dravis, s

=busted, bailledraga and Kochsee APIsee pruitt 3 for lnx
=
<div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://yyy.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/12/big-oil-lobby-get-what-it-wants-epa-trump-pruitt</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> This article is more than 3 years old</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">'No shame': how the Trump administration granted big oil's wishlist</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This article is more than 3 years old</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The EPA has fulfilled almost all major demands made by the American Petroleum Institute within its first year under Trump</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Demonstrators in California protest against Donald Trump’s executive order fast-tracking the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tue 12 Dec 2017 </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Trump administration’s zeal for environmental rollbacks has enabled it to fulfill almost all of the top priorities in a “wishlist” drawn up by the American Petroleum Institute (API), the leading lobby group for US oil and gas companies.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[API White house</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">How big oil is tightening its grip on Donald Trump's White House</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read more]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>In a document called “comments on specific regulations” sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in May, API highlighted eight key changes it wanted to ease the regulation of air and water pollution. An analysis shows that the EPA has now so far either partially or wholly delivered on six out of these eight key demands within the first year of the Trump administration, which solicited input on government rules from a number of trade groups.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This comes as the Guardian and the Center for Public Integrity publish an investigation into the way the oil lobby has worked for decades to influence US government policy – and is tightening its hold.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Earlier this year a letter penned by Howard Feldman, senior director of regulatory affairs at API, accompanied the lobby group’s wish list for government, and it stated that fossil fuel companies are thriving “despite the unprecedented level of federal regulatory actions targeting our industry”.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Timeline</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Big oil and the US government]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Feldman called for the federal government to alter regulations in a way that “promotes access to domestic oil and natural gas resources, streamlined permitting and cost-effective regulations”.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>The letter is addressed to Samantha Dravis, an EPA associate administrator who previously held a senior role at the Republican Attorneys General Association and was counsel to Freedom Partners, one of the groups in the Koch brothers network.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Donald Trump displays one of five executive orders he signed related to the oil pipeline industry on 24 January 2017.]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>The 25-page list of API’s suggested regulatory changes places particular emphasis on eight key demands that peel away standards primarily imposed under Barack Obama’s administration. The EPA’s administrator, Scott Pruitt, previously a harsh critic of the agency who has pledged to rein in its “out of control, anti-energy agenda”, has overseen the delay or repeal moves in line with six of API’s eight highest priorities.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“There’s no question that energy lobbyists are calling the shots in this administration, which has been all too willing to roll back public health protections,” said Jeremy Symons, vice-president of Environmental Defense Fund. “Anyone who doubts that can just look at their record.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Pruitt and his team have made it clear that oil, gas and coal industries trump science</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Liz Purchia Gannon, former EPA communications head]</div><div>
</div><div>On March 22, Pruitt met with API executives at the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC . Less than a month later, Pruitt wrote to Feldman, as well as three other oil and gas industry representatives, to tell them he was temporarily suspending regulations that curb leaks from drilling operations while the EPA reconsiders the rule.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In June, the EPA proposed a two-year pause to the rule, which was drawn up under the Obama administration in 2016 and aimed to reduce “fugitive” emissions such as methane, a potent greenhouse gas. In July, a federal court blocked the attempted suspension of the rule.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The EPA has fared better in fulfilling other top API priorities. In June, Pruitt signed a two-year delay to regulations designed to improve the safety of chemical facilities. API argued that the rule, which followed several disastrous incidents at chemical plants, would be burdensome and do little to improve safety.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">API said the EPA “should reverse” a separate regulation requiring power plants to follow air pollution rules when they are starting up, shutting down or undergoing maintenance. Pruitt, who previously sued the EPA to halt the rule, is now reassessing it.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Implementation of new standards to reduce ozone, a pollutant that helps form smog, was delayed by a year at Pruitt’s behest in June, a month after the API called for the EPA to reconsider the rule. Several states and health groups have launched legal action against the EPA after it missed a deadline to designate which areas of the country are failing to meet the tightened standards on smog.</div><div>
