Free Republic

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)on Thursday proposed that the nation’s costly and counterproductive fuel-economy standards remain at 2020 levels through 2026, abandoning President Barack Obama’s plans to raise them each year. Eliminating the standards altogether would be ideal, but this move is a reasonable response to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) trying to set standards for the whole country. CARB and its sister “blue” anti-Trump states constitute 35 percent of the nation’s auto buyers, and they are threatening to go their own way and impose the Obama-era standards if EPA ultimately enacts...

Since Trump took office in January 2017, EPA officials have cleaned up all or part of 13 listed sites, compared with nine sites cleaned up by the Obama administration in 2015 and 2016.

Citing safety, the Trump administration on Thursday proposed rolling back car-mileage standards, backing away from years of government efforts to cut Americans’ trips to the gas station and reduce unhealthy, climate-changing tailpipe emissions. If the proposed rule becomes final, it could roil the auto industry as it prepares for new model years and weaken one of the federal government’s chief weapons against climate change — regulating emissions from cars and other vehicles. The result, opponents say, will be dirtier air and more pollution-related illness and death. The proposal itself estimates it could cost tens of thousands of jobs — auto...

Former Administrator Scott Pruitt’s resignation from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) marked the end of a productive but tumultuous period for the agency. The good news? Pruitt’s replacement, Andrew Wheeler, will likely continue the needed reforms Pruitt began. In the immortal words of The Who, “Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss.” However history judges Pruitt’s tenure at EPA, critics and supporters can agree he initiated a series of efforts to fundamentally transform the antiquated agency. He ended sue-and-settle agreements; reshaped its science advisory committees; reduced graft; and rolled back myriad regulatory actions, including the Clean Power Plan,...

Recordings and summaries of emergency calls show Washington wildlife officials at first objected to an air rescue of a woman treed by wolves, or help from the Okanogan County sheriff. Washington wildlife managers initially opposed sending a helicopter or a search-and-rescue team to save a woman treed by wolves in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, according to recordings and summaries of emergency calls. ... Notes from a call between DNR dispatcher Jill Jones and a wildlife officer summarized WDFW’s position, and her position, shortly before the helicopter launched. “No helicopter. Federally listed species. 3 WDFW personnel saying so,” according to DNR’s...

We can add “EPA chemical safety science” to the list of taxpayer funded benefits that former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt kept for himself. New emails uncovered by American Oversight show EPA employees were concerned about the level of formaldehyde in an ornate desk that Pruitt had sought to purchase for his office. The emails emerged even as EPA officials have continued to block the release of a scientific report on the dangers of formaldehyde exposure. In early 2017, newly-appointed Administrator Pruitt selected an ornate desk from Amazon and instructed staff to order it. One of the EPA staffers noticed that...

The Trump administration on Wednesday eased rules for handling toxic coal ash from more than 400 U.S. coal-fired power plants after utilities pushed back against regulations adopted under former President Barack Obama. Environmental Protection Agency acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the changes would save utilities roughly $30 million annually. The move represents the latest action by Trump’s EPA to boost the struggling coal industry by rolling back environmental and public health protections enacted under his predecessor. It pushes back the deadline to close problematic ash dumps and gives state regulators flexibility in how they deal with the massive waste piles...

Critics fear move will impact upper Animas River aquatic life. Could the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to haul waste from the Gold King Mine to the banks of the upper Animas River put undue stress on a fishery already struggling to survive? ... Three months after the EPA triggered the Gold King Mine blowout in August 2015, the agency built a temporary water-treatment plant, in an area known as Gladstone, 10 miles north of Silverton within the Cement Creek watershed. But for the past year, the EPA has said room is running out at Gladstone to store the waste byproduct...

EPA just started hauling waste from treatment plant to new storage site. A truck hauling sludge from the Environmental Protection Agency’s water-treatment plant for the Gold King Mine went off the road Monday and crashed into Cement Creek. ... The EPA just started on June 15 hauling sludge from the water treatment plant, about 10 miles north of Silverton in an area known as Gladstone, to a historic mine waste pile, called the Kittimac, along County Road 2. The trip is 10 to 15 miles one way, but involves windy, mountainous dirt roads. Three months after the EPA triggered the...

Kevin Chmielewski, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) whistleblower who played a central role in Scott Pruitt's downfall at the agency, said he feels vindicated by the administrator's departure. "I hate to take a credit for a man losing his job, but I guess I'd have to say that I take the credit," Chmielewski told The Hill on Friday, the day Pruitt left the EPA. Chmielewski, who served as deputy chief of staff for operations at the agency during most of Pruitt's tenure, leaked documents and provided information that prompted investigations into several high-profile scandals, from the retroactive altering of the...

