Water
Nothing is more important to your health and quality of life than safe drinking water and clean streams and lakes. Across the country, pollution from farms is one of the primary reasons water is no longer clean or safe. Agriculture is the leading source of pollution of rivers and streams surveyed by U.S. government experts, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Thankfully, if we make simple changes in the way we farm, we can take a big step toward clean water.
Oklahoma has a dangerous and widespread groundwater pollution problem caused by illegal discharges of toxic swine waste from industrial-scale swine Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. But an investigation by Waterkeeper Alliance and EWG found that Scott Pruitt – the state’s attorney general since 2011 and President Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency – has not taken a single legal action to enforce Oklahoma’s stringent water quality laws and protect the public from a pollutant that can be deadly for infants.
Read More
An Oklahoma state judge today ordered Scott Pruitt, the state’s attorney general and President Trump’s nominee for EPA administrator, to release some 3,000 emails between his office and the fossil fuel industry, under a lawsuit filed by the Center for Media and Democracy. The judge gave the attorney general’s office until next Tuesday, Feb. 21, to comply with the order, lending urgency to the growing call for a postponement of the Senate’s vote on Pruitt’s confirmation, scheduled for Friday.
Read More
The Senate is poised to vote tomorrow to install the worst nominee for Environmental Protection Agency administrator in history: Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. His record and statements disqualify him from being entrusted with protecting the nation’s drinking water, air and environment. On the eve of the vote, EWG urges senators to stop and think about what’s at stake.
Read MoreEWG joined several members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in urging Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to postpone a vote on Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s confirmation to be Environmental Protection Agency administrator. The request comes as an Oklahoma court has scheduled a hearing for later this week over a lawsuit filed by the Center for Media and Democracy, which seeks disclosure of email communications between Pruitt’s office and oil and gas industry officials.
Read MoreThis week the full Senate will likely decide whether to confirm President Trump’s nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.
Here are the top 10 reasons to oppose him for the nation’s top environmental job.
Read More
Here’s some news you can use as you begin your weekend.
Read More
Following last week’s suspension of rules to railroad President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency nominee, Scott Pruitt, through the Republican-led Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee, a number of apparently false claims Pruitt made under oath have come to light.
Read More
A poultry waste lagoon subject to Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s oversight overflowed after a storm in early 2015, fouling nearby creeks and lakes with chicken manure.
Read MoreBelow is the text of a letter from EWG to the Department of Justice, calling for an investigation into claims made by EPA nominee Scott Pruitt.
Read More
The Environmental Working Group urged the Department of Justice today to investigate whether Scott Pruitt, President Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, made false or misleading statements at his confirmation hearing in violation of federal law.
Read MoreHoly smokes, what a week. It began with reports from EWG and others showing food wrappers from several top fast food chains were contaminated with toxic PFCs. The Senate broke its own rules to force a vote on Scott Pruitt to head EPA. Of course, we couldn’t remain silent over the looming scenario of a rabid anti-public health, pro-polluter like Pruitt running the EPA. More on that next week.
Read MoreThis week, the Republican-led Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee suspended rules and decorum to railroad President Trump’s EPA nominee, Scott Pruitt, through the committee, setting up a floor vote by the full Senate in the coming days. EWG said committee members who voted for Pruitt had tarnished the legacy of the EPA and that if approved by the Senate, he would take office as the worst EPA administrator in history.
Statement from Scott Faber, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs:
Scott Pruitt, and now the White House, have repeatedly lied about phosphorus standards for the Illinois River. In response to an EWG report, a spokesperson for the White House this morning said “the fact of the matter is Oklahoma has never had an enforced phosphorus standard until AG Pruitt successfully moved this issue…” Nothing could be further from the truth.
Read MoreScott Pruitt, approved today by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as the next head of the Environmental Protection Agency, would take office as the worst EPA administrator in history, EWG President and Co-Founder Ken Cook said.
Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore
Read MoreOklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, claims he made great progress in protecting the state’s water from pollution by factory chicken farms. But EWG’s new aerial analysis of a sensitive watershed in his home state shows that the number of industrial poultry farms has increased, putting the water at even greater risk of contamination.
Read MorePresident Trump will pull out of the historic Paris climate agreement as early as Tuesday, according to the adviser who led the Environmental Protection Agency transition. The Hill newspaper reports that the adviser, Myron Ebell of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, said Monday that Trump could pull out of the agreement "by executive order tomorrow or he could do it as part of a larger package” at a later date. Either way, Ebell made it clear Trump plans to pull the US out of the landmark international climate change agreement very soon.
Read More
The first week of the Trump administration is just about over, and what a week it’s been. It started with a media blackout at EPA and a freeze on EPA grants to states and localities used to protect drinking water and air.
Read MoreAs President Trump’s first week in office comes to an end, a number of startling decisions that could have serious implications for public health and the environment have already come out of the White House.
Read MoreOklahoma environmental advocates and attorneys met yesterday with members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to strongly refute Scott Pruitt’s claims that he advanced pollution cleanup efforts as the state’s attorney general.
Today’s unprecedented action by the White House forbidding the Environmental Protection Agency to share any information with the press or public is a chilling move that mocks democratic principles, said EWG President Ken Cook.
Read MorePages