</div><div>API also secured an early victory in February, when Donald Trump issued an executive order to scrap the “waters of the United States” rule, which was put in place under the Obama administration to protect streams and rivers that provide drinking water to around a third of Americans. The regulation has been opposed by some farmers and owners of golf courses and industrial plants as being too stringent.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[Donald Trump has ditched the world in favor of big oil's titans</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jill Abramson</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read more]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Several of API’s lower priority proposals have also been fulfilled, with Pruitt introducing new rules for members of the EPA’s scientific boards which open the way for more industry involvement and, separately, deciding to not introduce new financial responsibility requirements that API feared may have impacted the petroleum industry.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Pruitt and his team have no shame,” said Liz Purchia Gannon, former head of communications at the EPA under the Obama administration. “They have made it clear from the start that oil, gas and coal industries trump science, the American people and public health and environmental organizations.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“What we can see from his schedule is an alarming pattern of meeting with special interest groups before making policy decisions favoring their bottom line at the expense of Americans’ health and the environment.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When contacted for comment, the API said it was happy for its previous statements to speak for themselves. The EPA did not respond to a request for comment.</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Inside Pruitt's calendar - POLITICOhttps://www.politico.com › newsletters › 2018/03/16 › i...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mar 16, 2018 — INSIDE PRUITT'S CALENDAR: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt met last year ... TRUMP MEETS WITH API, CEOs: The president's White House meeting ...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Recordings Show Oil Executives Love Having So Much ...https://www.rollingstone.com › politics › politics-news</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mar 23, 2019 — Last week we were talking to [EPA] Secretary [Scott] Pruitt, and in about two weeks we have a meeting with [Interior] Secretary Zinke.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Missing: api ‎| Must include: api</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Secretary Zinke Statement in Support of President Trump's ...https://www.doi.gov › pressreleases › secretary-zinke-st...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mar 28, 2017 — Trump, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Scott Pruitt, and Secretary of Energy ...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Missing: api ‎| Must include: api</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump administration officials on energy and the environmenthttps://ballotpedia.org › Trump_administration_officials...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump administration officials on energy and the environment · Contents · Donald Trump · Mike Pence · Rex Tillerson · Scott Pruitt · Ryan Zinke · Rick Perry · Recent ...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tate Bennett, First Interim Production, Sierra Club v. EPAhttps://www.epa.gov › sites › files › documents › t...PDF</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dec 21, 2018 — The Florida Petroleum Council is a division of API, ... Administrator Scott Pruitt on "President Trump's Deregulatory Agenda at EPA - Year 1.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">222 pages</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Methane Promises Are No Substitute for Rules | NRDChttps://www.nrdc.org › experts › briana-mordick › metha...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dec 6, 2017 — And given that API is supporting the Trump administration's efforts to delay ... for example, providing EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt with ...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Encouraged Oil Executives To Apply ...https://www.buzzfeednews.com › article › zahrahirji › s...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jun 25, 2018 — Although neither went to the EPA, the emails give yet another example of the Trump administration offering jobs to industry officials and ...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Missing: zinke ‎| Must include: zinke</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Oil and Gas Ties Run Deep in the Trump Administrationhttps://psmag.com › Environment</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jan 5, 2018 — Zinke himself is something of a cheerleader for the oil and gas ... Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt isn't much better.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Missing: api ‎| Must include: api</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Redefining EPA | Page 217 | InsideEPA.comhttps://insideepa.com › topics › redefining-epa</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Continuing coverage of the Trump administration's environmental policy moves ... counsel who joins the agency from the American Petroleum Institute (API).</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div>=https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/11/9/16619988/scott-pruitt-epa-dysfunction-staff
11/17 2x?
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt doesn’t hide his contempt for how the agency has been run, but he does profess to care about one of its key programs: Superfund, which oversees the cleanup of the nation’s worst toxic waste sites. In April, he toured a site in East Chicago, Indiana, contaminated with lead and arsenic, and told residents, “We are going to get this right.”
The following month, Pruitt — Oklahoma’s attorney general before he joined the EPA — tapped one of his former donors, banker Albert “Kell” Kelly, to find ways to accelerate and improve Superfund cleanups. Kelly started by consulting career staff members — often knowledgeable officials who work at the agency regardless of who holds the White House. But then Kelly closed off the process, conferring with Pruitt to produce a final plan that altered or excluded many of the staffers’ suggestions. Gone, for example, was the idea that EPA officials be identified early on to lead discussions with communities on how contaminated land should be used after cleanup.
“We’re missing a huge opportunity to do something new and different with Superfund,” said one of two EPA employees who described the process to the Center for Public Integrity on the condition of anonymity.
What happened with Superfund is hardly an anomaly. Today’s EPA is wracked with internal conflict and industry influence and is struggling to fulfill its mission, according to more than two dozen current and former agency employees.
A few dozen political appointees brought in under the Trump administration are driving policy. At least 16 of the 45 appointees worked for industries such as oil, coal and chemicals, as this CIP graphic shows.
Four of these people — and another 21 — worked for, or donated to, politicians who have questioned established climate science, such as Pruitt and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK).
