President Donald Trump on Thursday dismissed a link between climate change and the two hurricanes that recently pummeled the United States.

"We've had bigger storms than this," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after being asked if hurricanes Harvey and Irma made him rethink his views on climate change.

"We did have two horrific storms, epic storms. But if you go back into the '30s and '40s, and you go back into the Teens, you'll see storms that were very similar and even bigger, OK?"

The comments represent a remarkable shift in tone for Trump, who in the lead-up to the two storms posted several tweets seeming to marvel at their historic size.

"Hurricane Irma is of epic proportion, perhaps bigger than we have ever seen," Trump said on Twitter last week. "Hurricane looks like largest ever recorded in the Atlantic!" he said in another tweet.

Trump was equally reverent of Hurricane Harvey:

"Many people are now saying that this is the worst storm/hurricane they have ever seen," he tweeted in late August. "Wow - Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood!" he added later.

In other tweets, Trump noted Harvey's "record setting" rainfall and "unprecedented" flooding.

The two hurricanes did indeed set records — Harvey dumped a record 51.9 inches of rain in one area of Texas, while Irma set records for both size and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes. Their landfall marked the first time two storms of Category-4 strength struck the US in the same year. Together, the storms claimed more than a hundred lives and caused hundreds of billions of dollars of damage.

Trump has long expressed skepticism about climate change and has called it a Chinese hoax.

His administration has largely followed his lead: The White House has scrubbed nearly all references to climate change from its website, as have various other government agencies.

Meanwhile, Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, told the Miami Herald on Monday that it was "insensitive" to discuss climate change in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

“To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced," Pruitt said. "To use time and effort to address it at this point is very, very insensitive to this people in Florida."

Environmental scientists overwhelmingly agree that climate change contributes to heightened storm surge and flooding during hurricanes, and that human-caused global warming leads to more frequent extreme-weather events.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has canceled plans for three of its scientists to speak on climate change at a conference in Rhode Island on Monday, an official said on Sunday.

Tom Borden, program director for the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, confirmed that the EPA had on Friday canceled the appearance by two employees and an EPA consultant. No other EPA staff or affiliates are now scheduled to speak at the event.

The New York Times first reported the cancellations on Sunday.

The EPA gave "no specific reason" for why the scientists were not allowed to speak, Borden said. The topics of the conference had not changed, he added.

The EPA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Narragansett Bay Estuary Program is one of 28 such programs funded by the EPA, according to the EPA's website. The organization is due to release a report on the state of the Narragansett Bay watershed and estuary on Monday.

The three scientists scheduled to speak included Autumn Oczkowski, an EPA research ecologist, who was due to deliver the keynote address at the meeting in Providence.

Rose Martin, an EPA postdoctoral fellow, and Emily Shumchenia, an EPA consultant, were due to speak on a panel about the biological implications of climate change, according to a program of the event published on Oct. 4.

EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has repeatedly expressed doubts about climate change and under his leadership the agency has moved to undo dozens of Obama-era climate regulations, including Obama's Clean Power Plan aimed at combating global warming.

(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; editing by Diane Craft)

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• Scientists who won EPA research grants under previous presidential administrations may soon be barred from serving on the agency's independent advisory panels.
• The move could make it easier to install industry-friendly advisors on the panels and weaken pollution and climate regulations.
• EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, openly rejects mainstream climate science and data that shows human activity is a primary driver of global warming.

The US Environmental Protection Agency will announce on Tuesday it will bar certain scientists from serving on its independent advisory boards, according to people familiar with the plan, a move critics say could open the way to more industry-friendly advisors on the panels.

The EPA will bar scientists who have won agency-awarded grants in the past, billing the step as a way to preserve the independence of the boards, which provide the scientific input for agency decisions around pollution and climate change regulation.

An EPA spokesman declined to comment.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt signaled the move during a speech last week at the conservative Heritage Foundation, when he questioned the independence of scientists who have won past EPA research grants, and promised to "fix" the situation.

During his election campaign last year, Republican President Donald Trump promised to roll back environmental regulations from Democratic President Barack Obama's administration, including those limiting carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming, to make government more friendly to the drilling, mining, and manufacturing businesses.

The advisory boards were created by Congress to serve as a check on EPA policies and research. They include the EPA Scientific Advisory Board, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee, and the Board of Scientific Counselors.

Last year, the SAB questioned an EPA report that concluded that hydraulic fracturing — an oil- and gas-drilling technology that frees petroleum from underground shale formations — had no "widespread impacts" on drinking water despite evidence of problems in several states.

In June, Pruitt decided not to renew the terms of nine members of a separate body, the 18-member Board of Scientific Counselors. One of those members, Michigan State University professor of community sustainability Robert Richardson, told Reuters the move came as a surprise because the work they were doing was "apolitical."

The EPA is also expected to announce three new members of the Clean Air advisory committee on Tuesday.

Pruitt is an outspoken doubter of mainstream climate science, a consensus of scientists that carbon dioxide from human use of fossil fuels is a primary driver of global warming, triggering more frequent volatile storms, sea level rise, and droughts.

Pruitt has said he wants to set up a televised debate about the science of climate change between scientists who believe it is driven by humans and those that do not.

Editing by Frances Kerry

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The Trump Administration is quietly changing things on .gov websites — and a group of academics and non-profits is keeping track.

The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) released a new report on Wednesday that details how references to our changing climate and greenhouse gases have been erased from federal webpages since President Donald Trump took office. 

But new side-by-side comparisons from EDGI provide a kind of virtual trip back in time to the web before Trump took office, shedding light on the subtle ways that the administration is making it harder to track down information about climate change and alternative energy sources online.

