[Vision2020] 2-2-18 Newsweek: "Pruitt Directly Oversaw Efforts to Erase Climate Change Info from EPA Website, Emails Reveal"

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.newsweek.com/scott-pruitt-personally-oversaw-efforts-erase-climate-change-information-epa-798069
Pruitt Directly Oversaw Efforts to Erase Climate Change Info from EPA
Website, Emails Reveal
By *Chantal Da Silva* <http://www.newsweek.com/authors/chantal-da-silva> On
2/2/18

Recently released emails reveal that Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt personally oversaw efforts last year to
strip information on climate change from the agency's website.

Internal messages sent in April 2017 show that newly appointed EPA
leaders directed staffers to make key changes to the epa.gov website. Edits
ordered by Pruitt demanded that data on climate change and the Obama-era
Clean Power Plan to be stripped away.

The emails were released following a Freedom of Information Act (FOI)
request filed by advocacy group Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).

John Konkus, EPA deputy associate administrator for public affairs and a
former Republican campaign staffer, emailed agency workers on April 1—a
Saturday evening—demanding that they "start building an updated page for
the clean power plan ASAP with the goal of having it go live sometime on
Monday."

"Is there any way we can get a little time put in on this project over the
weekend so that we're off on the right foot on Monday morning?" he asked.

The rushed orders came four days after President Donald Trump signed an
executive order on energy independence, initiating the process of
withdrawing the Clean Power Plan as well as a number of other environmental
regulations. The plan aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from
electrical power generation by 32 percent by 2030, relative to 2005 levels.

Pruitt ordered edits that would modify search results for "Clean Power
Plan" to link to a page promoting Trump's executive order
<https://www.epa.gov/energy-independence>, with a photo of the president
and the EPA administrator posing with coal miners.

"How close are we to launching this on the website?" Lincoln Ferguson, EPA
senior adviser for public affairs, wrote in one email to staffers. "The
Administrator would like it to go up ASAP. He also has several other
changes that need to take place."

Under Pruitt, the EPA officially started its repeal of the Clean Power Plan
last October.

*Related: Did EPA chief Scott Pruitt violate propaganda laws to revise
Clean Water Rule? *
<http://www.newsweek.com/did-epa-chief-scott-pruitt-violate-propaganda-laws-revise-clean-water-rule-704413>

Pruitt had previously served as Oklahoma's attorney general and repeatedly
sued the EPA to prevent the enforcement of strict environmental
regulations—while collecting donations from leaders in the oil and gas
industry. He has openly questioned climate scientists' assertions about the
role man-made carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels play in causing
climate change.

Trump has also repeatedly expressed skepticism about climate change.
In a recent
interview with British journalist Piers Morgan
<http://www.newsweek.com/trump-questions-climate-change-piers-morgan-793135>,
he conflated global warming—the rise in the temperature of the Earth's
surface—with climate change, the altering of the world's climate caused by
a rise in carbon dioxide levels.

"There is a cooling and there's a heating," the president told Morgan. "I
mean, look, it used to not be climate change, it used to be global warming.
That wasn't working too well because it was getting too cold all over the
place."

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2017 was
the warmest year on record
<https://www.climate.gov/news-features/featured-images/2017-was-earths-third-warmest-year-record>.
Despite that, in December 2017 the Trump administration dropped climate
change from a list of threats to U.S. national security.

"You can tell him we have already mocked it up, and are just finishing up.
Should happen this week," EPA Associate Administrator for Public Affairs
J.P. Freire responded.

"Just asking because he is asking," Ferguson fired back.

More than 200 webpages covering information on climate change have been
removed from the epa.gov website over the past year, according to
the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative. The initiative tracks
changes made to thousands of government websites.

Other pages on the EPA's website have been altered to omit references to
climate change and global warming, it added.

“Anyone valuing the idea of democratic policymaking should demand that
public Web resources relevant for regulations should remain readily
accessible to the public,” the initiative said in a statement.

Announcing the findings of its FOI request,
<http://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2018/02/01/emails-indicate-scott-pruitt-directed-removal-of-climate-info-from-epa-website/>
the EDF said that the "website purge at EPA made it harder for the public
to access vital information about climate change and public health. It also
stymied the public's ability to engage in democratic processes."

The EDF continued, "The website purge reinforces serious concerns that
Pruitt has predetermined that he will repeal the Clean Power Plan and the
current rulemaking process is a sham. Instead of listening to the public
with an open mind, these emails suggest that Pruitt is personally and
directly thwarting meaningful public participation."
The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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