Career staff members — lawyers, scientists, analysts — are largely being frozen out of decision-making, current and former agency employees say. These staffers rarely get face time with Pruitt and frequently receive top-down orders from political appointees with little room for debate. They must sometimes force their way into conversations about subjects in which they have expertise.
RELATED
Meet the fossil fuel all-stars Trump has appointed to his administrationAnd that is a big mistake, said one of Pruitt’s predecessors.
Career employees are “very dedicated to protecting human health and the environment, and they will change their ways of how they do that if they’re convinced you really want to accomplish that aim,” said Christine Todd Whitman, EPA administrator under President George W. Bush.
One such employee agreed. “I think it’s the fact that we’re not following regular procedures; we’re not sure of what the legal justification is for some of the things they’re asking us to do. We’re just kind of being told, ‘Do the opposite thing you did 18 months ago.’ That’s hard to swallow.”
The EPA staffers who spoke to the center say the isolation of Pruitt’s top staff from the rest of the agency limits the perspectives the administrator is exposed to before making decisions.
Two appointment calendars, covering a six-month period beginning in March, show that Pruitt hears overwhelmingly from industry. He was scheduled to meet 154 times during the period with officials from companies such as Exxon Mobil and trade associations such as the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s biggest lobby group. API was among at least 17 donors to Pruitt when he ran for state or federal office or led the Republican Attorneys General Association that have met with him as EPA administrator. Those same calendars indicate he saw only three groups representing environmental or public health interests, though an EPA press release says he met with two others.
EPA spokesperson Liz Bowman disputed claims that the roughly 15,000-person agency is riven with discord. Career employees are “vital” to the EPA’s work and meet regularly with political appointees and the administrator, she said, citing ongoing deliberations on a water pollution rule as an example. (Two career employees who spoke to the center at Bowman’s request confirmed that they routinely work with political appointees and did so on the water rule.)
“We talk to people throughout the regions, the states, the career staff, and a variety of different perspectives prior to making decisions,” Bowman said, adding in an email that “we follow the Administrative Procedure Act in our regulatory process, meaning taking into consideration comments submitted by ALL commenters, including environmental NGOs, the public, and other commenters.”
For the public, much is at stake. Under Pruitt, who sued the EPA 14 times as Oklahoma’s attorney general, the agency has already declined to ban a pesticide linked to neurological damage in children, frozen requirements to reduce water pollution from coal-fired power plants, and opened the door to loosening limits on toxic coal waste. The EPA most recently proposed eliminating the Clean Power Plan, an Obama administration rule aimed at reducing carbon emissions in the power sector.
“These rules [being rolled back] aren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. There are ways to improve things,” said Gordon Binder, who served as chief of staff for then-EPA Administrator William Reilly under President George H.W. Bush. "But Pruitt’s come in with a fly swatter and is slapping them down instead of laying out the problems with a rule and saying, ‘How can we fix it?’”
Who’s running the EPA?There’s a striking absence of high-level leadership at the EPA. Only one of 13 positions requiring Senate confirmation — Pruitt’s — is filled. These positions — higher-ranking than those held by the 45 political appointees — include leaders of key agency offices that oversee air, water, and other programs. Six people have been nominated for the 12 open slots and are awaiting confirmation (although two of them have joined the EPA in the meantime as senior advisers).
Most major decisions are made on the third floor of the William Jefferson Clinton South Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, where Pruitt and his handful of confidants have their offices. Among those who most prominently have Pruitt’s ear: EPA Chief of Staff Ryan Jackson, who previously held the same position with Inhofe, and Samantha Dravis, who worked with Pruitt at the Republican Attorneys General Association and now leads the EPA’s Office of Policy.
Dravis, widely seen as Pruitt’s closest adviser, came to the agency with a background in law and politics but little environmental experience. That’s a departure from her two immediate predecessors, who were already at the EPA when they were tapped to lead the policy office.
RELATEDThe EPA is taking unprecedented steps to oust scientists who receive its grants]Jackson helped Inhofe negotiate major bipartisan deals in the Senate, such as the passage of federal chemical policy reform. Still, emails released under the Freedom of Information Act to the New York Times show that Jackson directed career staff to deny a petition seeking to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide suspected of harming children’s brains, directly contradicting the recommendations of EPA scientists.
Bowman said in an email that career staff were “instrumental” in drafting the denial. The former acting head of the EPA’s chemicals office, a career employee who left the agency last month, told the Times she opposed the decision, even as she followed Jackson’s instructions.
Other influential political appointees include Sarah Greenwalt, senior adviser to the Office of the Administrator, who worked for Pruitt when he was Oklahoma’s attorney general; Bowman, head of public affairs, who came from the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry trade group; and Mandy Gunasekara, a senior policy adviser who worked on the Republican staff of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Nine career staff members told the center their opinions seem to hold little weight. They are excluded from meetings, they say, and their advice on agency operations is often disregarded. Some believe this is because of the flurry of leaks that have come from inside the agency since Pruitt took office. Political appointees have lashed out at suspected leakers and relieved them of work assignments, even in the absence of proof, career employees said.
RELATED
Why the head of the EPA built himself a secret phone booth“They are terrified of career staff leaking,” one said. “And once they get an idea in their head [about] someone, they won’t change it.”
Bowman said, “Those concerns have not been brought to our attention. And if they are, we will do everything we can to address them.”
Pruitt has broken with tradition by forgoing many introductory briefings with career staff designed to help new administrators set priorities, several current and former employees said. Instead, he’s worked to roll back EPA rules, an effort that also diverges from common practice.
