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Senate on Track to Confirm Scott Pruitt as EPA Administrator
Senate Republicans are poised to use their majority to confirm President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. A vote on Scott Pruitt’s nomination is set for Friday, despite a call from Democrats for a delay. A judge in Oklahoma on Thursday ordered Pruitt, the state’s attorney general, to release thousands of his emails with oil and gas executives by next week. Pruitt has refused to release the emails for more than two years. [ read more … ]
E.P.A. Workers Try to Block Pruitt in Show of Defiance
Employees of the Environmental Protection Agency have been calling their senators to urge them to vote on Friday against the confirmation of Scott Pruitt, President Trump’s contentious nominee to run the agency, a remarkable display of activism and defiance that presages turbulent times ahead for the E.P.A. Many of the scientists, environmental lawyers and policy experts who work in E.P.A. offices around the country say the calls are a last resort for workers who fear a nominee selected to run an agency he has made a career out of fighting — by a president who has vowed to “get rid of” it. [ read more … ]
EPA staff told to prepare for Trump executive orders: sources
Staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been told that President Donald Trump is preparing a handful of executive orders to reshape the agency, to be signed once a new administrator is confirmed, two sources who attended the meeting told Reuters on Wednesday. A senior EPA official who had been briefed by members of the Trump administration mentioned the executive orders at a meeting of staffers in the EPA’s Office of General Counsel on Tuesday, but did not provide details about what the orders would say, said the sources, who asked not to be named. [ read more … ]
Trump urged to back offshore
A bipartisan coalition of 20 governors has called on President Donald Trump to help grow offshore wind energy in the US. In a letter sent by the Governors’ Wind & Solar Energy Coalition (GWSC), they asked the Trump administration to adopt comprehensive long-term offshore wind development legislation. Specifically, the governors said a long-term extension of a 30% investment tax credit is “critical” to incentivise development. [ read more … ]
States jockey for jobs in nascent U.S. industry
To encourage the United States to get into the game, the Obama administration auctioned off 1 million acres of federal waters. Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina and even California are exploring the resource. But the offshore wind industry, and the environmentalists and labor unions that support it, has pressed for more. It has urged states to take after Europe: to commit to a large-scale, long-term pipeline of projects. The “magic number” for that pipeline remains debated. But advocates say it was that scale that helped drive down costs in Europe and birth the industry there. [ read more … ]
Paradigm Shift: Wind Energy Can Be the New Baseload
Exciting news came at a recent energy policy forum in Minnesota when David Saggau, CEO of Great River Energy, which provides energy to 28 electric co-ops in Minnesota, stated that he sees wind quickly becoming the new baseload. “In the past, we tended to think of our coal resources as baseload and every other resource being supplemental to that,” said Saggau. “I would suggest to you that wind is quickly becoming the new baseload; and to be viable going forward, all other sources must be flexible enough to be supplemental to the wind.” [ read more … ]
Proposed Legislation To Limit Wind Farms Around Military Bases Will Cost Jobs, Hurt Rural Economies
Despite these undeniable advantages, the future of U.S. wind energy in the United States has recently been threatened by proposed legislation – at both the state and national level – to limit the amount of wind turbines that could be installed near U.S. military bases. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.