They may gloat all they like, those “progressives.” But this is, at best, a Pyrrhic victory for them. Pruitt is gone. His replacement, Andrew Wheeler, though, is their worst nightmare. He’s an ex-coal-industry lobbyist. He led the team – with Steve Milloy – that killed Cap and Trade in 2009/10. He gets – far more than Scott Pruitt ever did – that environmentalism has nothing to do with saving the planet and everything to do with killing capitalism. Pruitt may be gone. But the same president remains in the White House. And his agenda remains unchanged. The United States is...

WASHINGTON -- The D.C. mom who confronted now-former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on Monday and asked him to resign said she was "jumping up and down" at today's news that he had stepped down. "I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this. The Senate confirmed Deputy at EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA," President Trump tweeted this afternoon. "I have no doubt that Andy...

Scott Pruitt was the perfect villain: On top of pursuing Presdient Trump’s deregulatory plan for the Environmental Protection Agency, including pulling out from the Paris climate accords, he had a laundry list of ethical and possibly legal violations that put him at the heart of a at least 13 federal investigations. He was easy to criticize, didn’t seem to know his way around Washington, and constantly found himself in the spotlight for undeniably questionable activity. Moreover, his haste and lack of regulatory know-how led to six of his initiatives being struck down by the courts. Now Pruitt is out and...

“It’s about time,” he tweeted of Pruitt’s departure. “He will go down in the history books as the worst EPA administrator we’ve ever had.” “This is a fantastic day that he’s gone, but of course it doesn’t mean that the problem is gone,’’ said Schwarzenegger, who months ago called for Pruitt’s resignation from the Environmental Protection Agency. In an interview with POLITICO Thursday, Schwarzenegger warned that Andrew Wheeler, who will replace Pruitt as acting director, is “the wrong guy” to protect Americans’ health and environment. “If you want to really do a good job with the environment, you don’t have...

Xanax for patient Karem—stat! Make it a double. . . Brian Karem, then a Playboy reporter, made his liberal-media bones by haranguing Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the White House press room last year. CNN rewarded Karem for his outburst my naming him an “analyst.” This morning, Karem put on the kind of performance that CNN is paying him for, waxing apocalyptic about the future of the environment and the EPA under Scott Pruitt and his successor, Andrew Wheeler. Excerpts from Karem’s wery, wery scared statement: “[Pruitt] destroyed the EPA . . . People I’ve known in the EPA for 20...

Green groups cheered the resignation Thursday of Scott Pruitt, saying the Environmental Protection Agency administrator’s multiple ethical lapses and pro-polluter tilt made him unsuitable for the nation’s highest environmental post. But the activists doubted that the departure, announced by President Trump via Twitter, would change the administration's policies. The EPA will now be led by an interim chief, Andrew Wheeler, who was a coal industry lobbyist before he was confirmed as Pruitt's deputy in April. Pruitt’s tenure was marked by more than a dozen investigations into alleged conflicts of interest and controversial spending of taxpayer funds — ranging from his...

List of 43 scandals with links to news articles at the link. Below I'll past an excerpt of the table but the links here won't be active. The EPA illegally used social media to push for new EPA regulations 06/28/2017 Judicial Watch A subpoena was issued after McCarthy deleted nearly 6,000 text messages 03/26/2015 The Washington Times Articles of impeachment were introduced against McCarthy after she was caught repeatedly lying to Congress 09/09/2015 Rep. Paul Gosar The EPA inspector general said McCarthy was lying when she said Michigan deserved blame for the Flint crisis 10/20/2016 The Washington Post After the...

The 4th of July came and went, with the usual drama from the unhinged left, i.e. a white 16 year old scrawny teenager was assaulted in a burger-joint by a burly black dude just for wearing a MAGA hat; the attacker was later identified as 30-year old Kino Jimenez and promptly fired by his employer; also yesterday, a black immigrant woman from Congo scaled the Statue of Liberty, protesting the Time Magazine Baby or who the Hell knows what, and ruined the 4th of July holiday for 4500 tourists visiting the Statue of Liberty. Both were very strange and inappropriate...

Scott Pruitt has resigned as head of the Environmental Protection Agency after a string of controversies involving his leadership, President Trump announced Thursday on Twitter. "Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this," tweeted Trump, who added that EPA Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler would take over as acting administrator effective Monday. ...on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA. I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA...

cott Pruitt's polarizing tenure as head of the Environmental Protection Agency has come to an end. President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that he has accepted Pruitt's resignation. The departure follows months of scrutiny that gathered momentum following reports that Pruitt had rented a Capitol Hill condominium linked to an energy lobbyist on favorable terms. The revelation exacerbated concerns about the high cost of Pruitt's travel and security detail and triggered a flood of allegations that Pruitt fostered a culture of workplace retaliation, wasteful spending and self-dealing at EPA.