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When likely EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt walks into his first day at the office, “He’ll have 16,000 employees working against him,” Sen. James Lankford told a large gathering of libertarian donors Saturday evening.“And I expect a flood of lawsuits over everything he does.”Pruitt, who has been nominated to lead the EPA by President Donald Trump, is the attorney general of Lankford’s state, Oklahoma. He has faced fierce opposition from the environmentalist left.Lankford, who chairs the Senate Oversight Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Health Care and Entitlements, was joined on stage by Sens. Mike Lee and Pat Toomey. Their panel, moderated by Americans for Prosperity...

It wasn't just the EPA. Earlier today, we reported that the Trump administration instituted a media blackout at the Environmental Protection Agency and barred staff from awarding any new contracts or grants. Emails sent to EPA staff since President Donald Trump's inauguration on Friday and reviewed by The Associated Press, detailed the specific prohibitions banning press releases, blog updates or posts to the agency's social media accounts. On Monday, the Huffington Post reported that EPA grants had been frozen, with agency employees barred from speaking of the matter. The memo ordering the social media blackout is shown below.(snip)

Trump will sign more executive orders this morning imposing his will on the country as he sends his predecessor's agenda through the paper shredderFirst up: Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership and the North American Free Trade AgreementThe president is also expected to take action on a five-year lobbying ban for senior officials and prohibit NGOs from receiving aid if they perform abortionsAlso said to be looking at a hiring freeze for the executive branch and dozens of orders rolling back regulations issued by the EPA President Donald Trump will sign more executive orders this morning imposing his will on the country...

Republicans and Democrats have criticized the agency’s decision to ignore victims associated with the Gold King Mine spill, which released 3 million gallons of dangerous metals like lead, cadmium and arsenic into the Animas River. Citizens of the Rocky Mountain state are relying on the incoming Trump administration to require that the EPA pay damages in the wake of a massive agency-caused toxic water spill in Colorado. Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye, a tribe whose water supply was affected by spill, said he’s hoping Congress and the Trump administration will force the EPA to take responsibility. “There is no reason...

The Environmental Protection Agency moved Friday to cement strict fuel economy requirements that force the auto industry to make new cars and trucks significantly more efficient, a decision that will be difficult for the incoming Trump administration to undo. The EPA said in late November that it had completed a required midterm review of Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards put in place in 2012 and decided they should not be relaxed as requested by the auto industry. The move in the waning days of the Obama administration brought protests from the industry, which accused the agency of playing politics with...

Not being able to sell rural voters on the importance of switching from fossil fuels to solar and wind power is Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Gina McCarthy’s biggest regret, she said Friday. “We tried to change the outreach and messaging in rural America in a number of ways, but … has it changed the rhetoric that people hear? It hasn’t,” McCarthy said in an interview at EPA headquarters. “We couldn’t get it, but I wish we had.” President Barack Obama nominated McCarthy to lead the agency in 2013. Her tenure has been riddled with controversies and marred by heavy-handed...

Well, in the Alaskan interior, winters can be brutal. With temperatures dropping below zero, burning wood is the only viable way for Alaskans in these rather desolate areas to stay warm. Yet, government thinks this is a problem concerning small-particle pollution. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency is so concerned that they’re mulling fining people who burn wood to stay warm. John Daniel Davidson, a senior correspondent for The Federalist (and Alaskan native) had more: ***If only the bureaucrats in Washington DC knew what the wolf-dog knew. But alas, now comes the federal government to tell the inhabitants of Alaska’s...

In Jack London’s famous short story, “To Build A Fire,” a man freezes to death because he underestimates the cold in America’s far north and cannot build a proper fire. The unnamed man—a chechaquo, what Alaska natives call newcomers—is accompanied by a wolf-dog that knows the danger of the cold and is wholly indifferent to the fate of the man. “This man did not know cold. Possibly, all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold, of cold 107 degrees below freezing point. But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited...

An Oregon couple has been told they must destroy a 2-acre pond on their land — the property’s most attractive feature — because the government said so. Although Jon and Sabrina Carey purchased the 10-acre property near Butte Falls two and a half years ago, the pond has been in place for 40 years — but that fact doesn’t matter to the Jackson County Watermaster’s Office. “I basically bought a lemon,” said Jon, who became teary-eyed at the edge of the partially ice-covered body of water being targeted by government, in an interview with the Mail Tribune. “That’s how they...

