"When the Trump administration announced the appointment of Anne Idsal as the new regional EPA administrator, Adrian Shelley, the director of Public Citizen Texas, had just one thought: Who?"
"Two months after proposing to open a massive area of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas companies for offshore drilling, the Trump administration has halted a study that aimed to make drilling platforms safer."
"The Sierra Club is running a Facebook advertising campaign to oppose Kathleen Hartnett White, President Trump’s nominee for a top environmental policy position."
"Researchers and public health groups are suing the Trump administration to stop the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) policy blocking grant recipients from serving on advisory committees.
The litigants say the policy, unveiled in October by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, violates government ethics standards, the federal law governing advisory committees and laws that created the specific committees.
"One of the longest and most consequential campaigns against science in modern history is becoming more extreme—and turning against its originators."
"The Trump administration has rolled back Obama-era climate policies at a brisk pace in the first year of Donald Trump's presidency. But it has been equally aggressive in minimizing the climate science that justified those regulations in the first place."
The CDC has apparently banned seven politically incorrect words and phrases, including “science-based," from budget documents. And a no-bid media contract for the EPA may include opposition research on agency employees. That, plus a climate tweet reprimand and more, in the latest edition of WatchDog.
As President Trump continues to fill environment and energy leadership positions in 2018, one source of stories will be potential conflicts of interest for appointed regulators and agency leaders. This week's TipSheet runs down more than 20 key appointments to watch at EPA, Interior, Ag, Energy and more.
"The effort by U.S. EPA to publicly debate mainstream climate science is on ice."
"The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in official documents being prepared for next year’s budget."
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