ericksen, doug rep
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">pow promoted 2nd</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>
</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Two longtime Republican state legislators from Washington state have been tapped by President Trump to help reshape the Environmental Protection Agency.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Former state Sen. Don Benton, of Vancouver, and state <b>Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, are among 10 officials who joined the EPA over the weekend as part of a transition effort.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Benton, who recently declined to seek re-election after two decades in the Legislature, was named senior White House adviser supervising the EPA transition. Ericksen will act as communications director for the agency transition.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>They are part of a “beachhead team” at the agency, preparing the way for permanent leadership in a new administration that is expected to vastly pare back environmental regulations.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The hires rewarded the loyalty of two of Trump’s earliest backers in Washington state, where many prominent GOP politicians shied away. Benton was Trump’s state campaign director, while Ericksen was deputy director.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Reached by phone Monday, Ericksen said he does not intend to resign his state Senate seat — but instead will fly back and forth to do both jobs.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“I am going to be racking up frequent-flier miles like you won’t believe,” he said, adding he has conferred with lawyers who say his temporary dual role is legal.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>If Ericksen were to quit, it would leave the state Senate at least temporarily in a tie — a Republican led caucus now holds a 25-24 majority.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">While Ericksen and Benton’s new roles are temporary — lasting up to a few months — they could transition to permanent jobs in the agency.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Ericksen said he doesn’t want to live in Washington, D.C., but is interested in a local role, such as administrator for the EPA’s Region 10, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump has nominated Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma’s attorney general, as EPA administrator, a sharp critic of the EPA under the Obama administration who is expected to make major changes in an agency with wide-ranging responsibilities for enforcing clean water, clean air, pesticide and other major environmental regulations.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">A climate-change skeptic and an ally of the oil and gas industry, Pruitt joined a multistate lawsuit challenging the Obama administration’s plans to limit emissions from coal-fired power plants.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Likewise, Ericksen and Benton, who helped lead Trump’s campaign in Washington state, have been vocal critics of environmental regulations they see as overreaching — including clean-air rules aimed at combating global warming.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As the top Republican on the state Senate’s environmental committee, Ericksen has strongly opposed Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee’s initiatives to cut greenhouse-gas emissions. He has shrugged off the scientistic consensus on human-caused global warming, with statements like “climate change will always happen.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In a statement released by the EPA Monday, Benton said he looked forward to working with career EPA employees “to make this transition work as well as possible, and to carry out the Agency’s mission to protect public health and the environment.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">National environmental groups oppose Pruitt’s nomination, and the local Sierra Club also expressed dismay at the hiring of Benton and Ericksen.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>“It’s hard to imagine two lawmakers less qualified to be put in charge of environmental protection in the Pacific Northwest,</b>” said Cesia Kearns, deputy regional director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Benton chaired Trump’s Washington state campaign and reportedly gained Trump’s confidence as an adviser, with Washington, D.C., political newspaper The Hill, reporting in June that Benton had Trump’s ear “to an unusual degree.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Their relationship grew last spring when Benton flew with Trump between rallies in Spokane and Lynden, Whatcom County, sharing a McDonald’s lunch. “I had a Filet-O-Fish and he had a Big Mac,” Benton said at the time.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By the Republican National Convention last summer, Benton was part of Trump’s team, helping to enforce discipline on the convention floor.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Known as a fierce, anti-tax conservative, Benton declined to seek re-election last year after more than two decades in the Legislature.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>He also had been hired in 2013 as Clark County’s director of environmental services. His hiring for the six-figure job, orchestrated by two Republican county council members, drew accusations of cronyism.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Benton’s job was eliminated last year in a reorganization. He recently filed a $2?million lawsuit against the county, alleging he’d faced mistreatment, according to The Columbian newspaper.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Some other members of the EPA transition announced Monday previously had been reported, including David Kreutzer, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and George Sugiyama, a former attorney for U.S. Senate Republicans who worked for the EPA during the George W. Bush administration.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Also part of the new transition effort are others who, like Benton and Ericksen, led Trump’s campaign efforts in Western states. They include: Patrick Davis, of Colorado; Layne Bangerter, of Idaho; and Charles Munoz, of Nevada.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Jim Brunner</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/trump-administration-taps-two-washington-state-legislators-to-help-reshape-epa/</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Last week, Doug Ericksen, communications director for Trump's EPA transition team, told NPR that the <b>agency planned to review all of its scientists' studies on a "case by case basis" prior to publication.