;to be rapidly increasing.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scientists are concerned about the rise in HFC use because they are thousands of times more potent on a pound-per-pound basis than carbon dioxide.&nbsp;The Obama administration, as part of its climate action plan,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060043743/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">issued</a>&nbsp;a rule aimed at reducing the amount of HFCs released from appliances that use them as coolants.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The news of the administration deleting language from the chemical rule came just days after the head of EPA’s&nbsp;Office of Children’s Health Protection&nbsp;was&nbsp;<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">placed on administrative leave</a>&nbsp;with no explanation, fueling speculation that the office itself may be eliminated.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhisubbaraman/ruth-etzel-epa-childrens-health-office" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">letter</a>&nbsp;written by Ruth Etzel, the head of the office, she said: “I appear to be the ‘fall guy’ for their plan to ‘disappear’ the office of children’s health.”</b></font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, the EPA is also fighting a federal court ruling ordering the agency to ban of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which can cause brain damage and development disabilities in children at even low doses. In 2017, former EPA chief Scott Pruitt reversed an earlier decision to ban of the pesticide only weeks after&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/pruitt-dow-chlorpyrifos-2449662128.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">meeting with the head of Dow Chemical</a>, which manufactures the chemical.</font></em></em></em></p><div class="related-content__wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 2rem;"><em><em><em><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /></em></em></em><div class="related-content__body" style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 513px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; 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text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump’s EPA to close research center that protects public health</font></a></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></h3></div></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit&nbsp;</b><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/us/politics/chlorpyrifos-pesticide-ban-epa-court.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">ordered</a>&nbsp;the EPA in early August to bar the widely used&nbsp;chlorpyrifos&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">within 60 days</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">.&nbsp;The court decided the EPA had been ignoring its own science that allegedly showed chlorpyrifos is a danger to children.</span></font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The EPA, however,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/crops/article/2018/09/25/doj-attorneys-make-case-ninth-unable-2" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">filed a petition</a>&nbsp;with the court last month asking for a hearing on the decision before all the judges on the Ninth Circuit.&nbsp;If the court order stands, chlorpyrifos would be officially banned as of next Tuesday.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The White House’s OIRA has removed references to climate change from other EPA proposals</b>, including its proposed Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, E&E News&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060095807/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">reported</a>. The ACE rule would&nbsp;<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/clean-air-climate-advocates-denounce-trumps-proposed-repeal-of-clean-power-plan-1fb7d98ad332/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">replace</a>&nbsp;the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s signature climate rule that would cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The new plan&nbsp;could result in up to 1,400 more premature deaths and up to 120,000 more asthma attacks every year, according to the EPA’s own analysis.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But, in celebration of Children’s Health Day on Monday, acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler&nbsp;held an event&nbsp;at the&nbsp;EPA courtyard. He did not address any of the changes at the agency that could harm the health of children.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Instead, Wheeler touted the EPA’s efforts on behalf on children,</b>&nbsp;despite the long list of clean air and clean water rules the Trump administration has sought to undo. “Children’s health is a top priority at EPA, and we have made tremendous progress improving air and water quality and helping kids and families lead healthier lives,” he&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/childrens-health-month-epa-offers-nearly-30-million-support-cleaner-water-and-air" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">said</a>&nbsp;at the event. "</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The fact that Wheeler reportedly finalized a plan to repeal protections against mercury pollution just one day before he stood in front of a school bus celebrating Children’s Health Day is an insult to American families,” Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director Mary Anne Hitt said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2018/10/wheeler-celebrates-children-s-health-day-gutting-standards-protect-children-s" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">statement</a>&nbsp;on Monday. “While Wheeler’s former employers reap the profits from rollback after rollback, our kids will be paying with their health.”</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prior to joining the Trump EPA, Wheeler served as a top lobbyist for Murray Energy, a major U.S. coal company.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In other attacks on children’s health, the Trump EPA&nbsp;<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-eliminates-key-research-office-074f12d18393/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">announced</a>&nbsp;to staff last week that it will move forward with plans to reorganize multiple offices housed under its Office of Research and Development (ORD).&nbsp;The National Center for Environmental Research, an EPA office that works to test the effects of chemical exposure on adults and children, will be shuttered as part of the reorganization.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Under the reorganization, David Dunlap, a former Koch Industries chemical engineer, will&nbsp;<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/koch-epa-industry-david-dunlap-chemical-water-1f08cfa2fb01/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">head</a>&nbsp;the ORD as a deputy chief, a role that will not need Senate confirmation.&nbsp;Prior to his eight years with Koch, Dunlap&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dunlap-david-78981834/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">worked</a>&nbsp;for the C<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">hlorine Institute&nbsp;</span>overseeing health and environmental safety.</b></font></em></em></em></p></div><div><p><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></em></em></em></p><p><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref</font></em></em></em></p><p><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></em></em></em></p><p><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/">https://thinkprogress.org/trump-epas-sneaky-new-move-in-its-war-on-childrens-health-74fc9f55ce84/</a></font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Acting&nbsp;Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Andrew Wheeler isn’t going to end&nbsp;<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">Trump’s war on children’s health</a>.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But the former coal lobbyist does have sneakier tactics than his&nbsp;much-investigated&nbsp; predecessor Scott Pruitt.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wheeler has put the Director of the Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP),&nbsp;Dr. Ruth Etzel,&nbsp;on&nbsp;<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/408475-epa-puts-top-childrens-health-official-on-leave" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">administrative leave without explanation</a>. Etzel, as the EPA’s&nbsp;website notes, is an award-winning pediatrician and public health expert whose career “<a href="https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-director-epas-office-childrens-health-protection" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">to protect children from hazards in the environment</a>” spans three decades.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This seems like a sneaky way for the E.P.A. to get rid of this program and not be upfront about it,” as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/climate/epa-etzel-children-health-program.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha told the New York Times</a>. Dr.&nbsp;Hanna-Attisha is<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">&nbsp;the pediatrician whose&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Hanna-Attisha" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">tests of children’s blood revealed elevated lead levels</a>&nbsp;in Flint Michigan’s water.&nbsp;</span>And a former EPA official called the move “highly unusual.”</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump EPA has been working to undermine the children’s health office for a while, according to several people in and out of the agency who spoke to the Times. For instance, the paper reports that since July, the EPA has stalled a year-long effort by the OCHP to develop an inter-agency strategy to cut children’s lead exposure.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What’s especially worrisome with this is that children are much more vulnerable to&nbsp; pollution and toxins than adults because key organs are still developing, they put things in their mouth (like lead paint), and “they eat more, drink more, and breathe more in proportion to their body size,” as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/about-office-childrens-health-protection-ochp" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">OCHP website explains</a>.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This special vulnerability is why President Bill Clinton and then EPA-Chief Carol Browner&nbsp;created the office in the first place in 1997. It was given an explicit mission “<a href="http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/children/national.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">to make the protection of children’s health</a>&nbsp;a fundamental goal of public health and environmental protection in the United States.”</font></em></em></em></p><div class="related-content__wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 2rem;"><em><em><em><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /></em></em></em><div class="related-content__body" style="box-sizing: inherit; width: 513px;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; 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text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump’s border policies aren’t the only ones ‘cruel’ and ‘toxic ‘ to children</font></a></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></h3></div></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But under Trump, this goal appears to no longer be a priority.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2017, for example,&nbsp;<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-border-policies-cruel-toxic-to-children-epa-3e3eddff4864/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">Pruitt rejected a ban on the organophospate pesticide</a>&nbsp;chlorpyrifos, which paralyzes the nervous system of insects — and which has been&nbsp;linked directly to fetal brain damage. Indeed,&nbsp;<a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2003671#pbio.2003671.ref031" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">one study found</a>&nbsp;that “US children born in 2010 lost 1.8 million IQ points and 7,500 children had their IQs shifted into the intellectual disability range as a result of prenatal organophosphate exposures.”</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And in August, Trumps’ own EPA&nbsp;conceded that replacing President Obama’s climate plan for electric utilities with his new plan would lead to as many as 120,000 more cases of worsened asthma a year. 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word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/epa-admits-trump-would-sacrifice-thousands-of-american-lives-to-save-a-few-coal-plants-b426dda2e76f/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border: none; display: flex;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">EPA admits Trump would sacrifice thousands of U.S. lives to save a few coal plants]</font></a></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></h3></div></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let’s remember that Trump’s efforts to undermine global climate action is&nbsp;<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/governmental-climate-report-forecasts-catastrophe-under-trump-policies-77197b4a8301/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">literally stealing our children’s future livable climate</a>&nbsp;to enrich fossil fuel companies.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it’s not just climate policy he’s targeting. As ThinkProgress reported in June, Trump also wants&nbsp;to fix the deficit, caused by his tax cuts, by&nbsp;<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/trump-quietly-proposes-slashing-billions-from-childrens-health-care-86300b9989c6/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(144, 141, 255);">cutting billions from children’s health care</a>.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 2.1875rem; line-height: 2.5rem;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, that’s what makes the Trump administration’s war on children’s health so dangerous. And putting the head of the program on leave is simply the latest example.</font></em></em></em></p><p><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></em></em></p><p><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></em></em></em></p></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></em></em></em></div><div><h1 class="widget__headline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 22px;"><em><em><em><a class="widget__headline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-coal-pollution-delaware-maryland-2605913104.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 31px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">EPA Rejects States' Health Concerns Over Upwind Coal Air Pollution</font></a></em></em></em></h1><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2605913104" data-authors="Olivia Rosane" data-headline="EPA Rejects States' Health Concerns Over Upwind Coal Air Pollution" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description"><div class="widget__brief"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="_self" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">EPA</a>) published a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-09/documents/placeholder.pdf" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">notice</a>&nbsp;Friday denying petitions by the states of Delaware and Maryland for it to recognize that upwind state pollution sources are interfering with their ability to meet ozone standards.</font></em></em></em></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The states had used a provision of the Clean Air Act to petition for reduced nitrogen oxide emissions from&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">coal</a>plants in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, but the EPA found that there wasn't enough evidence that the plants were contributing to elevated ozone levels in the downwind states,&nbsp;<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17092018/coal-plant-smog-pollution-epa-ruling-state-border-health-maryland-delaware-andrew-wheeler" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">InsideClimateNews</a>reported.</font></em></em></em></p></div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="transition: all 350ms ease 0s; height: 0px; overflow: hidden; opacity: 0;"><div class="widget__show-more with-primary-color js-keep-reading js-page-view-and-reload-embeds" style="cursor: pointer; border-radius: 15px; float: left; padding: 7px; font-weight: 600; background-color: rgb(240, 240, 240);"><em><em><em><span class="show-more js-expand"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Keep reading...</font></span></em></em></em></div></div></div></div><div><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></em></em></div><div><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></em></em></div><div><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></em></em></div><div><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">====</font></em></em></em></div></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></em></em></em></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">https://www.carper.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/8/senators-carper-and-alexander-call-on-epa-to-keep-mercury-and-air-toxics-standards-rule-in-place</font></em></em></em></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">mercury</font></em></em></em></p><div class="header" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><h4 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 300; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em><em><em><span class="date" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="month" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Aug</span>&nbsp;<span class="day" style="box-sizing: border-box;">24</span>&nbsp;<span class="year" style="box-sizing: border-box;">2018</span></font></span></em></em></em></h4></div><div class="post-body" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="post-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p class="wordsection1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><i style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;">WASHINGTON, D.C.</i><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;– Today, Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), sent a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/a/d/adb9d439-c3e6-43da-beb1-c58f86ff0a86/2DE02898C197F3615F58FB3F2220575B.18-8-24-carper-alexander-mats-letter-redacted.pdf" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.2s ease 0s, color 0.2s ease 0s;">letter</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;to&nbsp;the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)&nbsp;in support of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule.&nbsp;On February 16, 2012, EPA published the MATS rule, which resulted in the first-ever federal standards to limit mercury, acid gases and other air toxic pollution from fossil-fuel power plants.&nbsp;Prior to the rule, fossil-fuel power plants were the largest source of unregulated</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <b style="">mercury</b> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">in the country.&nbsp;MATS has achieved a 90% reduction in mercury power plant emissions. In April 2017, the D.C. Circuit Court granted EPA’s request to delay litigation against MATS, as the agency determines if it wants to make any changes to the rule. The senators’ letter follows a&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2018/07/11/document_gw_04.pdf" style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.2s ease 0s, color 0.2s ease 0s;">letter</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;by the utility industry also asking EPA to keep the MATS protections in place because investments in air control technology have already been made and installed.</span></font></em></em></em></p><p class="wordsection1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Senators Carper and Alexander wrote,&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">“Keeping the current rule in place will provide much-needed certainty for the electric power industry and help protect the health of all Americans.”</span></font></em></em></em></p><p class="wordsection1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The senators continued<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">, “EPA struck the right balance between protecting the environment, public health and our economy.&nbsp; For these reasons and more, we strongly supported the MATS rule when it was finalized and still support the rule today.”&nbsp;</span></font></em></em></em></p><p class="wordsection1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><em><em><em><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">“MATS has been a success, and changing the MATS rule just doesn’t make sense,”&nbsp;</span>the senators wrote.<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">&nbsp;</span></font></span></em></em></em></p><p class="wordsection1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A copy of the letter can be found&nbsp;<a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/a/d/adb9d439-c3e6-43da-beb1-c58f86ff0a86/2DE02898C197F3615F58FB3F2220575B.18-8-24-carper-alexander-mats-letter-redacted.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; transition: background-color 0.2s ease 0s, color 0.2s ease 0s;">HERE</a>, and the full text of the letter is below:</font></em></em></em></p><p class="wordsection1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></em></em></em></p></div></div></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></em></em></em></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></em></em></em></div><div><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">E&E</font></em></em></em></div><div><em><em><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br /></font></em></em></em></div><div><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060095133" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" /></font></em></em></em><h1 class="headline" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2;"><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060095133" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;"><em><em /></em></a><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060095133" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;"><em /></a><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060095133" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" /></a><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060095133" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;"><font face="Times New Roman" /></a><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060095133" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060095133" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060095133" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060095133" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060095133" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Trump reshaped U.S. climate policy in one month: August 2018</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></h1><section class="excerpt" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: none;"><p style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 15px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">August was supposed to be a quiet month for climate politics, a time when Congress went on recess; President Trump played golf in Bedminster, N.J.; and Americans took a break from politics before this November's midterm elections. Instead, it may go down as a historic turning point in U.S. climate efforts.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></p></section></div><div><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.1; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 10px !important;"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2018/08/13/EPA-chief-Andrew-Wheeler-gives-his-first-TV-interview-to-right-wing-conglomerate-Sinclair/220983" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; border: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">EPA chief Andrew Wheeler gives his first TV interview to right-wing conglomerate Sinclair</font></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></h2><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><small style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0.03em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="type-blog right" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: right; margin: 0px; padding: 1px 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); border-radius: 3px;">Blog</span><span class="date-display-single" style="box-sizing: border-box;">August 13, 2018 6:12 PM EDT</span></font></small></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><small style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0.03em;"><span class="date-display-single" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma</font></span></small></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/07/29/epa-chief-andrew-wheelers-past-lobbying-ties-attract-scrutiny/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/07/29/epa-chief-andrew-wheelers-past-lobbying-ties-attract-scrutiny/</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><br /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">elperin</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><br /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></div><div style=""><p data-elm-loc="1" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Wheeler’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/07/06/incoming-epa-chief-this-is-the-right-job-for-me/?utm_term=.6ce7340add4f" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">lobbying ties</a>&nbsp;have come under increasing scrutiny now that he has taken the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency, even though federal rules offer him wide latitude to meet with groups that retained him before April 2016.</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></p><p data-elm-loc="2" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under the Trump administration’s ethics pledge, a political appointee cannot meet with anyone to whom he or she has provided services during the two years before joining the federal government — except under specific circumstances. That two-year window defines which companies and groups count as a “former client” in the eyes of federal ethics officials and which do not.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></p><p data-elm-loc="3" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Since joining the EPA on April 20, Wheeler has met with multiple organizations and businesses that retained him in his capacity as a principal at Faegre Baker Daniels.</b> The list includes biodiesel producer Darling Ingredients; agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, all of which ended their financial relationship with Wheeler’s firm before April 2016.</span>&nbsp; "<span style="background-color: transparent;">We’re very clear about what the definition of former client is,” Justina Fugh, senior counsel at EPA’s ethics office, said in an interview Friday. “You’re either in it, or you’re not. It’s a toggle switch.”</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></p><p data-elm-loc="5" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In Wheeler’s&nbsp;<a href="http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/epa-acting-administrator-andrew-wheelers-recusal-letter/3134/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">May 24 letter</a>&nbsp;outlining his ethics obligations regarding former clients, he identified eight from which he needed to recuse himself when it came to EPA matters. Those included the nation’s largest privately owned coal company, Murray Energy; Sargento Food Co.; Underwriters Laboratories; Energy Fuels Resources.; Growth Energy; International Paper; Martin Farms, and Xcel Energy.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></p><p data-elm-loc="6" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Wheeler did attend three events with groups connected to International Paper,</b> E&E News reported Thursday, including a June 6 meeting with the Business Roundtable’s Energy & Environment Committee, a June 28 session with the American Forest and Paper Association’s board of directors and a “stakeholder” meeting with AFPA and other organization.&nbsp; B<span style="background-color: transparent;">ut the ethics pledge allows for federal officials to meet with a former client if the session is on a subject that is “a matter of general applicability” and is “open to all interested parties.” Both the Trump and Obama administrations have defined an “open” session as one in which at least five people are present and the attendees represent a diversity of perspectives.</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></p><p data-elm-loc="8" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Melinda Pierce, legislative director for the environmental advocacy group Sierra Club, said in a statement that even if Wheeler was complying with the law, the recent meetings show that it took him “less than a month as acting EPA administrator to prove he can’t and won’t let go of his corporate polluter past.”</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></p><p data-elm-loc="9" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wheeler has estimated he represented roughly 20 clients with business before the federal government during his time in private practice: That portfolio included the Nuclear Energy Institute, the Domestic Fuels Solutions Group, Whirlpool Corp. and chemical manufacturer <b>Celanese Corp</b>.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></p><p data-elm-loc="10" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under his recusal arrangement, his senior adviser, Michael Molina, screens his schedule for any potential conflicts of interest and consults with the ethics office should something arise.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></p><p data-elm-loc="11" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We’re trusting that they’re following the terms of recusal,” Fugh said. “And I believe that they are.”</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></p><p data-elm-loc="12" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">She noted that Wheeler’s staff checked with EPA ethics lawyers when he was invited to speak in September to the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nationalenergyresources.com/home.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">National Energy Resources Organization</a>&nbsp;(NERO), a nonpartisan, nonprofit group made up largely of energy industry players. Wheeler chaired the group’s executive board from 2014 to 2015, according to Internal Revenue Service filings, and served as chairman emeritus from 2015 to 2016.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></p><p data-elm-loc="13" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fugh said her office told Wheeler’s aides to decline the invitation, because he had been affiliated with the group, even though he did not have a financial relationship with it.</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></em></em></em></p><p data-elm-loc="14" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><em><em><em><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lukas Ross, a senior policy analyst at the advocacy group Friends of the Earth, said in an interview Friday that Wheeler’s affiliation with NERO raises questions because of its membership and because its <b>executive director, Carole Goeas, is a Republican fundraiser