Political appointees are taking more of a hands-on role in tasks career employees previously would have handled. Take, for example, a recent notice announcing that the EPA plans to reconsider whether certain vehicle emission standards for greenhouse gases were too strict. Career staff had drafted a concise version of the notice, but appointees expanded the number of vehicles affected by the review and made the Department of Transportation the lead agency on the decision, despite the EPA’s legal obligations to control planet-warming emissions under the Clean Air Act.
“This was a much more major rewrite” than would have happened under previous administrations, said an EPA employee familiar with the matter. “At least one plausible outcome of this process,” the employee said, “is that the EPA would unilaterally abdicate its [legal] responsibility.”
“It looked like he was kind of checking the box to meet with us”On the rare occasions when career employees are asked to brief Pruitt, he seems unwilling to change his anti-regulatory posture on major industry priorities, according to some career employees. Betsy Southerland, who headed an office within the EPA’s water program until August, said her team met with Pruitt twice about a rule designed to limit wastewater discharges from power plants as he considered weakening parts of it.
The team told Pruitt that industry arguments against the rule had already been considered and were found to be inaccurate. They offered more nuanced actions the administrator could take to address concerns expressed by the Small Business Administration, a separate federal agency; and the Utility Water Act Group, a lobbying organization. Pruitt was unmoved, she said. In August, the EPA announced it would reconsider key parts of the rule.
“You get the feeling that his mind was made up before we started the briefing process,” Southerland said. “It looked like he was kind of checking the box to meet with us.” The Times found similar behavior by Pruitt when the EPA declined to ban chlorpyrifos. Pruitt didn’t follow agency scientists’ advice, having “promised farming industry executives who wanted to keep using the pesticide that it is ‘a new day and a new future,’” the Times reported.
These episodes could simply reflect inexperience — appointees struggling to figure out the agency they lead. They also could reflect pressure placed on the EPA by executive orders and presidential memoranda to act quickly on big-ticket issues like the Clean Power Plan.
But Pruitt’s pro-industry bent has convinced some current and former employees that he and his like-minded advisers are aiming to destroy the EPA from the inside.
“Look, I think he does not support what the agency has been trying to do for 40 years,” said William Ruckelshaus, EPA administrator under Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. “He wants to dismantle — not improve or reform — the regulatory system for protecting public health and the environment.”
Rachel Leven is a reporter on the environment and workers' rights team at the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative news organization in Washington, DC.
=<div><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/pruitt-epa-hiring-oil-gas-2581508218.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/pruitt-epa-hiring-oil-gas-2581508218.html</a></div><div>
</div><div><a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scott-pruitt" style="color: rgb(31, 31, 31); text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;">Pruitt</a> reached out to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" style="color: rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration-line: none;">oil and gas</a> industry for help in filling vacant positions in the agency, according to emails obtained by the <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/" target="blank" style="color: rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration-line: none;">Sierra Club</a> and shared with Buzzfeed News."I understand that Administrator Pruitt met with [American Petroleum Institute] executives last week and he made a plea for candidates to fill some of the regional director positions within the agency," a manager at oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips wrote to former Pruitt aide Samantha Dravis last March, before asking where he could send a resume from an interested former employee.While none of the three candidates the ConocoPhillips manager suggested for EPA were hired by the agency, former EPA officials expressed surprise at the emails. "It would be highly unusual to go to a specific industry to try to recruit," former George W. Bush EPA head Christine Todd Whitman told Buzzfeed. "We did not go out and recruit. There was more applying to us and our sorting through them."As reported by <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/zahrahirji/scott-pruitt-recruited-oil-executives-trump-hotel?utm_term=.bsPG37j2k#.apV4mErjg" target="blank" style="color: rgb(82, 149, 70); text-decoration-line: none;">Buzzfeed</a>:<blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Former EPA regional director Judith Enck was shocked to hear about Pruitt's recruiting. 'I think it's troubling the head of the EPA is asking the fossil fuel industry for staff recommendations for chief positions,' Enck told BuzzFeed News.</blockquote><blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px; color: rgb(31, 31, 31); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Michael Brune, Sierra Club's executive director, was also dismayed. 'This is Scott Pruitt trying to outsource the job to protect our air and water to the exact people responsible for polluting them,' Brune said in a statement emailed to BuzzFeed News."</blockquote></div><div>
<div>=</div></div>Scott Pruitt last year had a top aide help contact Republican donors who might offer his wife a job, eventually securing her a position at a conservative political group that has backed him for years, according to multiple individuals familiar with the matter. 
The job hunt included Pruitt’s approaching wealthy party supporters and conservative figures with ties to the Trump administration. The individuals said he enlisted Samantha Dravis, then serving as associate administrator for the EPA’s Office of Policy, to line up work for his wife.
And when one donor, Doug Deason, said he could not hire Marlyn Pruitt because of a conflict of interest, Pruitt continued to solicit his help in trying to find other possibilities.
A spokesman for the Judicial Crisis Network confirmed Tuesday that it employed the onetime school nurse “temporarily as an independent contractor,” but it did not disclose via email how long she worked there or what she was paid. The spokesman said the position came about after the group received her résumé from Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society. The two organizations have financial ties.

