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President Trump is planning to issue executive orders this week to begin rolling back the centerpiece of President Obama's climate change agenda with several other regulations. Trump is expected to soon issue the orders targeting regulations put into place by the Environmental Protection Agency, including the Clean Power Plan, which directs states to cut greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. The EPA climate plan was halted a year ago by the Supreme Court until the courts can rule on litigation by 28 state attorneys general, the coal industry and hundreds of individual companies and industry groups.

Former President Barack Obama's environmental chief, Gina McCarthy, said Friday that she will be keeping a close eye on newly confirmed EPA chief Scott Pruitt as he takes the helm of the agency she once commanded. . . . "Every action" Pruitt makes, McCarthy said, will be eyed "very closely" by her "to ensure the Trump administration upholds science and the law." . . . The former EPA chief said she wants to make sure Pruitt "respects" the EPA's "dedicated public servants and builds on the agency's long track record of protecting public health and the environment."

President Trump praised his newly sworn-in head of the Environmental Protection Agency at his rally in Melbourne, Fla., saying he'll represent a "big difference" in reversing the actions of the Obama administration that were "clogging up the veins of our country." "He'll do so good," Trump told the crowd. .. Trump's former head of the EPA transition, Myron Ebell, told media outlets that the administration is looking to cut the agency's staff by two-thirds, dropping from 15,000 to 5,000 employees.

Who Really Rules The United States? by Tyler Durden Feb 17, 2017 10:30 PM 0 SHARES Submitted by Matthew Continetti via FreeBeacon.com,How bureaucrats are fighting the voters for control of our countryDonald Trump was elected president last November by winning 306 electoral votes. He pledged to "drain the swamp" in Washington, D.C., to overturn the system of politics that had left the nation's capital and major financial and tech centers flourishing but large swaths of the country mired in stagnation and decay. "What truly matters," he said in his Inaugural Address, "is not which party controls our government, but whether...

Over the strong objections of environmental groups, the Senate confirmed Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday, giving President Donald Trump an eager partner to fulfill his campaign pledge to increase the use of planet-warming fossil fuels. Pruitt was sworn in later Friday by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. In six years as Oklahoma’s attorney general, Pruitt filed 14 lawsuits challenging EPA regulations that included limits on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. He also sued over the EPA’s recent expansion of water bodies regulated under the Clean Water Act, a federal measure opposed by industries that...

© Screenshot Scott Pruitt was sworn into office late Friday as the 14th administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito administered the oath of office to Pruitt, the former attorney general of Oklahoma, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House. President Trump and Vice President Pence, who have sworn in most of the previous Cabinet officials, are both out of town. The swearing-in ceremony came hours after the Senate voted 52-46 , mostly along party lines, to confirm Pruitt, capping off a frequently contentious nomination process. Pruitt now leads the...

The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's nominee, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday in a mostly party line vote.

Senate Democrats are planning to once again stage a series of overnight speeches on the Senate floor, this time in opposition to Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s nomination to head the EPA. “We intend to stand our ground,” said Delaware Sen. Thomas R. Carper, the ranking Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee. While Pruitt appears poised for confirmation, Carper said Democrats were not going quietly into the night. “[If] we go home, we go to bed, say, ‘That’s it, we fought the good fight, it’s 10 o’clock, we’re going to call it a day,’ there’s zero chance we...

Hundreds of former Environmental Protection Agency officials have signed a letter in protest of Scott Pruitt’s nearing confirmation as EPA Administrator. The letter, put together by the nonprofit group Environmental Integrity Project, was signed by 773 former EPA staffers, including scientists, engineers and attorneys. The EIP sent the letter to the Senate, where members could confirm Pruitt as early as Friday, the organization said in a statement. “Pruitt, a close ally of the oil and gas industry, has made a career of suing EPA and attacking the idea of federal action to reduce pollution – while simultaneously failing to enforce...

Senate Democrats are planning an all-night talkathon Thursday over President Trump's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Asked whether Democrats are planning to hold the floor all night, a spokeswoman for Sen. Tom Carper (Del.) — the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee — confirmed that "that's the plan." A spokesman for Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) directed questions to Carper's office but noted that Democrats aren't planning to yield back debate time. The late-night floor drama comes after senators voted to move forward with Scott Pruitt's nomination earlier Thursday in a 54-46 vote....