...NERO Chairman Laura Marshall Schepis rejected the idea that her group was affiliated with a specific viewpoint or party.<p data-elm-loc="17" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb">“We have Republicans and Democrats, we have traditional fuels and renewables,” Schepis said, adding that NERO’s events are open to the public.<p data-elm-loc="18" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb">Schepis added that she respects the decision Wheeler and his colleagues made to decline the invitation. “We hope to welcome him next spring or summer as a speaker,” she said

...Archer Daniels Midland spokeswoman Jackie Anderson said in an email that company officials attended a meeting with Wheeler on the renewable fuels standard on May 24, which was “the first time we discussed EPA-related issues with Mr. Wheeler. Our previous work with Mr. Wheeler was several years ago around un-related food-issues.”<p data-elm-loc="21" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb">Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said that while the district did retain FBD from 2010 to 2012, “I cannot find any indication that Andrew Wheeler was a point of contact.”<p data-elm-loc="22" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb">The district’s executive officer, Wayne Nastri, met with Wheeler on June 22 to discuss its push for stricter nitrogen oxide emissions limits for heavy-duty trucks, Atwood added.<p data-elm-loc="23" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb">Read More:<p data-elm-loc="24" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/07/06/incoming-epa-chief-this-is-the-right-job-for-me/?utm_term=.6ce7340add4f" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">Andrew Wheeler talks about his lobbyist past</a><p data-elm-loc="25" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 18px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" color="color" rgb="rgb"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/technocrats-are-replacing-big-personality-cabinet-members/2018/07/06/ace3d3a2-8138-11e8-b658-4f4d2a1aeef1_story.html?utm_term=.1522f50109cb" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">At EPA and elsewhere, the rise of the technocrats</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-coal-ash-rule-2589214229.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.ecowatch.com/new-coal-ash-rule-2589214229.html</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="headline-container" style="margin-top: 10px;"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;">Green Groups Worry New Coal Ash Rule Could Harm Human Health</h1></div><div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px;"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2589214229" data-authors="Olivia Rosane" data-headline="Green Groups Worry New Coal Ash Rule Could Harm Human Health" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description">Environmental groups expressed concerns over the health impacts of a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">EPA</a>) decision to relax regulations on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal-ash" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">coal ash</a>, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/21/health/epa-coal-ash-reaction/index.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">CNN reported Saturday</a>.Coal ash contains toxic metals like arsenic, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/lead" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">lead</a> and mercury and is often left in ponds where it has been known to contaminate groundwater.The rule change gives states greater authority over regulating one of the nation's biggest sources of industrial waste and allows companies to forgo annual groundwater tests if they can prove their coal ash is not polluting nearby aquifers."These rules will allow yet more tons of coal ash, containing toxics like arsenic and mercury, to be dumped into unlined leaking pits sitting in groundwater and next to rivers, lakes and drinking water reservoirs," <a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Southern Environmental Law Center</a> senior attorney Frank Holleman told CNN.The new rule was signed July 18 and was the first rule signed by new acting EPA head Andrew Wheeler, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa-coal/us-epa-eases-obama-era-standards-on-toxic-coal-ash-idUSKBN1K825A" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">Reuters reported</a>."Our actions mark a significant departure from the one-size-fits-all policies of the past and save tens of millions of dollars in regulatory costs," Wheeler said, according to Reuters.Revisions to the Obama-era coal ash regulations put in place in 2015 were sought by <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;">coal </a>CEO Bob Murray, who Wheeler used to lobby for.In March 2017, Wheeler helped organize and was present at a meeting between Murray and Energy Sec. Rick Perry in which Murray presented a plan to "assist in the survival of our Country's coal industry" which included giving states more control over coal ash disposal, CNN reported."It is now apparently the goal of EPA to save industry money by allowing them to continue to dump toxic waste into leaking pits, which is exactly what the new rule accomplishes," <a href="https://earthjustice.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Earthjustice</a> attorney Lisa Evans told CNN.The obama-era coal ash regulations were written following two coal ash spills.In 2008, a dam at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston plant broke and released a billion gallons of coal ash into the Clinch River, covering 300 acres with sludge and contaminating fish with arsenic and selenium for months afterword.In 2014, a pipe at Duke Energy's Dan River steam station leaked 39,000 tons of coal ash into North Carolina waterways, extending 70 miles and leading to mercury levels in fish so high that authorities still recommend against eating them.But even in the absence of a single disaster, coal ash can have devastating effects on human health.Tracey Brown Edwards, who grew up next to Duke Energy's Belews Creek Steam Station in Walnut Cove, North Carolina which had a coal ash pond next to a neighborhood lake, told CNN that in the five homes on her block, four had experienced cancer in the family."There's been a lot of young people with cancer, certain kinds of cancers, brain cancer, stomach cancers, breast cancer," she said.Doctors say they cannot confirm if the cancer is caused by coal ash, but they also cannot exclude it as a possibility, CNN reported.<div class="around-the-web"><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/21/health/epa-coal-ash-reaction/index.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">With EPA rule change, worries linger for those near coal ash ponds ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://earthjustice.org/advocacy-campaigns/coal-ash" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Coal Ash Contaminates Our Lives | Earthjustice ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://earthjustice.org/" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Earthjustice: Environmental Law: Because the Earth Needs a Good ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div></div></div><div></div></div></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/06/epa-formaldehyde-warnings-blocked-696628" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/06/epa-formaldehyde-warnings-blocked-696628</a>many lnxTrump administration is suppressing an Environmental Protection Agency report that warns that most Americans inhale enough formaldehyde vapor in the course of daily life to put them at risk of developing leukemia and other ailments, a current and a former agency official told POLITICO.The warnings are contained in a draft health assessment EPA scientists completed just before Donald Trump became president, according to the officials. They said top advisers to departing Administrator Scott Pruitt are delaying its release as part of a campaign to undermine the agency’s independent research into the health risks of toxic chemicals.Andrew Wheeler, the No. 2 official at EPA who will be the agency's new acting chief as of Monday, also has a history with the chemical. He was staff director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in 2004, when his boss, then-Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), sought to delay an earlier iteration of the formaldehyde assessment.Formaldehyde is one of the most commonly used chemicals in the country. Americans are exposed to it through wood composites in cabinets and furniture, as well as air pollution from major refineries. The new assessment would give greater weight to warnings about the chemical's risks and could lead to stricter regulations from the EPA or class-action lawsuits targeting its manufacturers, as frequently occurs after these types of studies are released.“They’re stonewalling every step of the way,” the current official said, accusing political appointees of interfering with the formaldehyde assessment and other reports on toxic chemicals produced by EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System. Industry has long faulted the IRIS program, the agency’s only independent scientific division evaluating the health risks of toxic chemicals, whose assessments often form the basis for federal and state regulations.The current official and former official requested anonymity out of fear for their jobs and the impact that speaking out could have on the IRIS program.Interfering with the formaldehyde study is one of several steps Trump's EPA has taken to side with the businesses the agency is supposed to regulate and undermine the agency's approach to science, critics say. Public health advocates also expressed alarm after Pruitt replaced academic scientists with industry advocates on the agency’s influential science advisory boards and sought to limit the types of human health research the EPA can rely on in rulemakings.The officials said Trump appointees have required that career officials receive their permission before beginning the required internal review of the formaldehyde study and have canceled key briefings that would have advanced it. That interference came after EPA career scientists revised the study once already last year to insulate it from political controversy, they said.In a statement, EPA denied that the assessment was being held back.“EPA continues to discuss this assessment with our agency program partners and have no further updates to provide at this time," EPA spokeswoman Kelsi Daniell said. “Assessments of this type are often the result of needs for particular rulemakings and undergo an extensive intra-agency and interagency process.”But as long ago as January, Pruitt told a Senate panel that he believed the draft assessment was complete.Five months later, it has yet to see the light of day. Meanwhile, internal documents show, a trade group representing businesses that could face new regulations and lawsuits if the study were released had frequent access to top EPA officials and pressed them to either keep it under wraps or change its findings.“As stated in our meeting, a premature release of a draft assessment … will cause irreparable harm to the companies represented by the Panel and to the many companies and jobs that depend on the broad use of the chemical,” Kimberly Wise White, who leads the American Chemistry Council’s Formaldehyde Panel, wrote in a Jan. 26 letter to top officials at the EPA. The panel represents companies including the Koch Industries subsidiary Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC that could face higher costs from stricter regulations or lawsuits.
Environmentalists: Pruitt's replacement 'should scare anyone who breathes'By ERIC WOLFFNearly a million jobs “depend on the use of formaldehyde,” White’s letter argued.The holdup is attracting attention on Capitol Hill, where Democrats have already expressed alarm, arguing that the Trump administration has allowed politics to interfere in EPA’s scientific assessments of threats such as toxic pollution and climate change.The agency must “move past politics and focus on its job of protecting human health” by releasing the formaldehyde study, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in a statement to POLITICO."Because formaldehyde can be found in everything from wood products to women’s hair straighteners, the public health risks are substantial,” Markey said. “Delaying the EPA’s latest assessment of the health risks of formaldehyde only further endangers the health of Americans."Public health advocates have similarly expressed fears that the Trump administration has allowed EPA to be captured by the industries it regulates. The revelations about the formaldehyde study come after Pruitt removed academic scientists from the agency’s influential science advisory boards and in many cases replaced them with industry advocates, and after he proposed a policy to limit the agency's use of human health data while offering a carve-out for confidential industry studies.“At every corner, you see the agency trying to either minimize the role of science or manipulate the role of science or just ignore the work of scientists in doing the critical work to ensure that human health and the environment is protected,” said Jennifer McPartland, a senior scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund’s health program.POLITICO also reported in May that Trump administration officials, including EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson, sought to delay an HHS study finding that nonstick chemicals pose health dangers at a lower level than EPA has said is safe.Insiders anticipate few major policy changes under Wheeler, who is widely expected to continue Pruitt's deregulatory agenda and is well-versed in chemicals issues. He began his career in EPA's chemical safety office, and after leaving Inhofe's staff lobbied for several chemicals companies, including Celanese Corp., a major formaldehyde manufacturer and ICOR International, a refrigerants manufacturer that was recently acquired by Chemours Co., a DuPont spin-off. A Celanese spokesman said Wheeler worked only on the Renewable Fuels Standard for the company, although Wheeler’s disclosure forms describe his lobbying as being on the broad topic of “chemicals issues.” Wheeler is not barred from working on chemicals issues under the recusal statement he signed in May.Decades’ of research has linked formaldehyde to nose and throat cancer and respiratory problems, and newer research has suggested the connection to leukemia — controversial conclusions that would gain significant credence if EPA formally adopts them. The new assessment affirms those links to leukemia, nose and throat cancer and other ailments, according to the current and former officials familiar with its findings.
The new assessment could lead the EPA to impose stricter regulations of chemicals refineries or wood products and could spur class-action lawsuits from cancer patients attempting to hold companies responsible for their illnesses.
The agency officials said the political aides blocking the assessment include Jackson and Richard Yamada, a former staffer for House Science Chairman Lamar Smith(R-Texas) who is now a top official in EPA’s Office of Research and Development. And they said Nancy Beck, who criticized the IRIS program in her previous job as a top chemical industry expert, is now helping to stymie the program’s assessments in her new post as head of EPA’s chemical safety office. Jackson, Yamada and Beck did not respond to requests for comment.
The EPA spokeswoman disputed the accusations and said Yamada and Jackson have, in fact, requested briefings on the assessment.
The current EPA official told POLITICO that political appointees have managed to avoid creating written evidence of their interference with the formaldehyde assessment by refusing to send emails or create other records that eventually could become public, instead using what the official described as “a children’s game of telephone."
By blocking the report at the first step of the IRIS review process, political appointees are keeping it from being reviewed by the National Academies of Sciences, an independent panel of the country's top scientists that must weigh in on all such risk assessments. EPA has already paid the academies $500,000 for that review, the highest level of scrutiny a scientific study can receive, but the work cannot start until Pruitt's aides send the study.“If the administration was really keen on protecting public health, why wouldn’t they send this to the National Academy and give it a really good review?” the former EPA official asked. “If it survives that review, then there’s a public health problem that needs to be dealt with, and if it doesn’t survive the review, then they can point the finger at IRIS and say, ‘You’re dead.’”How Scott Pruitt blew itBy ALEX GUILLÉN and ANDREW RESTUCCIAThe former official said there would be only one reason not to ask the country’s top experts whether they agree with the analysis: “You don’t want the answer.”
Public health advocates say the administration’s attacks on science have had especially significant implications for the IRIS program. The small office of about 35 experts pores over the huge body of existing research on chemicals, including industry-backed studies aimed at proving the substances safe, to independently assess their risks. While purely scientific, the program’s reviews are looked to by regulators not just at EPA, but also in the states and around the world, often paving the way for new or more stringent regulations.But industry has long targeted the program, arguing it uses an opaque process to decide which studies to rely on and which research to give credence to when findings conflict.The American Chemistry Council, Beck’s former employer, spent more than $7 million last year lobbying EPA and Congress on issues including IRIS, formaldehyde and the policy to limit EPA’s use of human health research. Chemicals manufacturers, including Hexion, one of the country’s largest manufacturers of formaldehyde, have also spent tens of thousands of dollars on lobbying related to the program this year.
A National Academies panel agreed with some of industry’s criticisms of the IRIS program in a blistering review of an earlier iteration of the formaldehyde assessment that recommended major changes to how IRIS decides how much weight to give conflicting studies, although it did not attack the substance of its findings about the health effects of formaldehyde. Critics of the IRIS program have pointed to that review frequently as they have sought to kill it, including in an appropriations battle this spring. The EPA spokeswoman also pointed to that assessment in her statement. "The National Academy of Science and Congress in legislative reports have for years been highly critical of EPA’s previous assessments involving formaldehyde," she said.But te EPA has overhauled the program since then, hiring a new director for IRIS and a new head of the National Center for Environmental Assessment, in which it is housed. The changes have received high marks from the National Academies in two more recent reviews, one in 2014 and one this past April. The latest formaldehyde assessment is expected to demonstrate further progress implementing the academies’ recommendations, potentially undermining industry critiques of the overall IRIS program if it were to be released.
Although efforts to kill EPA’s independent scientific arbiter have so far failed, EPA officials and public health advocates say the program has been significantly hobbled under an administration with close ties to the chemicals industry.
White, the top staffer for the American Chemistry Council’s Formaldehyde Panel, wrote the EPA three times between September 2017 and January 2018, urging the agency to incorporate industry-funded research that found no link between formaldehyde and leukemia, and arguing that the studies shifted the scientific consensus away from the conclusion that it does. In November, Pruitt appointed her to the agency’s influential Science Advisory Board.
Less than a week after the council's Jan. 24 meeting with EPA, Pruitt himself confirmed that the report had been complete for months. During a Senate hearing at the end of January, Markey asked Pruitt for an update on the formaldehyde assessment, saying it was his understanding “that the EPA has finalized its conclusion that formaldehyde causes leukemia and other cancers and that [the] completed new assessment is ready to be released for public review, but is being held up."“You know, my understanding is similar to yours,” Pruitt replied, promising to follow up.Markey reminded Pruitt of the exchange in a May 17 letter. In a response Thursday, the agency’s principal deputy assistant administrator for science, Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, said EPA “continues to discuss the formaldehyde assessment internally and has no further updates to provide at this time."</div><div style=""></div><div style=""><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07072018/epa-andrew-wheeler-trump-climate-policy-coal-lobbyist-auto-emissions-methane-science-clean-power-plan-pruitt">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07072018/epa-andrew-wheeler-trump-climate-policy-coal-lobbyist-auto-emissions-methane-science-clean-power-plan-pruitt</a></div><div style="">