Leo is a prominent Pruitt backer and longtime friend who was involved in arrangements for the administrator’s visit to Italy last year. Taxpayers spent more than $100,000 on the trip, which included private tours of the Vatican and meals at some of Rome’s finest restaurants.  
Marlyn Pruitt left the JCN earlier this year, the spokesman said, adding that the group was pleased with her work. But the search and hiring raises more ethics questions about Scott Pruitt’s use of EPA staff as well as his contacts with GOP contributors and outside allies for his personal benefit. Federal ethics rules prohibit public officials from using their posts for private gain or receiving free services or other gifts from their subordinates...kosSo in addition to lobbying Morocco to buy LNG which would be profitable for Ichan and his landlord Steven Hart — who eventually had to lock him out of his room to get him to leave it — Pruitt also setup several other sweatheart deals for Chenier, Hart and Ichan.And then there’s the curious story of Samantha Dravis.Politico and others report Pruitt aide Samantha Dravis, the senior counsel and associate administrator of the EPA’s office of policy, submitted her resignation last week.It turns out that Dravis hadn’t been coming into work at the EPA for 3 solid months, but was till getting paid.  Samantha Dravis — the top policy adviser to Scott Pruitt, the chief of the Environmental Protection Agency — is said to be resigning. Senator Thomas Carper, Democrat of Delaware, raised questions about her work history in this letter to the E.P.A.’s inspector general.I write to request that the Of?ce of Inspector General conduct an immediate review of EnvironmentalProtection Agency?s (EPA) efforts to prevent ??aud related to employee time and attendance, including an investigation of potential fraud committed by Administrator Pruitt?s political staff. Speci?cally, I have been informed that Ms. Samantha Dravis, Associate Administrator of Office of Policy, did not attend work or perform her duties for much if not all of the months of November 2017-January 2018. I am additionally informed that Ms. Dravis was likely compensated as a full-time employee throughout that time.This is not the ?rst time that reports of time and attendance problems have plagued the agency.
In 2013,EPA learned that John Beale, a senior career of?cial, had defrauded the agency for years by claiming that his months-long absences from work were attributable to his undercover work for the CIA. He was sentenced to 32 months in prison] and the case was the subject of considerable Congressional2interest} This matter also led to several reports, written by and by yous, recommending improvements in oversight of- employee time and attendance practices.
Yet somehow, even though she wasn’t showing up for work but was still getting paid she managed to go along on the Morocco trip.
Pruitt’s scandals of personal ethics where he’s shoveling federal money into his own pocket and taking advantages of perks, from trying to buy a bullet proof desk to the cone of silence in this office and over $3 Million for his person security detail.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Back in 2017, the recently resigned EPA Associate Administrator <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5582299/Female-aide-embattled-Scott-Pruitt-helped-bring-Rob-Porter-resigns.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(153, 107, 61) !important;">Samantha Dravis was White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter’s longtime girlfriend</a>, and they share an apartment.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Dravis spots Porter out cheating with Hope HIcks and kicks him out of their apartment.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Dravis knows Porter had physically abused his ex-wives and it seems that <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5365169/Woman-living-Hope-Hicks-lover-Rob-Porter-abused.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(153, 107, 61) !important;">Porter may have also abused Dravis</a>.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5582299/Female-aide-embattled-Scott-Pruitt-helped-bring-Rob-Porter-resigns.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(153, 107, 61) !important;">Dravis takes revenge on Porter</a> by telling White House Council Don McGahn about Porter’s history of domestic violence.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Corey Lewandowski, who used to date Hope Hicks and has never gotten over her, <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/was-corey-lewandowski-jealous-over-rob-porter-hope-hicks-alleged-relationship/" target="blank" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(153, 107, 61) !important;">gets wind of Porter’s issues and throws shade</a> at him too.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Porter loses his job.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Hicks dumps Porter.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Hicks, shattered, quits her White House Communications Director job.