Today on the Daily Standard podcast, editor-in-chief Stephen Hayes and reporter Andrew Egger discuss the latest from Washington, including the resignation of EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, Trump's latest defense of Vladimir Putin, and the president's upcoming Supreme Court nomination announcement.
President Trump tweeted the news Thursday afternoon.
Congress recently voted to raise the budget caps that limited the amount of money they can spend. While doing so, they claimed that the budget caps were so tight they were having devastating and lasting consequences for the government.
We like what he’s done. But the time has come.
Hosted by Charlie Sykes.
Perhaps more secure than he should be.
Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes discusses the embattled EPA chief, the latest on the trade war, our recent editorial on the economy, Charlie Sykes's recent opinion item "The Conscience of Ann Coulter" and the firing of Kevin Williamson.
The end of the Chief Wahoo era. Given my lifelong Cleveland Indians fandom, Chief Wahoo has long been part of my sports wardrobe. The New York Times reports that Wahoo's reign as team logo ends in 2019, the year Cleveland will again host the MLB All-Star Game. The trademarks will still be owned by…
When the daughter of President Trump’s pick to lead the Midwest Environmental Protection Agency introduced her mother at an all-staff meeting earlier this month, she detailed how her mom helped her beat her driver’s license test after she failed the first time.
“Another entry from the authoritarian handbook,” says David Axelrod. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes thinks it’s a “hunt” for “ideological subversives.” The public is financing “lies” to “eviscerate environmental protections,” according to Robert Reich.
Every Sunday evening, the press office at the Environmental Protection Agency receives emails from the New York Times and Politico asking for EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s public schedule for the coming week. The press office ignores the emails.
The New York Times is upset with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. It seems that under the cloak of “rampant secrecy” has set out to “weaken an agency once known for transparency.”
The Washington Post outdid itself last week in the dog-bites-man department, trumpeting one of those yawn-inducing nonevents that have come to be hyped in the age of the Trump resistance. Here’s the ballyhooed breaking news item: A long-time EPA employee is retiring. Yes, that’s the story.…
The Washington Post outdid itself last week in the dog-bites-man department, trumpeting one of those yawn-inducing nonevents that have come to be hyped in the age of the Trump resistance. Here’s the ballyhooed breaking news item: A long-time EPA employee is retiring. Yes, that’s the story.…
By the end of his presidency, Barack Obama, who had once seen in his own coming the healing of the earth and a curb on the rise of the oceans, had reason to be well pleased with his environmental record. He had not mastered the tides perhaps, but he had imposed upon the nation a climate program…
Environmentalists are not celebrating this Earth Day. Inside the Environmental Protection Agency there is "disgust and frustration." Outside, activists warn that President Trump's proposal to cut the EPA budget by nearly one-third will "Make America Gag Again," the costs of his policies "borne by…
Donald Trump might turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the environmental movement. As Winston Churchill replied when his wife suggested his party's loss might turn out to be just such a blessing in disguise, "At the moment it seems quite effectively disguised."
Donald Trump might turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the environmental movement. As Winston Churchill replied when his wife suggested his party’s loss might turn out to be just such a blessing in disguise, "At the moment it seems quite effectively disguised."
For years, the left has denounced Republicans as the villainous "party of the rich" while they've been the virtuous champions of the working class. But somewhere along the way—it may have been to that second viewing of Hamilton or coming home from Whole Foods, but regardless it was in a hybrid…
Lost in the hysterical overreaction to the Trump Administration ordering government agencies to suspend Twitter and Facebook communications until the new administration's policies could be fully laid out is the disturbing fact that the U.S. government appears to have a social media footprint any…
A federal judge in West Virginia has given the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) less than seven months to review whether its Obama-era policies directly led to job losses in the coal industry, according to an order issued Wednesday.
In President Obama's first inaugural address in January 2009, he declared, rather grandly, "We'll restore science to its rightful place..." The president has often prided himself on his devotion to science, and earlier this year the White House posted "100 Examples of Putting Science in Its…
Liberals and the environmental left have gone into a tizzy over the selection of Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt as Donald Trump's pick to head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
President-elect Donald Trump selected Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to be his EPA administrator Wednesday. Since taking office in 2011, the 48-year-old Republican has found himself at odds with Washington, D.C., on issues ranging from Obamacare to overreach from the very agency he has been…
Opponents of the Obama administration's Clean Water Rule claimed that it encouraged massive infringements on state authority by the federal government, according to briefs filed in federal court on Tuesday.
Last week the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard arguments challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's effort to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. The Clean Power Plan, as it is called, is central to President Barack Obama's overall…
Last week the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard arguments challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. The Clean Power Plan, as it is called, is central to President Barack Obama's overall…
The twin pillars of the administration's environmental policy have collapsed, but the Democratic platform is calling for a doubling down on that policy of regulation and subsidization in order to achieve "climate justice" and transform America into a "clean energy superstar". Nothing less. The…
There's good news for environmentalism coming out of St. Louis, near the radioactive West Lake Landfill: The community is safe, the EPA has a clean-up plan, and the company that owns the landfill is even paying for it. No one could stop this kind of progress!
