More than 4,000 black men, women, and children died at the hands of white mobs between 1877 and 1950. Can you name any of them? This memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, is trying to change that. https://cnn.it/2uYVbQj
More than 4,000 black men, women, and children died at the hands of white mobs between 1877 and 1950. Can you name any of them? This memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, is trying to change that. https://cnn.it/2uYVbQj
Keystone Pipeline Spilled 407K Gallons in South Dakota, Double Previous Estimate
Lorraine Chow April 9, 2018
Release area of Amherst incident. TransCanada
TransCanada’s Keystone crude oil pipeline leaked 9,700 barrels (407,400 gallons) on rural farmland near the city of Amherst last year—nearly twice the original estimate of 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons), a company spokeswoman told the Aberdeen American News.
The Nov. 16 incident was already considered the largest spill in South Dakota, but its new estimate makes it the seventh largest inland spill in the whole U.S. since 2010, the South Dakota publication noted.
TransCanada shut down the 590,000 barrel-per-day pipeline, which runs from Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Texas, immediately after detecting a pressure drop in their operating system. Operations restarted about two weeks later. Federal investigators said construction damage when the pipeline was built in 2008 was likely to blame.
TransCanada
Repairs and cleanup efforts have since been made. The Calgary-based energy company said there was no impact to groundwater based on its own sampling.
“We have replaced the last of the topsoil and have seeded the impacted area,” the TransCanada spokeswoman told American News.
The spill drew fierce outcry from environmentalists and pipeline opponents, especially as it happened just days before Nebraska’s Public Service Commission would decide on whether its controversial sister project—the Keystone XL (KXL) Pipeline—will go forward.
“We need to stop all expansion of extreme fossil fuels such as tar sands oil—and we need the finance community to stop funding these preventable climate disasters—disasters for the climate, the environment and Indigenous rights,” Scott Parkin, Rainforest Action Network‘s Organizing Director, said then.
The leak occurred near the Lake Traverse Reservation, a region covered with wetlands and home of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. Many of its tribal members were on the ground during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests.
“My greatest concern is the safety of my family, my kids, and grandkids, and really all the people in this area no matter what race or color, because we all need clean water to live,” Mike Peters, a Sisseton Wahpeton member, said then. “The water and the land is important to us because everything has a spirit, and when anyone’s spirit is covered in oil it saddens all of us.”
TransCanada’s existing Keystone pipeline has gushed a significant amount of oil three times in less than seven years. That’s a much higher rate than the company predicted in its risk assessments provided to regulators, Reuters reported.
AP sources: EPA chief spent millions on security and travel
Michael Biesecker, AP April 6, 2018
In this Jan. 18, 2017 file photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Pruitt has spent millions of dollars in taxpayer funds on unprecedented security precautions that include a full-time detail of 20 armed officers, according to agency sources and documents reviewed by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt’s concern with his safety came at a steep cost to taxpayers as his swollen security detail blew through overtime budgets and at times diverted officers away from investigating environmental crimes.
Altogether, the agency spent millions of dollars for a 20-member full-time detail that is more than three times the size of his predecessor’s part-time security contingent.
New details in Pruitt’s expansive spending for security and travel emerged from agency sources and documents reviewed by The Associated Press. They come as the embattled EPA leader fends off allegations of profligate spending and ethical missteps that have imperiled his job.
Shortly after arriving in Washington, Pruitt demoted the career staff member heading his security detail and replaced him with EPA Senior Special Agent Pasquale “Nino” Perrotta, a former Secret Service agent who operates a private security company.
An EPA official with direct knowledge of Pruitt’s security spending says Perrotta oversaw a rapid expansion of the EPA chief’s security detail to accommodate guarding him day and night, even on family vacations and when Pruitt was home in Oklahoma. The EPA official spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Perrotta also signed off on new procedures that let Pruitt fly first-class on commercial airliners, with the security chief typically sitting next to him with other security staff farther back in the plane. Pruitt’s premium status gave him and his security chief access to VIP airport lounges.
The EPA official said there are legitimate concerns about Pruitt’s safety, given public opposition to his rollbacks of anti-pollution measures.
