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<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">swamp thang</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>=</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/06/huffpost-just-published-a-bombshell-story-about-the-epa/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/06/huffpost-just-published-a-bombshell-story-about-the-epa/</a></p><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="1" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit;"><b>A top <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/impact/topic/epa" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="1" data-v9y="1" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px" style="text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url("");">Environmental Protection Agency</a> official gave a presentation last year at a gathering of some of the most zealous deniers of climate science, highlighting the influence a small, fringe movement hawking crank theories now wields in Washington</b>. </p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="2" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Calluna, serif; font-size: 19px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit;">Emails <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">HuffPost</em> reviewed revea<b>l Bill Wehrum, the EPA’s assistant administrator for air and radiation, gave a presentation in early February 2018 at an event organized by the Cooler Heads Coalition</b>, an umbrella group of tax-exempt charities and right-wing nonprofits that includes some of the most ardent proponents of climate change denial.</p><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="3" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Three other EPA officials―associate administrator Tate Bennett, senior counsel David Harlow and then-spokeswoman Liz Bowman―attended the confab with Wehrum, the emails show.</span></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="4" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit;"><b>In an email dated Feb. 6, 2018, Myron Ebell, who has led the Cooler Heads Coalition for more than two decades, offered gratitude for the EPA officials’ attendance at the previous day’s event, and invited the group to the next meeting a month later. </b> </p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="5" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit;">“Thanks Bill, David, Liz, and Tate, for coming to Cooler Heads and for your presentation and taking questions, Bill. It was most useful,” Ebell, who led the Trump administration’s EPA transition team, wrote. “We look forward to seeing any or all of you at future meetings.”</p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="6" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit;"><b>The EPA declined to comment on the nature of Wehrum’s presentation and whether any officials attended other events with the Cooler Heads Coalition.</b></p></div><div class="content-list-component yr-content-list-text text" data-rapid-cpos="7" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; box-sizing: inherit;">“EPA takes time to meet with stakeholders on a variety of regulatory issues, this is no different,” said EPA spokesman Michael Abboud.</p></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-climate-denial-groups-2573273596.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-climate-denial-groups-2573273596.html</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">cf AP</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">E</font><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">mails Show EPA's Cozy Alliance With Major Climate Denial Group</span></div><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; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></span></font><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="2573273596" data-authors="Climate Nexus" data-headline="Emails Show EPA's Cozy Alliance With Major Climate Denial Group" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px;"><div class="body-description"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Newly released emails show that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" style="text-decoration-line: none;">EPA</a>) under <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scott-pruitt" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Scott Pruitt</a> has routinely been in contact with one of the most prominent <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-denier" style="text-decoration-line: none;">climate denier</a> groups, the AP reported this weekend.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The emails, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request by the <a href="https://www.edf.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Environmental Defense Fund</a> and the <a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Southern Environmental Law Center</a>, show that John Konkus, a deputy public affairs official, routinely reached out to senior staffers at the Heartland Institute to collaborate on denier invitee lists for a proposed public hearing on climate science last May.</font></p><p><span style="text-align: center;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Konkus and EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman also regularly commiserated with Heartland officials </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">on negative press coverage of the agency, and collaborated on ways to amplify positive messages. Then-Heartland president Joseph Bast celebrated the retirement of New York Times climate reporter Justin Gillis in an email shared with EPA staffers last fall, writing that he is "still waiting for Chris Mooney and Juliet Eilperin at the WaPo and Seth Borenstein at AP to flame out."