Scott Pruitt: Google

By Glynn Wilson –

One of the most disheartening facts about the Trump administration’s policies to the millions of Americans who care deeply about the Earth’s natural environment is the outright war on the planet being waged by President Donald Trump and his cabinet.

A couple of new stories just out demonstrate the problem, and there may soon be another departure from Trump’s cabinet because of a recent controversy.

First, the New York Times broke a story indicating the administration is expected to announce this week that it will roll back automobile gas mileage and pollution standards, regulations that have been in place for decades. Tougher, new standards were put in place by the Obama administration in the ongoing plan to combat climate change.

But all of that progress is being rolled back by this administration, which had squelched all federal agencies from even talking about “global warming” or “climate change.” In a story not carried by any other news organization that we know of, scientists and the public relations staff at NASA found a way to talk in a limited way about this last week.

NASA Scientists Find Way to Focus Research on Changes to Earth’s Frozen Regions

As they are written now, EPA standards require the fleet of new vehicles to get 36 miles per gallon in “real-world” driving by 2025, about 10 mpg over existing standards.

When the Trump administration announces that it will relax these rules, perhaps at a Virginia car dealership on Tuesday, it will set up a major states rights legal showdown with California, where environmental groups say the standards save money at the pump and insist the technology is available for the industry to comply.

They also say burning more gasoline will put people’s health at risk.

“The American public overwhelmingly supports strong vehicle standards because they cut the cost of driving, reduce air pollution, and combat climate change,” said Luke Tonachel, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Clean Vehicles and Fuels Project.

Automakers lobbied against the requirements, claiming they’ll have trouble reaching them since people are buying bigger vehicles due to low gas prices. They claim the standards will cost the industry billions of dollars and raise vehicle prices due to the cost of developing new technology.

Pruitt, who has publicly questioned the veracity of evidence complied by climate scientists, including those in his own agency, proving that global warming is overwhelmingly caused by man-made carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, is chomping at the bit to revoke a waiver that allows California to set its own rules.

If the waiver is revoked, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says the state will resist.

“What we’re doing to protect California’s environment isn’t just good for our communities — it’s good for the country,” he said in a statement. “We’re not looking to pick a fight with the Trump administration, but when they threaten our values, we’re ready.”

Pruitt is a climate change denier and a self-described “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda,” according to his Wikipedia page. In his campaigns for Oklahoma Attorney General, Pruitt received major corporate and employee campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry, taking in at least $215,574 between 2010 and 2014. As Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Pruitt sued the EPA at least 14 times

But according to other news about Pruitt in the news this week, he may be on the way out.

Pruitt is under increasing pressure over a rental arrangement he made with a leading energy sector lobbyist. He allegedly only paid $50 a night to stay in a Capitol Hill condominium in which three units belong to a corporation co-owned by the wife of J. Steven Hart, chair and chief executive of the lobbying firm Williams and Jensen. The firm’s clients include Exxon Mobil and liquefied natural gas exporter Cheniere Energy, both with billions at stake in decisions Pruitt is in charge of making as head of the EPA in a clear conflict of interest.

Pruitt’s daughter also stayed in the condo’s second bedroom for three months last summer, at a rate that is far below market average, where apartments rent for $1,600 to $2,500 a month. Single rooms for one-night rentals average about $120.

U.S. Senator Doug Jones, the Democrat from Alabama, was quoted on ABC’s “This Week” show on Sunday saying Pruitt may be in “real trouble” and “may be on his way out” over the deal.

“I think he’s in real trouble,” Jones said. “The perception is not good at all. The fact he has had controversy with expenses … is one of the things I think people are just frustrated with, with cabinet members who seem to want to use taxpayer dollars to fund their own personal lifestyle. And now on top of this, not just the $50 but the fact it was going to an energy lobbyist, it just looks so bad and I think he may be on his way out.”

On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said Pruitt was “nothing more than a frontman for the fossil fuel industry” and should appear before the Senate environment and public works committee.

“You got a guy who’s head of the EPA now who is nothing more than a frontman for the fossil fuel industry, and that is a very serious problem and the Congress has got to stand up and oppose that line of policy,” Sanders said.

It has been reported that Pruitt covets the post of attorney general should Jeff Sessions be fired by Trump. Sessions has been out of favor with Trump over his recusal from the investigation into Russian meddling and collusion between Trump aides and Moscow during the 2016 election.

Sessions, who has long been an advocate for states rights on racial matters, has also become entangled in a legal dispute with California and other states over the legalization of marijuana.

Will this administration really try to force federal power onto states in such a glaring irony and get away with it?

Maybe if viewers continue to rely on the pro-Trump propaganda being pumped out by ABC and NBC local television news affiliates all over the country.

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