But Pruitt’s ambitious domestic and international travel led to rapidly escalating costs, with the security detail racking up so much overtime that many hit annual salary caps of about $160,000. The demands of providing 24-hour coverage even meant taking some investigators away from field work, such as when Pruitt traveled to California for a family vacation.
The EPA official said total security costs approached $3 million when pay is added to travel expenses.
EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox said late Friday that Pruitt has faced an “unprecedented” amount of death threats against him and his family.
“Americans should all agree that members of the President’s cabinet should be kept safe from these violent threats,” Wilcox said.
A nationwide search of state and federal court records by AP found no case where anyone has been arrested or charged with threatening Pruitt. EPA’s press office did not respond Friday to provide details of any specific threats or arrests.
Pruitt has said his use of first-class airfare was initiated following unpleasant interactions with other travelers. In one incident, someone yelled a profanity as he walked through the airport.
The EPA administrator has come under intense scrutiny for ethics issues and outsized spending. Among the concerns: massive raises for two of closest aides and his rental of a Capitol Hill condo tied to a lobbyist who represents fossil fuel clients.
At least three congressional Republicans and a chorus of Democrats have called for Pruitt’s ouster. But President Donald Trump is so far standing by him.
A review of Pruitt’s ethical conduct by White House officials is underway, adding to probes by congressional oversight committees and EPA’s inspector general.
Pruitt, 49, was closely aligned with the oil and gas industry as Oklahoma’s state attorney general before being tapped by Trump. Trump has praised Pruitt’s relentless efforts to scrap, delay or rewrite Obama-era environmental regulations. He also has championed budget cuts and staff reductions at the agency so deep that even Republican budget hawks in Congress refused to implement them.
EPA’s press office has refused to disclose the cost of Pruitt’s security or the size of his protective detail, saying doing so could imperil his personal safety.
But other sources within EPA and documents released through public information requests help provide a window into the ballooning costs.
In his first three months in office, before pricey overseas trips to Italy and Morocco, the price tag for Pruitt’s security detail hit more than $832,000, according to EPA documents released through a public information request.
Nearly three dozen EPA security and law enforcement agents were assigned to Pruitt, according to a summary of six weeks of weekly schedules obtained by Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
Those schedules show multiple EPA security agents accompanied Pruitt on a family vacation to California that featured a day at Disneyland and a New Year’s Day football game where his home state Oklahoma Sooners were playing in the Rose Bowl. Multiple agents also accompanied Pruitt to a baseball game at the University of Kentucky and at his house outside Tulsa, during which no official EPA events were scheduled.
On weekend trips home for Sooners football games, when taxpayers weren’t paying for his ticket, the EPA official said Pruitt flew coach. He sometimes used a companion pass obtained with frequent flyer miles accumulated by Ken Wagner, a former law partner whom Pruitt hired as a senior adviser at EPA at a salary of more than $172,000. Taxpayers still covered the airfare for the administrator’s security detail.
Pruitt’s predecessor, Gina McCarthy, had a security detail that numbered about a half dozen, less than a third the size of Pruitt’s. She flew coach and was not accompanied by security during her off hours, like on weekend trips home to Boston.
Pruitt was accompanied by nine aides and a security detail during a trip to Italy in June that cost more than $120,000. He visited the U.S. Embassy in Rome and took a private tour of the Vatican before briefly attending a meeting of G-7 environmental ministers in Bologna.
Private Italian security guards hired by Perrotta helped arrange an expansive motorcade for Pruitt and his entourage, according to the EPA official with direct knowledge of the trip. The source described the Italian additions as personal friends of Perrotta, who joined Pruitt and his EPA staff for an hours-long dinner at an upscale restaurant.
Perrotta’s biography, on the website of his company, Sequoia Security Group, says that during his earlier stint with the Secret Service he worked with the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian finance police.
The EPA spent nearly $9,000 last year on increased counter-surveillance precautions for Pruitt, including hiring a private contractor to sweep his office for hidden listening devices and installing sophisticated biometric locks for the doors. The payment for the bug sweep went to a vice president at Perrotta’s security company.
The EPA official who spoke to AP said Perrotta also arranged the installation of a $43,000 soundproof phone booth for Pruitt’s office.
