EPA

In a potentially significant change to the U.S. ethanol mandate, the EPA is considering whether to allow exports of ethanol to be counted toward the volume requirements in a law intended to boost the domestic consumption of biofuels, said Reuters, citing two unnamed sources. The ethanol trade group Growth Energy said the proposal cast doubt on the Trump administration’s support for biofuels, including corn-based ethanol.

In order to provide around-the-clock security for EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, the agency “has summoned agents from various cities to serve two-week stints helping guard Pruitt,” says the Washington Post. “The practice has rankled some employees and outside critics, who note that the EPA’s criminal enforcement efforts already are understaffed and that the Trump administration has proposed further cuts to the division.”

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt spent 43 days out of a 92-day stretch from March to May in Oklahoma or traveling between his home state and Washington, according to a group of former EPA officials. "Based on congressional requests and a hotline complaint," the EPA inspector general's office said it will investigate Pruitt's frequent trips, reported the Oklahoman.

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt stars in a 78-second National Cattleman's Beef Association video that urges farmers and ranchers to file comments about repeal of the so-called Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, "and ...about how to get it right as we go forward." Pruitt's role in the video, which directs viewers to the NCBA website to file comments, "has drawn the attention of experts in government ethics," says E&E News.

The new EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, told a farm group, "[T]his is a new day, a new future, for a common-sense approach to environmental protection," in the weeks before the EPA announced it would allow continued agricultural use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, according to records obtained by the New York Times. Environmental groups say the records, provided through the Freedom of Information Act, show EPA was doing favors for industry; the EPA said it was following the science.

As he works to reverse many of the environmental regulations set under the Obama administration, EPA chief Scott Pruitt has dialed up both security and secrecy at the agency.

The EPA will provide clarity to the reach of the clean water law with its revisions of the so-called Waters of the United States that was proposed by the Obama administration and blocked by court challenges, said administrator Scott Pruitt in a Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette interview. Pruitt said the new rule would be “objectively measured and traditional in its view of how we should measure waters of the United States.”

Scott Pruitt sued the EPA a dozen times as Oklahoma attorney general, so "no one is surprised" that he "is steadfastly rolling back many of the regulations he fought in court," says the Oklahoman. Critics and supporters share the view that Pruitt "is operating with an efficiency and zeal beyond that of his predecessors."

The EPA erred when it set the target for biofuels use in 2016 below the levels specified by Congress, said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a decision that vacated the regulation and ordered EPA to try again. The three-judge panel said EPA improperly interpreted the "inadequate supply provision" that allows it to waive the statutory targets for renewable fuel use.

The attorneys general of 11 states have sued the EPA for delaying implementation of a chemical-spill rule at industrial sites, including fertilizer plants, by two years. “The set of regulations, called the Chemical Accident Safety Rule, would require industrial facilities to take new steps to prevent accidents and also to conduct more robust examinations of the causes of accidents that do occur,” says Reuters.

The prominent coal-industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, a former Senate staff member, "is likely to be tapped as the No. 2 official at the Environmental Protection Agency," says Axios, citing two people familiar with the decision-making process. "The expected appointment for deputy EPA administrator is a turnaround from last month when the White House was poised to tap Jeff Holmstead, a former top EPA official under President George W. Bush," and a more moderate choice than Wheeler.

Although the EPA dragged its feet for a decade on whether to ban the insecticide chlorpyrifos, "it has now done what we ordered it to do" and made a decision, said the federal appellate court in San Francisco. For that reason, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals refused to consider a lawsuit by two environmental groups contesting EPA administrator Scott Pruitt's decision to keep the chemical, criticized as a risk to children and farm workers, available for use in agriculture.

Scott Pruitt, head of the EPA, told reporters he would like to see a televised debate on climate change led by scientists, though he didn’t mention how they would be selected, says Reuters. "There are lots of questions that have not been asked and answered (about climate change)," said Pruitt.

Six state prosecutors from New York, Maryland, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia are joining environmental and social advocacy groups in a lawsuit to push the EPA to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos. "It is EPA's responsibility to protect Americans from unsafe chlorpyrifos residues on food because of the potential neuro-developmental and other adverse health effects caused by exposure," the prosecutors said in their filing, according to Reuters.

The EPA is recruiting experts to review climate-change findings, says a senior agency official, in what may be the latest attempt to undermine climate change efforts. “The program will use ‘red team, blue team’ exercises to conduct an ‘at-length evaluation of U.S. climate science,’ the official said, referring to a concept developed by the military to identify vulnerabilities in field operations,” reports E&E News.

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt "has moved to undo, delay or otherwise block more than 30 environmental rules" in his four months in office, a larger rollback in so short a time than the agency has ever seen, says the New York Times. While the Trump agenda has stumbled in many areas, all sides agree that Pruitt "is moving effectively to dismantle the regulations and international agreements that stood as a cornerstone of President Barack Obama's legacy," said the newspaper.

In less than two weeks, California will list glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, to its list of known carcinogens, said the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. The listing was delayed while Monsanto challenged the decision in court.

EPA chief Scott Pruitt, who advocated U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, left Italy after a few hours of a two-day meeting of environment ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy industrialized nations.