My, my: such a violent metaphor. Aren’t the Dems the peace ‘n love party? On MSNBC today, regarding the nomination of Scott Pruitt as EPA Administrator, Dem Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts threatened “a confirmation hearing that has razor-blade sharp edges.” To which guest-host Peter Alexander stunningly responded: “as the Sierra Club told me last night, they said this is sort of like putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires.” Note: Alexander wasn’t merely reporting the Sierra Club’s statement. With his preface—”as the Sierra Club told me”—Alexander seemed to be adopting the slanderous simile as his own. View the...

BREAKING: Trump to appoint Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt as EPA head - transition team

The new implementation of EPA rules on heavy trucks has boosted the 10-year regulatory burden on America past $1 trillion, 75 percent of which have been imposed by the Obama administration. That amounts to a one-time charge of $3,080 per person, or an annual cost of $540 ... each year every person, regardless of age, in the nation is responsible for paying roughly $540 in regulatory costs. These burdens might take the form of higher prices, fewer jobs, or reduced wages," said AAF's Sam Batkins ... The staggering amount is likely to surge even higher as President Obama scrambles to...

The Environmental Protection Agency is entering its second phase of a data project to collect information on the sexual orientation of its employees. The Sexual Orientation Gender Identity (SOGI) pilot program allows EPA employees to voluntarily disclose their gender identity and sexual orientation, information that the agency says is “crucial” to an “inclusive” workplace. . . . The agency directed its employees to definitions of gender identity and expression from the Human Rights Campaign.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump will not derail progress made in fighting climate change and creating clean-energy jobs, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency insisted on Monday in arguing "the inevitability of our clean energy future is bigger than any one person or nation." EPA chief Gina McCarthy said the world is "in a spectacularly different place today than we were when President (Barack) Obama took office," citing new environmental rules and actions to help create thousands of jobs in renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

full title....EPA Chief: ‘People Have to Start Living a Life That’s Commensurate with Reductions in Greenhouse Gases’...................... (CNSNews.com) -“People have to start living a life that’s commensurate with reductions in greenhouse gases,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said while discussing the recent global deal to limit the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in air-conditioning and refrigeration. During a social media discussion with Mashable last week, McCarthy said that fighting climate change will “not have to be just what government does, but it has to be what people do.” “People have to start living a life that’s commensurate with reductions in greenhouse...

(CNSNews.com) -“People have to start living a life that’s commensurate with reductions in greenhouse gases,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said while discussing the recent global deal to limit the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in air-conditioning and refrigeration. During a social media discussion with Mashable last week, McCarthy said that fighting climate change will “not have to be just what government does, but it has to be what people do.” “People have to start living a life that’s commensurate with reductions in greenhouse gases to the extent they can,” McCarthy said. “But also, as you said- demand government to be...

The Environmental Protection Agency is looking to hire 15 “Diversity and Inclusion Specialists,” each of whom will make $100,000 or more per year. The agency will hire employees to set up diversity and inclusion “advisory bodies” across the country, according to a government job posting. “Earth Day is every day at EPA!” the agency said. “At EPA, you can protect human health and the environment of all Americans, and you’ll discover that EPA is one great place to work!” “We offer great benefits and work flexibilities, and our diverse workforce connects to more than just a career—we share a common...

When farmers plow their land, it produces grooves called "furrows," bordered by small ridges of dirt. But in pursuit of new regulatory powers, federal agencies refer to the little dirt mounds by another term: “mini mountain ranges.” That seemingly absurd distinction is being used to impose more federal control over private land use decisions made by U.S. farmers. That was the claim described in a U.S. Senate committee report released Sept. 20. The committee reviewed the powers held by the nation’s two largest environmental regulation agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency, and a proposed...

The Environmental Protection Agency Thursday unveiled its new online tool to help local officials deal with climate change, and it warns that no state in the nation is safe from disaster. The "Climate Change Adaptation Resource Center," or "ARC-X," provides a map that break the country into eight regions and every single one comes with a threatening warning and long list of threats to human life. "From floods and droughts to dangerous heat islands and other public health effects, communities are facing the very real impacts of climate change," said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in unveiling the portal. While the...

Donald Trump is tapping a high-profile climate change skeptic to lead administration transition efforts for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Myron Ebell, director of energy and environment policy at the conservative think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, is heading Trump’s EPA transition preparation, E&E Daily reported Monday. Ebell is an outspoken, longtime skeptic of the scientific consensus that human activity is dramatically changing the climate. He often refers to warnings about global warming as climate “alarmism” and is a vocal critic of President Obama’s climate change regulations. Ebell has argued that the Clean Power Plan is illegal and that the Paris...