</div><div style="">With Scott Pruitt's resignation, responsibility for leading President Donald Trump's retreat from climate action passes from an ideological fighter to a Washington political pro.</div>But it remains to be seen whether former coal industry lobbyist and Congressional staffer <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12042018/epa-andrew-wheeler-senate-confirmation-vote-murray-energy-coal-lobbyist-climate-denial-inhofe-pruitt" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Andrew Wheeler</a> a will ease up at all or double down on Pruitt's ambitious deregulatory agenda when he moves from deputy to the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday.Two things are certain: The bulk of EPA's work lies ahead for carrying out Trump's fossil fuel ambitions, and Wheeler is taking on the job amid unprecedented scrutiny generated by Pruitt's ethics scandals. Even those who expect the worst from Wheeler—in terms of climate and environmental protection—expect him to tread more cautiously and quietly than his predecessor."Pruitt just had utter contempt for government—that's why he kept getting overturned," said Daniel Becker, director of the <a href="http://safeclimatecampaign.org/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Safe Climate Campaign</a>, a nonprofit advocacy group, referring to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/climate/scott-pruitt-epa-rollbacks.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">at least a half-dozen reversals</a> of Pruitt's actions by federal judges. "Wheeler has been part of government, he has been a lobbyist, he is 'of the swamp.' I think he's going to be more careful and not as inflammatory.""He'll be Pruitt without the nasty smirk and the edge," Becker said.  Supporters of <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/donald-trump" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Trump</a>'s regulatory rollback plans hope so, too. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said he was confident that Wheeler would carry out changes that were increasingly difficult for Pruitt to implement while facing more than a dozen investigations into misuse of his office."President Trump made the right decision to accept [Pruitt's] resignation," Barrasso said in a prepared statement. "I know Assistant Administrator Andrew Wheeler is well prepared to continue the progress already made under President Trump."But for the most part, Pruitt did not get further than telegraphing the blows he hoped to land against the Obama administration's climate legacy. Amid all of the <a href="http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/resources/climate-deregulation-tracker/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">deregulatory actions by the EPA</a> over the past year, here are the most important moves on greenhouse gas emissions begun by Pruitt that could be reshaped by Wheeler's follow-through.<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Repeal of the Clean Power Plan</h3>On the eve of <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05072018/scott-pruitt-resigns-epa-ethics-scandals-climate-science-environment-policy-coal-lobbyist-andrew-wheeler" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Pruitt's resignation</a>, the EPA finished drafting a replacement for President Barack Obama's signature climate initiative, the Clean Power Plan, and sent it to the White House for review, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/climate/clean-power-plan-replacement.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">The New York Times reported</a>. The rules, designed to rein in carbon emissions from electric power plants, were a key target of an <a href="https://www.epa.gov/energy-independence" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">executive order</a> Trump signed within weeks of his inauguration.The Clean Power Plan has yet to go into effect; it was stayed by the Supreme Court in 2016 pending litigation over the EPA's authority. Pruitt<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16052017/clean-power-plan-epa-lawsuit-trump-obama-climate-change" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;"> repeatedly sought delays </a>in that litigation while the agency decided how to proceed, but in June, two of the judges overseeing the case indicated they were not inclined to grant further delays—meaning Wheeler will be under pressure to finalize the proposal.Instead of outright repeal of the Clean Power Plan regulations, Pruitt's EPA crafted a replacement with less stringent requirements. In doing so, the agency chose not to challenge its legal obligation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Pruitt never moved forward on the idea that the EPA do away with its 2009 finding that greenhouse gases are a danger to human health and the environment, the scientific and legal basis for all of its climate regulations.Although Wheeler as a lobbyist supported repeal of the endangerment finding, few expect him to take on that battle, since most of the fossil fuel industry does not want to revisit it. In his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/07/06/incoming-epa-chief-this-is-the-right-job-for-me/?utm_term=.c477e4ee350c" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">first interview</a> since being named to take the helm of the agency, Wheeler told the Washington Post he considered the endangerment finding settled law. "There would have to be a major, compelling reason to try to ever reopen that," he said.Wheeler said the agenda was Trump's, not his. He said that he believed climate change was real, and that human beings had a role, but that Congress had given the EPA little legal authority to act."I think that the statutory directives are very small," he told the Post. "As we move forward on a potential replacement for the Clean Power Plan, you're going to see us taking a hard look at what the [Clean Air Act] says and the authorities the act gives us, and we'll put something forward that follows the law."<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Future of Fuel Economy Standards</h3>The White House also is reviewing the Pruitt EPA's draft of <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02042018/climate-change-car-fuel-efficiency-cafe-standards-epa-pruitt-auto-pollution-gas-mileage-california-global-warming" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">a new set of regulations on greenhouse gas emissions</a> from cars and light trucks. The draft proposes freezing the emissions standards that the Obama administration crafted in an historic deal with automakers in the wake of their federal government bailout in 2009.On this proposal, Wheeler could well decide to take a less confrontational path than Pruitt, who indicated he was prepared to challenge California's authority—enshrined in law since the 1970s—to set its own, stricter air pollution rules. Automakers have repeatedly urged the Trump administration to try to reach an agreement with California."The automakers are saying, 'Don't start a war with California that we will have to conduct, and get the whole thing rejected by the courts, and leave us with the blame,'" Becker said.[lobbied for aqmd?]In a <a href="https://medium.com/cityoftomorrow/a-measure-of-progress-bc34ad2b0ed" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">blog post</a> published after a contentious meeting between auto executives and Trump at the White House, Ford's executive chairman, Bill Ford, and CEO, Jim Hackett, wrote that their company acknowledged the need to address climate change due to carbon emissions. "We support increasing clean car standards through 2025 and are not asking for a rollback," they wrote. "We want one set of standards nationally, along with additional flexibility to help us provide more affordable options for our customers."Becker said that translates into a roadmap that Wheeler may be inclined to follow: "Lots of loopholes—the same rollback, but where the public can't really see it."<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Legal Battles Over Methane</h3>Wheeler inherits a legal battle over methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is leaking from oil and gas field operations, pipelines and other facilities at <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21062018/methane-leaks-oil-gas-climate-change-risks-natural-gas-slcp-global-warming-pollution-science-edf-study" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">rates far higher</a> than the EPA has estimated.Last year, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-court-blocks-trump-epa-on-air-pollution/2017/07/03/464a7344-601e-11e7-84a1-a26b75ad39fe_story.html?utm_term=.007bae8e18a2" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">a federal court rebuffed</a> Pruitt's effort to place a two-year hold on methane regulations finalized in 2016 for new oil and gas facilities. The agency's alternative proposal has been under review at the White House since May.Pruitt also sought to forestall EPA regulations over the larger problem of methane leaking from existing oil and gas operations. He cancelled the industry's obligation to provide the agency with the information it needed to proceed with the rulemaking, but the EPA now faces a lawsuit from 14 states and two cities over the issue.As long as EPA's legal obligation to address greenhouse gas emissions stands, it is hard to see how Wheeler's agency will be able to put off addressing methane.A <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21062018/methane-leaks-oil-gas-climate-change-risks-natural-gas-slcp-global-warming-pollution-science-edf-study" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">comprehensive study</a> last month led by scientists from the environmental group EDF estimated that methane equivalent to 2.3 percent of all natural gas produced in the nation is leaking in production, transportation and processing—an amount that would have roughly the same climate impact in the short term as emissions from all U.S. coal-fired power plants.<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Pruitt's 'Secret Science' Plans</h3>One of the most controversial and potentially consequential initiatives started by Pruitt was his effort to curb the EPA's use of <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22032018/epa-air-pollution-soot-rules-scott-pruitt-secret-science-policy-health-regulations" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">scientific studies</a>.Pruitt proposed rules that would bar the agency from using studies that relied on non-public data, a move that targets human health studies in which participants were promised confidentiality. That includes some of the most important research linking fossil fuel soot pollution to increased mortality.The Obama administration's air pollution rules affecting the fossil fuel industry—including the Clean Power Plan and mercury and smog standards—relied on such studies.The proposal was met with an onslaught of opposition from the scientific and public health community, forcing the EPA to extend its initial 30-day comment period until Aug. 16, and to <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/05/25/2018-11316/strengthening-transparency-in-regulatory-science-extension-of-comment-period-and-notice-of-public" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">schedule a public hearing</a> on the plan for July 17.With the agency still gathering public feedback on the proposal, Wheeler will now have a significant opportunity to reshape the plan.<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Thumb on the Scale of Cost-Benefit Analyses?</h3>Another sweeping change that Pruitt initiated was a proposal to <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07062018/pruitt-epa-cost-benefit-analysis-environment-regulation-health-climate-change-proposed-rulemaking" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">overhaul </a>the way the agency weighs the costs and benefits of regulations.In doing away with calculations of the "co-benefits" of regulations—when control of one form of pollution also reduces another—the changes would tip the scales more frequently in industry's favor, critics say. Two days before Pruitt's resignation, the EPA agreed to <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/07/03/2018-14330/increasing-consistency-and-transparency-in-considering-costs-and-benefits-in-the-rulemaking-process" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">extend the public comment period</a> on this plan until Aug. 13, putting follow-through in Wheeler's hands.Pruitt already had revised the way the EPA calculates what economists call the "social cost of carbon," an attempt to measure in today's dollars the costs imposed on future generations by carbon emissions. The agency's lowball estimates were the underpinning of EPA's efforts to roll back <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/climate-change" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">climate change</a> rules under Pruitt.<h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Allowing Science Advisory Board Reviews</h3>Another item on Wheeler's plate: He will have to decide whether to accept the <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31052018/epa-science-advisory-board-review-pruitt-climate-change-clean-power-plan-auto-standards-secret-science-policy" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">recommendation</a> of EPA's Science Advisory Board—including most of Pruitt's hand-picked panel members—for a full board review of each of these policies to roll back regulation.The board said it had received insufficient science from EPA on all of Pruitt's most important deregulatory moves—from the Clean Power Plan, fuel economy standard and methane rule repeals to the pending science transparency policy and the changes in the agency's social cost of carbon calculations.The scientific review would give Wheeler an opportunity to revisit the policies, if Wheeler chose to.For Pruitt's opponents, any joy at his departure is muted by uncertainty over what course his successor will pursue."We now face the stark reality of a coal lobbyist, Andrew Wheeler, running the agency that is supposed to protect our air, water, and climate," Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, said in a statement. "Changing name plates is not enough—we need new, honest leadership that puts the health of American families first."<div style=""></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/5-horrifying-things-about-scott-pruitts-epa-replacement">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/5-horrifying-things-about-scott-pruitts-epa-replacement</a></div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Wheeler Will Be Better at Destroying the EnvironmentWheeler is described by the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/climate/wheeler-epa-pruitt.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">New York Times</a> as a “consummate Washington insider who avoids the limelight and has spent years effectively navigating the rules.”The acting chief is known for being highly effective in his work and avoiding the sorts of personal scandals that consumed Pruitt.Analysts believe Wheeler could be more effective than Pruitt at implementing Trump’s deregulatory agenda at the EPA.Wheeler Was an Energy Industry Lobbyist“Like Pruitt, this veteran coal lobby lobbyist has shown only disdain for the E.P.A.’s vital mission to protect Americans’ health and our environment,” Ana Unruh Cohen, managing director for government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the Times.Following his tenure at the EPA in the administration of George W. Bush, he became a <a href="https://fortune.com/2018/07/05/who-is-andrew-wheeler-epa-trump-replace-scott-pruitt/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lobbyist</a> for Murray Energy. The head of the company is a supporter of Trump’s.Wheeler Worked for a Climate Change DenierThe acting EPA administrator previously worked for Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), a climate change denier who called the science “the greatest hoax” ever perpetrated on Americans.Many remember Inhofe for his attempt to debunk global warming “hysteria” by bringing a snowball into the Senate.He <a href="https://qz.com/1322131/andrew-wheeler-coal-lobbyist-replaces-scott-pruitt-as-head-of-epa/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">served</a> as the vice president of the Washington Coal Club.Wheeler Really Loves CoalThis organization is a quiet federation of more than 300 coal producers, corporate leaders, policy professionals and lawmakers.Founded in 1981, the WCC is a powerful force for the coal industry today.Wheeler Lobbied to Open Public Land to Uranium Mining“[We] respectfully request that DOI reduce the size of the BENM to only those specific areas or sites, if any, deemed to need additional protection beyond what is already available to Federal land management agencies,” Energy Fuels Resources wrote to the Trump administration in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/uranium-firm-urged-trump-officials-to-shrink-bears-ears-national-monument/2017/12/08/2eea39b6-dc31-11e7-b1a8-62589434a581_story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">request</a> to open parts of Bear Ears National Monument to uranium mining.FaegreBD was the lobbying firm that helped the organization petition the administration.The two lobbyists who worked the Energy Fuels Resources case? Mary Bono, and now-acting EPA chief Andrew Wheeler.</div><div style="">=</div><div style="">ref</div><div style=""><a href="https://qz.com/1322131/andrew-wheeler-coal-lobbyist-replaces-scott-pruitt-as-head-of-epa/">https://qz.com/1322131/andrew-wheeler-coal-lobbyist-replaces-scott-pruitt-as-head-of-epa/</a></div><div style="">