At least five EPA officials were placed on leave, reassigned or demoted after pushing back against spending requests such as a $100,000-a-month private jet membership, a bulletproof vehicle and $70,000 for furniture such as a bulletproof desk for the armed security officer always stationed inside the administrator’s office suite.
Those purchases were not approved. But Pruitt got an ornate refurbished desk comparable in grandeur to the one in the Oval Office.
Among the officials who faced consequences for resisting such spending was EPA Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Kevin Chmielewski, a former Trump campaign staffer who was placed on unpaid administrative leave this year.
The prior head of Pruitt’s security detail, Eric Weese, was demoted last year after he refused Pruitt’s demand to use the lights and sirens on his government-owned SUV to get him through Washington traffic to the airport and dinner reservations.
Follow Associated Press environmental reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck
Related: From HuffPost
Jim Carrey is not letting up. The actor/comedian/artist unveiled a new painting, and this one takes on Scott Pruitt, the embattled administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that the agency had approved a pipeline project while Pruitt was renting a room from the wife of a lobbyist representing the pipeline’s owner.
In Carrey’s painting, a pipeline features very prominently:
Jim Carrey:
Jim Carrey: I looked on Trivago. The cheapest room in Washington is a youth hostel with bunkbeds at $81 a night. The $50 room Scott Pruitt got was a bribe from an energy lobbyist. Need your pipeline approved? Do it through Pruitt!
A Key Russian Figure with Connections to Trump and the NRA Faces Sanctions
Alexander Torshin is also reportedly under investigation by the FBI.
By Tim Dickinson April 6, 2018
Alexander Torshin Mario Ruiz/Epa/REX/Shutterstock, Mark Peterson/Redux
Alexander Torshin, the Russian government official Rolling Stone reports is central to a nearly decade-long influence campaign over the NRA, has been hit with sanctions by the United States Treasury Department. Torshin is a lifetime, voting member of the NRA, and the FBI is reportedly investigating whether he illegally funneled money through the organization with the intention to help the 2016 Trump campaign.
Femme fatales, lavish Moscow parties and dark money – how Russia worked the National Rifle Association.
Torshin is among nearly three dozen Russian oligarchs, companies and government officials who were added to the sanctions list Friday by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Torshin is now on the list by authority of an executive order signed in 2014 relating to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and interference in Ukraine. According to the text of the executive order, these sanctions freeze any American-based or -linked assets Torshin may have and bans his travel to the United States. According to Treasury, “U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealings” with the newly sanctioned individuals.
Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, underscored the need for the expanded sanctions in a statement: “The Russian government engages in a range of malign activity around the globe, including continuing to occupy Crimea and instigate violence in eastern Ukraine… attempting to subvert Western democracies, and malicious cyber activities,” Mnuchin said. “Russian oligarchs and elites who profit from this corrupt system will no longer be insulated from the consequences of their government’s destabilizing activities.”
As Rolling Stone‘s investigation reveals, Torshin has been an NRA member since at least 2010, cultivating deep ties to its leadership, including at the NRA’s annual conventions and through NRA delegation visits to Moscow, most recently in December 2015. Through his NRA connections, Torshin sought to broker a meeting between candidate Trump and Vladimir Putin in 2016, later meeting with Donald Trump, Jr. at May 2016 NRA convention.
On the Straits of Mackinac: Waterfront view, apprehensions of disaster
Patty Peek April 6, 2018
(Photo: Keith King, Associated Press)
I am an incredibly blessed woman. I live on the shores of an area known as the Center of the Freshwater World: the Straits of Mackinac, where Lakes Huron intersects with Lake Michigan.
Each day, I look out over the clear blue water and thank my creator. No two days are ever alike on the Straits: The wind changes, the sky changes, the water changes.
One day the surf can be so ferocious that even the biggest freighters are forced to take shelter. On other days, it’s a tranquil mirror reflecting the clouds overhead.
I love these waters. They are vital to shipping, fishing, tourism — and to life itself. I have worked in Sub-Saharan Africa for the last 12 years. I have witnessed the challenges of a lack of access to clean water. I have seen the horrors of extended drought. I have watched women try to gather cups of water from puddles in the road after a rain. I have treated hundreds of children for water born diseases and health problems related to a lack of clean drinking water. When I look out at the Straits, I wonder why I am so lucky to have such a life-giving resource in my front yard.
