"A Washington consultant who was removed from President Trump’s transition team for using his business email address for government work played a central role last year in planning a trip to Australia for Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and then took steps to disguise his role, new documents show."
"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."
"A coalition led by California sued the Trump administration over car emissions rules on Tuesday, escalating a revolt against a proposed rollback of fuel economy standards that threatens to split the country’s auto market."
"The Environmental Protection Agency’s draft proposal to relax federal auto emissions standards sets up a legal clash with California, which has pledged to stick with stricter Obama-era targets."
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has granted a financial hardship waiver to an oil refinery owned by billionaire Carl Icahn, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, exempting the Oklahoma facility from requirements under a federal biofuels law, according to two industry sources briefed on the matter."
"The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general will open “new reviews” into ethics questions surrounding Administrator Scott Pruitt, including his $50-a-night rental of a lobbyist’s Capitol Hill condo last year."
"WASHINGTON - The Trump administration on Friday proposed relaxing a rule on offshore oil wells that was finalized after the 2010 BP Plc disaster and crude spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as part of its effort to slash regulations it considers burdensome on industry.
The exact revisions to the 2016 well control rule proposed by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), an office of the Department of Interior, will be known next week when they are published in the Federal Register.
"The Trump administration has drafted a proposal that would freeze fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles starting in 2021 and challenge California’s ability to set its own fuel-efficiency rules, changes that would hobble one of the Obama administration’s most significant initiatives to curb climate change."
"The agency charged with the critical missions of predicting the nation’s weather, monitoring its climate and protecting its coasts has lacked a permanent leader for one year and 95 days, since Donald Trump was elected president."
"Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency chief, had an easier time than expected on Capitol Hill on Thursday as he deflected Democrats’ pointed questions about accusations of ethical infractions and lavish personal spending at the taxpayers’ expense."