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Porter knows what a shit show is going on at the EPA where Dravis works as a close aide to administrator Scott Pruitt. Dravis is really cozy with Pruitt, she goes on free first class trips with him, gets paid a huge salary and never has to show up to work. So, Porter takes <a href="https://insideepa.com/daily-news/fired-white-house-aide-reportedly-source-leaks-over-pruitts-ethics?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(153, 107, 61) !important;">his revenge on Dravis, by telling the media about what’s going on at the EPA</a><a href="https://insideepa.com/daily-news/fired-white-house-aide-reportedly-source-leaks-over-pruitts-ethics?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(153, 107, 61) !important;">.</a><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Dravis has to quit her sweet gig and Pruitt gets in all sorts of trouble as it turns out he is also into a whole lot of other shady business.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Maybe Pruitt will lose his job too?<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" font-size="font-size" px="px" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Really, you just can not make this stuff up!http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/381773-top-pruitt-aide-resigns-from-epa-amid-controversies oops bogus //newsmaxno lnxTop Pruitt aide resigns from EPA amid controversiesBY MIRANDA GREEN - 04/05/18 10:30 AM EDT  538
A top aide and close friend of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt has issued her resignation in the midst of various scandals plaguing the agency chief.
Samantha Dravis, the senior counsel and associate administrator in EPA's Office of Policy, tendered her resignation last week, the agency confirmed to The Hill on Thursday.
The sudden departure is described by one source familiar with the EPA as a “five-alarm story.”
A friend close to Dravis suggested her decision to leave had been building."She has been looking to leave for a while. A lot of people in the administration wanted her to stay for the year to put her time in but it’s one drama after another. It’s a shit show," the source said.Dravis has a long history with Pruitt, the former attorney general of Oklahoma.She previously worked with Pruitt as policy director and general counsel at the Republican Attorneys General Association. She was also president of the Rule of Law Defense Fund, affiliated with the same organization, and before that legal counsel at Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce — an organization of conservative political donors led by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.The source familiar with the agency described the relationship between Pruitt and Dravis as a close working relationship, saying the aide was Pruitt's "best friend" at the agency and someone he had dinner with "several times every week."An EPA official pushed back on any characterization that the two had a close personal relationship, saying that Pruitt frequently had meals with his staffers, the majority of which were in group settings.
Dravis declined to comment for the story. 
EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman said Dravis is departing the agency to pursue other career opportunities. 
"After serving for over a year as EPA’s head of policy, Samantha Dravis has decided to pursue other opportunities. She has been integral in the agency’s successful implementation of the President’s environmental agenda and the agency wishes her success in her future endeavors," Bowman said in a statement.
Two sources told The Washington Post that Dravis's resignation was unrelated to Pruitt’s recent onslaught of ethics issues and that she is leaving to join the private sector.Pruitt has recently come under fire for a number of scandals, including a decision to significantly raise the salaries of two close EPA political appointees. The salaries of Sarah Greenwalt and Millan Hupp — who had both come to Washington with Pruitt from Oklahoma — were raised from $107,435 to $164,200, and from $86,460 to $114,590, respectively, The Atlantic reported.Pruitt denied knowledge of the raises in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, and said the appropriate person who had signed off on the raises would be dealt with.The EPA head has also weathered a storm of controversy involving his living arrangements, as well as a number of questionable decisions he has made at the agency. Last week, ABC News first reported that Pruitt rented a two-bedroom condo on Capitol Hill for $50 each night he slept there. Pruitt’s daughter also lived for a period of time in the condo, which was owned by the wife of a prominent energy lobbyist. On Monday, The Washington Post reported that the EPA considered leasing a private jet for Pruitt for $100,000 a month. The news has led to a number of calls from members of Congress for Pruitt to step down or be fired — including from two GOP House members. Trump on Tuesday downplayed the likelihood that Pruitt could soon be fired, telling reporters, "I hope he's going to be great." However on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to answer directly when asked by reporters if President Trump has confidence in Pruitt. "The president thinks that he's done a good job, particularly on the deregulation front," Sanders said.==