I also wonder why we are not better stewards of this resource. Why aren’t we doing everything we can do to protect a resource that, honestly, is the most precious thing on Earth?
Waking to the peril
Over the past few years, I have became much more aware of the risk of the oil and gas pipelines running alongside and under our waters.
I have spoken out about the risks of Line 5, the two 20-inch-diameter oil pipelines owned by the Canadian company Enbridge, I have spoken about the difficulty of cleaning up an oil spill on days when the Straits are ice-covered, and not even the Coast Guard will venture out.
I never knew we had other dangers under our waters.
This past Sunday night, the electric transmission cable running under the Straits began to leak dielectric fluid, an an oily substance that may contain a known carcinogen.
The Coast Guard was alerted on Monday. In the meantime, a minimum of 400 gallons, of this substance (and likely much more than that) leaked into the beautiful fresh water of the Straits.
As I write this, on Wednesday, the cable is shut down. But there is no assurance that the leak is totally stopped; there are 4,000-plus gallons of that liquid sitting in those underwater cables, and the site of the leak is not known.
Patty Peek is a registered nurse. She lives in St. Ignace. (Photo: Patty Peek)
Fragility, and peril
Right now, I am staring out my window, looking at the area where I would hope to see massive clean-up efforts. I would love to see a flotilla of ships, skimmers cleaning the waters of the substances, and volunteers combing the beach for birds and other animals that may have been affected.
But no — these are the Straits. We have sustained winds of 20 m.p.h, today, and gusts of 30 to 35 m.p.h. Our north shoreline (near the power transmission station) is still ice-covered, and we continue to experience a spring storm that brought 10 inches of snow last night and this morning.
No ships can venture out. No skimmers are employed. I’m sickened to know that beneath that ice and water, there is a potentially lethal, toxic substance that is floating in the water, meandering in the unpredictable currents of the lake. Is it gathering in a pool in front of my house? Is it swirling under the bridge? Is it floating past Mackinac Island or Sturgeon Bay?
What will this mean for the whitefish, lake trout, lake perch, walleye? What will it mean for the waterfowl? What will it mean for the cities and towns that rely on water from the Great Lakes for their drinking water?
So while the news is slowly filtering out from various media sources about what is being done, I see nothing out my window except a disaster in the making.
Is this what we have to look forward to with Pipeline 5 crossing the straights of Mackinac? JH
EcoWatch
Cracked Undersea Pipeline Caused Deadly Oil Spill in Indonesia
Lorraine Chow April 5, 2018Greenpeace Indonesia / Instagram
A burst undersea pipeline owned by Indonesian state-owned oil and natural gas corporation Pertamina caused a deadly oil spill on Saturday that left Balikpapan Bay in Borneo “like a gas station.”
The company initially said the disaster had nothing to do with its nearby refinery or undersea pipelines that run across the bay, noting that its own tests on oil spill samples found marine fuel oil used for ships, not crude oil.
But on Wednesday, Pertamina admitted that its crude oil pipeline was indeed the cause. A company manager noted the distribution line was closed immediately after divers detected the leakage on Tuesday. A test on a tenth oil spill sample also confirmed that it was crude. The firm is now calculating the amount of oil leaked into the bay.
The government, however, insists the incident is not Pertamina’s fault. An energy ministry official cast blame on a foreign coal vessel that dropped anchor in the bay and dragged the pipeline 120 meters from its initial location, causing it to crack.
“The pipe was allegedly dragged by an anchor dropped by a vessel, though no vessel was permitted to drop anchor or even pass through the bay,” Djoko Siswanto, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s oil and gas director general, said, according to The Jakarta Post.
Deadly oil spill leaves Indonesian Bay like “A gas station.” Hundreds of locals have reported health issues including difficulty breathing, nausea and vomiting from the smell of fuel and black smoke.
The minister did not identify which ship but police investigating the spill have questioned the crew of the Panama-flagged MV Ever Judger.
“So, this was actually the fault of the vessel. […] As there were casualties in the incident, the owner of the vessel could be charged for the crime. But it all still depends on the results of the ongoing investigation,” Djoko said.
