EPA oversight hearing

[dc2london]

I'll come back up here and give a committee snapshot in a few but the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is conducting its oversight hearing with EPA Director Scott Pruitt.

[jkjacq]

I may head over when Ryan is done

He actually sounds...coherent when talking about the investigation/memo. hes laying out the process for the release of the dem side

[dc2london]

Ranking Member Carper is reading Dir. Pruitt the riot act during his opening remarks. He already scolded him for not bothering to make time for these hearings (Pruitt's predecessor appeared before the committee 14 times in 6 years). He's also reading a laundry list of all the ways he's screwing over the environment. And called him out on taking credit for environmental cleanup that happened during the Obama administration.

[dc2london]

Carper: "I don't say this lightly, Mr Pruitt, but you have routinely misrepresented the actions and record of President Obama... it's galling. STOP. DOING IT."

[athn64]

I am here for this. Especially excited for Tammy.

[dc2london]

Please hold. My laptop is possessed.

[dc2london]

Interesting. 20 million gallons of biofuel can be produced by sorghum grown in Kansas.

[dc2london]

Senator Booker is discussing Superfund sites (many are in New Jersey). Children born near superfund sites have higher rates of autism and of birth defects. He'd like Director Pruitt to submit in writing the actions the Administration is taking and their timeline for addressing 27 sites that are at risk of flooding and spilling over.

[dc2london]

Senator Booker is now discussing environmental justice and the ways that environmental hazards disproportionately impact communities of color and those in low-income households.
Pruitt has moved to lower the minimum age required for children to handle pesticides. The science is very clear that contact with these pesticides is extremely dangerous for children under 18, but Pruitt is weakening rules and regulations that prohibit children from handling them.

Booker wants protection and advocacy in communities of color to safeguard children.

Pruitt gives him some word salad and agrees to visit superfund sites in NJ with Senator Booker.

[dc2london]

Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA): Iowa unemployment has dipped below 3% for the first time since 2000. She credits Pruitt/Trump deregulation for that (eyeroll).
TIL that Iowa is a big producer of E-15 fuel. But Senator Ernst is very concerned that E-15 can't be sold during the summer months because, you know, pumping a bunch of ethanol into hot hazy air is a great idea.

[athn64]

Deregulation is not a good thing! Dbeidnbskevf

[Minerva]

Jan 30, 2018 10:03:39 GMT -6 dc2london said:

Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA): Iowa unemployment has dipped below 3% for the first time since 2000. She credits Pruitt/Trump deregulation for that (eyeroll).
TIL that Iowa is a big producer of E-15 fuel. But Senator Ernst is very concerned that E-15 can't be sold during the summer months because, you know, pumping a bunch of ethanol into hot hazy air is a great idea.

God forbid people actually are able to breathe without smog triggering their asthma.

[dc2london]

Senator Duckworth (D-IL): During your confirmation hearing, you said that you wanted to eradicate lead poisoning. But you didn't know anything about lead poisoning so, uh, have you learned anything?
Pruitt recites a couple of limits and statistics.

Duckworth: Ok your rhetoric does not match your actions. You placed a two year delay on updating the 1991 Lead and Copper Rule. So how does that square with your "war on lead?"

now they're bickering and they had to ask dad to intervene.

"I have children being exposed to lead every day in their drinking water and they don't have 700 days to wait."

[dc2london]

Duckworth: POTUS' FY 2018 budget eliminates the Lead Risk Reduction Program. Will you fight to keep the program?

Pruitt: We will continue the program if it's properly funded.

Duckworth: Talk with your bro Donny then. Bc you claimed it's a priority.

Pruitt: Uh, we'll work with you--

Duckworth cuts him off and asks about the Ground and Drinking Water Office, which is also being cut by the White House.

Senator Duckworth is pissed. Senator Imhoffe says, "I get the impression they don't like you." YA THINK

[jkjacq]

Well that was pissy (the exchange between Inofe and Pruitt re duckworths comments)

[dc2london]

Senator Inhoffe wants to enter into the record an article from a local paper in Kansas talking about all the super duper jobs created by deregulation. Senator Markey asks that they also enter into the record an article from Moody's saying just the opposite. LOL.

