Overnight Energy: Dems go on attack at EPA chief’s hearing | Pruitt backs national fuel standard | Bill Nye sparks controversy with State of the Union plans | Greens sue over wolf protections

by Timothy Cama - 01/30/18 6:08 PM ET

DEMS COME OUT SWINGING AT EPA CHIEF’S HEARING: Democratic senators wasted no time Tuesday hounding the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over his regulatory rollbacks and potential ulterior motives at the agency.

Amid relentless questioning during the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, Democrats used all tools at their disposal, including audio, in an effort to challenge the EPA’s Scott Pruitt on most of his policy decisions and promises since becoming administrator almost a year ago.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the ranking member, set the tone early on by thanking Pruitt for making his first appearance at the committee, before critiquing him for taking so long to do so.

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“I’d note for the record that your immediate predecessor, Gina McCarthy, appeared before this committee six times in two years, while her predecessor, Lisa Jackson, appeared before us 14 times in six years. You can do better on this front and it’s important that you do,” Carper said.

Other members challenged Pruitt on recent changes the EPA made to its clean air policy and its plans for toxic chemical cleanup. EPA’s new air policy lets some polluting facilities no longer be subject to strict rules for ‘major’ sources of emissions.

Pruitt recently announced a “war on lead,” pointing to the Obama administration’s failure to prevent the Flint water crisis as an example of an area President Trump’s administration could do better.

Read more here.

Other highlights from Pruitt’s appearance at EPW:

Pruitt says the national fuel standard should be “unified“: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt says he supports a unified national vehicle fuel standard, stoking state fears that the agency may do away with waivers allowing states to implement stronger standards.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) asks Pruitt if his visit to Morocco qualified as a “shithole country”: The question came as Duckworth was scrutinizing Pruitt’s recent official trip to the North African nation, in part to promote liquefied natural gas exports.
“Can I assume that like all these other Americans, you did not find Morocco, a North African nation, to be a shithole when you visited?” Duckworth asked.

EPA may be reconsidering cutting off funding to a Chesapeake newspaper: EPA is reconsidering its decision to cut off federal funding to a newspaper that covers environmental issues related to the Chesapeake Bay. Pruitt told senators Tuesday that he learned about the decision to end the Bay Journal’s ongoing grant and disagreed with the way that it was done.

PRUITT SAID TRUMP WOULD BE A THREAT TO THE CONSTITUTION: While Pruitt was testifying at the Senate hearing, a liberal watchdog group released audio of a radio interview from February 2016 in which he said Trump would be a threat to the Constitution.

“I believe that Donald Trump in the White House would be more abusive to the Constitution than Barack Obama — and that’s saying a lot,” he said at the time.

Trump, Pruitt said, would take “unapologetic steps, to use executive power to confront Congress in a way that is truly unconstitutional.”

“Donald Trump has said many, many times … I’ll do this I’ll do that. And those things that he’s mentioned cannot be done,” Pruitt said.

Pruitt had supported former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign.

Initially, when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) asked Pruitt about it at the hearing, he said he didn’t recall making those remarks.

But in a later statement, he effusively praised Trump.

“After meeting him, and now having the honor of working for him, it is abundantly clear that President Trump is the most consequential leader of our time,” Pruitt said. “No one has done more to advance the rule of law than President Trump. The President has liberated our country from the political class and given America back to the people.”

Read more here.

CONTROVERSY OVER BILL NYE’S SOTU PLANS: Well-known TV figure Bill Nye “the Science Guy” is not backing off plans to attend President Trump’s first State of the Union address Tuesday night, but his appearance is not meant to be an endorsement, his company says.

In a post from The Planetary Society Tuesday, the group’s director of space policy, Casey Dreier, said Nye’s attendance as the guest of Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), Trump’s nominee to head NASA, does not mean he’s endorsing him for the role.

“So right up front, I want to restate the fact that attending the [State of the Union] as Bridenstine’s guest does not mean that either Bill Nye or The Planetary Society is endorsing his nomination. The Society does not make endorsements for NASA Administrator nominees — we are committed to working with whomever serves in that position,” Dreier said in the post.

Read more here.

Nye Has faced some criticism: 500 Women Scientists, a group that describes itself as a grass-roots organization dedicated to “making science open, inclusive, and accessible” to a diverse population, condemned Nye earlier Tuesday for his decision to attend the speech and accused him of putting his “personal brand over the interests of the scientific community at large.”

GREENS SUE OVER MEXICAN WOLVES: A coalition of conservation groups sued the Trump administration Tuesday, saying its protection plan for Mexican wolves is inadequate.

The greens say the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) violated the Endangered Species Act and ignored sound scientific findings in its November plan to increase Mexican wolf populations in the Southwest.

“Mexican wolves urgently need more room to roam, protection from killing, and more releases of wolves into the wild to improve genetic diversity, but the Mexican wolf recovery plan provides none of these things,” Elizabeth Forsyth, an Earthjustice attorney representing the group, said in a statement.

“The wolves will face an ongoing threat to their survival unless major changes are made.”

Read more here.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY:

Activist group Climate Hawks Vote will host an event at The George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium at 8 p.m. The event titled Fossil Free Fast: The Climate Resistance, will feature Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Bill McKibben of 350.org and Rev. Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus.

AROUND THE WEB:

London has already exceeded its annual pollution limit set by law, Sky News reports.
Dayne Walling, the former Flint, Mich., mayor ousted during the city’s water crisis, is running for a seat in the state House, the Associated Press reports.

Volkswagen AG is suspending an executive over recent revelations that the company exposed monkeys to diesel fumes as part of its efforts to mislead regulators about its cars’ pollution, CNN reports.

FROM THE HILL’S OPINION SECTION:

Jeff Eshelman of Independent Petroleum Association of America says activists who push for fossil fuel divestment are hypocrites.

Katie Huffling of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments says Pruitt’s statements on reducing methane pollution don’t match his actions.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Tuesday’s stories …

– Greens sue Trump over wolf protections

– Bill Nye’s company says SOTU attendance not an endorsement

– Scientists’ group rips Bill Nye over SOTU attendance: He ‘does not speak for us’

– Dems go on the attack during EPA chief’s hearing

– Pruitt: National fuel standard should be ‘unified’

– Dem asks EPA’s Pruitt if Morocco is a ‘s—hole’ country

– EPA reconsidering whether to cut off Chesapeake newspaper’s funding