</div><div style=""><p style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 16px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; transition: background 0.5s ease 0s; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">Environmental Protection Agency secretary Scott Pruitt, known for his <a href="https://qz.com/1246702/scott-pruitts-scandals-arent-so-bad-by-russian-standards/" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">lavish expenditures and misuse of power</a>, resigned today. In a letter addressed to Donald Trump, Pruitt cited “unrelenting” and “unprecedented” attacks on him and his family.<p style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; transition: background 0.5s ease 0s;">Pruitt was <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/teacher-mother-scott-pruitt-lunch_us_5b3ae867e4b05127cceba2bb" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">publicly asked to resign</a> this week by a schoolteacher in a DC restaurant, an exchange that was videotaped and has been <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kristin.mink/videos/10108391238198206/" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">viewed over 500,000 times</a> on Facebook. “We deserve to have somebody at the EPA who actually does protect our environment, somebody who believes in climate change and takes it seriously for the benefit of all of us, including our children,” Kristin Mink told Pruitt as he was having lunch at a downtown restaurant. “I would urge you to resign before your scandals push you out.”<p style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; transition: background 0.5s ease 0s; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">Recent reports allege Pruitt asked his young staffers to <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/scott-pruitt-made-aides-pay-for-his-fancy-hotel-stays" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">pay for his hotel stays</a> and then didn’t reimburse them, and to find a <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/07/scott-pruitt-wife-200000-job.html" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">$200,000 job for his wife.</a> He has also been accused of <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/scott-pruitt-reportedly-used-security-detail-to-pick-up-dry-cleaning-search-for-body-lotion-2018-06-07" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">using his security detail to track down</a>fancy hand lotion. Pruitt spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on special security features and private flights.<h2 style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 19px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 32px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">Replaced by Andrew Wheeler</h2><p style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; transition: background 0.5s ease 0s; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">Pruitt’s replacement, Andrew Wheeler, is a former coal industry lobbyist with <a href="https://www.faegrebd.com/energy-resources-clean-technology" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Faegre Baker Daniels</a> who spent nearly a decade trying to get Congress to pass industry friendly laws. He also <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/who-andrew-wheeler-and-why-you-should-be-afraid-him" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">served as the vice presiden</a>t of the Washington Coal Club, a group of businessmen who meets monthly on Capitol Hill. Previously, Wheeler served as an aide to Republican senator James Inhofe from Oklahoma, who once <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E0a_60PMR8" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">presented a snowball</a> on the Senate floor in an attempt to prove that climate change was a hoax.<p style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; transition: background 0.5s ease 0s; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">Wheeler was confirmed as the EPA’s deputy secretary<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-senate-is-about-to-confirm-a-coal-lobbyist-as-top-epa-deputy/2018/04/12/b1bb6844-3dbe-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?utm_term=.54bb7c0a9307" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;"> in mid-April.</a> He will become acting head of the agency on July 9, <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1014956568129892352" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Trump tweeted</a>.<p style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; transition: background 0.5s ease 0s;">Pruitt made no mention of the scandals riddling his tenure in his resignation letter, which was <a href="https://twitter.com/finnygo/status/1014959532408279046" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">made public Thursday afternoon</a>. Pruitt, who <a href="https://capmin.org/ministries/washington-dc/white-house-cabinet-sponsors/" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">was a member</a> of the White House’s evangelical Christian bible study group, <a href="https://twitter.com/finnygo/status/1014959532408279046" style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">said in his farewell</a> that he believes Trump is president “today because of God’s providence,” and that he believes the same “providence brought me into your service.”<p style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; transition: background 0.5s ease 0s; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">“My desire in service to you has always been to bless you as you make important decisions for the American people,” he wrote.<p style="text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; transition: background 0.5s ease 0s; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">Pruitt may have been the worst EPA chief ever, some believe. “Scott Pruitt will go down in history as a disgrace to the office of EPA administrator,” said Ken Cook, the head of the Environmental Working Group, a consumer advocacy group. “He will forever be associated with extraordinary ethical corruption and the abuse of power for petty personal enrichments.”</div><div style="">
</div><div style=""></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/7/6/new_epa_chief_andrew_wheeler_former">https://www.democracynow.org/2018/7/6/new_epa_chief_andrew_wheeler_former</a></div><div style="">
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</div><div style="">GOODMAN: Which brings us to Emily Atkin of The New Republic. Emily, first, your response to Scott Pruitt being out? And talk about the scandals that some say took him out. Others say the biggest scandal, of course, is the issue that Kristin Mink is just raising, and that’s the rollback of environmental policies like we’ve never seen in decades.EMILY ATKIN: I mean, every single one of your guests so far has been correct. Scott Pruitt’s policies are the—were always the biggest scandal, and they’ll continue to be, because Scott Pruitt’s policies at the EPA, rolling back climate change regulations, clean air, clean water regulations, those are the policies of the Republican Party in general. That’s why Scott Pruitt was able to survive his scandals for so long, is because when Republicans saw what he was doing or what he was attempting to do, they said, “Well, I like that. I just don’t like this weird fountain pen, $1,500-on-12-fountain-pen thing.”And my reaction to Scott Pruitt getting fired yesterday was sort of like, “What?” because, I mean, at a certain point, Scott Pruitt, to me and, I think, a lot of other reporters and people who closely follow this—Scott Pruitt, at a certain point, became the sore that was just never going to heal. I mean, there’s one scandal, right? There’s two scandals. There’s three scandals. At a certain point, there’s 10 scandals, and he’s still not getting fired. CNN put together a list of the mounting scandals, Scott Pruitt controversies. There’s 29 bullet points on that, on that list. So, at a certain point, you just think to yourself, “This isn’t going to happen. Scott Pruitt is going to be the EPA administrator forever.” So, I was met with a bit of shock, to be honest.But something that hasn’t been mentioned yet—it’s actually just recently come out this morning—is that there have been some sources within the EPA talking to both, you know, liberal and conservative outlets, saying that there actually might have been a scandal that broke the camel’s back, which was what came out yesterday about Scott Pruitt—what also came out over the weekend—about Scott Pruitt changing his public schedule and strategically taking things off of his schedule, so that if you FOIAed things, you know, if you filed a public records request, or if you tried to look at what he was doing, there would be certain things that you just couldn’t find, because those things looked bad—for example, a meeting with a former Vatican official, climate-denying Vatican official, who was later accused of sexual abuse against minors. And that was—that’s a potential violation of the Federal Records Act that can result in a felony conviction and potentially land Pruitt in jail.I mean, some of these are—you know, there’s the $50-a-night condo. There’s the—you know, he spent $1,500 on 12 fountain pens. And, you know, he wanted his bodyguard to get him some lotion. That’s what made him viral, sort of like a viral, ridiculous figure. But some of these scandals are actually pretty important and have important consequences. They have implications that might see him breaking the law. So, there’s a lot going on.AMY GOODMAN: Well, I mean, I think what’s very clear, especially in this last week, of hiding who he met with on a different schedule, and ultimately, I think, The New York Times, right before the tweet that he had resigned came out, the—noting that one of his aides was fired because she didn’t want to do this, keep this, that it was actually illegal to keep these two separate schedules, what is shown to the public and who he was actually meeting with. And, of course, those issues are around industry representatives versus, you know, the public.But I wanted to read part of the resignation letter of Pruitt. He ended the letter to President Trump with these words: “My desire in service to you has always been to bless you as you make important decisions for the American people. I believe you are serving as President today because of God’s providence. I believe that same providence brought me into your service. I pray as I have served you that I have blessed you and enabled you to effectively lead the American people. Thank you again Mr. President for the honor of serving you and I wish you Godspeed in all that you put your hand to. Your Faithful Friend, Scott Pruitt.”Emily Atkin, can you talk about this? Where has he talked about serving the public? He says he is serving Donald Trump, which will take us to the next point, which is who is replacing him, perhaps a person who, at this point, doesn’t have that level of scandal, but continues the policy, Andrew Wheeler, the former coal lobbyist.EMILY ATKIN: This was one of Scott Pruitt’s failings, I think, as a public servant, obviously, the letter that you just read. There is no mention of serving the American public. And I think that that idea gets lost a lot in the Trump administration. He’s saying he’s serving a president. It almost sounds creepy, in a way. That’s not his job. And I think that’s what Mustafa Ali was saying earlier. His job as the EPAadministrator is to serve the American people, is to protect American public health from pollutants, from water pollutants, from air pollutants. And there is no mention of that in his resignation letter.There’s also no mention of his scandals in his resignation letter. And that’s another problem of Scott Pruitt and why I think, you know, you never saw a lot of Republicans come to his defense, is because Scott Pruitt never came to his own defense. He had one interview on Fox News where he attempted to defend himself from some of these scandals. It didn’t go well. He got challenged by people he thought were going to be nice to him, and they weren’t nice to him. And so he largely kept himself out of the spotlight.So now we have Andrew Wheeler coming in to be the acting administrator. Andrew Wheeler is going to pursue the same policy agenda that Pruitt—that Pruitt, you know, pursued. And I think it’s sort of—Pruitt was a blessing in disguise for people in the environmental movement, because he was so ridiculous. Because he said such ridiculous things all the time, people actually started to care about the environmental deregulatory process. Scott Pruitt was—you know, he was a symbol of what was happening. And now, with somebody who’s a little more low-key, who’s a little more boring, to be honest—I mean, these policies aren’t sexy to talk about. You want to talk about methane leaks from oil and gas operations. You want to talk about the mechanics of scientific research and how we use it to fight air pollution. You talked about Steve Milloy. I mean, he’s a former tobacco lobbyist. These scientific policies are the same ones that the tobacco industry was pushing when they wanted to not be liable for the harm they were causing to humans’ health. But Wheeler is going to be pushing those same things, and he’s not going to attract the same zhoosh that Scott Pruitt did.AMY GOODMAN: The new EPA chief, Andrew Wheeler, worked for nearly a decade on behalf of fossil fuel companies, including the coal company Murray Energy, and as a senior adviser to Republican Senator James Inhofe, the prominent climate change denier. I want to go to Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma speaking from the floor of the Senate in February of 2015, the day he infamously brought in that snowball in an attempt to disprove global warming.<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 30px; border-left: 3px solid rgb(241, 242, 243); letter-spacing: -0.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">SEN. JAMES INHOFE: In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, “You know what this is?” It’s a snowball, and that’s just from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out, very unseasonal. So, here, Mr. President, catch this.</blockquote>AMY GOODMAN: And he throws the snowball. That’s Senator Inhofe, Emily Atkin. Your final response on this? And here you have a man who has not been approved by the Senate. Can he, Andrew Murray [sic], the former chief of staff of Inhofe—Andrew Wheeler, of Murray coal, the former chief of staff of Inhofe, can he actually stay in office to the end of Trump’s term without being approved, as an interim, as an acting?EMILY ATKIN: Absolutely, because he’s already been confirmed by the Senate to be the deputy administrator. So, whether or not he gets confirmed, he still has basically all the powers of the administrator.One thing that I would say that people should be looking at now, I think that people should use Scott Pruitt and the attention that he drew to himself with his viral, weird scandals—lotions, mattresses, first-class flights—take the attention from that and put it back on those policies that Andrew Wheeler now has the full capacity to put forward as the EPA administrator. And the first one that I would look at is climate change regulation. The day that Scott Pruitt resigned, The New York Times published a story saying that the EPA is preparing to put out its replacement for the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s signature climate change regulation to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants. Andrew Wheeler, that’s his bread and butter. He’s been wanting to weaken or repeal that regulation for a long time. And Andrew Wheeler has also, you know, expressed interest in trying to roll back one of the most important Supreme Court case rulings in climate change law at all, which is the law that says that carbon dioxide must be regulated as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. So that’s something that I think we should be watching, because it’s going to have real, dangerous, long-term implications for the American people, if that does come to pass.AMY GOODMAN: Which brings us back to Mustafa Ali and Chris Zarba. Mustafa, you were at the EPA for what? Some two dozen years, 24 years.MUSTAFA ALI: Yeah.AMY GOODMAN: Chris Zarba, you were there for 38 years. In this year and a half, how has the EPA changed, compared to what it was before? Let’s begin with Chris Zarba.CHRIS ZARBA: I think at the top of the list, I would see the agency disengaging with science. The agency, in the entire time I was there, embraced science. It was—we used science to identify where the risks were to human health and the environment, and used that as a basis for going forward. And there seems to be a broad walking away from science. There’s very little work now in the pipeline for the Science Advisory Board to do. We usually have 20, 25 items in the pipeline. Right now I think there’s virtually nothing. So, it’s obvious that the agency isn’t going to be going forward with science.And there seems to be some questioning of just some basics in science. I mean, Administrator Pruitt questioned whether evolution was—he thought it was just a theory. We have other Americans that actually believe the Earth is flat. And some Americans believe that dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time. And all three of those things are proven in science one way or the other. And I think, walking away from it, it lets people that want to do something—the science tells you what’s important and what needs to be addressed. And if those issues get in the way, then what you do is you sideline science.And I think that gets back to the—Steve Milloy. So, Steve Milloy was a—he worked for—an attorney for the tobacco industry in the '90s. And he was part of the team that crafted the illusion that the data was inconclusive as to whether cigarettes are addictive and bad to your health. And they did that to keep tobacco sales up. And since that time, the tobacco—the CEOs of the tobacco industry, you know, they testified in front of Congress. They have since been found criminally liable, and billions of dollars' fines have been put against them. And we’ve all seen the recent commercials on TV where people who have suffered quite significantly from smoking cigarettes are there trying to tell people to be careful and avoid cigarette smoke whenever possible. Well, that same Steve Milloy was part of the EPA effort to craft this transparency in regulatory science. It’s the same strategy, is to sideline the science so that we can do what we want. And to use somebody like Steve Milloy, who really led the charge with the tobacco industry and now is leading EPA on this transparency in regulatory science, is just—it defies belief.AMY GOODMAN: Mustafa Ali, some people have compared Andrew Wheeler to Vice President Pence, and Scott Pruitt to President Trump—President Trump with all of the scandal and the tweets and outrageousness, and then the one who is right there steadily enforcing all the policies right behind. Your thoughts, as we wrap up?MUSTAFA ALI: Well, Andrew Wheeler is just as dangerous or more so than Scott Pruitt. Coming from the background that he comes from, the actions that he has taken directly impact the lives of communities across our country. Over 200,000 people die prematurely from air pollution in our country every year. So, if you are weakening air protection laws, then you are putting folks in danger. Twenty-seven million people have asthma. Seven million children have asthma. So, again, these actions that they’re moving forward on are dangerous for the American public.And then, if you look at climate change, if they would go to communities like Houston, Texas, or Port Arthur, Texas, or Princeville, North Carolina, where folks have been impacted by these strengthening hurricanes and these flood-related events, then folks would share with them that we want you to have stronger enforcement. We want to have stronger laws in place to help us to be better protected. So I see him as dangerous as Scott Pruitt, if he continues down to the same road that he has over the past 25 years.AMY GOODMAN: Kristin Mink, my final question is to you. I think the whole country, perhaps the world, wants to know: Who do you want to bump into next at lunch?KRISTIN MINK: If this was actually effective, obviously, I’d love to bump into Donald Trump. But, I mean, I think what this really comes down to is, if we’re looking at who we want to get rid of and who we want in there protecting us, the imperative here is to get to the polls in November. We need a Congress that’s going to protect us, moving forward, that’s going to prioritize science and safety and the health of our citizens and our children and the next generation. The current Congress approved Scott Pruitt, who had sued the EPA for trying to protect public health, and now they’re appointing Andy Wheeler to follow in his footsteps. So, clearly, the Congress that’s in place is not what we need right now. We need to get to the polls and turn Congress blue this November.AMY GOODMAN: Well, Kristin Mink, I want to thank you for being with us, a D.C. teacher and mom. I think you’ve taught the whole country a lesson as you bumped into Scott Pruitt and let him know what you thought this week, demanding he resign. Two days later, well, that’s what happened. Mustafa Ali, a former EPA official, now with Hip Hop Caucus. Chris Zarba, ex-director of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board. And, Emily Atkin, we’ll link to your <a href="https://newrepublic.com/authors/emily-atkin" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border: 0px;">pieces</a> in The New Republic.</div><div style=""></div><div style="">
</div><div style=""><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/its-good-day-agency-epa-staff-reportedly-cheer-scott-pruitts-resignation-shame">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/its-good-day-agency-epa-staff-reportedly-cheer-scott-pruitts-resignation-shame</a></div><div>
</div><div>...It’s a good day for the agency,” one employee, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Post. Another staffer smiled and took a picture outside the agency building with a man wearing a papier-mache head designed to look like Pruitt, the report says. When a Post reporter tried to speak to her, though, she ran away.</div>“I am happy,” another employee told the Post. “He was never accepted. If you are going to be the environment chief, the environment has to be your passion.”The site <a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2018/07/06/stories/1060087985" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Climate Wire</a> found a similar reaction among employees, describing them as "quietly smiling" as they left work on Thursday.They have good reason for joy. As <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/06/epa-formaldehyde-warnings-blocked-696628" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Politico</a> reported Friday morning, the administration has been suppressing an EPA report on the cancer-causing effects of formaldehyde vapor — just one of many industry-friendly moves the agency has taken at the expense of human health under Pruitt's leadership.But the agency is also unlikely to improve. The man wearing the papier-mache head was Lukas Ross, a senior policy analyst for the activist organization Friends of the Earth, and he warned Post reporter Dan Zak that Pruitt's replacement will not be any better.