</b> Employees were also told to "scrub" EPA's climate change web pages, although the administration backed off that charge. Ericksen told Bloomberg BNA that the agency plans to restore full communications rights, including social media, "as soon as possible."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Until we learn more, here's what we do know about the beachhead team and some notable affiliations, mapped out using the LittleSis platform.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">view this map on LittleSis</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Koch and Coal Connections</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Charles Munoz </b>is the White House liaison to the EPA landing team and was a top Trump organizer in his home state of Nevada. Munoz helped launch the Nevada chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a political advocacy group funded by the Kochs.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>David Schnare</b>, who has waged intimidation campaigns against climate scientists, worked for 33 years at the EPA before joining a number of Koch-affiliated entities.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schnare is director of the the Free Market Environmental Law Clinic at George Mason University, which serves as the official attorney for the Energy and Environment Legal Institute. Both are funded extensively by Donors Capital Fund and Donors Trust. Schnare is also an energy policy expert at the Heartland Institute.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>David Kreutzer</b> was a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a group funded by foundations controlled by Koch Industries</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After working at the EPA during the <b>George W. Bush Administration, George Sugiyama lobbied for the National Mining Association.</b> Sugiyama also served as legal adviser to the Republican minority, led by Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, on the Senate environment committee. Inhofe is arguably the best-known climate science denier in Congress and famously declared climate change to be a "hoax."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Washington State's Worst on Climate</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two Washington state officials, described as the state's "most radical small government lawmakers," have been assigned key posts on the beachhead team. Don Benton, who once introduced legislation based on Agenda 21 conspiracy theories, is the Senior White House Advisor to the EPA transition. And Doug Ericksen is serving as communications director for the transition team.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Described by the Seattle Times as "an ally of the fossil-fuel industry," <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Doug Ericksen</span> was named by Washington Conservation Voters as among the state's "Dirty Dozen" worst politicians.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Ericksen wants to make it a felony for oil-by-rail protests to block train tracks</b>, describing it as<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> "economic terrorism,</span>" although the Seattle Times notes that Ericksen's motive is "punishing environmentalists, tribal activists and others who have illegally obstructed oil and coal trains, pipelines and similar projects." The Times notes, "More than going after individual protesters,<b> Ericksen said the legislation's goal is to target wealthy, liberal donors, such as billionaires George Soros or Tom Steyer and organizations such as the Sierra Club, for sponsoring disruptive demonstrations. They could be held liable for damages under the bill.</b>"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shannon Murphy, head of the Washington Conservation Voters, said, "Sen. Ericksen's and Benton's environmental records speak for themselves. They are both climate deniers who have consistently voted against protecting clean air and water for communities across the state."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Rest of the Team</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Patrick Davis </b>ran Trump's campaign in Colorado and before that was accused of defrauding a wealthy super PAC by steering money to fake organizations "run" by Davis and his friends.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Layne Bangerter</b> headed the Trump campaign in Idaho and most recently worked with Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), whose website claims that the cause of changes to the Earth's climate "is ultimately not well-understood and is a matter of vigorous debate." Koch Industries donated $40,000 to Crapo's campaign from 2013-2014.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Justin Schwab</b> is serving as the main legal advisor and is currently an attorney at the corporate law firm Baker Hostetler in Washington, DC.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Holly Greaves</b> is working on budget issues and was most recently a public accountant for KPMG, which works with a number of oil, gas and utility industry clients.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reposted with permission from our media associate DeSmogBlog.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AN 1/17</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="4">...</font><span style="font-size: 18px;">This isn’t the first time in recent months that GOP legislators have tried to push aggressively anti-free speech laws. In<b> Washington State, Republican Senator Doug Ericksen </b>has </span><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trump-loving-gop-lawmaker-proposes-bill-define-protests-form-terrorism" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); outline: none; font-size: 18px;">proposed a law</a><span style="font-size: 18px;"> that would create “a new crime of economic terrorism” which could allow for the arrest and prosecution of any protesters who “block transportation and commerce, cause property damage, threaten jobs and put public safety at risk.” Ericksen is likely well aware of the fact that “blocking commerce” succinctly describes pretty much every protest, ever. Republican Representative Kathy Lohmer of Stillwater, Minnesota, is </span><a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/01/14/stopping-traffic-minnesota-lawmakers-try-increase-penalties-for-common-protest-tactic/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); outline: none; font-size: 18px;">floating a bill</a><span style="font-size: 18px;"> that further criminalizes and penalizes protesting on freeways. Lohmer’s legislation would increase fines from $1,000 to $3,000 and raise jail time from 90 days to a full year.