</span></font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As reported by the <a href="https://apnews.com/amp/64cd37b0503440c0b92e6ca075f87dd4" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Associated Press</a>:</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-left: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The emails underscore how Pruitt and senior agency officials have sought to surround themselves with people who share their vision of curbing environmental regulation and enforcement, leading to complaints from environmentalists that he is ignoring the conclusions of the majority of scientists in and out of his agency especially when it comes to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" style="text-decoration-line: none;">climate</a>-changing carbon emissions."</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no link</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div> docs</div><div>
</div><div><b>Why Has the E.P.A. Shifted on</b></div><div><b>Toxic Chemicals?</b> An Industry</div><div>Insider Helps Call the Shots</div><div>A scientist who worked for the chemical industry now</div><div>shapes policy on hazardous chemicals. Within the</div><div>E.P.A., there is fear that public health is at risk. (At right,</div><div>a signing ceremony for new rules on toxic chemicals.)</div><div>
</div><div>By ERIC LIPTON OCT. 21, 2017</div><div>
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</div><div>WASHINGTON — For years, the Environmental Protection Agency has struggled to prevent an ingredient once used in stain-resistant carpets and nonstick pans from contaminating drinking water.</div><div>
</div><div>The chemical, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, has been linked to kidney cancer, birth defects, immune system disorders and other serious health problems.</div><div>
</div><div>So scientists and administrators in the E.P.A.’s Office of Water were alarmed in late May when a top Trump administration appointee insisted upon the rewriting of a rule to make it harder to track the health consequences of the chemical, and therefore regulate it.</div><div>
</div><div>The revision was among more than a dozen demanded by the appointee, Nancy B. Beck, after she joined the E.P.A.’s toxic chemical unit in May as a top deputy. For the previous five years, she had been an executive at the American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry’s main trade association.</div><div>
</div><div>The changes directed by Dr. Beck may result in an “underestimation of the potential risks to human health and the environment” caused by PFOA and other so-called legacy chemicals no longer sold on the market, the Office of Water’s top official warned in a confidential internal memo obtained by The New York Times.</div><div>
</div><div>Photo</div><div>
</div><div>Dr. Beck testifying at a Senate hearing in March. She joined the E.P.A. in May after working as an executive at the American Chemistry Council, the chemical industry’s main trade association. Credit U.S. Senate Committee Channel</div><div>
</div><div>The E.P.A.’s abrupt new direction on legacy chemicals is part of a broad initiative by the Trump administration to change the way the federal government evaluates health and environmental risks associated with hazardous chemicals, making it more aligned with the industry’s wishes.</div><div>
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</div><div>RELATED COVERAGE</div><div>
</div><div>The E.P.A.’s Top 10 Toxic Threats, and Industry’s Pushback OCT. 21, 2017</div><div>
</div><div>Chemical Industry Ally Faces Critics in Bid for Top E.P.A. Post SEPT. 19, 2017</div><div>
</div><div>E.P.A. Chief, Rejecting Agency’s Science, Chooses Not to Ban Insecticide MARCH 29, 2017</div><div>
</div><div>E.P.A. Promised ‘a New Day’ for the Agriculture Industry, Documents Reveal AUG. 18, 2017</div><div>Trump Rules</div><div>Articles in this series examine the reshaping of regulations under the Trump administration.</div><div>How $225,000 Can Help Secure a Pollution Loophole at Trump’s E.P.A.</div><div>FEB 15</div><div>F.D.A. Chief Goes Against the Administration Stereotype</div><div>FEB 11</div><div>When Picking Apples on a Farm With 5,000 Rules, Watch Out for the Ladders</div><div>DEC 27</div><div>Under Trump, E.P.A. Has Slowed Actions Against Polluters, and Put Limits on Enforcement Officers</div><div>DEC 10</div><div>How Trump’s Hands-Off Approach to Policing Is Frustrating Some Chiefs</div><div>
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</div><div>Continue reading the main story</div><div>
</div><div>It is a cause with far-reaching consequences for consumers and chemical companies, as the E.P.A. regulates some 80,000 different chemicals, many of them highly toxic and used in workplaces, homes and everyday products. If chemicals are deemed less risky, they are less likely to be subjected to heavy oversight and restrictions.</div><div>
</div><div>The effort is not new, nor is the decades-long debate over how best to identify and assess risks, but the industry has not benefited from such highly placed champions in government since the Reagan administration. The cause was taken up by Dr. Beck and others in the administration of President George W. Bush, with some success, and met with resistance during the Obama administration. Now it has been aggressively revived under President Trump by an array of industry-backed political appointees and others.</div><div>