The science of climate change may or may not be the certain thing that the president claims it is, but surely certain is the fact that he can push the Constitution only so far before the Supreme Court pushes back. Which is what it has done by granting the request of 29 states and several business…
The Supreme Court has granted a stay of a final rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency. The rule aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants fueled by fossil sources. It has the dull title, "Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric…
The Environmental Protection Agency misused tax dollars in the service of public propaganda, according to a legal opinion just handed down by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The misdeeds came during the agency's public-relations blitz to drum up support for its new Waters of the United…
The answer is climate change—at least if the question is “why should we keep a costly and ineffective government agency." The Obama Administration’s recent repurposing of a heretofore moribund government agency as a tool to soften the impact of climate change—a move heralded in a recent Washington…
‘It was $5, right?” I was at a convenience store in northern Missouri, filling up with gas, and the guy next to me was checking his gas budget with the lady in the passenger seat of his car. He was driving what might be the last K-car on the road. He noticed that I had overheard their conversation…
The American Action Forum (AAF) is out with a new report about the Obama administration's unsuccessful efforts to reduce regulations. The findings are jaw-dropping.
Over the years, “agency capture” has been a staple of the economic analysis of regulation—the phenomenon whereby regulatory agencies would come to be largely controlled by the industries they purported to regulate, or at the very least would protect those industries as a cartel in a tradeoff for…
The boss of the Environmental Protection Agency, Gina McCarthy is upset about the fouling of the Animas River in Colorado last week and says, as Tomothy Cama of The Hill reports, that
These days, it's hard to feel sorry for the EPA, but a public hearing that aired on CSPAN Tuesday morning may spur some sympathy.
To critics of the Obama administration's aggressive use of regulatory power, today's 5-4 high court ruling against the EPA in Michigan v. EPA might sound like a good thing. But the administrator of the EPA is sure she has the last laugh.
Rural Alaska is well known for its wolves, bears, and moose, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set its sights on a considerably smaller creature: the bed bug. The EPA is prepared to award a grant of up to $100,000 to help Alaska Native Village communities to right bed bug…
As Earth Day approaches, the White House is once again pushing action on climate change, presenting a rather stark contrast between action and inaction on carbon emissions. On Monday, the following graphic appeared in a White House tweet, presenting an almost night-and-day difference between the…
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Gina McCarthy took to the EPA and White House blogs Wednesday to declare that "We Must Act Now to Protect Our Winters." McCarthy was in Aspen, CO, last week, the famous ski destination and home to an X-Games venue, and she warned that without…
The Environmental Protection Agency has increasingly seen its mission as the regulation of … just about everything. And as its sense of mission expands the confidence of the people in its ability to do so fairly and effectively has declined. As Timothy Cama of The Hill reports:
The Obama administration’s recently announced Clean Air Act power-plant rules, advertised as helping to control the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, have almost nothing to recommend them. Complex, clunky, and burdensome, they’re likely to spike energy bills while doing almost nothing to…
Under the nation’s biofuels policy known as the Renewable Fuel Standard, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is supposed to set an amount of biofuels—ethanol, biodiesel, and low carbon advanced biofuels—which are to be blended into the nation’s fuel supply. That amount is to be finalized by…
Eric Katz of Government Executive writes that Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., has:
The riots in Ferguson, Missouri, have spawned a heated and, one hopes, productive debate about the “militarization” of the police. While one can argue about the tactics and weaponry used by police, however, there’s little debate about the necessity of cops being armed. The real problem is the…
The dictionary defines a deadline as “the latest time or date by which something should be completed.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency obviously defines it another way, at least when it comes to renewable fuels.
EPA chief Gina McCarthy agreed with Bill Maher on Friday that the Obama administration is engaged in a war on coal:
The climate change crusaders, who have been at it for a quarter-century, appear to be going clinically mad. Start with the rhetorical monotony and worship of authority (“97 percent of all scientists agree!”), add the Salem witch trial-style intimidation and persecution of dissenters, and the…
The administration has made climate change its signature issue until something better comes along. This means that the the EPA will be walking point. After all, no new environmental legislation will be coming out of Congress. President Obama didn’t ever try for that when his party had majorities in…
Less than a month after the exposure of a widespread vulnerability on government "open data" websites, another perhaps even more insidious opening for abuse of government websites has come to light. The problem is known as an "unvalidated redirect," and has been found on the websites of the…
The EPA awarded $461,368 in grants this week for various environmental projects along the U.S.-Mexico border. About half of the funds went to projects in Calexico, CA and Phoenix, AZ, but the remaining $230,000 went to two cities on the Mexican side of the border, Nogales and Ensenada. The…
Truth to tell, The Scrapbook has gotten as good a laugh as anyone out of the saga of John C. Beale, the retired Environmental Protection Agency official—Princeton grad, onetime deputy assistant administrator in the Office of Air and Radiation, congressionally certified expert on global warming—who…
On September 20, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed strict new limits on emissions from coal-fired power plants. Energy industry critics, along with a number of influential unions, were quick to decry them. The regulations would limit carbon emissions for new coal plants to 1,100 pounds…
It’s going to be a long summer in Washington. With so many scandals, news organizations that have spent years sweeping startling allegations about the Obama administration under the rug now find themselves overwhelmed. Woe betide the average citizen who just wants to know what the heck his…
President Obama today nominated three liberals to fill longstanding judicial vacancies on the important Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Will the Senate rubber-stamp the president's nominees—even though the court's fine as it is, with the eight judges currently serving enjoying the…
High officials in the Obama administration are using "secret e-mail accounts," according to the Associated Press, and stonewalling when asked about them, even by establishment media operations.