However, the group also said that climate research and data does not seem to be getting totally scrapped from online government archives, and federally funded reporting on climate change continues. In November, the administration signed off on a report from federal scientists saying that "there is no convincing alternative explanation" for the "continuing, rapid, human-caused warming of the global atmosphere and ocean."

Nonetheless, these snapshots reveal what's missing from the updated federal websites:

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Some of the changes on the web mirror federal policy shifts since Trump took office. For example, The Bureau of Land Management says 'clean and renewable energy' isn't a priority anymore.

The BLM website used to say that the agency was focused on "energy for today and tomorrow" and "leading the way in allowing for orderly, environmentally responsible development" of sun, wind, and geothermal energy sources.

You can see the old page here, thanks to the Wayback Machine. 

Today, the same page says the US favors an "all of the above" energy approach: "The BLM supports the America First Energy Plan, which includes oil and gas, coal, strategic minerals, and renewable energy resources such as wind, geothermal and solar," the website reads. 

The top priority listed on the BLM website now is "making America safe through energy independence." 

Some content has been completely scrapped from official sites. This old part of the Environmental Protection Agency's website no longer exists:

The deleted content isn't just educational.

Vital information that state officials and experts could use to respond to flooding, hurricanes, and other natural disasters is no longer easily accessible on the web, EDGI says.

For example, plans the EPA drew up for "climate change adaptation"— including advice about how to prepare for flooding and get protection from toxic chemical exposure —are much harder to find now. 

Most of these things are still available on archived federal pages. (You can access the old version of the page shown above here.) But not everything is still in those records.

Some educational materials have been taken down completely, like this old EPA page for kids:

"Of all agencies, the EPA has removed the most climate web content," the EDGI report says.

• White House officials are reportedly concerned about the living arrangement of Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency chief.
• Pruitt was found to be paying $50 a night to stay in an apartment owned by a Washington lobbyist.
• The EPA's ethics official said the arrangement was fine because Pruitt was paying rent.

White House officials are "dismayed" over questions surrounding Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt's living arrangement, Bloomberg reported Friday.

Pruitt's Washington, DC, apartment is owned by a lobbyist friend, and his lease allowed him to pay $50 a night for a single bedroom — a bargain for the DC area.

Bloomberg reported that Pruitt was initially unable to provide documents regarding his lease and payments he made to the lobbyist, three administration officials told the publication. His landlord eventually provided EPA officials with the lease and proof of payments Pruitt made.

These questions follow previous concerns about trips Pruitt took, including one in which he spent more than $120,000 in taxpayer money on a trip to Italy that included meeting G-7 ministers and visiting the Vatican. More than $90,000 was spent on food, hotels, airfare, and a military jet used by Pruitt and his staff.

Similar travel practices led Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to resign late last year. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke have also come under scrutiny for some of their spending practices.

Bloomberg found that Pruitt paid $6,100 over six months to stay in the single room in a two-bedroom apartment, paying only for nights he slept in the unit. The apartment owner is Vicki Hart, a healthcare lobbyist whose husband, J. Steven Hart, is a lobbyist whose firm represents clients who have a stake in the EPA's regulatory measure.

The EPA's ethics counsel Justina Fugh, who has been at the position for a dozen years, told Bloomberg that the arrangement was a nonissue because Pruitt paid rent.

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• EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said his deal for a $50 per night condo in Washington, DC was not a breach of ethics.
• Pruitt also addressed the report detailing how an official went around the White House to give two staffers salary increases, denying knowledge of the deal.

In a tense interview with Fox News, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt addressed the recent scandals plaguing his office, brushing aside criticisms that he improperly rented a condo in Washington, DC.

"This was like an Airbnb situation," Pruitt said. "When I was not there, the landlord, they had access to the entirety of the facility. When I was there, I only had access to a room."

Pruitt had been renting a condo co-owned by the wife of a connected lobbyist in the fossil fuels industry while serving as head of the EPA. In addition, the Daily Beast reported that the landlord of the condo had donated to Pruitt's campaign for Oklahoma attorney general in 2010.

Pruitt also addressed a recent report from The Atlantic detailing how an official under his watch at the EPA went around the White House to give significant pay raises to two EPA employees.

When Pruitt asked the White House to give increased pay to two of his aides, the request was denied. Another official at the EPA then used an obscure provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act to bypass the White House and give the two aides bumps in their salary.

"So, hang on. Both of these staffers who got these large pay raises are friends of yours. I believe from Oklahoma right?" Fox News reporter Ed Henry asked Pruitt.

Pruitt said that "they are staffers here in the agency" and "they serve a very important purpose."

When Henry pressed Pruitt as to whether he was aware of the salary increases, the EPA administrator said he "did not know that they got pay raises until yesterday."

"My staff and I found out about it yesterday and I changed it," Pruitt added. "I found out this yesterday and I corrected the action and we are in the process of finding out how it took place and correcting it."

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• Protesters covered Washington, DC, with fake listings for a "luxury condo" to mock one of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's most recent scandals.
• The posters also left a phone number for the EPA's communications office.

WASHINGTON — Environmental activists plastered the nation's capital on Friday with hundreds of posters offering a cheap luxury condo, mocking embattled Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.

Posters depicting a listing to "live luxuriously for cheap — just like Scott!" were placed all over Washington overnight. The posters also included small ticket stubs to inquire about the "luxury condo," with a phone number leading to the EPA's communications office.

The activist group Friends of Earth claimed credit for the stunt, according to The Hill, a Washington-based news website.

