[Source: Washington Examiner] Scott Pruitt is under fire, this time for trying to stay safe. Because the EPA chief requires 24/7 security, according to a new Washington Post report, the agency has pulled agents from environmental investigations to serve on his security detail. There is an obvious solution to this staffing problem. End the demonization Read More…
Category: U.S. News
Requirement to collect pay data by race and gender halted
[Source: CalChamber] The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently issued an immediate stay of a rule that would have required private employers with more than 100 employees to report how much they pay employees by race, ethnicity and gender on their EEO-1 reports. “It’s enormously burdensome,” Neomi Rao, administrator of the Office Read More…
EPA workforce shrinking to Reagan-era levels: agency official
[Source: Reuters] The workforce at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is on course to fall to its lowest level since Ronald Reagan was president, an agency official said on Tuesday. In June, the EPA unveiled a buyout program that would contribute to the biggest cuts of any federal agency in President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget Read More…
Trump signs order rolling back environmental rules on infrastructure
[Source: The New York Times] President Trump announced on Tuesday that he had signed a sweeping executive order to eliminate and streamline some permitting regulations and to speed construction of roads, bridges and pipelines, declaring that the moves would fix a “badly broken” infrastructure system in America and bring manufacturing jobs back to the country. Read More…
One-fifth of Americans find workplace hostile or threatening
[Source: Associated Press] The American workplace is grueling, stressful and surprisingly hostile. So concludes an in-depth study of 3,066 U.S. workers by the Rand Corp., Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Los Angeles. Among the findings: Nearly one in five workers – a share the study calls “disturbingly high” – say they face Read More…
California sues EPA over access to Pruitt records
[Source: San Francisco Chronicle] California’s attorney general went to court Friday seeking conflict-of-interest rules from President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, whose chief spent years suing to overturn the environmental rules he is now charged with enforcing. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s “ability to serve as an impartial decision-maker merits close examination, especially now that he has Read More…
Congress takes aim at the Clean Air Act, putting the limits of California’s power to the test
[Source: Los Angeles Times] California is confronting the limits of its power to save federal environmental protections as Congress and the Trump administration take aim at a landmark law the state has relied on for decades to clean the air of noxious smog. A push by Republicans to roll back parts of the Clean Air Read More…
D.C. federal appeals court blocks EPA’s effort to suspend Obama-era methane pollution rule
[Source: POWERSOURCE–The Washington Post and The New York Times contributed] A federal appeals court in Washington ruled Monday that the head of the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped his authority in trying to delay implementation of a new rule requiring oil and gas companies to monitor and reduce methane leaks. In a split decision — the Read More…
Latinos key to U.S. economic growth, study finds
[Source: FOX2NOW.com] Latinos are becoming an increasingly critical engine for America’s economic growth, a new report finds. In 2015, the 55 million Latinos living and working in the U.S. were responsible for $2.13 trillion — or 11.8% — of America’s $18.04 trillion gross domestic product, according to a study released Thursday by the Latino Donors Read More…