[dc2london]

Inhoffe: How is the EPA working to protect the most vulnerable communities?

Pruitt: Electricity is expensive tho.

Inhoffe: I know, right? Obama didn't GAF about poor people. Now tell us more about how you awesomely got rid of that other thing Obama put into place to protect Americans.

Pruitt: Sue-and-settle was just another way to create regulation through litigation. You shouldn't be able to sue utility companies for screwing over the planet, that's just unsportsmanlike.

Inhoffe: You told the National Review that we still have a lot to do on clean air. "The EPA was so focused on CO2 that we let a lot of other things slide...[Obama's] singular focus on a naturally produced gas as a pollutant came with a cost."

Pruitt: 120 million people are living with air that doesn't meet the minimum air quality standards so we need to help states and counties put more monitors in place to get real-time data so we can make real-time decisions (???)

Inhoffe: Why the hell did you agree to respond to questions for two and a half hours?

This asshole.

[dc2london]

Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) is here but he didn't bring his giant planet and I'm a little bummed.

He DID, however, bring a transcript of an interview he gave to a local radio show in 2016. Pruitt said that "Donald Trump in the White House would be more abusive to the Constitution than Barack Obama, and that's saying a lot."

Pruitt doesn't recall saying that and says he doesn't agree with that sentiment. Except Sheldon brought TAPES. This is amazing!!!

[dc2london]

Whitehouse, quoting Pruitt, "Everything we loathe about Barack Obama and his abuses of power, Donald Trump is the same thing."

Pruitt has nothing to say for himself.

The host said to Pruitt that his father calls Trump "dangerous." Pruitt's response was, "You know, your dad is very astute."

Sooooooo, as Senator Whitehouse points out, Pruitt has personally, on the record, called Trump abusive, a bully, and dangerous.

[jkjacq]

Whitehouse and his what do you do all fucking day was pretty good

[dc2london]

Whitehouse: Why are you so secretive about your schedule? On May 5, you flew on taxpayer expense to Tulsa and had lunch with one guy. Did you really fly to Tulsa for a lunch, or did you perhaps attend a RNC fundraiser in Tulsa, in direct violation of the Hatch Act?

Pruitt will have to submit his answer for the record bc the Senator's time is up.

[dc2london]

Jan 30, 2018 10:21:29 GMT -6 jkjacq said:

Whitehouse and his what do you do all fucking day was pretty good

i really want someone to ask about the phone booth.

[dc2london]

Mr Pruitt tells Senator Boozman (R-AK) that he's working with state DNRs and DEQs to communicate directly with governors in their states to resolve issues.

[dc2london]

Pruitt denies reports that career environmental scientists have been excluded from high-level meetings. Sure, I believe you.

[dc2london]

Senator Markey (D-MA) follows up on previous question about killing the requirement that manufacturers use gold standard detection practices to detect 187 deadly pollutants.

He reads him a list of toxic pollutants, asking Director Pruitt whether he thinks each is harmful. Pruitt agrees that they are.

Markey asks, then, why he decided to allow for the release of more of those toxins into the environment.

"The president has a slogan of, 'MAGA.' Well, it looks like it means, 'Make Arsenic Great Again." Boom.

[jkjacq]

3 million barrels of oil imported a day..

WOW

[dc2london]

Senator Markey forcefully reminds Pruitt that we send men and women in uniform into dangerous war zones, in part,to protect our oil supply. And for the DOT and EPA to not work tirelessly in pursuit of improved fuel economy standards shows a lack of appreciation for their service.

[dc2london]

Senator Rounds (R-SD) wants to fight about science. Tell us, Mr. Pruitt, about how you use the most current and sound science.

Ummm?

Pruitt: We have all the science. But I don't trust scientists if they receive grant funding. Because then you're BIAAASSSSS.

[dc2london]

Now he's saying that we need to focus more on the "fuel side" of reducing emissions rather than the vehicle components. Ok but we can do both? Apparently the EPA can't walk and chew gum at the same time.

[dc2london]

Senator Merkley (D-OR)-"I'll have you submit your full answer for the record because I know you're very good at filibustering"