"Americans are fed up with Scott Pruitt. He’s wasting their tax dollars on his luxurious lifestyle, giving handouts to corporate polluters and poisoning our air and water," said Lukas Ross, who represents Friends of Earth.

"Activists around the country are increasing pressure to seek the removal of Scott Pruitt. And as Trump refuses to act, Congress must," Ross added. "We will not back off until Congress steps up."

The posters are in reference to one of several scandals plaguing Pruitt — that he improperly rented a luxury condo on Capitol Hill for just $50 per night. 

Pruitt defended the rental in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, saying it was "like an Airbnb situation."

"When I was not there, the landlord, they had access to the entirety of the facility," Pruitt said. "When I was there, I only had access to a room."

On Thursday, President Donald Trump said he thinks Pruitt has "done a fantastic job" amid questions surrounding his future in the administration.

"I think he’s done an incredible job. He’s been very courageous. It hasn’t been easy, but I think he’s done a fantastic job," Trump said.

When asked by reporters aboard Air Force One what he thought of the scandals swirling around the EPA chief, Trump said, "I have to look at them," adding, "I’ll make that determination. But he’s a good man, he’s done a terrific job. But I’ll take a look at it."

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The US government prepares for all sorts of threats, ranging from biowarfare and chemical weapons to volcanoes and wildfires.

But none match the specter of a nuclear explosion.

A small nuclear weapon on the ground can create a stadium-size fireball, unleash a city-crippling blastwave, and sprinkle radioactive fallout hundreds of miles away.

The good news is that the Cold War is over and a limited nuclear strike or a terrorist attack can be survivable (a direct hit notwithstanding). The bad news: A new arms race is likely underway— and one that may add small, portable nuclear weapons to the global stockpile. Lawmakers and experts fear such "tactical" or battlefield-ready devices (and their parts) may be easier for terrorists to obtain via theft or sale.

"Terrorist use of an actual nuclear bomb is a low-probability event — but the immensity of the consequences means that even a small chance is enough to justify an intensive effort to reduce the risk," the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists said in a September 2017 article, which outlines what might happen after terrorists detonate a crude device that yields a 10-kiloton, near-Hiroshima-size explosion in a city.

A nuclear terrorist attack of this magnitude is one of 15 major disaster scenarios planned for by FEMA and other US agencies. (The same scenario also includes a dirty bomb explosion, though such an event would be dramatically less harmful.)

As part of the planning effort, the Environmental Protection Agency maintains a series of manuals about how state and local governments should respond. A companion document anticipates 99 likely questions during a radiation emergency — and scripted messages that officials can copy or adapt.

"Ideally, these messages never will be needed," the EPA says in its messaging document. "[N]evertheless, we have a responsibility to be prepared to empower the public by effectively communicating how people can protect themselves and their families in the event of a radiological or nuclear emergency."

Here are a handful of the questions the EPA anticipates in the event of a nuclear emergency, parts of statements you might hear or see in response, and why officials would say them.

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"What will happen to people in the affected neighborhoods?"

What they'll say: "As appropriate: Lives have been lost, people have been injured, and homes and businesses have been destroyed. All levels of government are coordinating their efforts to do everything possible to help the people affected by this emergency. As lifesaving activities continue, follow the instructions from emergency responders... The instructions are based on the best information we have right now; the instructions will be updated as more information becomes available."

Why: The worst thing to do in an emergency is panic, make rash decisions, and endanger your life and the lives of others. However, it's also incumbent on officials to be truthful. The first messages will aim to keep people calm yet informed and as safe as possible.

"What is radioactive material?"

What they'll say: "Radioactive material is a substance that gives off radiation in the form of energy waves or energized particles."

Why: Nuclear bombs split countless atoms in an instant to unleash a terrifying amount of energy. About 15% of the energy is nuclear radiation, and too much exposure can damage the body's cells and healing ability, leading to a life-threatening condition called acute radiation sickness.

Without advanced warning, people can do little about the energy waves, also called gamma radiation, which are invisible and travel at light-speed. But the energized particles — including radioactive fission products or fallout — travel more slowly, giving people time to seek shelter. The particles can also be washed off.

"Where is the radioactive material located?"

What they'll say: "Radiation and environmental health experts are checking air, water and ground conditions in and around the release site to locate the areas with radioactive contamination. Stay tuned to radio or television, or visit [INSERT AGENCY WEBSITE HERE] for the latest information."

Why: If a nuclear bomb goes off near the ground (which is likely in a terrorist attack), the explosion will suck up debris, irradiate it, and spread it around as fallout. Some of this material rapidly decays, emitting gamma and other forms of radiation in the process.

Fallout is most concentrated near a blast site. However, hot air from a nuclear fireball pushes finer-grade material high into the atmosphere, where strong winds can blow it more than 100 miles away. It may take days for radiation workers to track where all of it went, to what extent, and which food and water supplies it possibly contaminated.

• Two of Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt's top aides — both of whom had received large and controversial pay raises — are resigning this week. 
• Sarah Greenwalt, Pruitt's 30-year-old senior counsel, and Millan Hupp, the 26-year-old director of scheduling and advance, are the latest in a string of top staffers to leave the agency.
• Both aides received steep pay raises that were reportedly obtained through a legal loophole after the White House refused to approve them. 

Two of Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt's top aides are resigning amid fresh controversies stemming from the administrator's leadership. 

Sarah Greenwalt, Pruitt's 30-year-old senior counsel, and Millan Hupp, the agency's 26-year-old director of scheduling and advance, are the latest in a string of top staffers to leave the EPA, The Atlantic and The New York Times reported Wednesday. 

