EPA

EPA Criminal Action Against Polluters Hits 30-Year Low

January 19, 2019 Ellen Knickmeyer, AP.org Educate! EPA, pollution

WASHINGTON—The Environmental Protection Agency hit a 30-year low in 2018 in the number of pollution cases it referred for criminal prosecution, Justice Department data show. The EPA said in a statement that it is directing “its resources to the most significant and impactful cases.” But the 166 cases referred for prosecution in the last fiscal year is the lowest number since 1988, when Ronald Reagan was president and 151 cases were referred, according to Justice Department data obtained by the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility advocacy group and released Tuesday.

This EPA Rule Change Could Kill Thousands

January 11, 2019 By Olivia Alperstein, Otherwords.org Educate! EPA, Regulation, Toxic Chemicals

While Americans were quietly preparing to ring in the New Year, the EPA gave families a deadly present to start the year off wrong. On December 28, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal that would effectively weaken the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which protect American families from mercury and other harmful air pollutants emitted by power plants. The EPA “proposes to determine that it is not ‘appropriate and necessary’ to regulate” these emissions, the EPA wrote in a statement. This means that the regulations will lose the necessary legal mechanism that actually enables them to actually be enforced.

Court Bans Harmful Pesticide That Trump EPA Tried To Keep On The Market

August 13, 2018 By Whitney Webb, Mintpressnews.com Resist! Ban, Courts, EPA, Pesticides, Trump Administration

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the harmful pesticide chlorpyrifos within 60 days. The court’s ruling is being seen as a major victory for environmentalists and public health activists, who have been fighting to ban the agro-chemical for well over a decade, and comes a few months after Hawaii passed the country’s first state-wide ban of the substance. The chemical, which numerous studies have shown causes significant damage to the nervous systems of children and infants, was banned for household use by the EPA in 2000, but the regulatory agency has largely resisted banning its use in agriculture. Yet efforts to ban the chemical had seemed to pay off when the EPA under the Obama administration proposed banning the substance for agricultural use in 2015.

Years After EPA Cited Health Risks From Chemical Plant, Is Enough Being Done To Protect Its Louisiana Neighbors?

July 24, 2018 By Julie Dermansky, Desmogblog.com Educate! Chemicals, EPA, Louisiana

What should be done about a chemical plant in Louisiana’s St. John the Baptist Parish that releases chloroprene — a chemical so toxic that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined nearby residents face the highest risk in the country of developing cancer from air pollution? The answer is simple, according to Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré: “Fix it, move it, or shut it down.” Honoré is founder of the Green Army, a coalition of environmental groups and concerned citizens fighting against pollution in their communities. But local, state, and federal regulators haven’t resolved issues swirling around emissions released by the Denka Performance Elastomer plant, located in LaPlace, Louisiana. The plant is next to the Mississippi River, on a stretch of land between New Orleans and Baton Rouge known as Cancer Alley.

Reshaping The Supreme Court: What 2 Dissents On Climate Rules Tell Us

July 11, 2018 John H. Cushman JR, Insideclimatenews.org Create! Climate Change, EPA, Supreme Court

To see why environmentalists have been panicking about the new direction of the Supreme Court, just go back 11 years and read the two dissents in the landmark climate change case Massachusetts v. EPA. Not the majority opinion, where Justice Anthony Kennedy provided the fifth, swing vote compelling the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. In the opening words of the ruling, the liberal wing of the court, joined by Kennedy, embraced the science of climate change. No, what sends shudders down the spines of environmental advocates is the way the deeply conservative minority saw things back then, spelled out in a pair of dissents—one written by Chief Justice John Roberts and the other by the late Justice Antonin Scalia, whose seat President Donald Trump filled last year with Neil Gorsuch.

How Dangerous is New EPA Chief Andrew Wheeler? Very. Here’s Why.

July 7, 2018 Derrick Z. Jackson, Blog.ucsusa.org Educate! Environment, EPA, Trump Administration

With Scott Pruitt’s resignation as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency amid a slew of ethics scandals, environmentalists who long campaigned for his ouster should be careful what they wished for. That is because the acting administrator of the EPA is now Andrew Wheeler, formerly the agency’s second-in-command. Nominated by President Trump and narrowly confirmed in April by the Senate, Wheeler came into the job as the polar opposite of the EPA’s stated mission “to protect human health and the environment.”

Woman Confronts Pruitt At Restaurant, Tells Him To Resign

July 3, 2018 Justin Wise, Thehill.com Resist! EPA, Protests

A woman publicly confronted Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt while he was eating lunch on Monday and urged him to resign, according to video posted on Facebook. "EPA head Scott Pruitt was 3 tables away as I ate lunch with my child. I had to say something," Kristin Mink posted on Facebook with an accompanying video of her encounter with Pruitt. Mink, who is a schoolteacher according to her Facebook profile, lists off multiple scandals Pruitt has been ensnared in since becoming EPA chief, including the rental of a Capitol Hill condo owned by the wife of an influential lobbyist. "We deserve to have somebody at the EPA who actually does protect our environment, someone who believes in climate change and takes it seriously for the benefit of all us, including our children," Mink said.

EPA Chief Scott Pruitt Encouraged Oil Executives To Apply For Top Agency Jobs

June 27, 2018 By Zahra Hirji, Buzzfeed.com Educate! Corruption, EPA, Oil

At Pruitt’s prompting, a ConocoPhillips official sent the EPA résumés of two people to be considered for regional directors of the agency. A month after starting as chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt made a recruiting “plea” to top executives at the American Petroleum Institute, a major oil and gas trade group, according to internal emails obtained by BuzzFeed News. “I understand that Administrator Pruitt met with the API executives last week and he made a plea for candidates to fill some of the regional director positions within the agency,” Kevin Avery, manager of federal government affairs at oil company ConocoPhillips, wrote in a March 27, 2017, email to Samantha Dravis, then a top EPA aide. “One of our employees has expressed interest. He is polishing up his resume. Where does he need to send it?”

