Judge orders @EPA to disclose any science backing up @EPAScott Pruitt's climate claims
This judge in on to the Corrupt Pruitt!
Judge orders EPA to disclose any science backing up Pruitt’s climate claims
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/06/judge-orders-epa-to-disclose-any-science-backing-up-pruitts-climate-claims/
EPA will have to comply with an information request by July.
Megan Geuss - 6/5/2018, 8:25 PM
In March 2017, Scott Pruitt, the new administrator of Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency, appeared on CNBC and said that carbon dioxide was not known to be a major factor in climate change. “I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see,” Pruitt said, adding, “there’s a tremendous disagreement about the degree of the impact” of “human activity on the climate
Based on what?
The next day, a group called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the EPA, asking for any agency documents that Administrator Pruitt may have relied on to come to his conclusions. Since Pruitt’s words contradicted scientific evidence shared by the EPA before the administrator took office, PEER's request might turn up some recent document that indicated Pruitt had new information.
Instead, the EPA stalled and refused to provide any information to PEER. The employee group then sued the agency.
On Tuesday, a US District Court Judge for the District of Columbia issued a memo (PDF) saying that the EPA must comply with PEER’s request by July 2, offering any EPA documents that helped Pruitt come to the conclusion that he shared on CNBC last year. If certain documents can not be provided, an explanation for their absence must be provided by July 11. 
In the Tuesday memo, Judge Beryl A. Howell described a slew of excuses used by the EPA to justify a refusal of PEER’s request. The EPA contended that PEER’s FOIA request was overly broad, that it was actually “an impermissible attempt to compel EPA and its administrator to answer questions and take a position on the climate change debate,” and that complying with the request would be burdensome......................
The judge also called it “particularly troubling" that the EPA argued that evidence for a factual statement by the administrator can be unknowable. “EPA’s strained attempt to raise an epistemological smokescreen will not work here to evade its obligations under the FOIA,” Judge Howell wrote........................
Further Reading
New EPA chief denies CO2 is major factor in climate change
An older article ICYMI:
Scott Pruitt confirmed to head EPA in near-partisan vote
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/02/scott-pruitt-confirmed-to-head-epa-in-near-partisan-vote/
Dems won when a judge ordered trove of Pruitt e-mails released, but it didn’t last.
Megan Geuss - 2/17/2017, 1:48 PM
On Friday, the Republican-controlled Senate voted 52 to 46 to confirm Oklahoma Attorney General (AG) Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), despite fierce opposition from many Democrats and environmental groups. Two Democrats from fossil fuel-rich states broke with their party to vote for Pruitt: Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia. One Republican, Susan Collins, of Maine, voted against Pruitt.
Democrat Joe Donnelly from Indiana and Republican John McCain from Arizona didn’t vote.
Pruitt is a controversial choice to head the agency tasked with protecting the environment. He has previously expressed doubt regarding the science behind climate change and has sued the EPA 14 times in his tenure as AG of Oklahoma (a state that has, incidentally, suffered a string of earthquakes thanks to the oil industry). He also drew fire after a New York Times article discovered that Pruitt had copied wholesale a letter drafted by oil and gas company Devon Energy and sent it to regulators in Washington as his own, with only a few minor changes. The Times wrote that Pruitt had done this several times in letters he sent to the EPA, the Office of Management and Budget, and President Obama.
In his January confirmation hearing, Pruitt admitted that he believes the climate is warming, although he refused to take a definitive stance on whether he believed the warming climate is mostly anthropogenic in nature. Pruitt also said he would look to EPA counsel on whether he must recuse himself from lawsuits he still has pending against the EPA.
Pruitt’s confirmation vote came after an all-night session in which Democrats on the Senate floor demanded that Republican Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell delay the vote until Tuesday. Pruitt has been ordered by a court to release 3,000 e-mails “related to his communications with the fossil fuel industry,” according to The New York Times. Democrats wanted a chance to sift through those e-mails before the vote was called, but McConnell denied the request.................................
= new reply since forum marked as read
Maybe written in lipstick on a bar napkin?
"Only the best scientists, your honor!"
What a piece of slime. 