Greenpeace Indonesia said Pertamina is responsible for the disaster. On social media, the group condemned the state-run company for the tragedy and charged it with restoring the Balikpapan Bay ecosystem.
“This is why the world has got to start switching to renewable energy and leaving behind the limited fossil energy and destroying our planetary environment and our future,” Greenpeace Indonesia said (via Google Translate).
Indonesia declared a state of emergency on Monday after the spill ignited and killed at least five people in the port city of Balikpapan over the weekend. Hundreds of locals reported health issues including difficulty breathing, nausea and vomiting from the smell of fuel and black smoke that emanated from the blaze.
The environment ministry said the oil slick has spread across 13,000 hectares (50 square miles) of Balikpapan’s waters and polluted 60 kilometers (37 miles) of coastal ecosystems, including mangrove wetlands and marine mammal habitats.
Zulficar Mochtar from the marine and fishery ministry said the spill threatens the ecosystem, economy and livelihoods of local fishermen.
“We cannot solve this problem alone, we need to find collective solution. The efforts would be beyond beach cleaning,” Mochtar said on Thursday.
Humans Eat More Than 100 Plastic Fibers With Each Meal
The proliferation of microplastics in the ocean has led to concerns that they might work their way up the food chain to us.
Olivia Rosane April 5, 2018
assets.rbl.ms
But when researchers at Heriot-Watt University set out to investigate that concern, they found that plastics in our own homes pose a much greater threat to humans.
The results of the study, published March 29 in Environmental Pollution, found that humans likely consume about 114 plastic microfibers each meal simply from household dust that settles on their plates.
Researchers gathered mussels from around the coast of Scotland in order to assess how many microplastics humans might ingest by eating the mussels.
As a control, they also set Petri dishes filled with sticky dust traps next to dinner plates at three separate homes.
Fourteen pieces of plastic settled on the dishes after 20 minutes, about the length of a meal. Given the difference in size, scientists calculated 114 such pieces would settle on a plate during the same time.
That adds up to 13,731 to 68,415 pieces per year.
In comparison, researchers calculated that eating mussels would only lead humans to ingest 100 microplastics yearly. Each mussel they studied contained about two plastic particles.
“These results may be surprising to some people who may expect the plastic fibres in seafood to be higher than those in household dust,” senior study author Dr. Ted Henry said in a Heriot-Watt University press release.
The study’s authors did not think that the plastics came from the home-cooked meals used in the study or the kitchens where they were prepared.
“We do not know where these fibres come from, but it is likely to be inside the home and the wider environment,” Henry said in the release.
Friends of the Earth member Julian Kirby provided the university with insight into how plastic particles end up in dust.
“Plastic microfibers found in the dust in our homes and the air we breathe can come from car tyres, carpets and soft furnishings, as well as clothes such as fleece jackets. These are regularly shedding tiny bits of plastic into the environment as they are worn away,” he said in the Heriot-Watt release.
According to a study published in Lancet Planetary Health in October, 2017, the proliferation of microplastics in the environment is a concern in part because the impact on human health is still not well-known.
However, even if marine microplastics are not the main source for human consumption, they are still a major problem for marine life. The study also marked the first time microplastics were found in the protected mussel species Modiolus modiolus.
Fox News (Yes, Fox News) Just Exposed Scott Pruitt as the Ultimate Swamp Creature
Even the president’s favorite network wasn’t buying his bullshit.
By Jack Holmes April 5, 2018
Screenshot
Scott Pruitt has raced to frontrunner status in our favorite new reality show, America’s Next Top Swampmonster.
Like others in President Trump’s supposedly swamp-draining cabinet, the EPA administrator was known as a big fan of flying first-class at incredible taxpayer expense. In one instance, he flew top-shelf from Washington, D.C. to New York—a four-hour drive—for a mere $1,600. But this week, we learned Pruitt had designs on being captain of this cabinet’s Blue Angels, as EPA explored leasing a private jet for Pruitt on a monthly basis. It would have cost a mere $100,000 in taxpayer cash each month, according to The Washington Post, and so was abandoned.