</span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</p><div wibbitz="embed-main-player" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="bio-new body_story" style="width: 630px; line-height: 22px; height: auto; border-top: 3px solid rgb(223, 223, 218); clear: both;"><div class="author-bio"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">as predicted:</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump-supporting Republican lawmaker is trying to legally define protests, like some of those erupting across the country against his candidate of choice, labeled a form of “terrorism.</b>” In <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/JeffPohjola/status/799059855138926597/photo/2" style="text-decoration: none;">a statement</a> issued Wednesday, Washington state Senator Doug Ericksen says he is drafting a bill that would allow for felony prosecution of protesters who “intentionally break the law...by obstructing economic activity.” Considering that almost all protest could be defined as getting in the way of business interests, Ericksen’s bill is an obvious attack on citizens’ First Amendment rights.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an unvarnished look at the trickery we may see plenty of in Trump’s America, Ericksen says he will propos<b>e creating “a new crime of economic terrorism” which could be used against those whose protest activities “block transportation and commerce, cause property damage, threaten jobs and put public safety at risk.” Ericksen, who was Trump’s deputy campaign director in Washington state, said in the statement that he’s actually all for civil disobedience, even though he wants to make many kinds of protest—that is, constitutionally protected freedom of speech and assembly—felony offenses.</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I respect the right to protest, but when it endangers people’s lives and </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">property,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> it goes too far,” Ericksen said. “Fear, intimidation and vandalism are not a legitimate form of political expression. Those who employ it must be called to account.”</span></b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Ericksen also threatened those who support protesters in their right to protest, stating, “We are not just going after the people who commit these acts of terrorism. We are going after the people who fund them. Wealthy donors should not feel safe in disrupting middle-class jobs.”</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Since we’re on the subject of economic issues, it seems relevant to point out that an </span><a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/05/lobbyists_pamper_washington_st.html" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration: none;">Associated Press</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> investigation found during the first four months of 2013,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Ericksen was “the biggest beneficiary of lobbyist expense accounts”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> of all Washington’s lawmakers. The AP report noted that lobbyists treated Ericksen to “free meals, drinks or golf...about every other day over the first four months of the year — and even more frequent[ly] if weekends are excluded.” Ericksen, who has been consistently poor on climate issues, had at the time just taken a leadership role in the state Senate </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Energy, Environment</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and Telecommunications Committee. The investigation found that Ericksen </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">accepted these gifts from lobbyists who overwhelmingly “represented energy and oil companies, such as BP.”</span></b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In <a href="http://www.wa-democrats.org/press/climate-change-denying-republicans-hold-hearing-bill-today-halt-action-climate-change" style="text-decoration: none;">a statement</a> released earlier this year, Washington State Democrats communications director Jamal Raad said, "When big oil asks Doug Ericksen to jump, his only question is 'how high?'"</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As Washington <b>ACLU </b>spokesperson Doug Honig noted to the <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/state-senator-some-protests-should-be-treated-as-felonies/" style="text-decoration: none;">Seattle Times</a>, there are already laws in place that make it illegal to imperil people’s lives and property, so Ericksen’s bill is completely redundant. Honig also pointed out that the ambiguity of Ericksen’s “economic terrorism” could make protests like those in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline a crime. Speaking with Fox affiliate <a href="http://q13fox.com/2016/11/16/republican-state-senator-proposes-creating-new-crime-of-economic-terrorism-aimed-at-protesters/" style="text-decoration: none;">Q13</a> Honig noted Ericksen’s fundamentally un-American bill would have kept African Americans from protesting their treatment in the 1960s.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Let’s keep in mind that civil rights protesters who sat down at lunch counters could be seen as ‘disrupting business’ and ‘obstructing economic activity,’ and their courageous actions were opposed by segregationists as trying to ‘coerce business and government,’” Honig said.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He added, “The statement throws out a lot of broad rhetoric, and we’ll need to see an actual bill. But we’re already concerned that some of its loose terms appear to be targeting civil disobedience as ‘terrorism.’ That’s the kind of excessive approach to peaceful protest that our country and state do not need."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contact information for Doug Ericksen’s office is listed on <a href="http://dougericksen.src.wastateleg.org/" style="text-decoration: none;">his website</a>, should you have any thoughts you’d like to express about his proposed legislation. His office phone number—always the best way to reach a legislator—is (360) 786-7682.</font></p><div wibbitz="embed-main-player" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="bio-new body_story" style="width: 630px; line-height: 22px; height: auto; border-top: 3px solid rgb(223, 223, 218); clear: both; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="author-bio"><p style="font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><em><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kali Holloway is a senior writer and the associate editor of media and culture at AlterNet.</font></em></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><i><a href="http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trump-loving-gop-lawmaker-proposes-bill-define-protests-form-terrorism">http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/trump-loving-gop-lawmaker-proposes-bill-define-protests-form-terrorism</a></i></font></p></div></div></div></div></div>