December, 07 2016, 02:45pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Elliott Negin,Media Director,enegin@ucsusa.org
Pruitt an Unacceptable Choice to Run EPA
Statement by Ken Kimmell, President, Union of Concerned Scientists
WASHINGTON
The nomination of Scott Pruitt, the Attorney General of Oklahoma, to be the next administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is potentially disastrous for vital science-based policies that protect public health, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
Below is a statement by Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"Scott Pruitt is the wrong choice to run the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA plays an absolutely vital role in enforcing long-standing policies that protect the health and safety of Americans, based on the best available science. Pruitt has a clear record of hostility to the EPA's mission, and he is a completely inappropriate choice to lead it.
"As Oklahoma's Attorney General, Pruitt has repeatedly sued the EPA in an attempt to stop the agency from carrying out its work. Pruitt is supported by the very industries he would be responsible for overseeing, particularly fossil fuel producers. He has questioned the clear scientific evidence for climate change and resisted science-based rules that protect our air and water from pollution.
"Pruitt's statements and actions are in direct conflict with the job to which he has been nominated. If he is approved, his tenure as administrator would be devastating to the EPA's ability to carry out its mission. The EPA makes sure Americans have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, healthy communities and safe workplaces. It defends environmental justice and fights the risk of catastrophic climate change. Under Pruitt's leadership, all of these policies will suffer and so will the Americans who rely on them.
"The U.S. Senate has the responsibility of approving the EPA administrator. It's this simple: if Senators take seriously their job of protecting the public, they must vote no on Pruitt."
The Union of Concerned Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices.
LATEST NEWS
After Bank Collapses, US Regulators Urged to Impose Rules on Climate-Related Financial Risk
"If management at a wide swath of banks failed to properly address a well-understood risk, they cannot be trusted to independently address other complex emerging risks," argued 50 green groups.
Mar 28, 2023
In the wake of recent bank collapses and protests across the United States demanding financial institutions end fossil fuel financing, 50 climate, environmental justice, and Indigenous rights groups on Tuesday advocated for new regulations.
"We the undersigned strongly urge financial regulators and Congress to learn from the collapse and bailout of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and rapidly implement new regulations to mitigate against climate-related financial risk," the coalition wrote.
"Climate-related risks are moving us toward a financial crisis. But regulators have not taken adequate steps to actually mitigate those risks."
The groups' letter was sent to key leaders at the U.S. Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Economic Council, and relevant U.S. House and Senate committees.
After explaining how the SVB collapse is partly the result of poor management enabled by regulatory rollbacks under the Trump administration, the letter states that "this is only the latest example of a bank being wholly unprepared for a large and obvious financial risk."
The letter continues:
It is a stark reminder of the chaos that can unfold when a financial institution has high exposure to a risky industry, and of the fact that the leaders of major financial institutions are frequently far more concerned with their short-term gains than with robust risk management measures that ensure their safety and the safety and soundness of the financial system. As a reminder of the latter, senior managers at SVB paid themselves millions in bonuses hours before their bank failed and the federal government financially backstopped it. Here again, stronger rules—including the Dodd-Frank executive compensation rules that remain unfinished—could have incentivized greater bank attention to risks.
To prevent any potential for a cascade of bank runs after SVB's collapse, federal regulators have now effectively set a precedent of guaranteeing all bank deposits in all banking institutions nationwide, to be backstopped by the Federal Deposit Insurance Fund and then taxpayer dollars. Moreover, the Federal Reserve has begun lending at extraordinarily generous terms to any other banks with assets whose real value has been curbed by interest rate hikes—in effect, the Fed is offering a first-of-its-kind, get-out-of-bank-failure-free card to any firms that made the same foreseeable mistake as SVB. Regulators justified this extraordinary shift in the structures of American finance by relying on emergency rules in place to prevent systemic risk to the financial system. In effect, regulators argued that SVB's inability to mitigate one of the most obvious forms of financial risk—the potential for rising interest rates amid high inflation—constituted a grave risk to the whole financial system, and, thereby, the whole economy.
"If management at a wide swath of banks failed to properly address a well-understood risk, they cannot be trusted to independently address other complex emerging risks," the groups argued. "Regulators must intervene to protect the financial system from risks associated with climate change and the ongoing transition to a green economy."