That little bit of public service was obscured, however, by two more episodes in Pruitt’s No Good, Very Bad Week and a Half. The Atlanticreported Pruitt went to the White House seeking raises for two longtime aides he brought with him from the Oklahoma attorney general’s office. When the request was denied, Pruitt allegedly used an obscure provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act to grant the raises anyway—to the tune of over 20-grand and 50-grand respectively. Pruitt now denies any knowledge of the raises, and had them peeled back this week after they went public.
Getty Images
And finally, there’s the condo. ABC News broke the news that Pruitt got a sweetheart deal from the wife of a Washington lobbyist to rent a posh apartment, situated on prime D.C. real estate just steps from the Capitol, for just $50 a night. This is far below market rate. And Pruitt paid only when he stayed there. Considering the lobbyist in question represents ExxonMobil, among a host of other firms, this is a bit of obvious swampitude—to the point that even Fox News can’t abide it.
Pruitt sought comfort inside the president’s favorite television network Wednesday evening, but to his credit, correspondent Ed Henry pulled no punches and left Pruitt squirming and stammering in his chair:
Pruitt has done more interviews with Fox than all other networks combined, mostly because they’ll swallow his sell lines about the virtues of rolling back every environmental regulation, ever. This week, that included trashing a rule aimed at curbing vehicle emissions, perhaps to protect Americans’ freedom to inhale more smog. But Henry put Pruitt on the back foot throughout, starting with an exchange over the raises:
HENRY: You don’t know? You run the agency. You don’t know who did this?
PRUITT: I found out about this yesterday, and I corrected the action.
Pruitt throwing his staff under the bus is no surprise—he is, after all, a Trumpist. (Ben Carson threw his own wife under the bus.) But it doesn’t pass the laugh test that two of his closest aides got raises that proved extraordinary in more ways than one and Pruitt didn’t know a thing about it.
But then came the condo:
HENRY: President Trump said he would drain the swamp. Is draining the swamp renting an apartment from the wife of a Washington lobbyist?
PRUITT: I don’t think that that’s remotely fair to ask that question.
That just about says it all. Pruitt not only believes the rules don’t apply to him—he gets legitimately indignant when asked to be accountable to the public.
That didn’t shake Henry, though, and neither did Pruitt’s line about how the lease had been approved by EPA ethics officials. Henry reminded him that Pruitt only sought that approval when the cozy arrangement went public in the last week—months and months after it all went down. Pruitt did not care whether it abided by ethics rules until he was forced to. And then Henry got the administrator to admit he only paid for the apartment on nights he was staying there, the benefits of which the Fox host was forced to spell out to Pruitt:
HENRY: Your house in Oklahoma, you pay a mortgage on that. And when you don’t sleep there, you still pay the mortgage, right?
PRUITT: Not when I’m not using it. I mean, yes. This is a tremendous difference. I wasn’t using the facility, uh, Ed, when I wasn’t there.
Notice Pruitt’s cagey default reaction is just to make something up. No, I don’t pay my mortgage when I’m not there—wait, yes I do! He then explained that he wasn’t using the apartment when he wasn’t there, which is true and also has no bearing on the ethics.
The fact is Pruitt got a sweetheart deal on Washington real estate from the wife of a lobbyist, and at least one of that lobbyist’s clients got approval for a project from the EPA. This is a conflict of interest, an ethics disaster, and perfectly on-brand for the Trump administration.
Getty Images
Pruitt has always transparently operated on behalf of special interests. The New York Timesgot hold of his schedule book and found it filled with fancy dinners and expensive lunches with representatives from—and lobbyists for—the industries the EPA is tasked with regulating. Pruitt had a top-secret secure phone booth installed in his offices at the agency so that his communications couldn’t be monitored. It was supposed to cost $25,000 in taxpayer cash, but ended up at over $43,000. That was spent presumably so that Pruitt can more effectively Protect the Environment, and definitely not so he can coordinate with those same lobbyists and industry types.
Of all the swamp monsters summoned forth by the Trump Era, Pruitt may well be the most diabolical. He was party to a baker’s dozen of lawsuits against the EPA at the time he was nominated to lead it. As Oklahoma’s attorney general, he received a letter from a prominent energy company complaining about EPA regulations, then stamped his letterhead on it and sent it on to the EPA as official correspondence from this office.
Since becoming the head of the EPA, he has rolled back every regulation in sight, including the Clean Power Plan, which is the United States’ main initiative to comply with the Paris Climate Accords.
