Trump/Pruitt team’s strategic plan for EPA, and why it matters – “Woefully inadequate on all accounts”

  31 October 2017  (Save EPA) – The draft EPA strategic plan released by Trump/Pruitt earlier this month is woefully inadequate on all accounts. Save EPA’s Comments on the FY 2018-2022 EPA Strategic Plan Dear Administrator Pruitt:Save EPA is a volunteer organization made up of retired and former employees of the Environmental Protection Agency. We […]

Puerto Rico leaders don’t know who has power, and CNN tried to find out – “It’s been an extreme challenge based on the devastation that Hurricane Maria brought”

By Leyla Santiago, Khushbu Shah, and Rachel Clarke 4 November 2017 SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (CNN) – Towns and communities across Puerto Rico are entirely without power, more than six weeks after Hurricane Maria.The island’s leadership is touting restoration figures that show nearly 40% of electricity generation has resumed — but it doesn’t say how […]

EPA names industry, state officials to advisory boards

By Timothy Cama 3 November 2017 (The Hill) – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) overhauled its external advisory boards Friday with new members representing various regulated industries and states, among other entities.Among the dozens of new members to the Science Advisory Board, Clean Air Safety Advisory Committee and Board of Scientific Counselors are representatives of […]

U.S. withdraws from extractive industries anti-corruption effort– “It sends such a terrible signal overseas for what we stand for”

By Julia Simon; Editing by Tom Brown 2 November 2017 NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States has withdrawn as an implementing country from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international effort to fight corruption in managing revenues from oil, gas, and mineral extraction. There had been doubts about continued U.S. participation in the […]

Trump administration allows release of dire climate report that contradicts views of Trump officials– “This is a federal government report whose contents completely undercut their policies, completely undercuts the statements made by senior members of the administration”

By Chris Mooney, Juliet Eilperin, and Brady Dennis 3 November 2017 (The Washington Post) – The Trump administration released a dire scientific report Friday detailing the growing threats of climate change. The report stands in stark contrast to the administration’s efforts to downplay humans’ role in global warming, withdraw from an international climate accord and […]

Trump to auction off a vast swath of the Gulf of Mexico to oil companies – Gulf is now “a sacrifice zone for the oil and gas industry”

By Darryl Fears 24 October 2017 (The Washington Post) – The Trump administration made history Tuesday in proposing that nearly 77 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico be made available for companies wanting to purchase federal oil and gas leases — the largest offering ever in the United States.In announcing the sale, the Interior […]

Visiting the remote headquarters of Whitefish Energy, recipient of controversial Puerto Rico contract

27 October 2017 (CBS News) – The Trump administration denied Friday that political connections had anything to do with restoring electrical connections in Puerto Rico.A contract worth $300 million was awarded to a tiny company called Whitefish Energy in Whitefish, Montana, hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Zinke said Friday he had nothing to do […]

FBI is probing $300 million Puerto Rico power contract – Trump official claims, “I had absolutely nothing to do with Whitefish Energy receiving a contract in Puerto Rico”

By Rebecca Savransky and Timothy Cama 30 October 2017 (The Hill) – The FBI is reportedly investigating the $300 million contract awarded to Whitefish Energy to repair Puerto Rico’s electrical grid in the wake of Hurricane Maria.People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that FBI agents from the San Juan field office […]

Five years after Hurricane Sandy, is New York City better prepared?

By Patrick McGeehan and Winnie Hu 29 October 2017 (The New York Times) – At 8:30 p.m. on a Monday, millions of residents of the most man-made landscape in the United States were reminded how powerless they were against the forces of nature.Hurricane Sandy shoved the East River across the F.D.R. Drive onto the streets […]

Noted psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton on climate change and the human mind – “The Trump administration, in rejecting climate change and global warming, is doing profound damage every day”

By Diane Toomey 26 October 2017 (Yale Environment 360) – Psychiatrist and historian Robert Jay Lifton has delved deep into the some of the darkest issues and most traumatic events of the 20th century with his research into the mindset of Nazi doctors, terrorism, the experiences of prisoners of war, and the aftermath of nuclear […]

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