“The only person more dangerous than Scott Pruitt,” he said, “is Andrew Wheeler.”<div></div></div><div style=""></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-senate-is-about-to-confirm-a-coal-lobbyist-as-top-epa-deputy/2018/04/12">https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-senate-is-about-to-confirm-a-coal-lobbyist-as-top-epa-deputy/2018/04/12</a></div><div style="">
</div><div style="">=</div><div style=""><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12042018/epa-andrew-wheeler-senate-confirmation-vote-murray-energy-coal-lobbyist-climate-denial-inhofe-pruitt">https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12042018/epa-andrew-wheeler-senate-confirmation-vote-murray-energy-coal-lobbyist-climate-denial-inhofe-pruitt</a></div><div style="">
</div><div style="">april 12</div><div style="">
</div><div style=""><div class="content" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Former coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler was confirmed Thursday as the No. 2 official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, putting him in line to take interim charge of the agency if Administrator Scott Pruitt is toppled by his ethical missteps.The Senate voted 53-45 in favor of Wheeler's nomination to be deputy EPA administrator, after a final salvo of floor speeches in which Democrats spotlighted Pruitt's scandals and Wheeler's potential conflicts.With two fossil fuel-state Democrats—Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia—<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/andrew-wheeler-epa-vote_us_5ac80acce4b0337ad1e82bab" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">joining the GOP</a> in supporting his nomination, Wheeler had the simple majority needed for confirmation. Both senators face tough re-election battles this year in states that Trump won. Another Democrat facing a tough re-election battle, Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, also voted to approve Wheeler's nomination.Wheeler served until last year as top lobbyist to Murray Energy, the nation's largest underground mining company. Administration critics argue that the company's CEO, Bob Murray, one of President <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/donald-trump" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Donald Trump</a>'s most avid campaign supporters in the <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22072016/donald-trump-fossil-fuel-campaign-contributions-republican-oil-money" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">fossil fuel industry,</a> has undue influence with the administration; Trump's team already has checked off a number of the items on a deregulatory "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/climate/coal-murray-trump-memo.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">action plan</a>" Murray submitted to the White House soon after Trump's inauguration.Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the highest ranking Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has said that Wheeler privately told him he did not write the action plan. Carper also said Wheeler assured him that he views EPA's legal authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, which is based on the agency's "endangerment finding," to be settled law—which would be a stark contrast from Murray, who not only thinks it should be repealed, but <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11102017/climate-denial-coal-industry-global-warming-robert-murray-energy" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">argues</a> that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.But Wheeler clearly helped Murray Energy make its case in the early days of the Trump administration. He was <a href="http://inthesetimes.com/features/images/MurrayDOE_03.jpg" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">photographed sitting at a conference table with Murray and Energy Secretary Rick Perry</a> on March 29, 2017.<div class="media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 648px; margin: 0.25em auto;"><figure id="file-270586" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" class="file file-image file-image-png with-caption" style="box-sizing: inherit; max-width: 100%; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><figcaption class="field field-name-field-image-caption field-type-text-long field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit; padding: 2em; line-height: 1.6; border-right: 1px solid rgb(231, 231, 231); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(231, 231, 231); border-left: 1px solid rgb(231, 231, 231); border-image: initial; border-top: none;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;">During the Senate floor debate, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), showed a photo of Wheeler (at right) and coal company owner Bob Murray (third from right) meeting with Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Whitehouse said the papers in the photo include Murray's "action plan." Credit: U.S. Senate video</div></figcaption></figure></div>When questioned by senators last year about his own views on climate change, Wheeler stuck to <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09062017/five-shades-climate-denial-donald-trump-scott-pruitt-rex-tillerson-jobs-uncertainty-white-house" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">one of the scripts </a>that Trump officials have favored to sidestep outright denial, while understating the agreement among mainstream scientists and the urgency of the issue. "I believe that man has an impact on the climate, but it's not completely understood what that impact is," Wheeler said at a hearing last November.<h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.333;">Long History with Senate's Top Climate Denier</h3>Prior to his work as a lobbyist, Wheeler was a top aide to one of Congress's most prominent climate science deniers, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.).He served Inhofe as a personal staff member for two years and then as a committee staff member for 12 years, including as chief counsel for the Environment and Public Works Committee while Inhofe was chair. Inhofe praised Wheeler for his work on bipartisan legislative accomplishments, including the energy bills of 2005 and 2007, which increased vehicle fuel efficiency standards and promoted use of ethanol and energy efficiency. Wheeler also has prior experience at EPA; before joining Inhofe, he served for four years as a special assistant in the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.But Wheeler, nominated by Trump on Oct. 5, was one of dozens of nominees whose names have languished for weeks. Marc Short, the president's legislative affairs director, took time out of the daily White House press briefing last month to <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?442695-1/white-house-no-personnel-time&start=425&transcriptQuery=andrew" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">blame</a> "historic obstruction ... by Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats" for the delay in approval of Wheeler and other nominees.The delay was not unprecedented, however. The last deputy EPA administrator of President Barack Obama's administration, career agency official Stan Meiburg, served in an acting role for <a href="https://www.epa.gov/history/chronology-epa-deputy-administrators" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">more than two years</a> because the Senate did not act on his nomination, which Inhofe <a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2016/3/inhofe-raises-concerns-over-meiburg-nomination-as-deputy-administrator-at-epa" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">opposed</a>.The EPA deputy administrator serves as the agency's chief operating officer. "You pay a lot of attention to the basic running of the shop, oversight of the budget, financial operations, personnel, information systems ... and generally trying to maintain internal operations needed for a healthy agency," said Meiburg, now <a href="https://news.wfu.edu/2017/02/02/wfu-names-former-epa-official-to-lead-graduate-programs-in-sustainability/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">director</a> of graduate programs in sustainability at Wake Forest University.<h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;">Pruitt Under Fire Amid 'Drip-Drip' of Scandals</h3>Wheeler will walk into an agency under siege over Pruitt's spending on travel and security, his handling of personnel matters, and the potential conflicts of interest he created with a $50-a-night condo rental from the wife of an energy lobbyist.House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), on Wednesday <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/11/gowdy-pruitt-epa-records-travel-condo-agreement-515679" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">fired off a letter</a> saying that EPA had not provided his committee with requested information on Pruitt's first-class travel arrangements or his Capitol Hill lease. EPA's inspector general is looking into Pruitt's spending—amounting to <a href="https://apnews.com/e2fdc3fe88be432792817795a34fda46" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">more than $3 million</a>, according to documents reviewed by the Associated Press. The Office of Government Ethics also weighed in with<a href="https://www.oge.gov/web/oge.nsf/All%20Documents/778D0B693D42FEE08525826A004F5471/$FILE/Letter%20to%20EPA%20DAEO.pdf?open" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">a letter</a> to EPA's general counsel's office, focusing on what it said were "extremely concerning" reports of the agency's demotion and reassignment of staff members who challenged Pruitt.But Pruitt's aggressive actions to <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21032018/trump-epa-smog-rules-pruitt-air-pollution-clean-power-plan-air-quality-connecticut-pennsyvlania-power-plants" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">weaken, delay and repeal </a>environmental protections, and to <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22032018/epa-air-pollution-soot-rules-scott-pruitt-secret-science-policy-health-regulations" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">remake the EPA's use of science</a> have won him supporters who count.Trump so far has stood by Pruitt, saying in "coal and energy country ... they love Scott Pruitt." But other White House officials are reportedly exasperated by the EPA administrator's troubles. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the only Republican to vote against Pruitt when he was confirmed last year, said that the "drip-drip" of scandal has vindicated her position that he is the wrong person to head the agency. On Thursday, Collins voted "yes" on Wheeler's nomination.  <h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.333;">Democrats: 'We've Got a Real Problem Here'</h3>Senate Democrats didn't allow Wheeler's nomination to reach a final vote without venting their concerns over the agency's direction.Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, noted in a letter to senators that Wheeler never received his own confirmation hearing. Instead, his hearing was shared with Trump's doomed nominee to head the White House Council for Environmental Quality, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08112017/trump-environment-nominee-confirmation-kathleen-hartnett-white-andrew-wheeler-coal-lobbyist-hearing" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">Kathleen Hartnett White</a>. White, an outspoken fossil fuels advocate, later <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05022018/harnett-white-withdraws-nomination-trump-environment-advisor-ceq-climate-change-denial" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">withdrew</a> from consideration. Karpinski said Wheeler's "long history of ties to the fossil fuel industry make him an entirely inappropriate choice" as deputy administrator at EPA. "Wheeler did not get a standalone hearing, where his ties to the fossil fuel industry could have been properly vetted," he said."He's never been vetted to be [in] the top job. So we've got a real problem there," Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee responsible for EPA's appropriations, said at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/senatortomudall/videos/10156067075817870/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">a news conference </a>Wednesday. "What's happening is we could see Scott Pruitt leave in a matter of days. ... I know that there are many Republicans who haven't spoken out yet, but privately they are very disturbed at what Scott Pruitt is doing at EPA."Udall took to the Senate floor to push for a further examination of Wheeler, and a half-dozen other Democrats also voiced their opposition. (Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said Pruitt and Wheeler would make a "dangerous duo" at the EPA.) But  after a preliminary vote on Thursday showed that no Republicans would oppose the nomination, opponents took far less than the 30 hours of discussion permitted before the vote was called. "There are limited tools [Wheeler's opponents] have," said Jeremy Symons, vice president for political affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund.Symons noted that Wheeler pledged in the <a href="https://www.eenews.net/assets/2017/10/19/document_gw_04.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">ethics letter</a> he submitted after his nomination that he will refrain for one year from participating in matters concerning his lobbying clients—even though Trump, by <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-ethics-commitments-executive-branch-appointees/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold;">executive order,</a>has required a two-year ban. Wheeler could obtain a waiver of that requirement, but says Symons: "What does that say about the Trump ethics pledge if the whole thing is tossed overboard because they want a coal lobbyist to be at the EPA, where he can give favors to the industry?"</div></div></div></div><div class="tagged-with" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-transform: uppercase; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><label style="box-sizing: inherit; display: block; line-height: 1.2;">PUBLISHED UNDER:</label><div class="field field-name-field-topics field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">POLITICS</a></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topics/regulation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">REGULATION</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-items" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="field-item even" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/epa" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">EPA</a></div> <div class="field-item odd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/scott-pruitt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">SCOTT PRUITT</a></div></div></div></div></div><div style="">
</div><div style=""></div><div style=""><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; word-wrap: break-word; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/andrew-wheeler-epa-coal-2559631467.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 31px;">Former Coal Lobbyist Confirmed as No. 2 at EPA</a></h1><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url expanded" data-elid="2559631467" data-authors="Climate Nexus" data-headline="Former Coal Lobbyist Confirmed as No. 2 at EPA" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description" style=""><div class="widget__brief" style="">The Senate voted on Thursday to confirm former Inhofe staffer and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">coal</a> lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to the position of deputy administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">EPA</a>), to serve as <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scott-pruitt" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Scott Pruitt</a>'s second in command.Democrats Heitkamp, Manchin and Donnelly joined with Republicans to give approval for Wheeler to move into a position regulating the industry on whose behalf he was just lobbying (for Murray Energy.)</div><div class="js-appear-on-expand" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); transition: all 350ms; height: auto; overflow: hidden; opacity: 1;">And because Wheeler would become acting administrator in the event that Pruitt resigns or is fired, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) likened it to "a shadow confirmation vote for the next administrator of the EPA.""Andrew Wheeler's coal credentials are without equal. He is, without question, a member of the coal industry's Hall of Fame," said Markey, the AP <a href="https://apnews.com/3e74d6b9fd0045a7853b96f56846fbb0/Senate-Republicans-aim-to-confirm-EPA-deputy-administrator" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">reported</a>."Sadly, I am concerned that Andrew Wheeler's background means that he will never understand that saving coal is not the job of the EPA," Markey added. "It is the EPA's job to regulate coal to protect public health and the environment."According to the AP, environmental groups said that Pruitt and Wheeler could be a devastating combination."Before the Trump administration, it would have been inconceivable that a coal and chemical industry lobbyist with a long history of hostility toward environmental policy would be the No. 2 at EPA," said Ken Cook, president of the <a href="https://www.ewg.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Environmental Working Group</a>.As reported by the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-senate-is-about-to-confirm-a-coal-lobbyist-as-top-epa-deputy/2018/04/12/b1bb6844-3dbe-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?utm_term=.584c38fe6a6b" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Washington Post</a>, "Wheeler has changed his tune" about <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Trump</a> after vehemently opposing his candidacy:"Wheeler wrote a post on his personal Facebook account the day before Super Tuesday pleading with those considering voting for Trump to reconsider. In his six-point critique, Wheeler questioned Trump's character, business acumen and viability as a general-election candidate. Trump was a 'bully,' Wheeler wrote in the since-deleted Facebook post obtained by The Post. He said that Trump 'hasn't been that successful' in business and 'has more baggage then all of the other Republican candidates combined.' Wheeler added that Trump 'has demonstrated through the debates and interviews that he doesn't understand how the government works.'"For a deeper dive:
News: <a href="https://apnews.com/3e74d6b9fd0045a7853b96f56846fbb0/Senate-Republicans-aim-to-confirm-EPA-deputy-administrator" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">AP</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/climate/epa-pruitt-deputy-wheeler-confirmation.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/04/the-senate-just-confirmed-the-coal-lobbyist-who-could-replace-scott-pruitt/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Mother Jones</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/12/politics/andrew-wheeler-environmental-protection-agency-scott-pruitt-congress/index.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">CNN</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-senate-is-about-to-confirm-a-coal-lobbyist-as-top-epa-deputy/2018/04/12/b1bb6844-3dbe-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?utm_term=.584c38fe6a6b" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-confirms-andrew-wheeler-for-no-2-spot-at-epa-1523568483" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">WSJ</a>, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/andrew-wheeler-epa_us_5a874fc7e4b004fc3192118b" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">HuffPost</a>, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12042018/epa-andrew-wheeler-senate-confirmation-vote-murray-energy-coal-lobbyist-climate-denial-inhofe-pruitt" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Inside Climate News</a>, <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/382873-senate-approves-trumps-pick-for-no-2-at-epa" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">The Hill</a>, <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/senate-confirms-former-coal-lobbyist-to-epa-99a71c8baa3a/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">Think Progress</a></div></div></div></div><div style="">=
omg top job if pruittt fired, confrimation 3/18