</div><div>Dr. Beck, who has a doctorate in environmental health, comes from a camp — firmly backed by the chemical industry — that says the government too often directs burdensome rules at what she has called “phantom risks.”</div><div>
</div><div>Other scientists and administrators at the E.P.A., including Wendy Cleland-Hamnett, until last month the agency’s top official overseeing pesticides and toxic chemicals, say the dangers are real and the pushback is often a tactic for deflecting accountability — and shoring up industry profits at the expense of public safety.</div><div>
</div><div>DOCUMENT</div><div>E.P.A.’s Decision Not to Ban Chlorpyrifos</div><div>The New York Times requested copies of email correspondence related to the March 2017 decision by the E.P.A. to reject a decade-old petition to ban chlorpyrifos, a widely used pesticide that research suggests may cause developmental delays in children exposed to it in drinking water or in farming communities. Here are those documents.</div><div>
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</div><div> OPEN DOCUMENT</div><div>Since Mr. Trump’s election, Dr. Beck’s approach has been unabashedly ascendant, according to interviews with more than two dozen current and former E.P.A. and White House officials, confidential E.P.A. documents, and materials obtained through open-record requests.</div><div>
</div><div>In March, Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. chief, overrode the recommendation of Ms. Hamnett and agency scientists to ban the commercial use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, blamed for developmental disabilities in children.</div><div>
</div><div>The E.P.A.’s new leadership also pressed agency scientists to re-evaluate a plan to ban certain uses of two dangerous chemicals that have caused dozens of deaths or severe health problems: methylene chloride, which is found in paint strippers, and trichloroethylene, which removes grease from metals and is used in dry cleaning.</div><div>
</div><div>“It was extremely disturbing to me,” Ms. Hamnett said of the order she received to reverse the proposed pesticide ban. “The industry met with E.P.A. political appointees. And then I was asked to change the agency’s stand.”</div><div>
</div><div>The E.P.A. and Dr. Beck declined repeated requests to comment that included detailed lists of questions.</div><div>
</div><div>“No matter how much information we give you, you would never write a fair piece,” Liz Bowman, a spokeswoman for the E.P.A., said in an email. “The only thing inappropriate and biased is your continued fixation on writing elitist clickbait trying to attack qualified professionals committed to serving their country.”</div><div>
</div><div>Before joining the E.P.A., Ms. Bowman was a spokeswoman for the American Chemistry Council.</div><div>
</div><div>The conflict over how to define risk in federal regulations comes just as the E.P.A. was supposed to be fixing its backlogged and beleaguered chemical regulation program. Last year, after a decade of delays, Congress passed bipartisan legislation that would push the E.P.A. to determine whether dozens of chemicals were so dangerous that they should be banned or restricted.</div><div>
</div><div>THE E.P.A.’S TOP 10 TOXIC THREATS, AND INDUSTRY’S PUSHBACK</div><div>The Environmental Protection Agency published a list of toxic chemicals it would evaluate first under a new law. Here is a look at those chemicals, how they are used and their health threats.</div><div>The chemical safety law was passed after Congress and the chemical industry reached a consensus that toxic chemical threats — or at least the fear of them — were so severe that they undermined consumer confidence in products on the market.</div><div>
</div><div>But now the chemical industry and many of the companies that use their compounds are praising the Trump administration’s changed direction, saying new chemicals are getting faster regulatory reviews and existing chemicals will benefit from a less dogmatic approach to determining risk.</div><div>
</div><div>“U.S. businesses, jobs and competitiveness depend on a functioning new chemicals program,” Calvin M. Dooley, a former congressman who is president of the American Chemistry Council, said in a statement. It was issued in June after Dr. Beck, his recent employee, pushed through many industry-friendly changes in her new role at the E.P.A., including the change in tracking legacy chemicals such as PFOA.</div><div>
</div><div>Anne Womack Kolton, a vice president at the council, said on Wednesday that Dr. Beck’s appointment was a positive development.</div><div>
</div><div>“We, along with many others, are glad that individuals who support credible science and thorough analysis as the basis for policymaking have agreed to serve,” she said in an email. “Consistency, transparency and high quality science in the regulatory process are in everyone’s interests.”</div><div>
</div><div>The Trump administration’s shift, the industry has acknowledged, could have financial benefits. Otherwise, the industry may lose “millions of dollars and years of research invested in a chemical,” the American Chemistry Council and other groups wrote in a legal brief defending the changes Dr. Beck had engineered.</div><div>
</div><div>But consumer advocates and many longtime scientists, managers and administrators at the E.P.A. are alarmed by the administration’s priorities and worry that the new law’s anticipated crackdown on hazardous chemicals could be compromised.</div><div>