Hupp made headlines this week after reports emerged that she told congressional investigators that she spent months scouting a new DC apartment for Pruitt, scheduled his family vacations, and even looked into buying him a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel — all during work hours.

A top agency official told The Atlantic that Hupp is "tired of being thrown under the bus by Pruitt" and concerned about the amount of media attention she has received. Hupp's last day will be Friday. 

Pruitt is currently under a dozen separate investigations into possible ethical violations, including those related to his regular first-class flights and copious spending on his personal security.

Hupp and Greenwalt, both part of a tightly-knit group of top aides Pruitt brought with him from Oklahoma, also found themselves at the center of controversy earlier this spring, after The Atlantic reported that the two received steep pay raises without White House approval. Greenwalt received a raise of over $66,000, bringing her salary to $164,200, and Hupp had her pay bumped from $86,460 to $114,590.

After the Presidential Personnel Office reportedly refused to sign off on the proposed pay hikes, the agency approved the raises through a backdoor provision in the Safe Drinking Water Act that allows the administrator to hire up to 30 employees without White House or congressional approval in areas of critical need.

According to internal emails reported on by The Atlantic on April 9, Greenwalt insisted that Pruitt personally sanctioned her raise.

Greenwalt "definitively stated that Pruitt approves and was supportive of her getting a raise," an administration official who had seen the emails told The Atlantic.

In an April 9 statement, Jackson said Pruitt was not aware of the amount the staffers' salaries were being raised by, nor was he aware of the process through which they were implemented. But Jackson did not say that Pruitt was unaware that the raises were being given.

"Administrator Pruitt had zero knowledge of the amount of the raises, nor the process by which they transpired," Jackson said in his statement. "These kind of personnel actions are handled by myself, EPA's HR officials and PPO."

But if Pruitt was in fact unaware of the raises, he may have violated the law, as the administrator is required to approve all hiring and salary changes under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Earlier this week, The Washington Post reported that Hupp's sister, Sydney Hupp, who previously worked as a scheduler for Pruitt at the EPA, tried to organize a call between Pruitt and the president of fast-food chain Chick-fil-A to discuss Pruitt's wife's interest in opening a Chick-fil-A franchise. 

The revelation generated new concerns that Pruitt has used his government position for personal gain. 

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• A woman confronted the EPA administrator Scott Pruitt at a restaurant in Washington, DC, on Monday. Video of the encounter was posted on Facebook.
• In the video, the woman read from a list of notes, criticizing Pruitt for the manner in which he has used taxpayer money while in his role at the EPA, and accused him of failing to protect the environment.
• "I would urge you to resign before your scandals push you out," the woman said before the video ended.

A woman confronted EPA administrator Scott Pruitt at a restaurant in Washington, DC, on Monday, in the latest encounter between a member of the public and a Trump administration official.

Video of the incident was posted on Facebook, showing the woman, who identifies herself on her Facebook profile as Kristin Mink, criticizing Pruitt for decisions he has made at the EPA, and accusing him of failing to protect the environment.

"We deserve to have someone at the EPA who actually does protect our environment; someone who actually does believe in climate change and actually takes it seriously for the benefit of all of us, including our children," Mink said.

"So, I would urge you to resign before your scandals push you out," she added. Pruitt can be seen listening to Mink silently. The video ends shortly after she finished speaking. Mink says Pruitt left the restaurant before she returned to her seat.

Watch the encounter below:

Pruitt has been at the center of multiple scandals at the EPA since the Senate confirmed the Trump appointee in early 2017. The latest unflattering news surrounding Pruitt emerged on Monday with a CNN report in which a whistleblower claimed Pruitt kept "secret" calendars to hide "controversial meetings" and calls with industry representatives.

President Donald Trump has remained publicly supportive of Pruitt, despite the EPA chief's scandals.

The confrontation on Monday follows similar encounters between Trump administration officials and the public in recent weeks. A crowd heckled Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at a restaurant last month, at the height of the turmoil over the administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy.

Trump adviser Stephen Miller reportedly faced similar treatment days earlier. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she was asked to leave a restaurant in Virginia because of her affiliation with Trump.

California Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters capitalized on the growing dissent last month, calling on people to stare down Trump administration officials in public and "tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere."

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• Democrats have asked the EPA's inspector general to investigate Scott Pruitt's office for creating "secret calendars" that allegedly concealed events and meetings.
• The lawmakers want to probe whether the scrubbing of information from calendars violated federal records-keeping laws.

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers are pushing the inspector general's office to investigate whether Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt may have violated the Federal Records Act with the use of "secret calendars" meant to conceal parts of his day-to-day operations.

In a Tuesday report from CNN, Pruitt's former deputy chief of staff for operations, Kevin Chmielewski, alleged that staffers at the EPA regularly convened to "scrub" unflattering meetings and events from Pruitt's official calendar to avoid bad appearances.

"We would have meetings what we were going to take off on the official schedule. We had at one point three different schedules. One of them was one that no one else saw except three or four of us," Chmielewski told CNN. "It was a secret ... and they would decide what to nix from the public calendar."

In a letter obtained by Business Insider, Reps. Don Beyer of Virginia and Ted Lieu of California are requesting the inspector general probe into what could be major violations of federal records-keeping laws.

"Willful concealment or destruction of such records is a federal crime carrying penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment," the two Democrats wrote.

"Congress established and updated these laws because the American people deserve to know how their government is operated, and who is exerting influence over determinations which affect them," they added. "We ask that you protect that public trust and establish whether Administrator Scott Pruitt violated the Federal Records Act, and if so, determine what he concealed and why. Further, we ask that you take the appropriate steps to hold him accountable for such actions, as required by law."