The letter notes recent remarks from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about the economic and financial impact of the climate emergency as well as how, as it worsens, "banks of all sizes holding mortgage-backed bonds will see their assets drop in value" while "banks invested in the fossil fuel industry will eventually be saddled with stranded assets."
"Climate-related risks are moving us toward a financial crisis. But regulators have not taken adequate steps to actually mitigate those risks," the coalition warned, calling on U.S. policymakers to:
- Move with urgency and speed to implement proposed guidance for banks and financial institutions related to preparation for climate-related financial risks and to follow up with more detailed guidance;
- Rapidly move forward on rigorous exams for banking institutions, including for medium-sized banks, regardless of industry pressure for light-touch supervision of climate-related risks; and
- Please also see previous coalition letters recommending action on the Federal Reserve's and the Treasury Department's climate guidance.
"Banks cannot be trusted to independently evaluate and protect against the systemic risks of the climate crisis in real-time. They also cannot be trusted to avoid creating risks for other institutions and the financial system through their support for fossil assets and greenhouse gas emissions," the letter says. "This process requires regulators to set clear rules and ensure banks and financial institutions do not engage in unsafe behavior and do not create undue risks and costs for the financial system and the economy."
Signatories include Greenpeace USA, Lakota People's Law Project, Sierra Club, and Third Act—who came together earlier this month for a "Stop Dirty Banks" national day of action, the first elderly-led mass climate demonstration in U.S. history.
"Today is a major drive to take the cash out of carbon," declared Third Act's Bill McKibben. "We want JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America to hear the voices of the older generation which has the money and structural power to face down their empty, weasel words on climate. We will not go to our graves quietly knowing that the financial institutions in our own communities continue to fund the climate crisis."
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Bush, Pressley to Co-Chair New Congressional Equal Rights Amendment Caucus
"It has been 100 years since the Equal Rights Amendment was first drafted and introduced in Congress," noted Rep. Cori Bush. "That is far too long... and we refuse to wait any longer."
Mar 28, 2023
A coalition of Democratic U.S. lawmakers led by Reps. Cori Bush and Ayanna Pressley on Tuesday announced the launch of a new caucus aimed at realizing the centurylong goal of adding an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.
"It has been 100 years since the Equal Rights Amendment was first drafted and introduced in Congress, and more than a half century since both chambers passed it," Bush (D-Mo.) said in a statement announcing the founding of the Congressional Equal Rights Amendment Caucus. "That is far too long for women, Black and Brown folks, LGBTQ+ people, and other marginalized groups to wait for constitutional gender equality—and we refuse to wait any longer."
Pressley (D-Mass.) said: "I am proud to launch the ERA Caucus with my sister-in-service Congresswoman Bush to affirm the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution, establish gender equality as a national priority, and center our most vulnerable and marginalized communities, who stand to benefit the most."
\u201cToday, @AyannaPressley and I are launching the ERA Caucus \u2014 100 years after the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced in Congress.\n\nWe are joining forces to make sure that equality becomes enshrined in the supreme law of our land.\n\nEquality is overdue.\u201d— Cori Bush (@Cori Bush) 1680030712
Caucus member Rep. Summer Lee (D-Penn.) said that "it's not shocking that when the Constitution was first drafted, women, Black, Brown, queer, and marginalized folks were intentionally written out. What is shocking is that in 2023, our Constitution still does not include equal rights regardless of sex—meaning our Constitution still does not reflect or protect all people."
"To the right-wing politicians and judges waging a full-on assault on the rights of women and queer youth, we're not afraid and we won't be silenced," Lee added. "We're organized and mobilized to make equal rights the law of the land."
After passing the House in 1971 and the Senate the following year, the ERA was submitted to the states for ratification. Congress set a March 1979 deadline for ratification; only 35 of the requisite 38 states approved the proposal by that time. Although the deadline was extended until 1982, no more states ratified the amendment and several state legislatures voted to rescind their ratifications.
\u201cThrilled to join @RepCori and @RepPressley today to found @ERACaucus and fight for gender equality. Women were deliberately left out of the Constitution, but with the #EqualRightsAmendment, we can guarantee equal rights for all people under the law.\u201d— Judy Chu (@Judy Chu) 1680029701
A 21st-century effort to revive the ERA saw Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia approve the measure in recent years. Supporters say 38 states have now backed the ERA, although there is uncertainty over the expired deadlines and rescinded ratifications.