<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/andrew-wheeler-epa_us_5a78dc2ce4b0164659c73e97">https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/andrew-wheeler-epa_us_5a78dc2ce4b0164659c73e97</a>


<div class="content-list-component bn-content-list-text yr-content-list-text text" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" citation="citation" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-rapid-cpos="1" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec">Andrew Wheeler, President <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/donald-trump/" data-beacon="{" p="p" lnid="lnid" donald="Donald" trump="Trump" mpid="mpid" plid="plid" http="http" www.huffingtonpost.com="www.huffingtonpost.com" news="news" donald-trump="donald-trump" data-beacon-parsed="true" class="bn-clickable" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:1" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="1" data-v9y="1">Donald Trump</a>’s nominee to be Environmental Protection Agency deputy administrator, appeared poised and polished at his Senate <a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2017/11/hearing-on-the-nominations-of-kathleen-hartnett-white-to-be-a-member-of-the-council-on-environmental-quality-and-andrew-wheeler-to-be-deputy-administrator-of-the-environmental-protection-agency" target="_blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" lnid="lnid" confirmation="confirmation" hearing="hearing" mpid="mpid" plid="plid" https="https" www.epw.senate.gov="www.epw.senate.gov" public="public" index.cfm="index.cfm" hearing-on-the-nominations-of-kathleen-hartnett-white-to-be-a-member-of-the-council-on-environmental-quality-and-andrew-wheeler-to-be-deputy-administrator-of-the-environmental-protection-agency="hearing-on-the-nominations-of-kathleen-hartnett-white-to-be-a-member-of-the-council-on-environmental-quality-and-andrew-wheeler-to-be-deputy-administrator-of-the-environmental-protection-agency" data-beacon-parsed="true" class="bn-clickable" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:1" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="2" data-v9y="1">confirmation hearing</a> in November. He couched his objections to widely accepted climate science in ambiguous legalese, and kept his cool when, at the same hearing, Kathleen Hartnett-White, the president’s pick for the Council on Environmental Quality, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kathleen-hartnett-white-climate_us_5a03700ee4b0937b510f5ad9" data-beacon="{" p="p" lnid="lnid" flamed="flamed" out="out" mpid="mpid" plid="plid" https="https" www.huffingtonpost.com="www.huffingtonpost.com" entry="entry" kathleen-hartnett-white-climate_us_5a03700ee4b0937b510f5ad9="kathleen-hartnett-white-climate_us_5a03700ee4b0937b510f5ad9" data-beacon-parsed="true" class="bn-clickable" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:1" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="3" data-v9y="1">flamed out</a>, stammering over questions of basic science. </div>