Pruitt has been at the center of numerous scandals during tenure at the EPA. Still, the responses from the White House and Republicans in Congress have remained fairly tepid. Republicans have signaled they would not call for Pruitt's ouster unless President Donald Trump does so first, which does not appear likely anytime soon.

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• President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that his embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief, Scott Pruitt, had resigned.
• Pruitt has for months faced increasing pressure to resign amid numerous reports about his ethically questionable leadership of the agency.
• Pruitt joins a long list of senior officials who have either been fired or resigned from the Trump administration. 

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that his embattled Environmental Protection Agency chief, Scott Pruitt, had resigned.

In a series of tweets, the president thanked Pruitt for his service and announced that Andy Wheeler, the EPA's deputy head who was formerly a coal lobbyist and Senate staffer, would take over as acting administrator.

"I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency," Trump said. "Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this."

He continued: "I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!"

In a resignation letter made public shortly after Trump's tweets, Pruitt said that the decision to resign was a difficult one but that the "unrelenting attacks" on him and his family forced him to leave the role.

"It is extremely difficult for me to cease serving you in this role first because I count it a blessing to be serving you in any capacity, but also, because of the transformative work that is occurring," he wrote. "However, the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us."

Pruitt, now the shortest-serving chief in the EPA's history, lavished praise on the president and argued that he had been able to advance Trump's agenda "beyond what anyone anticipated at the beginning" of his administration.

"I believe you are serving as President today because of God's providence," Pruitt said in the letter. "I believe that same providence brought me into your service. I pray as I have served you that I have blessed you and enabled you to effectively lead the American people."

Eric Lipton, a New York Times reporter who has covered Pruitt extensively, pushed back on Pruitt's suggestion that the negative reports on his leadership were personal.

Pruitt is the subject of at least 13 federal investigations into his behavior and decision-making at the agency, including those related to his frequent first-class flights and copious spending on personal security. Both Democrats and Republicans have urged Pruitt to resign amid months of scandalous reports of potential ethics violations.

Pruitt, the former Oklahoma attorney general, was one of the most controversial members of the Trump administration and brought a deeply conservative agenda to the agency. A climate-change skeptic, Pruitt has close ties to the fossil-fuel industry and spent years suing the EPA over policies he argued constituted federal overreach, including ozone and methane-emissions rules and coal-plant regulations.

The administrator's resignation was celebrated by his critics on Thursday. He joins a long list of senior officials who have either been fired or resigned from the Trump administration.

"Good bye Scott Pruitt, the worst Administrator in EPA history and perhaps the word cabinet member ever,"said Richard Painter, President George W. Bush's chief ethics lawyer. "Fake science, fake ethics and fake religion (complete with a cultish theology of planet destruction) all rolled into one."

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a top government watchdog, released a one-word statement in response to Pruitt's resignation.

"Good," the group said.

A long list of ethics scandals

News reporting and federal investigations into Pruitt's practices at the EPA have exposed an array of allegations of abuses, some of which are listed below:

• Pruitt is accused of enlisting a government aide to help secure his wife a business opportunity with the fast-food chain Chick-fil-A and of having an aide inquire about a $200,000-a-year job for his wife at a GOP group.
• The New York Times reported last month that Pruitt had a top aide assist him with personal matters, including helping him look for a DC apartment, planning family vacations, and attempting to secure him a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel.
• For six months, Pruitt paid a DC lobbyist, whose clients were regulated by the EPA, a below-market rate to rent a room in her luxury condo.
• Pruitt, the first EPA administrator to have round-the-clock security and a 10-person team of bodyguards, spent an unprecedented $3 million on security.
• Pruitt paid $3,000 of EPA money to a contractor to do a security sweep of his office and approved a $43,000 soundproof privacy booth for his office. The agency spent about $6,000 on biometric locks.
• Pruitt regularly flew first class and stayed in luxury hotels on the taxpayer's dime, prompting investigations into his travel spending. A former senior aide of Pruitt's said he chose airlines not approved by the agency in order to earn personal frequent-flier miles and sometimes fabricated reasons for travel.
• An EPA official told The Washington Post that Pruitt repeatedly asked his assistants to pay for his hotel reservations on their personal credit cards, then refused to pay them back.
• He accepted courtside tickets to a college basketball game from a billionaire coal baron.
• He used flashing lights and sirens on his motorcade to speed up his travel in DC, The Times reported.
• The administrator gave significant pay raises to two longtime aides after the White House rejected the proposal, according to The Atlantic. Pruitt appeared to change his story about the raises during congressional testimony.

SEE ALSO: Scott Pruitt had staffers book hotels on their personal credit cards and then never paid them back

DON'T MISS: Video shows a woman confronting EPA administrator Scott Pruitt in a Washington, DC restaurant

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• The embattled, and now former, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt delivered a resignation letter that was both unapologetic and clear about one thing: he served President Donald Trump.
• Trump announced Pruitt's departure on Thursday, after months of scandal surrounding Pruitt's behavior at the environmental agency.
• In his resignation letter, Pruitt made no mention of the turmoil that engulfed the agency under his leadership and described the criticism he faced as personal attacks.

Scott Pruitt, the now-former EPA administrator who resigned on Thursday following a string of scandals surrounding his behavior at the agency, delivered a goodbye letter that unequivocally declared where his loyalty was.

"It is extremely difficult for me to cease serving you in this role," Pruitt's letter reads, addressing President Donald Trump. In another sentence, Pruitt says, "I count it a blessing to be serving you in any capacity."

