"As Scott Pruitt, the embattled head of the Environmental Protection Agency, prepares to testify before Congress on Thursday amid a series of spending and ethics investigations, an internal E.P.A. document indicates that he may blame his staff for many of the decisions that have put a cloud over his tenure at the agency."
"French President Emmanuel Macron predicted Wednesday that the United States will one day return to the Paris Climate Accord."
"As sea level rises, waves will more frequently wash over many of the atolls—and the U.S. military facilities built there—damaging water supplies and infrastructure. "
"‘We’re talking about poisoning groundwater,’ one mayor told the agency at the only public hearing planned on Pruitt’s coal ash rule change, proposed by industry. "
"A private investment firm led by Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s son has notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that it’s seeking investors for a new energy fund, raising concerns about the potential for private businesses run by the offspring of high-ranking government officials to benefit from their parents’ policy decisions without the public being aware."
"In signing off on a proposed scientific "transparency" rule yesterday, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt heralded a straightforward goal: to ensure that the data underlying major new regulations are available to the American people. But the draft rule raises significant questions about how EPA will accomplish that goal, with critics predicting the proposal won't withstand a court challenge if made final in its current form."
"When Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt declared this week that tree burning was inherently a carbon-neutral way to produce electricity, it was a victory for some Oklahoma friends of Scott Pruitt."
"Democratic senators are demanding information about what they call the Koch brothers’ “infiltration” of the Trump administration, charging that Koch-linked personnel have secured key federal jobs and are determining US environmental and public health policy."
"Sources within EPA tell Guardian that proposals are threadbare and muddled – ‘they’re are just making it up as they go along’"
"Californians know another “big one” will be coming someday. In preparation, the state’s major water suppliers have been working to seismically retrofit key infrastructure, but vulnerabilities remain."
"The Environmental Protection Agency announced a new regulation Tuesday that would restrict the kinds of scientific studies the agency can use when it develops policies, a move critics say will permanently weaken the agency’s ability to protect public health."
"Several Senate Republicans said Tuesday that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s management and spending decisions should be subject to greater congressional scrutiny, although nearly all of them stopped short of asking him to resign."
"Two House Democrats are asking the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) internal watchdog to investigate an adviser to Administrator Scott Pruitt who was banned nationally last year from the banking sector."
"Environmentalists were hit with a gut punch yesterday when a federal judge walked back his previous conclusion that some oil and gas development near Chaco Canyon, N.M., violated federal law."
"EPA has created a new national office to help handle its Freedom of Information Act requests."