<div class="content-list-component bn-content-list-text yr-content-list-text text" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" citation="citation" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-rapid-cpos="6" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec">“The mission of the EPA to protect human health and the environment is critical to our country and its citizens and something that I take very seriously and I know you do, too,” Wheeler said....
</div>=</div><div style=""><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-coal-lobbyist-2493674865.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-coal-lobbyist-2493674865.html</a></div><div style="">
</div><div style=""><div class="headline-container" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="headline h1" style="margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;">Trump Nominates Coal Lobbyist for Number Two EPA Job</h1></div><div id="utm_campaign" style="margin-top: 10px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url" data-elid="2493674865" data-headline="Trump Nominates Coal Lobbyist for Number Two EPA Job" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description">The White House announced Thursday that <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">President Trump</a> has officially nominated <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" style="text-decoration-line: none;">coal</a> lobbyist Andrew Wheeler for the deputy administrator position at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" style="text-decoration-line: none;">EPA</a>).  Before becoming a lobbyist in 2009, Wheeler served as a congressional aide to prominent <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-denier" style="text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;">climate-denying</a> (and snowball-tossing) Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK). While Politico <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/andrew-wheeler-epa-deputy-sources-236151" target="blank" style="text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> on Wheeler's likely nomination in March, Wheeler remained registered as a lobbyist for coal company Murray Energy until mid-August.Wheeler's nomination to the number two spot at EPA comes as the agency prepares to repeal the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/clean-power-plan" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Clean Power Plan</a>."In Andrew Wheeler, the President has tapped yet another fossil fuel industry lobbyist to help in the capture of the Environmental Protection Agency for big polluters,"Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said in a statement."He shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the office to which he's been nominated, but here we are.""Halloween apparently came early this October because the nomination of Andrew Wheeler as Deputy EPA Administrator is absolutely horrifying," the <a href="http://sierraclub.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Sierra Club</a> said in a statement. "There actually could not have been a worse choice for this highly influential position that is charged with protecting the health and communities of Americans across the nation."Andrew Wheeler is a big time lobbyist who has represented Big Coal for <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/andrew-wheeler-epa-deputy-sources-236151" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">almost a decade</a>, including in numerous lawsuits challenging the EPA. He is a friend to polluters, not to American families that rely on clean air and clean water."For a deeper dive:<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/climate/trump-epa-andrew-wheeler.html?r=1" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">New York Times</a>, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-epa-wheeler/trump-picks-coal-lobbyist-for-epa-deputy-role-drawing-mixed-reaction-idUSKBN1CB014" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Reuters</a>, <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/354127-trump-taps-ex-lobbyist-for-epa-no-2-job" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Hill</a>, <a href="https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard/2017/10/white-house-announces-wheeler-pick-for-epa-deputy-094007" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Politico Pro</a></div></div></div><div style="">
</div><div style="">=</div><div style="">4 horse</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">We can thank EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt for these four horsemen of the EPA-pocalypse—four people who will gladly choose polluters over public health and clean air and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">water</a> standards every time.Andrew Wheeler, who Pruitt has tapped for the number two spot at EPA, was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/07/21/trump-to-tap-longtime-coal-lobbyist-for-epas-number-two-spot/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">described by the Washington Post</a> as a "longtime coal lobbyist" and has worked on behalf of a company which reportedly has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/us/24murray.html?r=0" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">numerous environmental and worker safety</a> violations. Wheeler <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/andrew-wheeler-epa-deputy-2318403147.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">has spent his career challenging vital life-saving environmental protections</a> that keep our air and water clean so that we can keep our families safe (I wrote <a href="http://www.sierraclub.org/compass/2017/07/another-fox-henhouse-coal-lobbyist-tapped-for-top-spot-trump-s-epa" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">this post</a> about him earlier this summer). He also used to be an aide for outspoken <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-denier" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">climate-denying</a> and corporate-polluter-loving senator, James Inhofe.</div><div style=""></div><div style=""><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/us/24murray.html?r=0" style="">http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/us/24murray.html?_r=0</a></div><div style="">
</div><div style=""><div class="story-body-supplemental" style="display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; justify-content: space-between;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><div class="story-body story-body-1" style="position: relative; flex-grow: 0; width: 705px;"><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="315" data-total-count="315" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">HUNTINGTON, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/utah/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Utah." class="meta-loc" style="">Utah</a>, Aug. 23 — If Robert E. Murray accepts a Senate subcommittee’s invitation to testify next month about what went wrong at the Crandall Canyon Mine, he is likely to be questioned about, among other things, adopting a new and riskier mining plan when his company took over the operation last year.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="222" data-total-count="537" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">If Mr. Murray hews to the always impassioned — at times, bombastic — style he has shown in news conferences since the mine’s collapse on Aug. 6, senators can expect his statements to be plain-spoken and provocative.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="489" data-total-count="1026" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">As recently as Wednesday night, Mr. Murray, chief executive of the Murray Energy Corporation, continued to insist that the collapse had been caused by a 3.9 magnitude earthquake. He shouted down two reporters who tried to remind him that seismic scientists at the University of Utah and elsewhere were just as certain that the opposite occurred — that coal veins already thinned by a risky form of deep mining had buckled, setting off the collapse that sent seismograph needles spiking.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="105" data-total-count="1131" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">Six men were trapped inside the mine. Three more died 10 days later in the collapse of a rescue tunnel.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="335" data-total-count="1466" id="story-continues-1" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">It is not the first time that Mr. Murray, 67, has taken a position far afield of the experts. Although most other industry executives have recognized the threat of <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="Recent and archival news about global warming." class="meta-classifier" style="">climate change</a> and the need for energy conservation, he has been among the few to question the concept of global warming and to openly criticize environmental regulations.</div></div><div class="story-body-supplemental" style="display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; justify-content: space-between;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><div class="story-body story-body-2" style="position: relative; flex-grow: 0; width: 705px;"><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="184" data-total-count="1650" id="story-continues-3" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">In testimony last March at a hearing on clean energy, Mr. Murray told a House subcommittee that federal lands should be preserved, but also “prudently developed” to provide jobs.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="277" data-total-count="1927" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">In every reference to climate change, he used the term “so-called global warming.” The debate, he said, “has been skewed and totally one-sided,” because the news media, Congress and pundits have been “preoccupied with possible, speculative environmental disasters.”<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="91" data-total-count="2018" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">In 2001, a jury acquitted Mr. Murray of charges that he had assaulted an environmentalist.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="365" data-total-count="2383" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">That same year, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint accusing Mr. Murray of violating federal labor laws at one of his companies, Maple Creek Mining, in Bentleyville, Pa., about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh. The United Mine Workers said Mr. Murray had threatened to replace union workers at the mine after they talked publicly about a labor dispute.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="381" data-total-count="2764" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">In 2003, a federal court jury in Owensboro, Ky., convicted another of Mr. Murray’s companies, Ken American Resources, and four current or former employees on charges of conspiracy, lying and violating safety laws pertaining to dust levels at a mine in western Kentucky from 1996 to 2000. They faced fines of up to $1.4 million, but the company appealed and paid roughly $300,000.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="298" data-total-count="3062" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">Mr. Murray has said that none of his miners have ever died in an accident, but federal mine records show otherwise. In April 2001, Thomas M. Ciszewski, a 45-year-old foreman, bled to death in the Powhatan No. 6 mine in Alledonia, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessions/ohio/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Ohio." class="meta-loc" style="">Ohio</a>, owned and operated by Mr. Murray’s Ohio Valley Coal Company.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="259" data-total-count="3321" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">Federal investigators determined that Mr. Ciszewski, a 22-year mining veteran, was on a routine job when a conveyer belt cut off his arm, and was “bleeding profusely from the loss of the limb.” He died, in part, because there was not adequate first aid.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="42" data-total-count="3363" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">The company was fined a total of $15,000.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="353" data-total-count="3716" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">A self-made coal baron, Mr. Murray, owns 19 mines in five states, several with safety records far worse that that of Crandall Canyon, which has 33 health and safety violations this year. For instance, his Galatia mine, in Illinois, has accumulated more than 850 federal health and safety violations in 2007, in addition to about $1.46 million in fines.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="299" data-total-count="4015" id="story-continues-4" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">Murray Energy mines produce more than 30 million tons of coal annually, generating annual sales of at least $800 million and fostering accusations from some miners and their families that Mr. Murray cares more about growing his bottom line than he does about making his mines safer for his workers.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="238" data-total-count="4253" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">“It’s hurting me very much,” he said this week during a middle-of-the night phone call to a reporter. “What they’re reporting is that I’m greedy. That is just so inflammatory and false and misleading to everyone in America.”
<div id="#continues-post-newsletter"><p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="120" data-total-count="4373" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">Again and again, he calls himself a champion of miners and an advocate for their well-being and that of their families.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="270" data-total-count="4643" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">But he is not always perceived that way. This week, relatives of the men trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine were outraged when Mr. Murray said that he planned to seal the mine, entombing their bodies inside, and to continue mining in another part of the vast property.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="267" data-total-count="4910" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">He reversed himself the next day, saying he had simply been doing what he always does — telling the truth. In all likelihood, he said, the miners had died and it was not safe to continue trying to find them. “I’m no P.R. man,” Mr. Murray readily acknowledged.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="279" data-total-count="5189" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">But as he rides over mountain roads on the way to candlelight vigils for the miners or funerals for the rescuers, he passes signs that come close to calling him a liar. Lori Prince, a local insurance agent, put up one such sign, which read, “Bob Murray, keep your promises.”<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="136" data-total-count="5325" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">“He did say he was going to get them all out” dead or alive, Ms. Prince said. “Now he’s saying you just have to accept this.”<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="205" data-total-count="5530" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">Mr. Murray says he refused to hire a public relations firm or disaster management team after the Crandall Canyon collapse because he wanted to make it clear that he was one who should take responsibility.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="115" data-total-count="5645" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">Critics say it was another example of Mr. Murray’s outsized ego and cavalier attitude toward industry standards.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="332" data-total-count="5977" id="story-continues-5" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">“In terms of him being the face of this, he shouldn’t have been,” said a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America, Phil Smith, adding that the Miner Act of 2006 requires the Mine Safety and Health Administration, a federal agency, to be at the forefront of dealing with any disaster. “They could have stopped him.”<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="118" data-total-count="6095" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">Agency officials say they allowed Mr. Murray his First Amendment rights to speak out about what happened at the mine.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="235" data-total-count="6330" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">At Wednesday’s news conference, Mr. Murray once again denied that he changed the mining plan when his company took over Crandall Canyon in 2006. “I just continued doing what the previous owner was doing,” he said in an interview.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="59" data-total-count="6389" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">But federal mine agency documents contradict his assertion.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="345" data-total-count="6734" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">Crandall Canyon’s previous owner, Andalex Resources, thought it too risky to mine coal barriers, the pillars that hold up the mountain and protect workers thousands of feet below. The technique is called “retreat mining,” and while common at shallower mines, it is far more problematic at Crandall Canyon’s depth of 1,800 feet and more.<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="143" data-total-count="6877" data-node-uid="1" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em 75px; line-height: 1.625rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" max-width="max-width" none="none" width="width" px="px">Nevertheless, mine agency documents show, the agency this year approved a plan from a Murray company to perform such mining at Crandall Canyon.</div></div></div><div style="">
</div><div style="">

