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At an event at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., that was closed to the press, agency head Scott Pruitt touted the new policy as a way to increase transparency and enable the public to double-check research underpinning environmental regulations. The rule would require the agency to use only studies in which the underlying data are available for public scrutiny when formulating new “significant” regulations, which typically are regulations estimated to impose costs of $100 million or more. Specifically, the proposed rule says that EPA is seeking transparency for “the dose response data and models that underlie what we are calling...

Up to 95 per cent of plastic polluting the world’s oceans pours in from just ten rivers, according to new research. The top 10 rivers – eight of which are in Asia – accounted for so much plastic because of the mismanagement of waste. About five trillion pounds is floating in the sea, and targeting the major sources – such as the Yangtze and the Ganges – could almost halve it, scientists claim. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt flew in coach-class seats on at least two trips home to Oklahoma when taxpayers weren’t footing the bill, despite claims he...

A $43,000 soundproof telephone booth that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt put in his office has caused federal watchdogs to speak up loudly. On Monday, the General Accountability Office sent an eight-page letter to Senate lawmakers reporting that the booth violated federal spending law that caps the amount a presidential appointee can spend on upgrading their office at $5,000 without notifying the appropriations committees in the Senate and House beforehand. GAO General Counsel Thomas Armstrong also wrote that the purchase violated the Antideficiency Act, "because EPA obligated appropriated funds in a manner specifically prohibited by law.” The booth —...

Chris Cuomo has mockingly bestowed a new moniker on Trey Gowdy: “Captain Benghazi.” On CNN this morning, Cuomo suggested that whereas Gowdy went after the Benghazi inquiry “with such an aggression,” he has been lackadaisical in looking into allegations of misconduct against EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. Cuomo: “Wasn’t there a big [makes yawning motion] for Captain Benghazi? They went after that with such an aggression, right? And here he says, I don’t like these kind of allegations, but then, they’ve had a month to get documentation from Pruitt. They haven’t gotten it.” Get the rest of the story and view...

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has faced an "unprecedented" number of death threats, according to an agency spokesman. His statement follows reports Pruitt has spent millions on security despite no proof his life was in danger. “According to EPA’s Assistant Inspector General, Scott Pruitt has faced an unprecedented amount of death threats against him and his family,” agency spokesman Jahan Wilcox said late Friday. “Americans should all agree that members of the president’s Cabinet should be kept safe from these violent threats.” The statement was obtained Saturday by Fox News and included a list of several published reports about such incidents....

On Monday, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced his plans to scrap Obama-era Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for passenger cars and trucks, which require automobile manufacturers maintain a fleet-wide average of 54.5 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2025. This bold move by Pruitt will result in more affordable vehicles and additional cash in the pockets of families across the country. Mandates under the previous administration were negotiated when the economy was depressed and retail gas prices approached $4 per gallon. Proponents of tougher fuel economy standards used these circumstances to argue for ever-more fuel-efficient cars....

President Donald Trump ridiculed the increasing slew of negative news about Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt. “Do you believe that the Fake News Media is pushing hard on a story that I am going to replace A.G. Jeff Sessions with EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, who is doing a great job but is TOTALLY under siege?” Trump asked. “Do people really believe this stuff? So much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!” Pruitt is facing several media reports raising concerns of pursuing perks in office including travel, new office furniture, getting discounted rental fees at his D.C. condo, and...

The left's crusade against Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt should be seen for what it is -- a witch hunt. We don't need any more conservatives hanged by leftists who major in criminalizing political differences and minor in slander. How dare a Republican president appoint an environmental heretic to head an administrative agency the left views as its sole, separate and absolute property? This agency exists to serve the deep state -- the entrenched federal government bureaucracy that is tailor-made to advance the left's agenda and operate above accountability. This conspiratorially organized assault against Pruitt is precisely what Barack...

President Donald Trump floated replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Scott Pruitt as recently as this week, even as the scandal-ridden head of the Environmental Protection Agency has faced a growing list of negative headlines, according to people close to the President. "He was 100% still trying to protect Pruitt because Pruitt is his fill-in for Sessions," one source familiar with Trump's thinking told CNN. Though the President has, at times, floated several people a day for multiple positions in his administration that are already occupied, the proposition reveals just how frustrated Trump remains with Sessions because of his decision...

After Donald Trump, the individual in DC with the biggest target on his back is Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. When he was attorney general of Oklahoma, he sued the EPA more than a dozen times to get the powerful regulatory agency to stay within its legal authority. His nomination was deeply concerning to radical environmentalists inside and outside the media. As a result, he and his team have been under a microscope since even before his confirmation in early 2017.Well-funded environmental groups, many with former EPA staffers, deluge the agency with FOIA requests to catch someone in...