Senate Democrats on Thursday slammed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for not delaying a vote on President Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and some colleagues have repeatedly asked McConnell to delay the vote to confirm Scott Pruitt, currently Oklahoma’s attorney general, while Democrats and a liberal group wait for a public records requested more than two years ago. McConnell declined, Carper said, and the Senate voted 54-46 on Thursday — with all Republicans and two Democrats supporting — to move forward on Pruitt and line up a vote for Friday. “In my...

© Greg Nash Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will vote against confirming President Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Collins is the only Senate Republican to come out against Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general who sued the EPA 14 times during former President Obama’s administration. “I have significant concerns that Mr. Pruitt has actively opposed and sued the EPA on numerous issues that are of great importance to the state of Maine, including mercury controls for coal-fired power plants and efforts to reduce cross-state air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions,” Collins told Maine Public Radio on...

Ebell says just half of the government agency needed to provide core mission on air, water Myron Ebell, who headed President Donald Trump’s transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency, said if it were up to him, the president would reduce agency funding by half and employees by two-thirds. But which half? And which two-thirds? What would remain of the EPA if the president enacted Ebell’s plan or something similar to it? Scott Slesinger, legislative director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, is worried that much of what we have come to rely on the EPA to do would be undone.

Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, appears to have made a false statement under oath to the Senate. This was first reported Monday by Fusion's Daniel Rivero. Business Insider was later able to confirm the underlying facts of Rivero's article. Pruitt — the attorney general of Oklahoma known for 14 lawsuits designed to fight regulations and cleanup efforts by the agency he hopes to lead — made the apparent false statement when referring to an ongoing environmental lawsuit involving several poultry companies in Arkansas. Pruitt's predecessor, Drew Edmondson, brought the case against Tyson Foods,...

The last 8 years of unconstitutional executive orders and forcing through illegal policies has weighed a heavy burden on the country and the taxpayer. No more so than the ultimate job killer, Obamacare. But now, the pendulum has swung to the other side, and everything is on the chopping block. Yesterday in the Senate, a vote of 54-45 was struck to abolish Obama’s order that had the adverse effect of almost completely wiping out the coal mining industry and thus taking 83,000 jobs off the job market. As you might have known, it was the government’s Stream Protection Act that...

The Environmental Protection Agency has told Oklahoma regulators to do more to protect the state from a surge in earthquake activity that scientists have linked to the underground disposal of oil and gas wastewater. An EPA administrator sent a letter in November to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, saying a magnitude 5.0 earthquake happened despite state and federal action to curb wastewater injection. The Frontier first reported the contents of the letter. […] Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is President Donald Trump’s pick to head the EPA. His nomination is pending Senate approval. Environmentalists have criticized Pruitt for not doing more...

Republicans on a Senate committee on Thursday suspended panel rules to force a vote on President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nominee over a Democratic protest. Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee, led by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), changed the rules governing a quorum so that only the panel’s Republicans needed to be in attendance to approve Scott Pruitt’s nomination to lead the EPA. The committee’s full roster of Republicans — including Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), whose nomination to be attorney general is awaiting consideration on the Senate floor — attended Thursday’s hearing and approved Pruitt on an...

Yesterday, Democrats chose to boycott a committee vote to advance the nomination of Trump’s EPA nominee, Scott Pruitt. Today, Republicans responded by temporarily suspending the rules of the committee, which required that at least one Democrat be present, and advanced his nomination to the full Senate. From the New York Times: The 11-0 vote sends the nomination to the full Senate, where Mr. Pruitt is most likely to be approved next week…Republicans mocked the Democratic boycott.“Democrats are just wasting time by pulling this stunt,” said Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia. “Eighty percent of life is showing...

CNN)Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, has advanced to the Senate floor. Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee suspended committee rules following the Democrats' boycott of Pruitt's nomination, which began Wednesday.

They say her tenure as EPA administrator "didn't go well," but it sounds great to us How unhinged has the lefty media become in its all-out war against all things Trump? This unhinged: If they’ve decided taking you down would be useful to them, they are even willing to attack your deceased mother in the effort. No one is surprised the left is freaking out about the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Gorsuch is an outstanding jurist who will not only restore the conservatives to their majority status on the Court on days when Justice Kennedy doesn’t...