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Like targets in a shooting gallery, the Trump administration continues to take aim at the most significant environmental decisions by the Obama administration. In the latest action, the EPA announced a settlement agreement with the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP), the consortium seeking to build a copper and gold ore mine in the headwaters of Bristol […]
The Florida House and Senate unanimously approved a bill that would exempt processing of certain recovered materials from solid waste regulations. The fate of the bill is now in the hands of Republican Governor Rick Scott. The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Plastics Division said it welcomed this “first-of-its-kind” legislation, which “will make Florida a welcoming […]
In a memo sent to senior EPA staff, Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt describes the actions he will take to meet his ethics obligations. Pruitt states that he will not participate in two types of activities: (1) those involving the state of Oklahoma, where Pruitt served as attorney general (AG) before coming to the EPA, and […]
Members of Congress continue to ask President Donald Trump to not cut EPA programs that offer particular benefits to their states or districts. One such request was made by Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), who has been fighting to preserve the Agency’s Federal Vehicle and Fuels Standards and Certification Program, which would receive zero funding under […]
By a vote of 51 to 49, the Senate rejected moving forward with a resolution that would have nullified the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) final rule to prevent waste of natural gas from venting, flaring, and leaks during oil and natural gas production activities on onshore federal and Indian leases (November 18, 2016, FR).
May is American Wetlands Month. With President Donald Trump’s promise to repeal, or at the very least revise, the Clean Water Rule with its definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS) that was established during the Obama administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is mired in controversy over the extent of federal responsibility […]
Thanks to the 2016 Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act, a state may apply to the EPA to operate its own permit program for regulating coal combustion residuals (CCRs). In a recent letter to governors, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt explained that the Agency is developing guidance on what such an application should contain […]
A mere 4 months after President Barack Obama banned energy development in tens of millions of acres of the Arctic Ocean, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) stating that leasing to energy companies in those areas will be resumed “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The EO applies the same open leasing […]
In a one-page order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted an EPA request to delay oral arguments over the legality of EPA’s Supplemental Finding that It Is Appropriate and Necessary to Regulate Hazardous Air Pollutants from Coal—and Oil-fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units (April 25, 2016, Federal Register (FR)). The oral […]
Environmental groups, states, health institutions, and even some power companies that support the federal Clean Power Plan (CPP) are discovering how difficult it is to keep the rule alive when the very agency that wrote it is committed to wiping it off the books.