Later in the letter, Pruitt pleads to Trump: "I pray that as I have served you, that I have blessed you and enabled you to effectively lead the American people."

Pruitt has received fierce criticism over his management at the EPA, and his use of taxpayer funds to pay for extravagant travel and other expenses. He is at the center of more than a dozen investigations as a result.

Pruitt's resignation letter also says nothing of the multiple scandals related to his tenure at the EPA, or that the public had lost faith in him. The latter point was made clear last week, when a mother approached Pruitt at a restaurant, with her child on her arm, and told Pruitt: "I would urge you to resign before your scandals push you out."

SEE ALSO: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigns amid scandal

DON'T MISS: Video shows a woman confronting EPA administrator Scott Pruitt in a Washington, DC restaurant

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• After months of ethics scandals, Scott Pruitt resigned as head of the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday.
• In a series of tweets, President Donald Trump announced Pruitt's resignation and said deputy EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler would take his place for now.
• Wheeler is a former coal lobbyist, and some experts think he could be more effective at undoing environmental protections than Pruitt was. 

After months of ethical and financial scandals, Scott Pruitt has resigned as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Pruitt's long list of scandals included reportedly sending his staffers out in search of pricey beauty creams, spending high sums on first-class flights, instituting a 24-hour security detail, and purchasing an infamously expensive $43,000 phone booth, all on the public's dime. 

President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that Pruitt had done an "outstanding" job leading the EPA, and that deputy administrator Andrew Wheeler will become acting administrator of the EPA starting Monday. 

"He was very much an early Trump supporter," Trump told reporters on Air Force One, referring to Wheeler. "He was with us on the campaign. He is a very environmental person. He’s a big believer, and he’s going to do a fantastic job."

Pruitt's agenda for the EPA involved delays and rollbacks of previously enacted environmental regulations, so environmentalists cautiously cheered his resignation while expressing concern about Wheeler.

"While we applaud Pruitt’s departure, our focus now shifts to acting administrator and coal industry crony Andrew Wheeler," Erich Pica, president of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth, said in a statement. "Fossil fuel industry insiders have no business leading the EPA and we will hold Wheeler accountable for his efforts to harm our public health and environment." 

Wheeler's path to the EPA

Wheeler, a Washington University law school graduate, spent the first four years of his career at the EPA under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. At that time, he was a special assistant in the Pollution Prevention and Toxics office, working on issues involving pollution and chemicals.

Since then, Wheeler has zig-zagged between lobbying Capitol Hill and working inside the halls of the federal government. On the lobbying side, he has worked for big names in the beltway energy sector, including Murray Energy (coal), Domestic Energy Solutions Group, Whirlpool Corporation, Xcel Energy and at least a dozen others, which ProPublica lists online.

Most recently, Wheeler worked for law firm Faegre Baker Daniels as an attorney, consultant, and co-chair of the firm's Energy and Natural Resources Industry team, according to Wheeler's EPA biography.

On the governement side, Wheeler has worked as chief of staff for Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) and on staff for Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) as well.

He held several roles on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works from 2003 to 2009: majority staff director, minority staff director, and chief counsel.

According to a biography posted on ProPublica's website, Wheeler worked on "every major piece of environmental and energy-related legislation before Congress for over a decade." 

For example, he worked for the Committee on Environment and Public Works when the Clear Skies Act of 2003 was proposed, which aimed to reduce restrictions on toxins in the air. He was also there for the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which raised taxes on oil and gas producers in the US.

Wheeler doesn't deny the scientific facts of climate change, but said during his confirmation hearing that the human impact on the Earth's rising temperature is "not completely understood," as Inside Climate News reported. 

Scott Segal, a fossil fuel lobbyist who has worked with Wheeler, told The New York Times: "He’s a careful, studious person. A quiet fellow. He knows the agency very, very well."

Many environmentalists are fearful about what that savvy perspective might mean for the future of the EPA. The agency is tasked with protecting the nation's air and water, but the Trump administration has pushed to undo a host of environmental regulations. 

Jeremy Symons, vice president for political affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund, put it bluntly to Politico: 

"Wheeler is much smarter and will try to keep his efforts under the radar in implementing Trump’s destructive agenda," Symons said, comparing Wheeler to Pruitt. "That should scare anyone who breathes."

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• Scott Pruitt, the Trump-nominated EPA administrator, has resigned in the wake of a long list of scandals.
• Pruitt was in the process of trying to roll back more than 30 environmental protections, including regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, clean water, and dangerous pesticide use.
• It's likely that acting administrator Andrew Wheeler will continue with a similar agenda.

Trump-nominated EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is out, but it's likely his legacy of rolling back environmental protections will continue.

On July 5, President Trump announced that he had accepted Pruitt's resignation, which came in the wake of a laundry list of scandals.

Pruitt was facing over a dozen federal investigations for his behavior and the decisions he made as EPA Administrator. He faced inquiries about installing a $43,000 secure phone booth without informing Congress; spending millions on a 24-hour security detail that was more that triple the size of security details for previous administrators; and spending staggering amounts of money on travel and office upgrades.

The list kept growing — in recent days, CNN reported that Pruitt had his official calendar scrubbed and used secret calendars to keep track of meetings.

Amidst all the scandal, Pruitt still pushed for rapid widespread rollbacks of protections that many scientists consider essential for human and environmental health, instead favoring the fossil fuel industry.

Legal experts say that Pruitt's deputy, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal-industry lobbyist who is now acting administrator of the EPA, will continue with a similar agenda. As Trump tweeted, announcing that he'd accepted the resignation, "I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda. We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!"

As The New Yorker reported, Pruitt "proposed repealing or delaying more than thirty significant environmental rules" in his first year on the job.

These are some of the most significant environmental protections Pruitt was in the process of eliminating — and which Wheeler could continue rolling back.

Environmental protections Pruitt was working to roll back

• Pruitt was trying to repeal the Clean Power Plan — the centerpiece of the Obama administration's plans to deal with climate change by requiring power plants to cap their greenhouse gas emissions.
• Pruitt's EPA moved to rescind the Clean Water Rule, which clarified the Clean Water Act to prohibit industries from dumping pollutants into streams and wetlands.
• Under Pruitt, the EPA reversed a ban on a pesticide that can harm children's brains, against the advice of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "There is a wealth of science demonstrating the detrimental effects of chlorpyrifos exposure to developing fetuses, infants, children, and pregnant women," the academy wrote in a letter to Pruitt.
• Pruitt pushed for President Trump to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, an international agreement to avoid the worst effects of climate change by cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
• Pruitt's EPA backed a plan to stop requiring auto manufacturers to make their cars more fuel efficient. The plan also includes language forbidding California and other states from imposing stricter standards, which they planned to do.
• Pruitt pushed to fill EPA jobs with personnel from the coal, oil, and chemical industries. He reportedly even sent a "plea" for candidates to an oil company.
• Under Pruitt, the EPA has lagged in collecting penalties from and punishing polluters, collecting fewer than half the penalty fees that EPA administrations under Obama, Bush, and Clinton did. This was reportedly because Pruitt wanted to avoid legal battles.
• Pruitt unveiled a plan to cut the EPA workforce to its lowest level since the Reagan era.
• Pruitt's EPA proposed plans to eliminate programs designed to protect children from lead paint. The goal of this elimination was theoretically to cut the EPA's budget.

Stymied by courts, but likely to continue

As The New York Times has reported, a number of these regulation rollbacks were enacted so swiftly that they have been unable to hold up in court. Several have been struck down, including the rules on lead paint listed above. Courts also told the EPA that they had to enforce a rule requiring companies to monitor for methane leaks, even if they were reconsidering the regulation.

Former colleagues of Wheeler and legal experts told The New York Times that now-acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler will be more effective at rolling back environmental protections than Pruitt. Wheeler is reportedly a protege of Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who once brought a snowball onto the Senate floor in an effort to disprove global warming.

"[Wheeler] will be similar to Pruitt in terms of the agenda — he understands the Trump administration and will carry out the agenda," Matthew Dempsey, a former colleague of Wheeler's who works with an energy lobbying firm told the Times. "But he's been around Washington a long time. He knows how D.C. works and he does things by the book."

SEE ALSO: Vintage photos taken by the EPA reveal what America looked like before pollution was regulated

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Treece, Kansas, doesn't exist anymore.

Founded in 1917 around a mining operation, the town served as a major supplier of lead, zinc, and iron ore for decades. But when the reserves dried up, the local economy collapsed. Then people started getting sick. The mining had made their own backyards turn toxic.

Residents left Treece in 2012 as part of a government-funded relocation program after the EPA named it one of the most environmentally devastated places in the country. Where churches, a city hall, and small businesses once stood, torn-up roads and murky, orange waters remain.

Before the exodus, photographer Dina Kantor traveled to Treece on numerous occasions to document a community that would soon cease to exist. She shared her journey with us.

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A hundred years ago, a mining company truck broke down on its way to Oklahoma. The crew dug a hole to pass the time — so the story goes — and discovered a reserve of lead and zinc.

Source: New York Times

Treece, Kansas, was born. The town led zinc and lead production in the US by the 1920s, and supplied metal for most of the ammunition in World Wars I and II.

Source: New York Times

Luck ran out by the 1960s. The reserves dried up, and the mining companies went bankrupt or left, taking their employees with them. The population fell to 138 by 2010.

Source: US Census

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers released a proposal on Tuesday to repeal the 2015 Clean Water Rule, the latest move by the Trump administration to unwind environmental regulations put in place under former President Barack Obama.

The agencies are working to rescind the rule, known as the Waters of the United States rule, and reinstate the language of the rule before it was changed in 2015.

"We are taking significant action to return power to the states and provide regulatory certainty to our nation's farmers and businesses," EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said.

In 2015, EPA and the Army Corps issued what they called the Waters of the United States rule to clarify which bodies of water should be regulated under the Clean Water Act.

The act, passed in 1972 and last amended in 1987, is intended to protect the nation's waters from pollution.

In February, President Donald Trump said during the signing of an executive order calling for a review of the rule that the act should apply only to navigable waters that affect interstate commerce.

Some lawmakers from states with large rural areas praised the move.

“Out of state D.C. bureaucrats shouldn’t impose regulations that hurt Montana farmers, ranchers and landowners,” said the state's Republican senator, Steve Daines.
Environmental groups criticized the move, saying it ignores public input and would put parts of the country like the Midwestern Great Lakes at risk.

"This foolish rollback of clean water standards rejects years of work building stakeholder input and scientific data support, and it imperils the progress for safe clean drinking water in the Midwest,” said Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center.

The rule had been placed on hold in 2015 by a federal court appeals court.

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A new report from a watchdog group found that Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt spent $12,ooo of taxpayer money traveling home this spring, but hasn't visited his regional offices yet.