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on Monday formally scrapped a key piece of the Obama administration’s fuel-efficiency standards for cars and light-duty trucks, throwing the future of the program into doubt. In a statement, Mr. Pruitt said the program, known as the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE standards, fell victim to politics during the final days of the Obama administration. He said his predecessors at the EPA rushed through rules governing fuel economy for model years 2022 through 2025, and that those rules simply aren’t realistic. “The Obama Administration’s determination was wrong,” he said. “Obama’s EPA cut the midterm evaluation...

Former Cailfornia governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made a rare return to Sacramento last Thursday and declared that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt needed to be fired. The Los Angeles Times reported that it was Schwarzenegger’s second dig at Pruitt in less than a week (original links): “He is without any doubt the wrong person at that place,” former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said. “He does not represent the people. He only represents the special interests. He should be removed immediately.” Schwarzenegger was in Sacramento to meet with seven state Assembly Republicans who support environmental protection policies. Last month, the former...

According to two former Administrators, current federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has set the agency back by anything from several years to as much as three decades due to “regulatory rollbacks, mass attrition and budget cuts.” That sounds ominous. It isn’t. At present EPA is operating under FY2017 funding levels. While projected FY2018 funding cuts will be substantial, they have not yet taken place. The FY2018 budget’s 28% reduction for the Superfund program and $427 million cut to geographic programs such as the Great Lakes, Puget Sound, and Chesapeake Bay are reasons for concern. But EPA is known...

The White House plans to withdraw Kathleen Hartnett White's nomination to head the Council on Environmental Quality, a White House official confirmed to CNN Saturday. Hartnett White, who would have overseen environmental and energy policies across the government, had described the belief in "global warming" as a "kind of paganism" for "secular elites" during a September 2016 interview on "The Right Perspective," an online conservative radio show. She has also said the goal of climate activists and the United Nations was an all-powerful, one-world government and "planetary management," KFile reported. President Donald Trump announced Hartnett White's nomination in October and...

RUSH: While the Drive-By Media obsesses over Donald Trump every day, the bureaucracy/the administrative state is being dismantled, and it’s not being covered by the Drive-Bys are so focused on Trump hatred. Last night CBS Evening News, Major Garrett spoke with Scott Pruitt, the EPA administrator. And question was, “What’s the philosophy here? Do you want to protect business at the EPA or do you want to protect the environment?” PRUITT: It’s not… I mean, our focus here should be on stewardship. GARRETT: There are others who also wonder about those who have come from industry who in leadership position...

In an interview with Reuters last week, Trump’s EPA administrator Scott Pruitt said, "The climate is changing. That’s not the debate. The debate is how do we know what the ideal surface temperature is in 2100?" Pruitt’s goal is to sow doubt on behalf of his oil industry allies in order to weaken and delay climate policies. Shifting the ‘debate’ toward ‘the ideal surface temperature’ achieves that goal by creating the perception that we don’t know what temperature we should aim for. It’s in line with recent ignorant tweet suggesting that “Perhaps we could use a little bit of that...

In the great Aaron Sorkin television creation “West Wing,” very accomplished fake president Jed Bartlet goes in for a brief bit of therapy during which the following exchange occurs: Bartlet: “It’s not good for a person to keep setting goals?” Psychologist: “It probably is.  But it’s tricky for somebody who is still trying to get his father to stop hitting him….” Bartlet: “I’m not trying to get my father to like me.” Psychologist: “Good.  Because it’s never, never going to happen.” It is of this conversation that I thought when I read of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Secretary Scott Pruitt’s possible way-overkill cleanup plan for...

Scientific studies used by the Obama administration to help justify tough environmental regulations are coming under intensifying scrutiny, with critics questioning their merit as the Trump EPA reverses or delays some of those rules. In one case, agencies determined the research used to prop up a ban on a particular pesticide was questionable. On another front, the Environmental Protection Agency never complied with a congressional subpoena for the data used to justify most Obama administration air quality rules. “EPA regulations are based on secret data developed in the 1990s,” Steve Milloy, who served on President Trump’s EPA transition team, told...

For the first time in years, there is an emerging consensus that the biggest racket in national politics deserves to end. Earlier this month, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and 10 other Republican senators held a luncheon summit at the White House with President Trump with the goal of drastically reforming the Renewable Fuel Standard, the federal mandate that annually funnels $13.5 billion from the wallets of American fuel and food consumers into the coffers of agribusiness giants. Before the national nightmare of Obamacare, there was the RFS, the most sweeping and intrusive federal intervention in the American economy undertaken in...

President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency took the first step Monday toward proposing its own version of climate change regulations for coal-fired power plants. The Trump climate rule would replace the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan with a much more limited version of the greenhouse gas rules for existing power plants. AD Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Ep12: Glamping, Stress Relievers, Burgers and More! Watch Full Screen Eliminating the Obama-era climate plan is a key part of President Trump's deregulation agenda. The EPA proposed repealing the plan in October, saying that the plan "exceeds the agency's statutory authority." Monday's action is the second...