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</div><div>Dr. Beck, left, and Ms. Hamnett, center, who clashed over changes to new toxic chemical rules, attended a signing ceremony with Mr. Pruitt. Video by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Video by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency</div><div>“You are never going to have 100 percent certainty on anything,” Ms. Hamnett said. “But when you have a chemical that evidence points to is causing fatalities, you err more on the side of taking some action, as opposed to ‘Let’s wait and spend some more time and try to get the science entirely certain,’ which it hardly ever gets to be.”</div><div>
</div><div>The divergent approaches and yearslong face-off between Ms. Hamnett and Dr. Beck parallel the story of the chemical industry’s quest to keep the E.P.A.’s enforcement arm at bay.</div><div>
</div><div>The two women, one a lawyer from New Jersey, the other a scientist from Long Island, have dedicated their lives to the issue of hazardous chemicals. Each’s expertise is respected by her peers, but their perspectives couldn’t be more dissimilar.</div><div>
</div><div>Ms. Hamnett, 63, spent her entire 38-year career at the E.P.A., joining the agency directly from law school as a believer in consumer and environmental protections. Dr. Beck, 51, did a fellowship at the E.P.A., but has spent most of her 29-year career elsewhere: in a testing lab at Estée Lauder, as a toxicologist in the Washington State Health Department, as a regulatory analyst in the White House and most recently with the chemical industry’s trade group.</div><div>
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</div><div>Ms. Hamnett in Falls Church, Va. Last month, she retired as the top official overseeing pesticides and toxic chemicals at the E.P.A. “I had become irrelevant,” she said about changes there under the Trump administration. Credit Jared Soares for The New York Times</div><div>Before Mr. Trump’s election, Ms. Hamnett would have been regarded as the hands-down victor in their professional tug of war. Her decision to retire in September amounted to a surrender of sorts, a powerful acknowledgment of the two women’s reversed fortunes under the Trump administration.</div><div>
</div><div>“I had become irrelevant,” Ms. Hamnett said.</div><div>
</div><div>Her farewell party in late August was held in the wood-paneled Map Room on the first floor of the E.P.A. headquarters, the same room where Mr. Trump had signed an executive order backed by big business that called for the agency to dismantle environmental protections.</div><div>
</div><div>Dr. Beck was among those who spoke. She thanked Ms. Hamnett for her decades of service. “I don’t know what I am going to do without her,” she said, according to multiple people who attended the event.</div><div>
</div><div>Ms. Hamnett, in an interview, said she had little trouble envisioning the future under the new leadership. “It’s time for me to go,” she said. “I have done what I could do.”</div><div>
</div><div>‘Unreasonable Risk of Injury’</div><div>Chemical regulation was not part of the E.P.A.’s original mission. But several environmental disasters in the early 1970s prompted Congress to extend the agency’s authority.</div><div>
</div><div>Industrial waste, including highly toxic PCBs, led to fish kills in the Hudson River. Chemicals from flame retardants were detected in livestock in Michigan, contaminating food across the state. And residents in Niagara Falls, N.Y., first started to notice a black, oily liquid in their basements, early hints of one of the worst environmental disasters in United States history: Love Canal.</div><div>
</div><div>President Gerald R. Ford signed the Toxic Substances Control Act in October 1976, giving the E.P.A. the authority to ban or restrict chemicals it deemed dangerous. It was hailed as a public health breakthrough.</div><div>
</div><div>“For the first time, the law empowers the federal government to control and even to stop production or use of chemical substances that may present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or environment,” a federal report said.</div><div>
</div><div>A few years later, after graduating from George Washington University Law School in 1979, Ms. Hamnett landed at the E.P.A. She arrived fully embracing its enhanced mission.</div><div>
</div><div>She had grown up in Trenton, where the words “Trenton Makes, the World Takes” are affixed in neon to the side of a railroad bridge spanning the Delaware River.</div><div>
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</div><div>A bridge over the Delaware River in Trenton, N.J., says, “Trenton Makes, the World Takes.” The Roebling Steel Company plant brought prosperity to the region, but also contaminated soil and groundwater with hazardous chemicals. Credit Mel Evans/Associated Press</div><div>Her childhood memories included passing by the 200-acre Roebling Steel Company plant — named after the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge. At its peak, the plant was Trenton’s largest employer, and it helped spread prosperity to the region.</div><div>
</div><div>But the company was also a chronic polluter. For decades, it dumped arsenic, chromium, lead and other hazardous chemicals, contaminating soil and groundwater. Ultimately, the pollution was so pervasive that the E.P.A. declared the property a Superfund cleanup site.</div><div>
</div><div>It was this legacy, as well as the congressional directive to the E.P.A. to protect the public from harm, that Ms. Hamnett said guided her.</div><div>
</div><div>During the Bush administration, she was drawn into a contentious debate involving lead paint that highlighted her resolve — and that of her opponents.</div><div>