Feds Cherry-Pick Data To Force Pipelines Through Poor Communities

June 13, 2018 Sophie Yeo, Psmag.com Educate! Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Corruption, Data, EPA, FERC, Pipelines

The government's energy regulator is facing allegations of cherry-picking data to approve pipeline projects that would disproportionately harm communities of color. According to academics, attorneys, and non-governmental organizations, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission used unreliable statistical methods in its analysis of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, masking its high cost to African-American and Native-American communities. While the Commission concluded that the pipeline poses no environmental justice concerns, these minority groups say that their environment, health, and culture will be disproportionately imperiled if the development goes ahead as planned. FERC faced similar accusations over the Sabal Trail pipeline in 2016, indicating a pattern in how the federal government manages to force unwelcome energy infrastructure through vulnerable communities.

Long Before Scott Pruitt, EPA Colluded With Industry

May 31, 2018 Johnathan Latham, Salon.com Educate! EPA, Repression, Whistleblowers

When Scott Pruitt took the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency in 2017, public health activists, environmentalists and ordinary citizens expressed outrage. How could a politician with close ties to the Koch-backed American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) be counted on to champion the Agency’s mandate? Why turn the EPA over to a lawyer who was involved in multiple lawsuits against it, and, who, as attorney general of Oklahoma, disbanded that state’s Environmental Protection Unit? Less than two years later, Pruitt's record as EPA head has only reinforced his detractors’ worst fears. While Scott Pruitt’s tenure provokes almost daily controversy, what remains less known is that the EPA has long been a compromised institution.

‘This Is Not Ok’: Guard Shoves Reporter As EPA Bars Multiple News Outlets From Water Pollution Event

May 24, 2018 By Jessica Corbett, Commondreams.org Educate! EPA, Media, Water Pollution

"When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA public-affairs person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the EPA building." The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) blocked reporters from CNN, E&E News, and the Associated Press from attending a summit about water pollution on Tuesday, and a security guard reportedly grabbed a journalist by the shoulders and "forcibly" shoved her out of the building. "Guards barred an AP reporter from passing through a security checkpoint inside the building. When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA public-affairs person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the EPA building," the AP said Tuesday.

Weedkiller Products More Toxic Than Their Active Ingredient, Tests Show

May 11, 2018 Carey Gillam, Theguardian.com Educate! EPA, Monsanto, Toxic Chemicals

US government researchers have uncovered evidence that some popular weedkilling products, like Monsanto’s widely-used Roundup, are potentially more toxic to human cells than their active ingredient is by itself. These “formulated” weedkillers are commonly used in agriculture, leaving residues in food and water, as well as public spaces such as golf courses, parks and children’s playgrounds. The tests are part of the US National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) first-ever examination of herbicide formulations made with the active ingredient glyphosate, but that also include other chemicals. While regulators have previously required extensive testing of glyphosate in isolation, government scientists have not fully examined the toxicity of the more complex products sold to consumers, farmers and others.

17 States Sue EPA Over Auto Emissions Standards Rollback

May 4, 2018 Nicholas Kusnetz, Insideclimatenews.org Resist! Air Pollution, emission, EPA

A coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, asking a federal court to block a Trump administration attempt to weaken automobile emissions standards. The states, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, argue that a recent EPA decision to revise the Obama-era emissions rules was made without clear reasoning or evidence to support it and should be struck down. "The evidence is irrefutable: today's clean car standards are achievable, science-based and a boon for hardworking American families," Becerra said in a statement. "But the EPA and Administrator Scott Pruitt refuse to do their job and enforce these standards." The standards ratchet up fuel economy requirements for cars and light trucks through model year 2025.

Study: EPA Being Reshaped To Serve Industry

May 2, 2018 Neela Banerjee, Insideclimatenews.org Educate! Environment, EPA, Regulation

Under the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has veered so far from its foundational mission of protecting human health and the environment that it faces the highest risk in its 47-year history of being reshaped to serve industry rather than the American public, according to a new study in the American Journal of Public Health. The EPA routinely faces criticism from environmental and public health advocates for allegedly quashing science and softening rules to help industry. During the early years of the Reagan presidency in particular, EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch worked to scale back the agency's activities. But the new study, based on interviews with current and former EPA staff and reviews of White House and EPA initiatives, concluded that the agency is now on the edge of "regulatory capture," when industry priorities determine policy rather than the public interest and impartial research.

EPA Workers Rally To Get Rid Of Scott Pruitt

April 26, 2018 Chris D’Angelo, Huffingtonpost.com Resist! EPA, Protest Demonstrations, Workers

WASHINGTON — A number of Environmental Protection Agency employees spent their lunch hour Wednesday outside agency headquarters calling for the immediate ouster of their boss, agency chief Scott Pruitt. One longtime staffer who requested anonymity to comment candidly told HuffPost they find Pruitt to be perfectly personable, but fear what will come of his efforts to discard decades of hard work aimed at keeping the American public healthy and safe. “How much damage are we going to do in four years?” he asked. “And how many years is it going to take to get back [to where things were]?” The “Boot Pruitt Rally” was hosted by a union that represents thousands of EPA workers and part of a nationwide campaign launched by progressive environmental groups who say Pruitt is unfit to lead the scientific agency and is “working for industry at the expense of our health and the environment.”

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