Donald Trump
White House stands by Clovis for USDA chief scientist
President Trump supports the nomination of Sam Clovis to serve as USDA chief scientist despite court documents showing that his former campaign co-chair encouraged foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos to meet Russian officials surreptitiously, said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. The court documents put Clovis, the most controversial USDA nominee in 15 years, back into the public spotlight and may delay action on the nomination.
Trump to slash two national monuments in Utah by 60 percent
During a visit to Utah next week, President Trump will announce that he is lopping a combined 2 million acres from the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, reducing them to 37 percent of their current size, said the Washington Post.
USDA nominee Clovis is on the periphery of Papadopoulos Russian mess
As a co-chair of the Trump presidential campaign, Sam Clovis handled emails from foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who tried from April to August 2016 to arrange a meeting between the campaign and the Russian government and has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about it. According to one report, Clovis is the unnamed "Campaign Supervisor" cited in court documents who told Papadopoulous in mid-August, "I would encourage you" to make an off-the-record trip to Russia.
Russia questions keep coming for Clovis
The lead Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee wants to interview the USDA’s Sam Clovis, a co-chair of the Trump presidential campaign, about proposals that Trump representatives meet Russian government officials during the 2016 campaign.
Trump plans to reduce size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase monuments
When President Trump visits Utah in December, he will announce reductions in the size of the 1.35-million-acre Bears Ears and the 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, "a move that is likely to spur an instant court battle," said the Salt Lake Tribune. Trump told Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, "I'm approving the Bears Ears recommendation for you ... " according to the senator's office.
Perdue’s grade after six months as agriculture secretary: A*
On his first day at work, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue told employees, "I don't cage too well." So it was apt that the peripatetic Perdue was on the road this week, speaking at the FFA convention in Indianapolis and touring the prairie pothole region of the northern Plains, when he reached his six-month mark at USDA. Ag leaders rate Perdue highly as an ambassador for agriculture and agree with his policy decisions.
EPA official regulating chemicals used to work for chemical lobby
A Trump administration appointee at EPA has taken an influential role in federal assessment of the risk posed by hazardous chemicals, "making it more aligned with the industry's wishes," reports the New York Times. The new approach includes the EPA decision in March to allow continued agriculture use of chlorpyrifos, an insecticide criticized as a risk to children and farmworkers.
Trump backs biofuels but industry wants to see it in EPA rules
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says President Trump affirmed his commitment to biofuels during a telephone conversation amid Midwestern fears of a weaker Renewable Fuels Standard in 2018. Despite encouraging words from Trump and the EPA, the head of an Iowa group said biofuel backers won't rest until the EPA announces its final decision, due by Nov. 30.
Climate change policies in India, China could make up for U.S. regression
Climate change is likely to be slightly less damaging thanks to policies in India and China that could offset the U.S.'s reduced environmental efforts under President Trump. “The Carbon Action Tracker (CAT) report, by three independent European research groups, said current policies meant the world was headed for a warming of 3.4 degrees Celsius (6.1 Fahrenheit) by 2100, down from 3.6 degrees (6.5) it predicted a year ago,” explained Reuters.
Rep. Blumenauer’s ‘outsider’ farm bill comes in from the cold
An amalgam of budget hawks, environmentalists and food movement activists are scheduled to call for reform of U.S. food and ag policy today as Rep. Earl Blumenauer unveils legislation to challenge the farm bill being assembled by the House Agriculture Committee.
Drop the threat of NAFTA withdrawal, asks U.S. food and ag sector
A coalition of 100 companies and trade groups representing the U.S. food and agriculture sector says it supports President Trum's goal of modernization of NAFTA but, "We encourage NAFTA negotiations to continue without the threat of withdrawal." Trump has repeatedly threatened to scrap the tri-national trade agreement and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Canada and Mexico have more to lose than the United States if there is a rupture.
Pruitt says EPA will no longer settle with green groups behind doors
EPA chief Scott Pruitt says the agency will no longer settle lawsuits with environmental groups behind closed doors, arguing that the Obama administration regularly excluded industry and state governments from those conversations while pandering to green activists.
Trump nominates climate-change denier as top White House environmental adviser
President Trump has nominated Kathleen Hartnett White, a current senior policy adviser at the free-market think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation, to serve as the White House’s senior environmental policy adviser. Hartnett has argued that calling carbon dioxide a pollutant is “absurd,” and that C02 should instead be considered the gas of life.
NAFTA gives Canada an unfair edge in ag trade, says Perdue
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue listed Canada's controls over dairy and poultry imports during a Fox Business interview in saying "some of the things left out of NAFTA" give Canada an unfair advantage in ag trade. At the White House, President Trump said, "It's possible we won't be able to make a deal" and the United States would seek a bilateral pact with Canada or Mexico.
New bill would curb size of national monuments
Rep. Rob Bishop from Utah has worked up a bill to limit new national monuments to 640 acres, with any designations larger than that requiring environmental impact statements and potentially approval from relevant state and county officials, says Deseret News. The bill is slated to come before the House Committee on Natural Resources, which Bishop chairs.
With NAFTA at crucial point, U.S. farm leaders speak up for trade pacts
U.S. farm leaders turned up the volume in the debate over the new NAFTA, worried that the success story of food and ag exports isn't being heard among the clamor for tougher U.S. trade rules. "We have to be a player in the trade arena so we can move our product out of the country and feed the world," said Zippy Duvall, president of the largest U.S. farm group, during a teleconference on the importance of safeguarding market access in the NAFTA negotiations, now in the fourth of seven scheduled rounds of talks.
California and Oregon urge feds to send relief to salmon fisheries
Officials in California and Oregon are calling on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division to release emergency funding after salmon fisheries were closed in both states.
EPA announces it will scrap Clean Power Plan
The EPA intends to repeal the Clean Power Plan — an Obama-era effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 — according to a document circulated within the agency’s Regulatory Screening Agency.
Trump and Vance oppose funding bill that includes farm aid
President-elect Donald Trump called for a “streamlined spending bill” that also increases the federal debt ceiling on Wednesday as a replacement for the three-month government funding bill that congressional leaders produced the preceding day. That bill included $10 billion to offset a decline in farm income and $21 billion in disaster relief for agriculture.