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Jenny Loda, (510) 844-7100 x 336, jloda@biologicaldiversity.org
The Center for Biological Diversitysued the Environmental Protection Agency today for refusing to release public records regarding Administrator Scott Pruitt's directive that limits the agency's ability to settle lawsuits -- even when delays in resolving a case result in significant environmental harm.
Under this new directive, Scott Pruitt wrote: "I reserve the right to exercise my discretion and permit EPA to deviate from the procedures set forth in this directive." The Center's lawsuit seeks to clarify this statement and bring to light the full implications of Pruitt's mandate.
"The EPA and Scott Pruitt continue to operate in the shadows while cozying up to industry," said Jenny Loda, an attorney with the Center. "Ironically, Pruitt claims his directive is meant to increase transparency and public participation, but the public's left in the dark wondering if EPA will actually hold polluters accountable."
Pruitt boasted at a conference in May that he had sent out a directive across the EPA to curtail consent decrees such as those that include court-enforced deadlines for rulemaking. The Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request to learn about the directive at that time, but on July 3 the agency claimed it had no relevant records. The Center appealed this decision, and the EPA failed to provide a response to the appeal by the mandated deadline. The agency has been silent on the Center's document requests for more than four months.
Last month Pruitt announced a new directive that appears similar to the one he described five months earlier. The directive includes limits on the ability of the EPA to enter settlements and requires the agency to notify industry representatives when a lawsuit might impact them. It also requires EPA to include industry in the development of any settlement. Pruitt reserved for himself the right to make whatever exceptions he'd like to this directive without any commitment to public transparency on these decisions.
"Sweetheart deals with industry will be an ugly hallmark of the Trump administration," said Loda. "Pruitt's new directive leaves him the broad discretion of a dictator to choose when to cut deals with polluters. The public has a right to learn more about this."
Background
In 2015 the Government Accountability Office released a report examining settlements with the EPA. The GAO report concluded that lawsuits and settlements only have a "limited" effect on EPA regulations because settlements rarely, if ever, "included terms that finalized the substantive outcome of the rule."
Instead settlements only set dates -- most of which are already required under existing laws -- for the EPA to make a decision. The decision itself follows all public comment and participation requirements and remains within the EPA's discretion. Despite this clear fact, the Pruitt settlement directive still decries "collusion with outside groups" as the rationale for instituting this new directive.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
(520) 623-5252"As scientists, we've been warning about the loss of Arctic summer sea ice for decades," said one researcher.
Scientists on Tuesday warned that the planet is rapidly headed toward the consequences of the climate crisis that they have been warning about for decades as researchers published a new study showing that a complete loss of Arctic sea ice in the summer months is now unavoidable.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released in 2021 alarmed many with its warnings that if high or even intermediate planet-heating fossil fuel emissions continued, the Arctic would be ice-free by the 2040s—but its authors implored policymakers to focus on their finding that the region would retain its summer ice if decisive action was taken to limit an increase in global temperature rises to 2°C or less.
The new study published by researchers in South Korea, Germany, and Canada in Nature Communications found that even far-reaching action will no longer save the sea ice.
The scientists found that even in a low-emissions scenario, summer ice in the Arctic will be gone by the 2050s.
In an intermediate- or high-emissions scenario—which is far more likely, considering the United States, the largest historic source of fossil fuel emissions, has recently moved to approve massive projects such as the Willow oil drilling project and the Mountain Valley Pipeline—the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer months starting in the 2030s.
\u201cWhen I started reporting on climate change, the prediction was the Arctic could be sea-ice-free in summer by the 2070s. Now? By the 2030s. https://t.co/iSA52WS4YD\u201d— Elizabeth Kolbert (@Elizabeth Kolbert) 1686076003
"Unfortunately it has become too late to save Arctic summer sea ice," Dirk Notz, a climatologist at the University of Hamburg and co-author of the study, told The Guardian. "As scientists, we've been warning about the loss of Arctic summer sea ice for decades. This is now the first major component of the Earth system that we are going to lose because of global warming. People didn't listen to our warnings."
The researchers examined satellite data and climate models to analyze changes in the Arctic sea ice between 1979 and 2019 and found that previous models underestimated ice melting trends and that 90% of the loss of sea ice was the result of human-caused planetary heating.
Summer ice in the Arctic has receded by 13% each decade since 1979, they found.
The planet is already experiencing the effects of increased open water in the Arctic during the summer months, lead author Seung-Ki Min of Pohang University in South Korea noted, and policymakers must now prepare communities to adapt to those impacts, including extreme weather events.
"The most important impact for human society will be the increase in weather extremes that we are experiencing now, such as heatwaves, wildfires, and floods," Min toldThe Guardian. "We need to reduce CO2 emissions more ambitiously and also prepare to adapt to this faster Arctic warming and its impacts on human society and ecosystems."
The loss of summer sea ice would trigger a feedback loop known as "Arctic amplification," with the dark ocean absorbing more solar heat and causing additional planetary warming,
Arctic warming has also changed weather patterns in the northern hemisphere, such as storm formation and wind speeds—leading to extreme heat and rainfall.
"We need to prepare ourselves for a world with warmer Arctic very soon," Min toldCNN. "The earlier onset of an ice-free Arctic also implies that we will be experiencing extreme events faster than predicted."
Scientists last year said the extreme heat wave that struck Pakistan and India was made 30 times more likely due to planetary heating, and officials called the flooding that killed more than 1,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands in Pakistan "climate dystopia at our doorstep."
Min said the impending loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic is a "tipping point" and a sign that the region is "seriously ill."
