Tag Archives: Environment

9/29/2017 Carmen Yulín Cruz, mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan, pleaded with the White House for immediate aid. “This is a ‘people are dying’ story,” she told CNN Friday morning. “Dammit, this is not a good news story,” Cruz said. “This is a people-are-dying story. This is a life or death story. . . . When you have people out there dying, ...

9/26/2017 The Washington Post reported today that EPA chief Scott Pruitt will receive a private secure phone compartment built into his office.  The cost to taxpayers is approximately $25,000.00 Typically, such soundproof booths are used to conduct hearing tests. But the EPA sought a customized version — one that eventually would cost several times more than a typical model — that Pruitt can ...

8/20/2017 The Trump administration has decided to disband the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment, a group aimed at helping policymakers and private-sector officials incorporate the government’s climate analysis into long-term planning. The charter for the 15-person Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment — which includes academics as well as local officials and corporate representatives — expires Sunday. On ...

Fearing the Trump administration would bury the report, a group of federal scientists leaked a draft of a sweeping climate change report to the press.  The 543 page report, produced by hundreds of scientists in 13 federal agencies, contradicts President Trump’s beliefs that global warming is a hoax.  The report (normally) must be approved by the White House before it is ...

8/1/2017 14 states, including New York, have filed a lawsuit against the EPA after it delayed enacting tougher clean air air standards designed to fight smog.   In early June, Scott Pruitt, Trump’s choice to lead the EPA, decided to delay implementation of the Obama administration’s 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards to Oct. 1, 2018. Among the states that signed ...

7/19/2017 Tuesday the House voted to pass a Republican-backed bill delaying implementation of Obama-era reductions in smog-causing air pollutants.  The bill will delay the implementation of 2015 air pollution standards issued by the EPA for eight years.  The bill will also make other changes that will weaken the Clean Air Act, including reviewing air-quality standards every ten years, instead of ...

6/9/2017 President Trump met with top Republican lawmakers on Tuesday, and suggested adding solar panels to the wall with Mexico.  The idea is that the electricity generated could be sold to pay for construction and maintenance of the wall, which has yet to receive funding. Experts differ if the project would make economic sense, with one projecting the solar panels ...

“We’re getting out”  Trump stated today from the White House Rose Garden, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” 190 out of 193 countries had signed on to the Paris agreement, intended to address global warming on a world scale.  Now, only Syria, Nicaragua and the United States have decided not to join the effort that ...