With EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s recent resignation, the scandal talk heats up again. According to CNN and the leftist Vox site, Pruitt had engaged in a number of scandalous activities, and even the conservative National Review had demanded Pruitt’s resignation before the publication permitted a guest column by a Pruitt associate that raised questions about whether or not he had engaged in disreputable behavior at all. For example, the Washington Post reported that Pruitt used his … [Read more...]
Cornwall Alliance Statement on EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s Resignation
On July 5, President Donald Trump announced the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. The Cornwall Alliance was pleased to support Mr. Pruitt’s nomination in 2017, and we have valued his service to the American people since then. He has brought to the EPA, which in past years frequently overstretched the statutory limits of its authority, a strong commitment to our Constitutional order. Mr. Pruitt has honored the separation of powers and worked … [Read more...]
Defending Scott Pruitt from Scurrilous Journalists and Politicians
Last year, the Cornwall Alliance produced an open letter supporting Scott Pruitt's nomination to become EPA Administrator. We rested our judgment on the facts that As Oklahoma Attorney General Pruitt had demonstrated his legal expertise in successful litigation to require corporations—including the energy corporations so prominent in his state’s economy—to abide by environmental laws and regulations. He had publicly expressed his conviction that the EPA’s role is not to create law through … [Read more...]
No More Secret Science, Needs No More Secret Economics
Controversial Administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt, said in a press release on April 24th that: “The era of secret science at [the] EPA is coming to an end.” This is in the context of him signing a proposed rule to strengthen the science used in regulations issued by EPA. This is also in the context of Executive Order 13777 (issued in March 2017) which provides for regulatory reform of “those regulations that [do not] meet the standard of reproducibility.” The … [Read more...]
Has Scott Pruitt Brought Armageddon to the EPA?
According to two former Administrators, current federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has set the agency back by anything from several years to as much as three decades due to “regulatory rollbacks, mass attrition and budget cuts.” That sounds ominous. It isn’t. At present EPA is operating under FY2017 funding levels. While projected FY2018 funding cuts will be substantial, they have not yet taken place. The FY2018 budget’s 28% reduction for the Superfund program … [Read more...]
Ending ‘Sue-and -Settle’ Extortion
Last week, federal Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a directive aimed at reducing “sue-and-settle” lawsuits. For those who like voters to have input in the creation of environmental regulation, this is a great move. For decades, environmental advocacy groups have exerted outsized influence—and profited financially—from “friendly” lawsuits against the EPA. These lawsuits have been a conduit for activists inside and outside the EPA to get new regulations in … [Read more...]
Pruitt Sounds Death Knell for Scandalous “Sue-and-Settle” at EPA
One of the reasons the Cornwall Alliance supported President Donald Trump's nomination of Scott Pruitt, at the time Oklahoma Attorney General, as Administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was that Pruitt "publicly opposed the abuse of the court system by use of 'sue-and-settle' to reach sweetheart deals between the EPA and environmental advocacy groups." That was sweet news to anyone familiar with the way Green advocacy groups had abused the legal system, with full … [Read more...]
Cornwall Alliance Celebrates Rollback of Clean Power Plan
For Immediate Release Burke, VA, October 10, 2017—The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation yesterday celebrated the success of its petition “Forget ‘Climate Change,’ Energy Empowers the Poor,” signed by thousands of Americans, asking government officials to repeal the Clean Power Plan (CPP). Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced yesterday that the Trump Administration will withdraw the CPP. “The regulation was ill advised from the … [Read more...]
Taking Politics Out of Climate Science
[Excerpted from the Washington Times] A red team, blue team match would test the assumptions of man-made global warming. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Scott Pruitt wants to adopt a red team, blue team approach to weighing the scientific pros and cons about man-made global warming. According to E&E News reporter Emily Holden, “Climate scientists express concern that the ‘red team, blue team’ concept could politicize scientific research” related to global … [Read more...]
A Global Warming Red Team Warning: Do NOT Strive for Consensus with the Blue Team
Now that the idea of a global warming Red Team approach to help determine what our energy policy should be is gaining traction, it is important that we understand what that means to some of us who have been advocating it for over 10 years — and also what it doesn’t mean. The Red Team approach has been used for many years in private industry, DoD, and the intelligence community to examine very costly decisions and programs in a purposely adversarial way…to ask, what if we are wrong about a … [Read more...]