"We can regard the Arctic sea ice as the immune system of our body which protects our body from harmful things," Min toldCNN. "Without the protector, the Arctic's condition will go from bad to worse quickly."
"It comes as little surprise that Mr. Crow is doubling down on bogus legal theories as he continues to stonewall basic questions about his gifts to Clarence Thomas and his family."
U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden on Tuesday said that "nothing is off the table"—including a subpoena—after a lawyer for Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow continued to duck questions about the billionaire's gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his relatives.
In a June 2 letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Crow attorney Michael Bopp expressed "respect" for the panel's "important role in formulating legislation concerning our federal courts system," while stating that he would "welcome a discussion with your staff."
However, Bopp also reiterated his assertion that "Congress does not have the power to impose ethics standards on the Supreme Court" and "therefore cannot mount an investigation for the purpose of helping craft such standards."
"It comes as little surprise that Mr. Crow is doubling down on bogus legal theories as he continues to stonewall basic questions about his gifts to Clarence Thomas and his family."
Thomas and Crow have repeatedly refused to answer questions about years of gifts—including luxury vacations and private school tuition—to the right-wing justice and members of his family.
In response to Bopp's assertion—which has been roundly refuted by Durbin and legal experts—Wyden, a progressive Oregon Democrat, accused the Gibson Dunn partner of "stonewalling."
"It comes as little surprise that Mr. Crow is doubling down on bogus legal theories as he continues to stonewall basic questions about his gifts to Clarence Thomas and his family. If anything, the most recent letter from his attorney raises more questions than it answers," the senator said in a statement.
\u201cHarlan Crow continues to stonewall over his gifts to Clarence Thomas. Nothing is off the table as I discuss next steps with my Finance Committee colleagues to compel answers to our questions from Mr. Crow, including by subpoena. Those discussions will continue.\u201d— Ron Wyden (@Ron Wyden) 1686059917
"The letter states, 'charter rates or reimbursements at rates prescribed by law were paid to the Crow family entities' with zero additional detail that could help clarify these financial arrangements, such as exactly who made those payments for Justice Thomas' extravagant luxury travel, and how many times and in what amounts those payments were made," Wyden continued.
"Far too often, efforts to investigate real-life tax practices of the ultra-wealthy and powerful end with this kind of vague, carefully-worded assurance that everything is on the level. That's simply not good enough," he argued. "This is exactly why the Finance Committee is pursuing this matter as part of its broader review of gift and estate tax practices of ultra-high net worth individuals."
Wyden added: "I've already begun productive discussions with the Finance Committee on next steps to compel answers to our questions from Mr. Crow, including by subpoena, and those discussions will continue."
The senator appeared at the summit days after pushing through language in the debt ceiling bill that will expedite the permitting process for the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Organizers of a summit on so-called "permitting reform" hosted by the fossil fuel-linked news outlet Semafor were forced to delay the event on Tuesday when several climate campaigners interrupted Sen. Joe Manchin's remarks to protest the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a pet project of the right-wing West Virginia Democrat.
About two dozen protesters assembled on the stage at the event just as Manchin began speaking about his desire to speed up the approval of projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a $6.6 billion fracked gas project that would run from the senator's home state to Virginia, passing through wetlands and waterways.
"Dirty deal, MVP, Manchin, you are killing me!" chanted the demonstrators, who Bloomberg Law reported were representing the direct action group Climate Defiance. The group also sang the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads."
\u201cBREAKING: We just fully shut down Senator Joe Manchin's keynote address.\n\nHe is shoving a 2,000,000,000 cubic-foot-per-day fracked gas pipeline down our throats. \n\nManchin is not a moderate. Manchin is an ecocidal millionaire. We must resist him with all we've got. And we will.\u201d— Climate Defiance (@Climate Defiance) 1686075030
The demonstration came days after President Joe Biden signed into lawdebt ceiling legislation over the objections of climate campaigners as well as economic justice groups. The so-called Fiscal Responsibility Act includes a requirement that federal agencies approve all remaining permits for the MVP, which has been stalled in the courts as opponents have challenged its threats to the environment in the region the pipeline will pass through. The law also shields the permits from judicial review.
The pipeline is also projected to emit the equivalent of more than 89 million metric tons of carbon at a time when climate scientists and energy experts have warned that fossil fuel emissions must be rapidly drawn down to limit planetary heating to below 2°C above preindustrial levels.
Manchin secured the MVP language in the debt ceiling bill after his previous attempts to include the "dirty deal" regarding expedited permitting in the National Defense Authorization Act and in a stopgap funding bill last year.
The senator left the stage during the protest and claimed the protesters' actions would help him "tremendously" in his state, although polls have shown that West Virginians support a transition to clean energy.
\u201cClimate protesters disrupted Manchin\u2019s Semafor Q&A today on permitting and Mountain Valley pipeline. Speaking now in the back room, Manchin said \u201cwhat these people did today helps me tremendously in my state\u201d politically.\u201d— Ella Nilsen (@Ella Nilsen) 1686065235
Campaigners who have fought the MVP for years have said they will not back down following the passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. The People vs. Fossil Fuels coalition is planning a rally in front of the White House on Thursday, and the local group Preserve Bent Mountain in Virginia said Monday that "it is not yet clear whether the stench of the MVP/debt limit deal will surpass legal scrutiny."
"Even if some of these permits are issued and initially shielded from judicial review, that's not necessarily the end of the line," Jason Rylander, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity," told the independent outlet Cardinal News on Monday. "The pipeline still has to cross some of the most difficult terrain along the route, through the Jefferson National Forest and other areas, and there will be opportunities to hold them accountable for the damage they are continuing to do."