<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;">Scott Pruitt has tapped Samantha Dravis, a legal ally from his fights against the EPA, to head the agency’s Office of Policy. Dravis served as a senior advisor for the Republican Attorneys General Association and, as president of its affiliate, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, alongside Pruitt who was chairman for both organizations. Heavily funded by fossil fuel companies, the two organizations led the battle against Obama’s Clean Power Plan and other agency rules opposed by the oil and gas industry. An <a href="http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=01ea5af890ad492dfb2493cdd300379bfa9686df4182707c24010c894448ac8ce318ceb4217e3661ff3ce5a5e12aa010" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.5s ease; text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">op-ed</a><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;"> of hers last September slammed the Clean Power Plan as another example of the Obama administration's "executive power unleashed and unhinged." Dravis also once worked as <a href="https://www.axios.com/epa-chief-taps-conservative-movement-lawyer-for-top-policy-job-2283075088.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 0.5s ease; text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">counsel</a><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; float: none; display: inline !important;"> to Freedom Partners, one of the groups funded by the pro-polluter Koch brothers.

===

<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-teams-rolling-back-regulations-led-by-hires-with-deep-industry-ties">https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-teams-rolling-back-regulations-led-by-hires-with-deep-industry-ties</a>

President Trump entered office pledging to cut red tape, and within weeks, he ordered his administration to assemble teams to aggressively scale back government regulations.

But the effort — a signature theme in Trump’s populist campaign for the White House — is being conducted in large part out of public view and often by political appointees with deep industry ties and potential conflicts.

Most government agencies have declined to disclose information about their deregulation teams. But ProPublica and The New York Times identified 71 appointees, including 28 with potential conflicts, through interviews, public records and documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Some appointees are reviewing rules their previous employers sought to weaken or kill, and at least two may be positioned to profit if certain regulations are undone.

The appointees include lawyers who have represented businesses in cases against government regulators, staff members of political dark money groups, employees of industry-funded organizations opposed to environmental rules and at least three people who were registered to lobby the agencies they now work for.

At the Education Department alone, two members of the deregulation team were most recently employed by pro-charter advocacy groups or operators, and one appointee was an executive handling regulatory issues at a for-profit college operator.

So far, the process has been scattershot. Some agencies have been soliciting public feedback, while others refuse even to disclose who is in charge of the review. In many cases, responses to public records requests have been denied, delayed or severely redacted.

The Interior Department has not disclosed the correspondence and calendars for its team. But a review of more than 1,300 pages of handwritten sign-in sheets for guests visiting the agency’s headquarters in Washington found that appointees had met regularly with industry representatives.

Over a four-month period, from February through May, at least 58 representatives of the oil and gas industry signed their names on the agency’s visitor logs before meeting with appointees.

The EPA also rejected requests to release the appointment calendar of the official leading its team — a former top executive for an industry-funded political group — even as she met privately with industry representatives.

And the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security provided the titles for most appointees to their review teams, but not names.

Meghan Burris, a spokeswoman there, said: “As previous administrations have recognized, it’s good government to periodically reassess existing regulations. Past regulatory review efforts, however, have not taken a consistent enough look at regulations on the books.”When asked for comment about the activities of the deregulation teams, the White House referred reporters to the Office of Management and Budget.

With billions of dollars at stake in the push to deregulate, corporations and other industry groups are hiring lawyers, lobbyists and economists to help navigate this new avenue for influence. Getting to the front of the line is crucial, as it can take years to effect regulatory changes.

“Competition will be fierce,” the law firm Clark Hill, which represents businesses pitching the Environmental Protection Agency, said in a marketing memo. “In all likelihood, interested parties will need to develop a multi-pronged strategy to expand support and win pre-eminence over competing regulatory rollback candidates.”

Jane Luxton, a lawyer at the firm, said she advised clients to pay for economic and legal analyses that government agencies, short on staff, could use to expedite changes. She declined to identify the clients.

“You may say this is an agency’s job, but the agencies are totally overloaded,” Luxton said.

On a cloudy, humid day in March, Laura Peterson, a top lobbyist for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/business/scientists-loved-and-loathed-by-syngenta-an-agrochemical-giant.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; line-height: 1; text-decoration-line: none;">Syngenta</a>, arrived at the headquarters for the Interior Department. She looped the letter “L” across the agency’s sign-in sheet.

Her company, a top pesticide maker based in Switzerland, had spent eight years and millions of dollars lobbying the Obama administration on environmental rules, with limited success.

But Peterson had an in with the new administration.

