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Trump's Reckless Appeasement of Coal Industry is Putting America's Drinking Water at Risk
WASHINGTON
Late yesterday, Donald Trump's EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, proposed suspending deadlines for new clean water protections against coal plants dumping massive amounts of industrial sludge into America's waterways. Known as the Effluent Limitations Guidelines, these new clean water protections were the first updates to America's existing safeguards against this kind of dumping in over three decades, and they were finalized in September of 2015. Pruitt's proposal to delay these compliance guidelines will be open for public comment, once published in the Federal Register.
In response, Mary Anne Hitt, Director of Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, released the following statement:
"The toxic sludge scraped and drained out of America's filthiest coal plants shouldn't be anywhere near the water our kids drink or put into our morning cups of coffee, but that's exactly what this appalling move by the Trump Administration would do. Scott Pruitt is so beholden to the uneconomical and failing coal industry that he is willing to put the water of millions of families across the country at risk so billionaire coal executives can save a few dollars. He is inviting a public health crisis with this reckless appeasement of one of America's largest polluters, but American families will not stand for it - and neither will the Sierra Club. We will fight this with every means we have."
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
(415) 977-5500LATEST NEWS
Thousands March in Albania After PM Says Pristine Land 'Belongs' to Kushner-Backed Group
"One week later, we are still here, stronger than yesterday," said one group opposing a proposed luxury resort project supported by Jared Kushner.
Jun 08, 2026
Albanians took to the streets in droves for the eighth consecutive day on Sunday to protest a proposed $1.6 billion luxury resort complex backed by US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, one of several investors in the project, which opponents say is both corrupt and disastrous for wetlands and wildlife.
"One week later, we are still here, stronger than yesterday," said the Albanian Ornithological Society, a leading critic of the proposed development. "Millions around the world are united in one voice for nature, for justice, and for the protection of what belongs to everyone, standing for every protected area in Albania."
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has vocally defended the project amid mounting public backlash, saying in a recent interview that the land marked for development "belongs to the investors," not the Albanian people.
Rama also criticized the thousands of people who have turned out to protest the luxury hotel project as well as international media coverage of the demonstrations, saying that "there is no chance" that "the projects in Albania will be defined by street protests."
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama admits Jared Kushner’s new private island will be exclusively for the elite.
He says the land no longer belongs to the Albanian people and is now under the control of Jared Kushner and his investors.
"The aim is to build the most exclusive."… pic.twitter.com/95IM0YX6xI
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) June 7, 2026
Demonstrators, many raising pink flamingo cutouts to decry the project's expected impacts on the vulnerable bird and other wildlife, have demanded cancellation of the resort project and Rama's resignation, accusing him of steamrolling environmental concerns to bolster the country's tourism industry and curry favor with the Trump administration. Kushner currently works for the administration as a "special peace envoy."
"We are stronger than your bulldozers," chanted demonstrators over the weekend.
Thousands of Albanians took to the streets of Tirana in the largest protest this week against a plan by a company linked to Trump's son-in-law to build a luxury resort in an environmentally sensitive area pic.twitter.com/aJaKz3ju0A
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 7, 2026
As The New York Times reported last year, Rama heads the government committee that gave "Kushner and his business partners the right to move ahead with accelerated negotiations to build the luxury resort on a 111-acre section of the 2.2-square-mile island of Sazan that will be connected by ferry to the mainland."
"Mr. Kushner’s Affinity Partners, a private equity company backed with about $4.6 billion in money mostly from Saudi Arabia and other Middle East sovereign wealth funds, is pursuing the Albania project along with Asher Abehsera, a real estate executive that Mr. Kushner has previously teamed up with to build projects in Brooklyn, New York," the Times added.
Lea Ypi, an Albanian academic, wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian on Monday that "Albanians know that real-estate speculation without state support means ordinary citizens will struggle to buy a flat or pay the rent."
"They know that luxury tourism means holidays in your own country become a privilege for the few," Ypi added. "With no unions to speak of and a labor movement that only appears in communist-era footage of May Day parades, work conditions are so exploitative that only those from countries even more desperate are willing to take the jobs that arise."
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Musk, Trump Join Forces to Lie About Another Election—This Time the LA Mayor's Race
Asked to provide any evidence of fraud in California, the best Trump could come up with over the weekend was, "All I have to do is look, and I listen." As one journalist pointed out: "That's not evidence."
Jun 08, 2026
US President Donald Trump and world's richest man Elon Musk sang to the same dishonest tune once again on Monday to allege—without evidence—that the mayoral election in Los Angeles was somehow fraudulent or rigged against Republicans after their preferred candidate, former reality TV personality Spencer Pratt, dropped to third place in the open primary.
With incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass already sitting in first place, it was progressive City Council Member Nithya Raman who overtook Pratt on Sunday after more votes were counted. The top two finishers in the primary, regardless of party affiliation, will face off in a runoff election, but it was Pratt's slip out of the second slot—with approximately 80% of ballots now counted—that inspired Trump and Musk to call into question the results.
"No way this could have happened. Rigged Election!" Trump declared in a social media post on Sunday night. The president infamously refused to admit he was defeated by former President Joe Biden in 2020, a denial that ultimately led to the insurrection attempt by his supporters on January 6, 2021.