</div><div>Few environmental hazards are as well understood as the dangers of lead in paint. Since it was first used in homes in the United States, more than a century ago, it has poisoned children. Even after it was banned in the late 1970s, it remained a threat, particularly when renovations took place in the tens of millions of homes with lead-based paint.</div><div>
</div><div>The E.P.A. set out to establish standards governing home renovations, and Ms. Hamnett came to the discussions with a strong perspective.</div><div>
</div><div>“What is the effect of exposure likely to be?” she recalled asking. “If it is likely to be a severe effect and result in a significant number of people exposed, if so, I am going to err on the side of safety.”</div><div>
</div><div>While the evidence was solid that lead caused learning disabilities and other problems for children, it was less definitive on whether it was also a factor in adult diseases.</div><div>
</div><div>To Ms. Hamnett and her colleagues, the results of multiple studies were compelling enough to establish an apparent link to cardiovascular disease in adults. They concluded in a report in 2006 that there was “stronger evidence for a relationship between lead exposure and blood pressure for adults,” citing it as a factor for aggressive safety requirements.</div><div>
</div><div>The home renovation industry filed protests over the “inappropriate and costly” rule with the Bush administration and Congress. Taking up its cause was a White House official with a reputation for assessing risk much differently: Dr. Beck.</div><div>
</div><div>Throwing ‘Sand in the Gears’</div><div>As the Bush administration took office, John D. Graham, who ran the White House office overseeing regulations, unveiled a plan to ease the government’s burden on business by reining in “the regulatory state.”</div><div>
</div><div>To that end, Mr. Graham hired scientists to review major federal regulations and make recommendations about their worthiness, something the E.P.A. itself had done over the years.</div><div>
</div><div>Dr. Beck, Mr. Graham said, was an excellent addition to his staff.</div><div>
</div><div>She had grown up in Oyster Bay, N.Y., an affluent suburb on Long Island, earned an undergraduate microbiology degree in 1988 from Cornell and a doctorate from the University of Washington a decade later. Her dissertation, which examined how the sedative phenobarbital impacts the metabolism of the liver, started with words still relevant to her today: “Each day the human body is confronted with many potentially toxic substances in the form of food items, medicinal products and environmental agents.”</div><div>
</div><div>She started her career at Estée Lauder, where she helped develop preservatives used to extend the shelf life of cosmetics, and also designed laboratory tests to determine if products caused adverse reactions when applied to skin.</div><div>...</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bowman, who joined EPA’s public affairs office in March 2017, is leaving next week to work as communications director for Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).</span></font><aside id="image_asset_layout_33123" class="right span5 image_asset_layout" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; max-width: 180px; width: 180px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><img src="https://www.eenews.net/image_assets/2018/05/image_asset_33111.jpg" alt="Liz Bowman. Photo credit: Bowman/LinkedIn" style="background: transparent; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; width: 180px;" /></font><p class="caption" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 3px 2px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Liz Bowman. <span class="credit" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bowman/LinkedIn</span></font></p></aside><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bowman has been leading the press office in an agency that's been under siege in recent weeks as allegations have come about Pruitt being too cozy with lobbyists, misusing taxpayer cash and sidelining staffers who oppose him.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before joining EPA, Bowman worked at the American Chemistry Council, where she handled issue and advocacy communications. She also worked at public affairs firm HDMK and at the Pew Charitable Trusts.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After joining EPA in March, Bowman was named the office's acting head by June 2017. She permanently took on the top public affairs job last August.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I leave extremely thankful for the opportunity to serve the Trump Administration and Administrator Pruitt," she told E&E News today in a statement.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Being a member of the EPA team has allowed me to further my skills, learn from my mistakes, and make lifelong friendships. It has also provided me the opportunity to develop a new, and deep, respect for the public servants who serve the American people, day in and day out, to ensure that we all have access to clean air, land, and water."</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ernst spokeswoman Leigh Claffey said today in an email, "Ms. Bowman brings years of invaluable experience in public affairs and public relations, and we are thrilled for her to lead the senator's communications operation."</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It's unclear who will take over for Bowman in EPA's press shop.