"Among Donald Trump's cabinet nominees awaiting Senate confirmation, few are expected to face tougher scrutiny than Scott Pruitt, the president-elect's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency. The Oklahoma attorney general is a relentless adversary of that agency and its regulations, and he has deep ties to the fossil fuel industry he would be charged with overseeing."
To help keep tabs on the newly seated 115th Congress and its gate-keepers of energy and environment law, the latest TipSheet offers a checklist of committee leadership. Plus, a closer look at three key Senate panels, likely agendas and new leadership, such as Senate Energy Committee Chair John Barrasso, R-Wyo. (shown in photo).
"WAUKESHA, Wis. — This city has become the battleground for one of North America’s fiercest water wars, one that is taking the Great Lakes region into more uncharted legal territory in 2017."
"Illinois elementary schools and day care centers must test drinking water sources for lead and notify parents of the results under legislation signed into law Monday by Gov. Bruce Rauner."
"The Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians in northern Wisconsin voted not to renew an easement for a major oil and gas pipeline that passes through its reservation. In the wake of the successful protest against the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota, this decision is the latest example of Native American tribes using sovereignty rights to oppose fossil fuel projects."
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it’s keeping vehicle efficiency standards intact through the 2025 model year, shoring up a key piece of President Barack Obama’s environmental legacy against a challenge by the incoming administration."
"Dow Chemical Wants Farmers to Keep Using a Pesticide Linked to Autism and ADHD".
"A legal fight to clean up tons of chicken manure fouling the waters of Oklahoma’s bucolic northeastern corner — much of it from neighboring Arkansas — was in full swing six years ago when the conservative lawyer Scott Pruitt took office as Oklahoma’s attorney general. His response: Put on the brakes."
"A new front has opened in the fight against the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The battleground this time is rural west Texas, where a small, yet intense opposition to building the Trans-Pecos Pipeline has gained force in recent days."
"President Obama today announced three new national monuments honoring key events in the civil rights movement and expanded both the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Oregon and the California Coastal National Monument.
The White House said the president was using his authority to mark the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday by creating two new sites in Alabama — the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and the Freedom Riders National Monument — and one in South Carolina — the Reconstruction Era National Monument.