The election results in Los Angeles, however, are very much in line with polling that took place ahead of last week's vote and Los Angeles is known as a Democratic-leaning city.
In a series of retweets and comments on X, the social media behemoth he owns, Musk echoed Trump by suggesting that the mayoral race was fraudulent, though he offered no substantive evidence.
"It takes a conspiracy theorist to believe California’s election is secure," stated one post Musk shared to the more than 240 million accounts that follow his.
As Raman climbed out of second place into third as Pratt's share of the vote total dropped, Musk perpetuated the idea that the counting of ballots indicated fraud of some kind and stood on that insinuation to advocate for the Republican-backed SAVE Act, which voting rights experts have warned is a key part of a coordinated GOP effort to make it harder for Americans to vote in upcoming elections.
Trump stormed out of his weekend interview with NBC New's Kristen Welker on "Meet The Press" after the host challenged Trump over his repeated lies that the 2020 election was rigged, and his new unfounded claims that something similar was now happening in California.
WOW -- Trump crashes out and cuts his interview with Welker short as she presses him on his lack of evidence for claiming elections are rigged
"You're either crooked or you're stupid. Let's call it quits. Because I've had enough. Thank you darling," he tells her."
"I traveled… pic.twitter.com/qQaNIDnX4y
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 7, 2026
Trump claimed that because the results had not been officially decided after four days in California, the nation's largest state with millions who vote by mail, that "They're cheating on the election."
"Do you have evidence to support that?" Welker asked.
"All I have to do is look, and I listen," the president replied.
"But that's not evidence," Welker countered.
The progressive advocacy group Our Revolution, which backed Raman in the election, said in a social media post that a second-place showing in the race would be in keeping with the city's political profile.
"No way Los Angeles was ever going to send a MAGA reality star with zero governing experience to a general election for mayor. Not this city," the group said. "Nithya Raman advances. Now let’s have the conversation LA actually deserves—housing, affordability, and a real vision for this city’s future."
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'The Humiliation Just Compounds': Trump Tells Netanyahu Not to Bomb Iran, Then Israel Strikes Anyway
US President Donald Trump "appears unwilling to spend the political capital necessary to rein in Netanyahu—beyond angry phone calls and tough public statements," said one analyst.
Jun 08, 2026
The Israeli military bombed Iran on Monday shortly after US President Donald Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to respond to an Iranian missile barrage, which came in retaliation for Israel's earlier bombing of Beirut.
"I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate," Trump told Axios on Sunday, noting that the Iranian strikes did not appear to cause any injuries. "Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don't need another one."
Iran's missile attack on Israel was the first since a tenuous ceasefire agreement took effect in early April, and the exchange intensified concerns of a return to full-blown regional war. Iran's Foreign Ministry said the Sunday strikes were a defensive response to the Israeli military's bombing of southern Beirut as well as "Israel’s persistent breaches of the April ceasefire, including its collaboration with the US military in attacks on Iranian ships and targets in southern Iran over the past two weeks."
The Israel Defense Forces vowed to "continue to operate all across Lebanon" and said it would not "allow fire toward Israel."
Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference on Monday that despite Trump's public comments, "no one in the region believes" that Israel attacked Lebanon or Iran "without prior coordination and cooperation with the United States."
"The United States bears responsibility as a party to the April 8 ceasefire understanding," said Baghaei. "Whatever happens in the region, whether the US itself violates the ceasefire by attacking Iranian commercial ships or targeting southern parts of the country, or whether violations are carried out through the Zionist regime in Lebanon with US complicity, the direct responsibility of the United States is clear, and the consequences of any escalation will also fall on Washington.”
Trump told the Financial Times following Iran's missile attack on Israel that he did not believe it would undercut the prospects of a diplomatic agreement. The US president also said Netanyahu would have no choice but to accept any agreement the Trump administration reaches with Iran, declaring: "I call the shots. I call all the shots. [Netanyahu] doesn't call the shots."
But critics of Trump's illegal and costly war of choice in Iran, which he launched in coordination with Israel in late February, said Netanyahu's swift defiance of the president's call for restraint underscored how disastrous the conflict has been for the US.
"This war has been humiliating for Trump and American power generally," US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wrote on social media. "And when Trump announces he is going to call Netanyahu and tell him not to retaliate, and within hours Netanyahu retaliates, the humiliation just compounds."
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote in a blog post following the Israeli attack on Iran that Trump "appears unwilling to spend the political capital necessary to rein in Netanyahu—beyond angry phone calls and tough public statements—unless he knows that he has a deal with Iran."
"From Trump’s perspective, it is only worth doing if an agreement with Iran is already secured. In short, Trump is willing to restrain Israel to preserve a deal, but not to obtain one. Iran, however, wants evidence that Trump can restrain Israel before agreeing to a deal," Parsi wrote. "As a result, the most likely scenario is another round of Iranian and Israeli strikes, with Trump declining to meaningfully constrain Israel."
The National Iranian American Council noted that Iran's leadership "has already threatened a broader and more destructive campaign" in response to Israel's strikes.
"The coming 24 to 72 hours will likely determine whether this becomes a contained crisis or the beginning of a new phase in the regional conflict," the group added.
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