Scott Cameron, newly installed at the Interior Department and a member of its deregulation team, had just left a nonprofit he had founded. He had advocated getting pesticides approved and out to market faster. His group counted Syngenta as a financial partner.

The meeting with Peterson was one of the first Cameron took as a new government official.

Neither side would reveal what was discussed. “I’m not sure that’s reporting information I have to give you,” Peterson said.

But lobbying records offered clues.

Syngenta has been one of several pesticide manufacturers pushing for changes to the Endangered Species Act. When federal agencies take actions that may jeopardize endangered animals or plants, they are generally supposed to consult with the Interior Department, which could raise objections.

For decades, the EPA largely ignored this provision when approving new pesticides. But recently, a legal challenge from environmental groups forced its hand — a change that affected Syngenta.

Pesticide lobbyists have been working behind the scenes at agencies and on Capitol Hill to change the provision. Companies have argued that they should be exempt from consulting with the Interior Department because they already undergo EPA approval.

Along with spending millions of dollars on lobbying, they have funded advocacy groups aligned with their cause. Cameron’s nonprofit, the Reduce Risks From Invasive Species Coalition, was one such group for Syngenta.

The organization says on its website that its goals include reducing “the regulatory burden of the Endangered Species Act on American society by addressing invasive species.” One way to do that is to use pesticides. The nonprofit’s mission includes creating “business opportunities for commercial products and services used to control invasive species.”

Because donations are not publicly reported, it is unclear how much Syngenta has contributed to Cameron’s organization, but his group has called the pesticide company one of its “<a href="https://www.rrisc.org/featured/rrisc-holds-its-second-annual-congressional-reception-and-awards-ceremony/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; text-decoration-line: none;">generous sponsors</a>.”

Cameron also served on a committee of experts and stakeholders, including Syngenta, that advised the federal government on decisions related to invasive species. At a committee event last July, he said that one of his priorities was “getting biocontrol agents to market faster,” according to meeting minutes.

Paul Minehart, a Syngenta spokesman, said: “Employees regularly engage with those in government that relate to agriculture and our business. Our purpose is to balance serving the public health and environment with enabling farmers’ access to innovation.”

A spokeswoman for the Interior Department did not respond to questions about how Cameron’s relationship with Syngenta might influence his review of regulations.

Under the law, members of the Trump administration can seek ethics waivers to work on issues that overlap with their past business careers. They can also formally recuse themselves when potential conflicts arise.

In many cases, the administration has refused to say whether appointees to Trump’s deregulation teams have done either.

One such appointee is Samantha Dravis, the chairwoman of the deregulation team at the EPA, who was a top official at the Republican Attorneys General Association. Dravis was also president of the Rule of Law Defense Fund, which brought together energy companies and Republican attorneys general to file lawsuits against the federal government over Obama-era environmental regulations.

The Republican association’s work <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-alliance-with-attorneys-general.html?_r=0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; position: relative; line-height: 1; text-decoration-line: none;">has been criticized</a> as a vehicle for corporate donors to gain the credibility and expertise of state attorneys general in fighting federal regulations. Donors include the American Petroleum Institute, the energy company ConocoPhillips and the coal giant Alpha Natural Resources.

The Republican association also received funding from Freedom Partners, backed by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch. Dravis worked for that group as well, which recently identified <a href="http://freedompartners.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/removing_barriers.pdf" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; position: relative; line-height: 1; text-decoration-line: none;">regulations it wants eliminated</a>. Among them are EPA rules relating to clean-water protections and restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions.

Liz Bowman, an EPA spokeswoman, declined to say whether Dravis had recused herself from issues dealing with previous employers or their backers, or had discussed regulations with any of them.

“As you will find when you receive Samantha’s calendar, she has met with a range of stakeholders, including nonprofits, industry groups and others, on a wide range of issues,” Bowman said.

Bowman said the calendar could be obtained through a public records request. ProPublica and The Times had already filed a request for records including calendars, but the agency’s response did not include those documents. (An appeal was filed, but the calendar has not yet been released.)

“We take our ethics responsibilities seriously,” Bowman said. “All political staff have had an ethics briefing and know their obligations.”

Addressing the agency’s regulatory efforts, she said, “We are here to enact a positive environmental agenda that provides real results to the American people, without unnecessarily hamstringing our economy.”

At the Agriculture Department, the only known appointee to the deregulation team is Rebeckah Adcock. She previously lobbied the department as a top executive both at CropLife America, a trade association for pesticide makers, and the American Farm Bureau Federation, a trade group for farmers.

The department deals with many issues involving farmers, including crop insurance and land conservation rules, but it would not disclose whether Adcock had recused herself from discussions affecting her past employers.....