</font></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bowman is the latest of several top Pruitt aides to leave the agency. One of his close advisers, Albert "Kell" Kelly; the head of his security detail, Pasquale Perrotta; and his policy director, Samantha Dravis, have also resigned.</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/386059-third-top-political-aide-to-leave-epa-this-week"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/386059-third-top-political-aide-to-leave-epa-this-week</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">tration and Administrator Pruitt," Bowman said, noting her last day would be May 11.</span></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bowman told The Hill she would be joining<b> Sen. <span class="rollover-people" data-behavior="rolloverpeople" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><a class="rollover-people-link" data-nid="347869" href="http://thehill.com/people/joni-ernst" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline-block; position: relative;">Joni Ernst</a></span>'s (R-Iowa) office as communication director.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Being a member of the EPA team has allowed me to further my skills, learn from my mistakes, and make lifelong friendships. It has also provided me the opportunity to develop a new, and deep, respect for the public servants who serve the American people, day in and day out, to ensure that we all have access to clean air, land, and water.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bowman's departure comes at an increasingly challenging time for Pruitt, who has been under intense scrutiny for questionable expenditures and has faced a number of ethics scandals.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Earlier this week two of Pruitt's top aides, also mired in their own scandals, resigned from the agency.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Albert Kelly, who was hired to lead the agency's Superfund program last year, resigned Tuesday and Pruitt's head of security, Pasquale Perrotta, resigned on Monday, EPA confirmed.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kelly was under fire from the time he was announced to his position for his lack of a scientific background and his own financial history.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was first reported last December that Kelly was banned from working in the banking sector for life. Pruitt hired Kelly not long after as an adviser for the Superfund program. Kelly used to lead SpiritBank, based in Pruitt's hometown of Tulsa, Okla. The two have known each other for years, and Kelly got Pruitt financing for a mortgage and to help buy a minor league baseball team.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perrotta spent his last day at the EPA on Tuesday.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The career political official and former Secret Service agent has been under the microscope lately for decisions he's made as Pruitt's security chief as well as reports that he used his power to influence a number of EPA security contracts.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perrotta has also been linked to concerns about some of Pruitt's security contracts, including an April 2017 security sweep in the administrator's office. The sweep was completed by Edwin Steinmetz, a business partner of Perrotta's at Sequoia Security Group.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: " graphik="Graphik" web="Web" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" background-color="background-color"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He said the press was taking a toll on his family. </font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div class="g WsjYwc" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="ts Pg8zWb hqn4Zb C1Iii FddHQd tsUanb" style="border-collapse: collapse; display: inline-block; width: 600px;"><div class="gG0TJc" style="padding-bottom: 4px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><h3 class="r dO0Ag" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis;"><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"><a class="l lLrAF" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/us/trump-epa-chemicals-regulations.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/us/trump-epa-chemicals-regulations.html&ved=0ahUKEwiVs-vse_aAhWI5oMKHQzXA-EQqQIISSgAMAc" style="cursor: pointer;">Why Has the EPA Shifted on Toxic Chemicals? An Industry Insider ...</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h3><div class="slp"><span class="xQ82C e8fRJf" style="">New York Times</span><span class="v0c3xd" style="padding: 0px 4px;">-</span><span class="f nsa fwzPFf" style="display: inline-block;">Oct 21, 2017</span></div><div class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;">“No matter how much information we give you, you would never write a fair piece,” <span style="font-weight: bold;">Liz Bowman</span>, a spokeswoman for the E.P.A., said in an email. “The only thing inappropriate ... Before joining the E.P.A., Ms. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bowman</span> was a spokeswoman for the <span style="font-weight: bold;">American Chemistry</span> Council. The conflict over how to define ...</div></div></div></div><div class="g WsjYwc" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="ts Pg8zWb b80nOe C1Iii FddHQd tsUanb" style="border-collapse: collapse; display: inline-block; width: 600px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="gG0TJc" style="padding-bottom: 4px;"><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></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><h3 class="r dO0Ag" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis;"><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"><a class="RTNUJf" href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24102017/trump-pruitt-epa-press-office-attacked-reporter-lipton-ap-harvey" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24102017/trump-pruitt-epa-press-office-attacked-reporter-lipton-ap-harvey&ved=0ahUKEwiVs-vse_aAhWI5oMKHQzXA-EQu4gBCE0oATAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">