Pressley's office said that in addition to affirming the ERA, the new congressional caucus will "raise awareness in Congress to establish constitutional gender equality as a national priority; partner with an inclusive intergenerational, multiracial coalition of advocates, activists, scholars, organizers, and public figures; and center the people who stand to benefit the most from gender equality, including Black and Brown women, LGBTQ+ people, people seeking abortion care, and other marginalized groups."
\u201cA century after the #EqualRightsAmendment was introduced, we\u2019re still waiting. \n\nAs a Vice Chair on the @DemWomenCaucus, I applaud @RepCori and @RepPressley for launching the @ERACaucus. \n\nLet\u2019s get it done. #ERANow\u201d— Rep. Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez (@Rep. Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez) 1680041462
In a Tuesday interview with The Hill, Pressley said she was "thinking a lot about my 14-year-old daughter, Cora, and how I do not want her to continue to live in a country in a world where we have so conflated and normalized the disparate treatment and outcomes and disparate access and the second-class status it is to be a woman in this society."
"I look forward to the day when calendars will say and on this day in history, the ERA caucus was established," she added, "but I really look forward to the day when our calendars will say on this day in history, the ERA was passed."
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"Whether it's price gouging at the pump or drilling in people's backyards, Big Oil's days of harming our health and our pocketbooks must end," said one advocate.
Mar 28, 2023
Climate and consumer advocates on Tuesday hailed California lawmakers' passage of legislation aimed at tackling Big Oil price gouging as the proposal headed to the desk of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said he will sign the measure into law.
The California Assembly voted 52-19 on Monday in favor of S.B. X1-2—authored by state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-9)—which will empower the California Energy Commission (CEC) to impose profit caps and penalties on refiners and create an intra-agency watchdog tasked with conducting greater oversight of fossil fuel companies to minimize profiteering.
The new law will allow the CEC to levy daily fines of $5,000-$20,000—up to a maximum of $500,000—if a company does not provide the agency with data to determine if it is complying with the legislation. CEC fines are currently capped at $2,000.
Newsom—who is slated to sign the bill into law at 4:30 pm PT on Tuesday—called Monday "a big day for consumers, a big day for Mother Nature, and a big day in this country."
"I'm very, very pleased as a taxpayer, as a Californian, and as an American," he added. "I hope this is a signal to other states."
The law will take effect 90 days after it's signed by Newsom—who has also called for a windfall profits tax on fossil fuel companies.
"This is a landmark victory for California consumers who will soon have the force of a state watchdog with teeth protecting them from gouging at the gas pump," Consumer Watchdog president Jamie Court said Tuesday.
Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute, asserted that Monday's vote "shows the tide is turning against Big Oil in California."
"Despite the industry spending millions on lobbying, California is now one step closer to protecting working Californians from the oil industry's greed," Siegel continued. "Whether it's price gouging at the pump or drilling in people's backyards, Big Oil's days of harming our health and our pocketbooks must end."
In a statement, Stop the Oil Profiteering (STOP) spokesperson Jamie Henn said that "California wasn't afraid to stand up to Big Oil. It's time for Washington to follow their lead."
"This landmark legislation will give regulators the tools they need to investigate Big Oil's shady business practices and crack down on the price gouging that fueled last year's obscene profits," Henn added. "The public is clamoring for politicians to take on this reckless industry—it's inspiring to see Gov. Newsom answering the call."
Earlier this month, the watchdog Accountable.US published a report revealing that the biggest oil companies operating in the United States raked in a collective $290 billion in profits last year while they "consistently prioritized shareholder returns over alleviating the pressure of high energy prices."
According to the American Automobile Association, California has the nation's highest gasoline prices, with a gallon of regular unleaded averaging $4.82.
"Five California oil refiners made obscene profits last year from astronomical gasoline prices at the pump, hurting working families up and down the state," Shoshana Wexler of the climate group 350 Bay Area Action said in a statement. "The Legislature has passed a bill that would expose the ways this grand heist was carried out and hopefully ensure it never happens again."
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