Getty Images
That ought to be the most damning dimension of his legacy, along with whatever harm he brings to the quality of air and water in the United States. One wonders how many more Flints there will be by the time Pruitt leaves office. Instead, his obvious swampitude will probably hold the public’s attention.
Pruitt believes he should be free to act however he pleases as a public official, feeding special interests and living in style on the taxpayer dime. That much is clear from the interview. Even worse: He is insulted when you dare ask him why. It’s not just the environment—the very principle of holding public servants accountable is under threat right now. Props to Ed Henry for keeping the tradition alive.
Scott Pruitt Says His Lobbyist Landlord’s Clients Didn’t Have Business Before the EPA. They Did.
The EPA chief’s defense of his sweetheart rental is lacking some basic facts.
Sam Stein, Lachlan Markay April 5, 2018
As he doggedly tries to save his job amid a mounting ethics scandal, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has insisted that there was no formal or informal conflict of interest when he rented a room from high-profile Washington D.C lobbyist, J. Steven Hart.
“Mr. Hart,” Pruitt claimed in an recent interview with Fox News on Wednesday, “has no clients who have business before this agency.”
A review of lobbying disclosure forms and publicly-listed EPA records, however, suggests that Pruitt is either lying or is woefully unfamiliar with the operations of his own agency.
Far from being removed from any EPA-related interests, Hart was personally representing a natural gas company, an airline giant, and a major manufacturer that had business before the agency at the time he was also renting out a room to Pruitt. One of his clients is currently battling the EPA in court over an order to pay more than $100 million in environmental cleanup costs.
The New York Times previously reported that Hart’s firm, Williams & Jensen, represented a company that got a pipeline expansion project approved by the EPA. But that only scratches the surface of Hart’s deep involvement in the energy industry—and advocacy on behalf of clients with business before the agency that his one-time tenant leads.
Hart himself was part of a team of four Williams & Jensen lobbyists that has reported lobbying Pruitt’s EPA. They did so on behalf of Owens-Illinois, a glass bottle manufacturer that paid $39 million in 2012 to settle EPA allegations of widespread Clean Air Act violations by a subsidiary. In June 2017, while Pruitt lived at Hart’s DC condo, another of the company’s subsidiaries settled additional EPA allegations that it violated the same law.
“We know that Steven Hart’s firm had clients before the EPA,” said Craig Holman, Government Affairs Lobbyist for the good-government group Public Citizen. “So his insistence that there is no conflict of interest is just off the wall.”
Even clients of Hart’s who didn’t enlist him to lobby the EPA directly had at least tangential business before the agency.
Among them is industrial equipment manufacturer Stanley Black & Decker, which is currently in litigation with the EPA over its own environmental liabilities. In 2014, the EPA ordered the company to pay $104 million in cleanup costs at a super-fund site in Rhode Island. Black & Decker disputed the ruling, but estimated in its most recent annual shareholder report, it expects that it may eventually have to pay between $68 million and $140 million in remediation costs at the site. The case is currently working its way through federal court, an EPA official confirmed to The Daily Beast. And Pruitt himself has directly weighed in on the matter, elevating the super-fund site as a target for immediate and intense attention.
Hart’s other clients include Cheniere Energy, which as Fox’s Ed Henry noted operates liquified natural gas terminals on the Gulf Coast and is reportedly one of the best positioned companies for Pruitt’s American gas export campaign. “Steve has never represented them,” Pruitt insisted to Henry.
In a separate interview with The Daily Signal, the news arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, Pruitt claimed that “[Hart’s] firm represents these [energy industry] clients, not him. There has been no connection whatsoever in that regard.”
In fact, Hart represents numerous firms in the energy space, in addition to Cheniere. Black & Decker subsidiary Stanley Oil and Gas “provides world-class pipeline services and equipment in more than 100 countries, offshore and onshore,” according to its website. Another Hart client, Smithfield Foods, manufactures energy through the use of animal waste collected at its hog production facilities. Hart’s lobbying on behalf of the company routinely includes advocacy on energy policy issues.