EPA Press Office Tips Toward Hostility Under <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pruitt</span></a><a class="l lLrAF" href="https://gizmodo.com/report-a-chemical-industry-lobbyist-is-writing-toxic-c-1819750667" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://gizmodo.com/report-a-chemical-industry-lobbyist-is-writing-toxic-c-1819750667&ved=0ahUKEwiVs-vse_aAhWI5oMKHQzXA-EQqQIITCgAMAg" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Report: A <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chemical</span> Industry Lobbyist Is Writing Toxic <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chemical</span> Rules ...</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h3><div class="slp"><span class="xQ82C e8fRJf" style="">Gizmodo</span><span class="v0c3xd" style="padding: 0px 4px;">-</span><span class="f nsa fwzPFf" style="display: inline-block;">Oct 22, 2017</span></div><div class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;">Here's yet another sign that in the age of President Donald Trump and Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pruitt</span>, the foxes are feasting in the coop. ... When the Times asked for more information about the decisions, EPA spokeswoman <span style="font-weight: bold;">Liz Bowman</span>—yet another <span style="font-weight: bold;">American Chemistry</span> Council ...</div></div><div class="YiHbdc card-section" style="display: inline-block;"><span class="nsa xQ82C f e8fRJf" style="">InsideClimate News</span><span class="v0c3xd" style="padding: 0px 4px;">-</span><span class="nsa fwzPFf f" style="display: inline-block;">Oct 24, 2017</span><div class="cWEW3c" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 6px 0px 4px;"><a class="kl0Osd" href="https://news.google.com/news?ncl=dT9ixD-U_rZm28MUOXoryIOhKoebM&q=liz+bowman++pruitt+american+chemistry&lr=English&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVs-vse_aAhWI5oMKHQzXA-EQqgIITjAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">View all</a></div></div><div class="gZQpfd" style="margin-bottom: 2px;"><div class="g WsjYwc" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="ts Pg8zWb b80nOe C1Iii FddHQd tsUanb" style="border-collapse: collapse; display: inline-block; width: 600px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="gG0TJc" style="padding-bottom: 4px;"><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></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><h3 class="r dO0Ag" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis;"><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"><a class="RTNUJf" href="http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2017/06/epa_chief_met_with_dow_chemica.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2017/06/epa_chief_met_with_dow_chemica.html&ved=0ahUKEwiVs-vse_aAhWI5oMKHQzXA-EQuogBCFIoATAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">
EPA chief met with Dow CEO before deciding not to ban toxic pesticide</a><a class="l lLrAF" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/epas-top-staff-filled-with-coal-and-oil-industry-connections-2017-6" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.businessinsider.com/epas-top-staff-filled-with-coal-and-oil-industry-connections-2017-6&ved=0ahUKEwiVs-vse_aAhWI5oMKHQzXA-EQqQIIUSgAMAk" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">7 of 45 new EPA top staff come from the coal, oil, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">chemical</span> ...</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h3><div class="slp"><span class="xQ82C e8fRJf" style="">Markets Insider</span><span class="v0c3xd" style="padding: 0px 4px;">-</span><span class="f nsa fwzPFf" style="display: inline-block;">Jun 27, 2017</span></div><div class="st" style="line-height: 1.4; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Liz</span> Snyder <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bowman</span>, Acting Associate Administrator for Public Affairs. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bowman</span> is the first of a few names on the list to come from the <span style="font-weight: bold;">American Chemistry</span> Council, a lobbying group for chemicals and plastics. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bowman</span> was Director of Issue and Advocacy Communications for the firm, according to her ...</div></div><div class="ErI7Gd card-section" style="display: inline-block;"><span class="HgetDe DwKiF" style="">In-Depth</span><span class="v0c3xd" style="padding: 0px 4px;">-</span><span class="xQ82C e8fRJf" style="">MLive.com</span><span class="v0c3xd" style="padding: 0px 4px;">-</span><span class="f nsa fwzPFf" style="display: inline-block;">Jun 29, 2017</span><div class="cWEW3c" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 6px 0px 4px;"><a class="kl0Osd" href="https://news.google.com/news?ncl=dO20FThri3wf7RMpvMafeGCe-0mYM&q=liz+bowman++pruitt+american+chemistry&lr=English&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVs-_vse_aAhWI5oMKHQzXA-EQqgIIUzAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">View all</a></div></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>