Sen. Jim Inhofe yesterday touted his former top aide on the

Environment and Public Works Committee to be U.S. EPA deputy

administrator.

Inhofe said Andrew Wheeler is better-suited for the No. 2 slot than

another candidate, Jeff Holmstead, who has drawn criticism in

conservative circles.

"There is no one who is more qualified for that job than Andrew

Wheeler," the Oklahoma Republican senator told E&E News of his

former staff director and chief counsel.

Wheeler, who worked for Inhofe for 14 years and currently lobbies

for energy interests at FaegreBD Consulting, "knows more about this than

he's forgotten, more than anybody else," the former EPW chairman said.

Inhofe's comments followed remarks earlier this week in which he

said the other rumored contender for the deputy slot, former George W.

Bush EPA air chief Holmstead, would be an "excellent" choice (<a href="https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/stories/1060056331">E&E Daily</a>, June 21).

"I heartily endorse him," Inhofe said Tuesday, also praising Wheeler.

Yesterday, Inhofe said he holds Holmstead "in high regard" and said

he wanted to dispel conservative criticism that "Jeff's a bad guy."

Rumors that Holmstead, currently a partner at Bracewell LLP, is a

top contender for the deputy position have drawn grumbling on the right

that he could be a moderating force at EPA.

Some observers have questioned Holmstead's views on the climate

endangerment finding — the legal underpinning of efforts to regulate

carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act — which conservatives want to see

gutted (<a href="https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/stories/1060056276">Climatewire</a>, June 20).

"There's no one I can think of who knows [EPA] as well as Andrew

does, and that would include R.J., my former chief of staff," Inhofe

said, referencing Ryan Jackson, another former aide who now serves as

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's chief of staff.

"In the event that he's not acceptable and we'll be looking at other

people, I certainly have nothing against Jeff. Clearly, the guy who

would be most knowledgeable for the job would be Andrew Wheeler."

Inhofe said the administration's timeline and decision-making on the

EPA deputy slot remained unclear. He added that he was unfamiliar with

another rumored contender, Paul Noe, vice president for public policy at

the American Forest & Paper Association.

Speculation on the deputy position comes as another Inhofe aide,

current Communications Director Daisy Letendre, is slated to join EPA as

a senior adviser for policy and strategic communications in the Office

of Policy (<a href="https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/stories/1060056384">E&E News PM</a>, June 21).==

Inhofe welcomes Holmstead as possible deputy pick

</div><div style="">Kevin Bogardus, E&E News reporter</div><div style="">Published: Wednesday, June 21, 2017</div><div style="">Jeff Holmstead can count on a prominent Republican senator for support on Capitol Hill.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Holmstead, a partner at Bracewell LLP and former U.S. EPA official, is considered to be in the running for deputy administrator but has run into conservative opposition.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Former Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) had kind words for Holmstead yesterday. "I have dealt with him for years. He's excellent. I heartily endorse him," Inhofe told E&E News.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Conservatives have pushed back against the potential nomination, saying the environmental law attorney would gut President Trump's agenda from inside EPA (Greenwire, June 19).</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Holmstead has lobbied for coal and utility companies in the past. During President George W. Bush's first term, he served as head of EPA's air office, and before that, he was White House associate counsel for President George H.W. Bush.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Holmstead is not as well-known to many other Republicans lawmakers. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), current EPW chairman, said he was not familiar with the former EPA official.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Andrew Wheeler, now a lobbyist for energy interests at FaegreBD Consulting, has also been under consideration to fill the deputy administrator role at EPA. Wheeler was staff director and chief counsel at EPW when Inhofe led the panel.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">"Andrew is excellent. Andrew was with me for 14 years. In fact, he and Jeff are very close friends," Inhofe said. "I have not heard if one is leading. I just know that they're both great, and I support both of them."</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Transition sources have told E&E News that several candidates have been under consideration. One other name mentioned has been Paul Noe, vice president for public policy at the American Forest & Paper Association.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Democrats on the EPW panel said they would keep an open mind on forthcoming EPA nominees until they are announced. Ranking member Tom Carper (D-Del.) said he had heard of Holmstead.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">"I would just reserve judgment — wouldn't say absolutely never — but I would reserve judgment," Carper said.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Asked about Wheeler, Carper said: "We know Andrew. On a personal level, we like him. I've not given any thought to his suitability for that job."</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), another EPW member, said he wasn't familiar with the names mentioned, noting that administration officials had not consulted Democrats.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Regarding his party's potential opposition to whomever Trump picks for the deputy administrator job, Cardin said, "We'll see who they put forward.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">"We obviously would like to see someone who has experience and balance on these issues, who believes in the mission of EPA," Cardin said.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>