In Case You Missed It: Trump’s Assault on the EPA

In Case You Missed It: Trump’s Assault on the EPA

Friday, September 29 

The Campaign to Slash EPA’s Budget

• EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt may cut funding to the Justice Department division that enforces Superfund laws.  DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources division works with EPA to bring enforcement cases and ensure that polluters pay for cleanups, not taxpayers.
• As the Senate prepares to consider drastic EPA budget cuts, more than 300 state and local leaders signed a letter urging Congress to say no to weakening efforts that protect health.

Some of My Best Friends Are Polluters

• A Washington Post report found that Scott Pruitt regularly met with corporate executives from polluting industries before making decisions favorable to their interests. 
• CNN noted that hours after meeting with a foreign mining CEO, Pruitt scrapped a plan to protect the Bristol Bay watershed in Alaska.  Former EPA officials called the decision “stunning,” “disturbing,” and “extraordinary.”

The Polluter’s All-Star Team: The Latest Box Score

• EDF Action has created a new information resource, the EPA Polluter’s All-Star Team, showing how oil, gas, and chemical industry insiders are overseeing pollution prevention and cleanup policies for the very industries they’ve devoted their careers to helping.
• William Wehrum, a corporate lawyer who sued the EPA on behalf of polluters who is now Trump’s pick to head the EPA’s air quality office, said in court last week that clean air protections should be rolled back because “people are designed to deal with dust.”
• Congress’s nonpartisan Government Accountability Office will investigate whether Pruitt is violating the law by attempting to stack EPA advisory committees with representatives from polluting industries.

Their Lips are Sealed

• Administrator Pruitt is spending almost $25,000 to install a soundproof phonebooth in his office, even though the EPA already has secure phone facilities.
• EPA has stripped climate change language from web pages about its SmartWay program, which helps companies improve their freight transportation efficiency.
• The EPA has ordered its employees to attend anti-media leaks classes.

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