New rules limiting clean water protections ignore stream science

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Sections of the Little Colorado River in northern Arizona are ephemeral, flowing most frequently during the spring to accommodate snowmelt runoff or during the summer monsoon season. In this view, the river is at flood stage, with water cascading over the falls. Dale Nations/Flickr CC What happens to part of a river network affects all of … Read more

Ignore the facts — only way to justify rollback of EPA’s greenhouse gas standards

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Rows of vehicles in traffic spewing emissions.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed to massively roll back its undeniably successful car greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards while totally ignoring the technical and scientific facts, as well as its world-renowned federal, career staff. This is unprecedented and will go down as one of the most anti-science and anti-transparency actions in agency history. … Read more

Oil and Gas Fields Leak Far More Methane than EPA Reports

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Oil well flaring gas

Higher than expected levels of the potent short-lived climate pollutant raise questions about whether natural gas can be an effective bridge to lower emissions. All of us should be concerned about how methane emissions from natural gas production, especially fracking, are negatively impacting our air quality. There has been much controversy for years over how … Read more

Turning EPA into a “Regulatory Capture” Agency

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EPA employees holding signs "no budget or staffing cuts"

We are reposting a thoughtful – and alarming – article by a group of academics about the ways in which Scott Pruitt is mounting “an ongoing, broad-scale takeover of [EPA] by industries it regulates”  published today on The Environmental Protection Agency made news recently for excluding reporters from a “summit” meeting on chemical contamination in drinking water. … Read more

Ethics and Integrity at US EPA – and Administrator Scott Pruitt’s Violations of Norms

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By  Kerrigan Clough, former Senior Ethics Officer, & Deputy Regional Administrator, EPA Region 8  & Joni Teter, former Deputy Ethics Officer & Senior Enforcement Attorney, EPA Region 8 William D. Ruckelshaus, EPA’s first and fourth Administrator set the standard for EPA employees’ ethical behavior.  Shortly after taking office on December 4, 1970, two days after … Read more

Save EPA – A new ‘toon is up in the adventures of Slick Scotty

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And now a word from Slick Scotty’s sponsors…We welcome volunteers! Thank you for your interest in Save EPA.  As you’ve seen, we create tools & talking points to help you speak out in defense of our environmental protections.  The Trump Administration continues to launch a massive assault on our climate, our public health and our … Read more

Trump administration continues to threaten drinking water safety

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Girl & water fountain

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is committed to repealing and replacing the Clean Water Rule with a weaker standard that would ultimately hurt the health of our waterways and our families.    “Trump’s EPA and their Republican allies in Congress are attacking the safeguards that keep our water clean.” FRED TANNEAU/AFP/Getty Images   From our colleagues at … Read more

Can EPA Maintain Its Mission?

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Above: Los Angeles in the 1970s and now. What does it take to get from dirty to clean? Learn here. From our partners at the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program Since Donald Trump became President and Scott Pruitt his EPA Administrator, the EPA has worked assiduously to remove, weaken, or delay a … Read more

State of Risk: How Weakening EPA Imperils Our Health, Families, Jobs & Economy

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EPA was created to protect our air, water, lands –  and, above all, our health.  Since its creation in 1970, EPA has made our air and water cleaner, prevented millions of asthma attacks and hospitalizations, and avoided hundreds of thousands of premature deaths, all while America enjoyed a growing economy and expanding population.  Protecting the … Read more