Scott Pruitt, Under Fire, Plans to Initiate a Big Environmental Rollback
Source: nytimes
Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, speaking with farmers in South Dakota on Tuesday.CreditEllen Bardash/The Daily Republic, via Associated Press
By Coral Davenport
June 14, 2018
WASHINGTON — Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, is expected on Friday to send President Trump a detailed legal proposal to dramatically scale back an Obama-era regulation on water pollution, according to a senior E.P.A. official familiar with the plan. It is widely expected to be one of his agency’s most significant regulatory rollback efforts.
And, as soon as Monday, the same official said, Mr. Pruitt is expected to publish another major change: his agency’s legal proposal to gut President Barack Obama’s rule to reduce climate-warming pollution from vehicle tailpipes. That proposal risks triggering a court battle with California and raises the prospect that the American car market could be split in two, with different groups of states enforcing different pollution rules.
Mr. Pruitt’s two moves come as he is dogged by allegations of legal and ethical violations and is seeking to burnish his reputation in the eyes of his boss, the president. While Mr. Pruitt has initiated the rollback of dozens of environmental rules over the past year and a half, the latest one-two push comes as he is battling allegations that he improperly used his government post to secure a job for his wife.
This week, the chorus of critics calling for Mr. Pruitt’s resignation swelled to include the conservative National Review, which once championed his appointment. And on Wednesday, Mr. Pruitt’s onetime political mentor, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, told the conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham that Mr. Pruitt needed to move past his management blunders and that it may be “time for him to go.”
The weakening of the water and tailpipe-pollution regulations have been top priorities for Mr. Trump since he took office. The release of a new water regulation to replace the Obama-era rule, known as Waters of the United States, would hand a victory to two important groups for the president: farmers and rural landowners (who make up his political base), as well as golf-course and real estate developers.
The Trump Organization, the Trump family’s real estate conglomerate, itself owns more than a dozen golf resorts in the United States. White House officials did not respond to a request for comment on the potential for Mr. Trump’s business interests to benefit from the potential changes..............
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/climate/pruitt-clean-air-water-rollbacks.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Pruitt sounds like the Kremlin gave him his marching orders (through Comrade Casino*) to further weaken America by allowing corporations to PISS and shit their toxic crap all over the place, FOULING America's water. Such disgusting values.
Hey republicans: Stop pissing in our water. You and your kids depend upon it, too, you deluded, greed-head wankers. You cannot drink your profit-and-loss statement.
* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief
In other words, those with the least voice to protest. Standard procedure for Repug policy, with unchained free-market principles at the forefront.
Many pollutants affect childhood development but can also accelerate heart disease and dementia. Unfortunately, if these rule changes go into effect, no one will be monitoring the long-term increase in disease and deaths that result.
Our nation cannot survive successive administrations that bounce environmental, trade, banking, and labor laws between extremes on a regular basis. It simply will not work for anyone except for the wealthy (they can afford to be hedged and protected against anything).
tRump and his vile administration must go soon......
And who doesn't want a car that gets lousy mileage????
It's gone. 
