EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images

By Madeleine Sheehan Perkins
4 May 2017 (Business Insider) – Top staffers at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are signaling they are on the side of the coal industry with remarks given by senior policy advisor Mandy Gunasekara at the coal industry’s Eastern Fuel Buyers conference. “I’m here to talk to you to make sure what we’re doing in D.C. is beneficial for you. If it’s not working, I want to hear about it so that we can work it out,” Gunasekara told the crowd of coal sector employees, according to the financial news and data-analysis website SNL.com. The new EPA administration signals a departure from President Barack Obama’s EPA, which passed actions like the Clean Power Plan and the Waters of the United States Rule to limit power plant emissions and support water protection. The Trump administration has rolled back 23 environmental protections to date. Gunasekara took exception to that notion, saying “we’re rooting out what is superfluous and what is not necessary to actually achieve meaningful environmental protection.” She added, “We’ll do a lot more. We’re going to keep going” on rolling back existing environmental regulation. Gunasekara told the crowd she will help “tear back the problems that stemmed from decisions of the last administration.” [more]

Senior policy adviser says Trump’s EPA chief is here to help the coal industry