The New York Times reports:
Two members of Congress sent a letter to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson over her use of the alias "Richard Windsor." The congressmen, Fred Upton and Cliff Stearns, want Jackson to explain her actions.
The AAA has joined the side of the crackpots resisting the burning of food in internal combustion engines:
The world's greatest deliberative body (just ask any of its members) got hung up over what is called a "Sportsmen's Bill." The impasse came on the first day after the Thanksgiving holiday, which is, traditionally, a time when hunters like to be in the deer woods and duck marshes, which the bill…
A few years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency lost a string of high-profile lawsuits brought by environmentalists challenging the Bush administration's regulations. And in certain circles, it was fashionable to cite those as proof of the Bush EPA's incompetence if not its utter corruption.
Charleston, W. Va.
The American Action Forum has released new analysis of the burden of new regulations under President Obama. It's most striking finding? The cost of added regulations under President Obama is now estimated to be $488 billion.
In honor of Hispanic heritage month, the Environmental Protection Agency sent out this internal email, featuring content plagiarized from this website and a picture of Che Guevara:
[A] regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, explained in 2010 that he understands the EPA policy to be to "crucify" a few oil and gas companies to get the rest of the industry to comply with the laws. So maybe it is better if the bureaucrats spend their time – and our money…
Associated Press: "Romney sweeps NH to cement top status; Paul second"
Politico: "Payroll tax cut: GOP frosh dig in hard"
Andrew Stiles: "House Republicans Postpone Payroll Tax Vote"
The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes, “Here’s one good way to consider the vote in 2012: It’s about whether to re-elect President Lisa Jackson, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, which these days runs most the U.S. economy.” The Journal observes that the Obama EPA has now…
Last Friday, I noted that the Obama administration FDA was set to carry out a ban on asthma inhalers over environmental concerns because the propellant in them contains greenhouse gases. I thought that this was notable given that the Obama administration had recently stopped itself from…
Washington Post: "Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer receives Medal of Honor"
Seth Mandel: "Obama: I’m Done Working with Congress"
An op-ed in one of President Obama’s hometown papers, the Chicago Sun-Times, highlights the 4,257 new regulations that his administration currently has in the works (219 of which will cost at least $100 million apiece, annually). The op-ed draws particular attention to one specific regulatory…
If you're looking for a dramatic example of a government regulatory agency run amok, consider EPA’s arbitrary and shameful attack on one Texas natural gas company.
New York Times: "Boehner, Short of Support in House, Delays Debt Plan Vote"
This is a tale of two cities. Well, two streets, Wall Street and Main Street, with a stop on Pennsylvania Avenue along the way. On Wall Street all is cheery, if you don’t count the investment banks that are faced with rising costs, lower incomes, and the need to pare staffs. Investors have watched…
Today, The New York Times weighs in on the challenges the Obama administration EPA faceso — especially with regard to enforcing carbon regulations. It contains this rather revealing bit about the EPA's mindset:
This week, climate change activists suffered a major loss at the Supreme Court, which unanimously threw out their highly publicized lawsuit against power companies. Although—or perhaps because—the Court's opinion was clear and direct, the losing activists have sought desperately to spin a loss into…
A three-inch lizard scuttled into the spotlight in December after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed moving it onto the Endangered Species List. The dunes sagebrush lizard’s habitat covers just eight counties on the Texas-New Mexico border, right in the heart of the Permian Basin, a major…
Hmm: "Group Launches Effort To Draft Ryan For WH Bid"
Do we still get a subsidy if we trade in our president instead? "Obama needled one questioner who asked about gas prices, now averaging close to $3.70 a gallon nationwide, and suggested that the gentleman consider getting rid of his gas-guzzling vehicle."
EPA administrator Lisa Jackson was interviewed for a Time magazine piece, "The Republican War on EPA Begins--But Will They Overreach?" Earlier in the week, I ran my own piece on this topic, "EPA's War on American Industry." War analogies are common in political discourse, but I would argue that…
This Wednesday, the Senate is likely to vote on a measure from Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases as pollutants. The vote will be among the most consequential of this decade.
Mitch Daniels and Medicaid: Michael Cannon for the prosecution, Tevi Troy for the defense.
Progressives may have decided that businessmen and libertarian political benefactors David and Charles Koch are the latest harbingers of the vast right-wing conspiracy, but they could be shocked to learn that several Koch Industries subsidiaries have been working closely and productively with…the…
Paul Bedard reports: