Hunton Andrews Kurth

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[pix water pours out of a pipe beside one of the sites in the San Bernardino Mountains where the company BlueTriton Brands has been collecting water for bottling, near Rimforest, California on Dec. 4, 2021. Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has ordered BlueTriton Brands, the company formerly known as Nestlé that bottles and sells bottled water brand Arrowhead Water, to stop drawing water from the San Bernardino Mountains in California.

The decision by USFS supports a cease and desist made last year by the California Water Resources Control Board that stated the company did not have water rights for diverting and bottling water in the San Bernardino National Forest. According to the decision fact sheet, the company was ordered to stop operations at 10 of its 13 diversion points and was required to submit monthly reports for the remaining water being taken and bottled.

Now, USFS has denied BlueTriton’s application for a new permit and is requiring the company to stop its bottling operations in the San Bernardino Mountains. The company has been ordered to remove its diversion infrastructure, including a pipeline, from the area, the Los Angeles Times reported. BlueTriton Brands has sued to challenge the decision, according to a court document filed on August 6.

The decision comes following years of complaints against the company for diverting water and harming wildlife, KTLA reported. The California Water Resources Control Board noted that it had received many complaints about BlueTrition Brands’ “unreasonable use of water” and the impacts it could have in a drought-stricken state.

“It’s a huge victory after 10 years,” Amanda Frye, an activist from Redlands, California, told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m hoping that we can restore Strawberry Creek, have its springs flowing again, and get the habitat back.”

As District Ranger Michael Nobles explained in a letter to BlueTriton Brands about the permit denial, the company stated its operations were for bottled water, but up to 98% of the diverted water per month was going to the old Arrowhead Springs hotel, which the company sold in 2016 to the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. The amount of water taken in recent months has also increased, Nobles said.

“This increase represents significantly more water than has ever been delivered previously,” Nobles wrote in a letter about the decision. “The hotel and conference facility on the property is not operating, and there is no explanation of where the millions of gallons of water per month are going.”

The area’s Strawberry Creek watershed has been approved for water diversions since 1929, the Los Angeles Times reported. BlueTriton Brands, formerly operating as Nestlé, had long operated in the area under an expired permit that was finally renewed in 2018 with a 5-year timeline.

Despite environmentalists’ complaints against its operations and the reasons outlined for permit rejection in a letter from the U.S. Forest Service, BlueTriton Brands said it “has not negatively affected the Strawberry Canyon environment” and that the permit denial had “no legal merit,” as the Los Angeles Times reported.

Activists are hopeful the decision will help improve the Strawberry Creek watershed and local environment.

“Our goal was to get that water back in the creek and protect the forest,” Frye said. “The proof will be when the pipes and all that infrastructure is taken out and it’s restored. But I think we’re nearing the end.”

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Trump-allied group wants J6 committee staffers blacklisted - POLITICO

2/23/2023

A conservative non-profit group allied with former President Donald Trump urged “Hill staffers and their colleagues” to cut off meetings with any former Jan. 6 committee staffers who have since joined firms that lobby.

In a letter sent to hundreds of recipients on the Hill, the dark money group American Accountability Foundation listed the names of the former committee staffers and their titles — along with their new employers and links to their firms’ clients — all of whom they urged to blacklist.

“AAF has put together a cheat-sheet below outlining their new firms and the firm’s clients so you can be sure you (and your staff) aren’t inadvertently taking a meeting with a company that hires staff that hates your boss,” says the memo sent by Thomas Jones, the group’s president and founder. In his letter, Jones noted recent reporting by POLITICO on the January 6 committee staffers being hired by law and lobbying shops.

“It is important to remember that even if one of these former J6 investigators is not listed as a lobbyist on this specific account, the billings brought in by the clients listed below benefit all staff at the J6 investigator’s new firm,” he added.

It remains to be seen how effective the gambit will be, as the letter was sent only this past Wednesday. K Street firms have a major presence on Capitol Hill and their hires include figures on all sides of the political spectrum. But the group’s play illustrates the intense desire that exists among some conservatives to exact political retribution for those staffers who helped unearth extraordinary evidence of Donald Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election.

Jones confirmed the authenticity of the memo in an email to POLITICO. He railed against the January 6 committee’s use of investigative power, claiming that the committee and the F.B.I. forced some to “spend tens — sometimes hundreds — of thousands of dollars defending themselves from an overreaching and weaponized government.” He argued that conservatives should not be taking meetings with these lobbyists’ clients.

“My email was just a short list of people and companies they should stop working with,” he said.

“Until conservatives are willing to fight back against the swamp — in this case cutting off the lifeblood of lobbyist access — the swamp will never be drained,” he contended.

:{:{Among those listed on the memo include Casey Lucier, former investigative counsel for the committee, who was hired at McGuireWoods, a firm that represents Hertz Global, Perdue Foods, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and others.}:

:{:{Other names listed were Kevin Elliker, another former investigative counsel, who was hired by Hunton Andrews Kurth. That firm represents Koch Companies Public Sector, NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, and Southern Company Services.}:

Former committee staffers Marcus Childress, Heather Connelly, and Michelle Kallen had all been hired by Jenner & Block, the email noted, which represents T-Mobile and the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

In his message, Jones also noted that the memo’s recipients were free to send over additional names.

Led by Jones, an alumnus of Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Tex.) presidential campaign, and Matt Buckham, a veteran of the Trump White House, the American Accountability Foundation has taken on controversial tactics to undermine Biden’s nominees. The New Yorker reported links between the American Accountability Foundation and the Conservative Partnership Institute, which has been affiliated with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and attorney Cleta Mitchell. Notably, Meadows’ attorney George Terwilliger works for McGuireWoods, one of the firms listed in the memo.

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https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/ex-morrisey-aide-joins-law-firm-fighting-against-clean-power-plan/

no lnx

former West Virginia Solicitor General Elbert Lin has landed a job with a corporate law firm that represents power companies in their fight against the enforcement of the federal Clean Power Plan regulations that seek to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Gazette-Mail file photo

Former West Virginia Solicitor General Elbert Lin has landed a job with a corporate law firm that represents power companies in their fight against the enforcement of the federal Clean Power Plan regulations that seek to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Lin, who was hired by the Hunton & Williams law firm this week, helped persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to place a stay on the Clean Power Plan regulations.

Last year, Lin and two Hunton & Williams lawyers took part in oral arguments against the Clean Power Plan before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hunton & Williams represented the Utility Regulatory Air Group, a trade association whose members include American Electric Power, Dominion Resources, Southern Company and Duke Energy.

In a press release, Hunton & Williams lauded Lin’s work as West Virginia’s solicitor general, saying he “won several critical victories in federal courts,” including a halt to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to enforce the Clean Power Plan.

The law firm’s release included a statement from West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, Lin’s former boss.

“Elbert is a tremendous lawyer, writer and oral advocate whosetalent and work ethic won him respect in the courtroom, in the office and throughout the community,” Morrisey said. “For more than four years, he played a leading role in many of this office’s successes, in matters of national and local importance. West Virginia is better off because of his and his family’s public service.”

The Clean Power Plan is on hold because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s order that blocked the measure pending a D.C. Circuit ruling.

:{:{}:

The EPA rule, a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s efforts to combat climate change, would require reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and has been strongly opposed by the mining industry and most West Virginia political leaders.

President Donald Trump has directed the EPA to begin the complex and potentially lengthy process of withdrawing the Clean Power Plan.

:{:{}:

On Thursday, Trump nominated a Hunton & Williams lawyer, William Wehrum, to lead EPA’s air office, according to E&E News. Wehrum is a partner at Hunton & Williams.

Earlier in his career, Lin clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Morrisey hired Lin in 2013, luring Lin away from the Wiley Rein law firm in Washington, D.C., where he successfully challenged the Federal Communications Commission’s first attempt at a net neutrality order, which aimed to establish internet regulations. After Morrisey hired him, Lin spent his first several months as Morrisey’s special assistant because he wasn’t licensed to practice law in West Virginia at the time.

As solicitor general, Lin oversaw the state’s civil and criminal appeals, federal litigation and attorney general opinions.

In June, the state Ethics Commission granted Lin’s request for an employment exemption, which allowed him to seek a job with a regulated private sector entity while continuing to be employed by the state.

Earlier this year, BuzzFeed reported that President Donald Trump’s administration had interviewed Lin for a federal district judgeship in Washington, D.C.

Reach Eric Eyre at ericeyre@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4869 or follow @ericeyre on Twitter.

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OMFG

https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/that-1970s-scourge-acid-rain-is-back/

1970s scourge acid rain is back

Sarah Okeson / DC Report

Starting in the 1970s acid rain turned hundreds of lakes and streams in Adirondack Park in upstate New York so acidic that fish could not survive. Acid rain can be…

no lnx

That 1970s scourge acid rain is back

Written by Sarah Okeson / DC ReportOctober 26, 2019

Starting in the 1970s acid rain turned hundreds of lakes and streams in Adirondack Park in upstate New York so acidic that fish could not survive. Acid rain can be so toxic that it etches paint off cars.

The good news: some naturally reproducing trout were recently found in one body of water in the Adirondacks. Lake Colden had been without such naturally grown fish for 32 years. This revival comes after decades of government work to reduce the toxic air emissions that cause acid rain.

The bad news: Team Trump seems determined to create a comeback for acid rain. That would mean 500 other Adirondack ponds and lakes would continue without naturally breeding fish. Worse, some of the sprawling park’s 2,300 other bodies of water might also become too toxic for other wildlife such as crayfish, salamanders and frogs. And because acid rain leaches aluminum in the soil it also kills trees.

For people in the Northeast, it would also mean more asthma and heart disease as people breathe in air laced with greater amounts of sulfur dioxide, a toxic gas that causes acid rain.

The Trump EPA wants to squash Obama era rules that would force owners of electric power plants to clean up their toxic wastes.

To understand how Team Trump helps polluters and hurts everyone else, consider the coal-burning Martin Lake Power Plant in east Texas. It spews more sulfur dioxide than any other power plant in America. Last year it spit out 56,198 tons of sulfur dioxide, a 54% increase over 2017.

Acid rain, then and now.(From Environmental Defense Fund)]

Now the Trump EPA wants to squash Obama era rules that would force owners of this and other power plants to clean up their toxic wastes. Owners who escape these clean-up costs reap bigger profits. The rest of us pay the price: more sickness, shorter lives for some and hundreds of lakes with no fish surrounded by dying forests.

To help polluters escape those costs the Trump administration puts executives, lawyers and lobbyists for polluting companies in charge of various units of the Environmental Protection Agency and other regulatory bodies. Instead of enforcement of clean air laws, Team Trump runs a protection racket for polluters.

Plant Owners Identified

The Texas power plant is owned by Luminant Generation Co., part of Vistra Energy. One of Vistra’s lobbying firms once employed a lawyer who was hired to head the Trump EPA air office. Vistra is one of nine politically connected polluters being scrutinized by Congressional investigators. In 2018 alone it gave more than $101,000 to members of Congress at a three-to-one ratio favoring Republicans.

The lawyer was Bill Wehrum, who oversaw the Trump EPA’s air policy office until he resigned in June during a federal ethics investigation.Previously Wehrum was a partner at Hunton & Williams where he made $2.1 million. That law firm is now known as Hunton Andrews Kurth. A Congressional report dubbed the law firm “industry’s secret pipeline to EPA.”

Vistra Energy paid $140,000 in lobbying fees last year to Hunton Andrews Kurth.

Wehrum was accused of repeatedly violating his ethics pledge and legal duty to refrain from EPA matters involving his former clients. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW, in May filed a detailed 14-page complaint against Wehrum with the EPA’s acting inspector general.

Other big sulfur dioxide polluters include DTE Energy Co., represented by Hunton Andrews Kurth in a long battle with the EPA over pollution from its coal-fired power plant in Monroe, Mich. David Harlow, attorney for the EPA Office of Air and Radiation, previously represented DTE for Hunton Andrews Kurth.

Lobbyists As Regulators

Soon after Harlow and Wehrum joined the EPA, the agency changed its position on a core issue in DTE’s case, adopting the company’s view.

A slightly different pro-polluter tactic was adopted for the power plant in east Texas. With former lobbyists for polluters in charge, the EPA made a mistake during the Obama years when it declared that parts of two counties near the Martin Lake plant exceeded the standard for sulfur dioxide emissions.

Trump’s EPA now wants to say the two-county area is “unclassifiable.” That would allow the plant to continue spewing tons of toxic air.

Because of actions assisting polluters, environmentalists fear acid rain is back.

While rain typically is slightly acidic with a pH reading of close to 6, acid rain is sometimes 3.2. That may not seem like much because pH is a scale. But acid rain can be more than 200 times more acidic than pollution-free rainfall.

Acid Rain Effects

EPA infographic]

Today 500 of 2,800 lakes and ponds in Adirondack State Park cannot support the plants and aquatic life that once existed in them.

Worse, acid rain can cause people to develop asthma as they breathe in even small concentrations of sulfur dioxide and the tiny particles it can form in the air. And it’s deadly for trees, trout and turtles.

“The numbers are going in the wrong direction,” said William Janeway, executive director of the Adirondack Council, about rising acidity in Northeast rainfall.

Adirondack, a state park, covers more than six million acres, making it bigger than the combined acreage of Yosemite, Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon and the Great Smokies National Parks.

When power plants in the heartland burn coal laced with sulfur the toxic waste goes up smokestacks. Prevailing winds that tend to blow eastward then carry pollution from these coal-burning power plants to the Northeast where much of it falls in rain that kills. Team Trump not only thinks that is fine, it wants more acid rain.

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ACC?

Nancy Beck, whom President Donald Trump selected for senior leadership positions at the EPA and White House, is directing regulatory science at Hunton Andrews Kurth, the law firm confirmed Monday.

Beck, a toxicologist who’s career has focused on regulatory policies, will work on an array of environmental policies including chemicals, a law firm spokeswoman said.

“Nancy has spent more than 20 years in various positions with the federal government helping to develop and implement federal environmental regulations,” Eric Murdock, head of Hunton Andrews Kurth’s administrative law team, said in an email. “Our clients will benefit greatly from her experience and ...

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law360

Environmental Group Of The Year: Hunton

Law360 (January 31, 2022, 2:03 PM EST) -- Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP's environmental attorneys helped win key victories for clients in front of the U.S....

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Nancy B. Beck, PhD, DABT | Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

Search domain huntonak.comhttps://www.huntonak.com › en › people › nancy-beck.html

beckn@HuntonAK.com Washington, DC +1 202 419 2076 direct Nancy provides industry leaders with advice related to the impact of environmental policy, including chemical regulations and compliance programs, applying her in-depth knowledge and applied public health experience as a PhD toxicologist.

Who Is Nancy Beck, and Why Shouldn't She Be in Charge of ...

Search domain nrdc.orghttps://www.nrdc.org › onearth › who-nancy-beck-and-why-shouldnt-she-be-charge-consumer-safety

prior to joining this administration's ignominious iteration of the epa, where she hit the ground running by rewriting chemical-safety rules to make them more business-friendly, beck served for...