Pruitt’s political foxes chowing down in the EPA hen house

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt talks with reporter in Hazard, KY

Career employees at the agency say political appointees are shutting them out of decision-making. They worry that the public will suffer.

Rachel Leven reports for the Center for Public Integrity:
Today’s EPA is wracked with internal conflict and industry influence, and is struggling to fulfill its mission, according to more than two dozen current and former agency employees. A few dozen political appointees brought in under the Trump administration are driving policy. At least 16 of the 45 appointees worked for industries such as oil, coal and chemicals. Four of these people — and another 21 — worked for, or donated to, politicians who have questioned established climate science, such as Pruitt and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.

Most of the 46 political appointees working at EPA previously worked for climate change doubters or industry 

Career staff members — lawyers, scientists, analysts — are largely being frozen out of decision-making, current and former agency employees say. These staffers rarely get face time with Pruitt and frequently receive top-down orders from political appointees with little room for debate. They must sometimes force their way into conversations about subjects in which they have expertise.
And that is a big mistake, said one of Pruitt’s predecessors.
Career employees are “very dedicated to protecting human health and the environment, and they will change their ways of how they do that if they’re convinced you really want to accomplish that aim,” said Christine Todd Whitman, EPA administrator under President George W. Bush.
One such employee agreed. “I think it’s the fact that we’re not following regular procedures, we’re not sure of what the legal justification is for some of the things they’re asking us to do. We’re just kind of being told ‘Do the opposite thing you did 18 months ago.’ That’s hard to swallow.”
Under Pruitt, who sued the EPA 14 times as Oklahoma’s attorney general, the agency already has declined to ban a pesticide linked to neurological damage in children; frozen requirements to reduce water pollution from coal-fired power plants and opened the door to loosening limits on toxic coal waste. The EPA most recently proposed eliminating the Clean Power Plan, an Obama administration rule aimed at reducing carbon emissions in the power sector.
“These rules [being rolled back] aren’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. There are ways to improve things,” said Gordon Binder, who served as chief of staff for then-EPA Administrator William Reilly under President George H.W. Bush. “But Pruitt’s come in with a flyswatter and is slapping them down instead of laying out the problems with a rule and saying, ‘How can we fix it?’”
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GOP tax plan could suck the juice out of NJ clean-energy


Just when New Jersey’s clean-energy advocates find
an ally in the governor’s office to back their agenda,
the federal government is moving to phase out tax incentives that have helped promote solar and wind energy, as well as electric vehicles.


Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

New Jersey Gov.-elect Phil Murphy won a string of endorsements from environmentalists for his clean-energy platform, which included a goal of having 100 percent of the state’s electricity generated by renewable energy by 2050.
But achieving that target could prove difficult if Republicans in Washington, D.C., succeed in passing a tax plan that would eliminate and slash tax credits that encourage the use of solar and wind power, and give consumers more of an incentive to switch to electric vehicles.
The tax-reform plan now being debated by Congress would eliminate a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles, reduce a tax credit for wind production by one-third, and eventually phase out an existing tax credit for solar after 2027.


Undermining NJ’s efforts


The actions could complicate the state’s plans to ramp up its reliance on renewable energy, as well undermine efforts to build the infrastructure for electric vehicles and convince motorists to switch to cleaner-running vehicles.
“This plan barely touches huge tax giveaways for fossil fuels,’’ said Ana Unruh Cohen, director of government affairs for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “But it would zero-out cost-effective electric-vehicle tax credits and weaken tax credits for wind and solar that are creating jobs, spurring innovation, meeting consumer demand, and cleaning up the air.’’
In New Jersey, as elsewhere in the Northeast, the biggest source of greenhouse-gas emissions contributing to global warming is the transportation sector. The state’s global-warming reduction law requires an 80 percent decrease in such emissions by 2050, a target that likely will be impossible to meet unless steep cuts from vehicles are achieved, according to clean-energy advocates.
Sen. Bob Smith, the chairman of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, is planning to put a priority in the next legislative session in January on moving a package of bills that would promote the use of electric vehicles. Losing the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles is a blow to that goal.
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Free copy of today’s EnviroPolitics-Election Results Issue


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Candidates targeted in racist mailers win election in NJ

Luke Nozicka reports for NJ.com:
EDISON — The two school board candidates who were targeted in racist “Make Edison Great Again” mailers that made national headlines won seats in the election Tuesday.
Jerry Shi and Falguni Patel, who respectively claimed their seats with 6,259 and 6,115 votes, will serve a three-year term on the Edison Township Public Schools board.
Beth Moroney also won a seat on the board with 5,991 votes. Nine people vied for the three open spots.
The race in New Jersey’s fifth most populous town gained notoriety last week after an unknown group sent mailers to homes in Edison proclaiming “Make Edison Great Again” and calling for the deportation of Shi and Patel.
“The Chinese and Indians are taking over our town,” the postcards read. “Chinese school! Indian school! Cricket fields! Enough is enough.”
Another candidate in Hoboken was also targeted in xenophobic fliers days before the election. Hoboken Councilman Ravi Bhalla, won his race to become the city’s first Sikh mayor.
Those fliers were placed on car windshields in the city with the message “Don’t let TERRORISM take over our town!” above a picture of Bhalla.
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Capturing governor’s seat, NJ Dems now running the show


At end of the day, Democrats still have the Legislature locked up — after withstanding some tough challenges and pulling out a few surprise victories

Chase Brush reports for NJ Spotlight:

sweeney

Senate President Steve Sweeney fought off a surprisingly tough challenge from his Republican opponent, funded by NJEA money.
New Jersey voters went to the polls yesterday and turned their attention to all 120 seats in the Legislature, ending a busy election season that was rife with special interest spending, political attack ads and controversial mailers, as well as some energetic get-out-the-vote efforts.
Democrats now control the Legislature and the chief executive’s position after former ambassador to Germany Phil Murphy defeated Republican opponent Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno in the state’s high-profile governor’s race. The party had previously held majorities in both the Senate, where Democrats had a 24-16 advantage over Republicans, and Assembly, where they had a 52-28 edge.
They expanded that control last night, picking up one seat in the upper house and, though the final votes have yet to be tallied, likely two in the lower.. An upset in the 11th District helped bump the party’s Senate majority up to 25, while victories in the 2nd and 16th districts gave them a boost in the Assembly. Republicans also secured seats in tightly contested races in both houses, though they were offset by losses
The night, therefore, was seen as a win for Democrats, who will enter the next legislative session exercising broad jurisdiction over setting the state’s agenda and tackling some of its most serious problems.

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He’s had enough; NJ Congressman LoBiondo calling it quits

Jonathan D. Salant reports for NJ.com:

Rep. Frank LoBiondo, the New Jersey Republican who most often breaks with his party, announced his retirement Tuesday with a blast at the partisanship that has taken over U.S. politics.

“I always looked for solutions that produce real world results built upon cooperation and partnerships,” said LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist. “Regrettably, our nation is now consumed by increasing political polarization; there is no longer middle ground to honestly debate issues and put forward solutions.”
His retirement puts the congressional district up for grabs in the 2018 election.
“Furthermore, as some of my closest colleagues have also come to realize, those of us who came to Congress to change Washington for the better through good governance are now the outliers,” LoBiondo said. “A vocal and obstinate minority within both parties has hijacked good legislation in pursuit of no legislation.”
LoBiondo’s most recent act of defiance against his party came last month when he voted against the congressional budget resolution targeting the deduction for state and federal taxes. He also was one of three House Republicans from New Jersey to oppose health care legislation that the Congressional Budget Office said would leave 23 million more Americans without insurance.
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