Other Hart clients have had business before the EPA on either ceremonial or non-energy related matters. Hart represents the Coca-Cola Company, which has landfill and bottling operations that have fallen under the EPA’s purview. Hart represents United Airlines, which is involved in an aircraft drinking rule program for which the EPA—while Pruitt was staying at Hart’s condo—issued self-inspection requirements. And until December 31 of last year, Hart represented the American Automotive Policy Council, a trade group formed by Chrysler, Ford Motor Company and General Motors; automakers that have numerous policy interests the overlap with the chief environmental protection agency in America.
A request for comment to Hart was not returned seeking clarity as to what, if anything, he did to advance his clients interests before the EPA. In some cases, however, it is clear that his clients fared poorly. This past week, for example, Pruitt announced that he would be rolling back Obama-era car emissions standards, a policy that both Ford and GM have been vocal about not supporting, as one plugged-in Hill source explained.
An Illinois town passed an assault weapons ban – now the NRA is backing an effort to overturn it
By Brianna Provenzano April 5, 2018
After officials in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois, unanimously voted to ban the sale, manufacture and possession of assault weapons on Monday, prominent gun rights group Guns Save Life vowed to take legal action against the ordinance — and the National Rifle Association said that it will help.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Institute for Legislative Action — the lobbying arm of the NRA — said that the organization “is pleased to assist [Gun] Save Life” in its legal efforts to challenge the village of Deerfield’s confiscation ordinance.
“Every law-abiding villager of Deerfield has the right to protect themselves, their homes and their loved ones with the firearm that best suits their needs,” Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA-ILA, said in the statement. “The National Rifle Association is pleased to assist [Guns] Save Life in defense of this freedom.”
With the passage of the Deerfield ban, residents will have until June 13 to remove existing assault weapons and large capacity magazines from within the village limits, with a failure to do so potentially resulting in fines of up to $1,000 a day, Matthew Rose, the village attorney, told the Chicago Tribune.
Deerfield officials released a statement Tuesday explaining that the town had based its law on an ordinance passed by Highland Park, Illinois, in 2013. That ordinance faced legal challenges but was deemed lawful by a federal appeals court, according to the Tribune.The Supreme Court declined to consider the case.
John Boch, the president of Guns Save Life, said in the NRA’s statement that the ordinance “clearly violates our member’s constitutional rights.”
“With the help of the NRA I believe we can secure a victory for law-abiding gun owners in and around Deerfield,” he said.
In an email to Mic, Boch declined to comment further on the lawsuit, but did elaborate on the decision in a piece published on TheTruthAboutGuns.com on Thursday.
“The AR-15 stands as America’s favorite rifle for a number of very good reasons.” Boch wrote. “Yes, guns protect families. Guns protect children. Banning one of the most effective guns widely in use by America’s nearly 100 million gun owners will only serve to protect criminals, lunatics and terrorists.”
Deerfield Mayor Harriet Rosenthal asked the village attorney and town staff to draft an ordinance following the Feb. 14 shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school that left 17 students and faculty members dead, according to the town’s statement.
In the wake of that tragedy, the surviving students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have become some of the most prominent faces of the national movement for gun reform — and it was their composure and poise, Rosenthal said, that inspired Deerfield to take action.
“Enough is enough,” Rosenthal told the Chicago Tribune. “Those students are so articulate just like our students. There is no place here for assault weapons.”
Release area of Amherst incident. TransCanada
TransCanada
In this Jan. 18, 2017 file photo, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Pruitt has spent millions of dollars in taxpayer funds on unprecedented security precautions that include a full-time detail of 20 armed officers, according to agency sources and documents reviewed by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Jim Carrey:
Alexander Torshin Mario Ruiz/Epa/REX/Shutterstock, Mark Peterson/Redux
Femme fatales, lavish Moscow parties and dark money – how Russia worked the National Rifle Association.
(Photo: Keith King, Associated Press)
Patty Peek is a registered nurse. She lives in St. Ignace. (Photo: Patty Peek)
Greenpeace Indonesia / Instagram
Screenshot
Getty Images
Getty Images
Getty Images
As he doggedly tries to save his job amid a mounting ethics scandal, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has insisted that there was no formal or informal conflict of interest when he rented a room from high-profile Washington D.C lobbyist, J. Steven Hart.
Steven Hart Lobbying Form