[Source: Inside Climate News] Former energy lobbyist Andrew Wheeler said he will continue the deregulatory course set by Scott Pruitt, without the scandals that plagued his predecessor. In his first Congressional testimony since taking over the Environmental Protection Agency’s leadership in July, Andrew Wheeler tried to reassure lawmakers that the scandal-scarred agency will get a fresh Read More…
Tag: EPA
California vs. Trump ‘will be a giant case’ over air rules, could end up in Supreme Court
[Source: The Sacramento Bee] California and like-minded states are girding for a legal battle with the Trump administration on whether those states have gone too far in controlling greenhouse gases from automobiles, a prospective case that legal scholars say — barring a last-minute settlement — is sure to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The Environmental Read More…
Brett Kavanaugh will mean challenging times for environmental laws
[Source: BuzzFeed News] In naming Brett Kavanaugh as his pick for the Supreme Court’s open seat, President Donald Trump is advancing a judge widely seen as unfriendly to environmental regulation. The seat opened in June with the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, providing an opportunity for Trump to tilt the court rightward for years to come. Kavanaugh, Read More…
The Energy 202: Kennedy’s retirement could bring a seismic shift to environmental law
[Source: The WashingtonPost/PowerPost] Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s announcement that he will soon step down from the Supreme Court sent shock waves through Washington on Wednesday. Should President Trump and Senate Republicans succeed in replacing the swing-vote jurist with a stalwart conservative, the ideological shift could bring seismic changes to federal environmental policy. As with so many other issues, Kennedy served as Read More…
2 key environmental policies Scott Pruitt was dismantling this week amid his scandals
[Source: VOX] Video by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt made his staff run personal errands like fetching Greek yogurt and protein bars. He had his full-time security detail hunt for a Ritz-Carlton lotion. He had an aide ask for a used Trump hotel mattress. He tried to score a Chik-fil-A franchise for his wife. Read More…
California’s Brown to Trump: see us in court
[Source: Bloomberg] The legal battle over California’s nation-leading auto emissions standards, which U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has threatened to dismantle, may continue throughout President Donald Trump’s tenure in office, Governor Jerry Brown said. Brown, who filed suit against the EPA with more than a dozen other states to preserve the tailpipe emissions Read More…
California air-quality official takes a swipe at Trump
[Source: Bloomberg News] California’s top air-quality official disputed the Trump administration’s description of a meeting about the future of fuel economy standards, suggesting it was actually a dud. “Sounds like a great meeting based on the WH press release. Too bad it’s not the one we attended,” Mary Nichols, the chair of the state’s Air Resources Board, tweeted Thursday, Read More…
Trump has an auto emissions plan, but this negotiator calls it ‘crap’
[Source: Bloomberg] Mary Nichols was in classic blunt mode last week, calling the latest Trump administration’s challenge to Obama-era auto-emission targets “a piece of crap” and dismissing as “nonsense” the industry claims that fighting pollution costs too much. “Give me a break,” Nichols said ahead of a California Air Resources Board symposium in the Los Angeles suburb Read More…
Trump’s EPA proposes to block regulators from considering a wide range of scientific studies
[Source: Los Angeles Times] The Trump administration launched an attack on the science behind many of the nation’s clean air and clean water rules, announcing a proposal Tuesday that would in effect prevent regulators from considering a wide range of health studies when they look at new regulations. The plan by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Read More…