The Environmental Integrity Project looked into Pruitt's travels after EPA employees had trouble scheduling meetings with the administrator due to his frequent travel, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The non-profit group's report, which examined Pruitt's travel documents and vouchers, found that he spent 43 out of 92 days from March through May either in Oklahoma, or traveling to or from it. Pruitt traveled to his home state, where his family still lives, a total of 10 times in those three months.

The report didn't suggest that his travel or airfare, paid for with taxpayer money, was improper. It also couldn't confirm whether Pruitt's full-time security detail traveled with him, because the documents only listed the administrator's expenses.

Pruitt's travel schedule raised questions from the watchdog group because of the duration he spends at home on visits, versus what he has listed on his official travel documents. According to the group's analysis, Pruitt often spends three to five days at home, but lists only a single official meeting.

For example, on a five-day trip in May, Pruitt visited Colorado for a Heritage Foundation event from May 11 to 12, where the conservative think tank paid for his lodging, then he spent the remainder of the trip in Oklahoma. But the travel documents that the Environmental Integrity Project reviewed listed no explanation for the Oklahoma leg of the trip, despite the $2,904 airfare bill.

"He needs to say why spending half his time in Oklahoma and having one meeting per trip is performing his duties as an administrator," Eric Schaeffer, the executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project and former director of the EPA's office of civil enforcement, told The Times.

An EPA spokesperson also told The Times that Pruitt's travel was all on official business, and "all serves the purpose of hearing from hard-working Americans about how EPA can better serve the American people."

No regional office visits

Six months into his tenure, Pruitt has yet to visit any regional offices (or if he has, the EPA hasn't released any statements announcing he did so).

It is unusual for EPA administrators to go so long into their tenure without visiting their regional offices, former EPA employees told Business Insider. Most administrators, regardless of their political affiliation, do a courtesy visit to the agency's 10 regional offices to meet their employees directly upon joining the agency, according to former staff.

"It's typical when there's a new administrator, [they] will do a courtesy visit to all 10 regional offices," Jovita Pajarillo, former assistant director of EPA's Region Nine's Water Division in San Francisco, told Business Insider in April. Pajarillo said the administrator who impressed her the most was Christine Todd Whitman, who worked under Republican President George W. Bush.

"She had the most gracious staff and she wanted to really have a photo-op with elementary students and talk about the environment," Pajarillo said. "It's a standard protocol that a new administrators will do."

Pruitt stopped 45 minutes away from the Chicago regional office at the USS Lead Superfund Site to speak with local residents in April, but neglected to visit the office itself, even though staff there invited him to visit.

Rumors have swirled that Pruitt is planning on closing or consolidating regional offices, a move that current and former staffers warn could stretch the EPA's resources thinner than they already are, and prevent those branches from serving states' individual environmental needs.

Staffers worry that Pruitt not visiting could be a sign that he is taking consolidation ideas seriously. Chris Sproul, a former EPA assistant regional counsel who served under four presidential administrations, told Business Insider that he thought the lack of visits was emblematic that Pruitt — who sued the EPA 14 times when he was attorney general of Oklahoma — was "brought in to destroy the agency."

"He views the agency not merely as, 'Well there are going to be some difficulties here because we probably don’t see eye to eye'," Sproul said. "It's like, 'These people are — the people that I am in charge of — are the enemy.' Why would I come tell them what I want to do? That would only arm them for fighting me."

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There's nothing quite like the feeling of pure, ice-cold hydration. Some of us get our water free from the tap; the rest pay for it at the cost of $100 billion a year.

At that steep a price tag, you might assume buying the bottled stuff would be worth it. In most cases you'd be wrong.

For the vast majority of Americans, a glass from the tap and a glass from the bottle are virtually identical as far as their health and nutritional quality are concerned.

In some cases, publicly sourced tap may actually be safer since it is usually tested more frequently.

There are exceptions, however; people living near private wells do not enjoy the same rigorous testing as those whose water comes from public sources, and some public sources are not properly screened, as was recently seen in Flint, Michigan.

But if you don't get your water from a private well, there are plenty of reasons to stop shelling out for bottled water. Read on to find out all the things you didn't know about your drinking water.

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The first documented case of bottled water being sold was in Boston in the 1760s, when a company called Jackson's Spa bottled and sold mineral water for "therapeutic" uses. Companies in Saratoga Springs and Albany also appear to have packaged and sold water.

Sources: GreatLakesLaw.org, FineWaters.com

Across the globe, people drink roughly 10% more bottled water every year, but Americans consume more packaged H2O overall than people in every other country in the world besides China. On a per-capita basis, the US ranks No. 6.

Source: International Bottled Water Association, Beverage Marketing Corp.

At 12.8 billion gallons, or 39 gallons per person, Americans today drink more bottled water than milk or beer.

Source: Beverage Marketing Corp.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The workforce at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is on course to fall to its lowest level since Ronald Reagan was president, an agency official said on Tuesday.

In June, the EPA unveiled a buyout program that would contribute to the biggest cuts of any federal agency in President Donald Trump's 2018 budget proposal. The EPA employs about 15,000 people.

After buyouts and retirements, that number could drop to 14,428 by October, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in an email.

That would be below the fiscal 1988 level, when EPA staffing was 14,440, the official noted. A further 2,998 employees, or just over 20 percent of the total, are eligible to retire now, the official said.

In an April spending bill, the Republican-controlled Congress set a cap for EPA staffing at 15,000 employees for fiscal year 2017, rejecting proposed increases by the previous administration of Democratic President Barack Obama.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said the reductions were "giving long-serving, hard-working employees the opportunity to retire early.

"We’re proud to report that we’re reducing the size of government, protecting taxpayer dollars and staying true to our core mission of protecting the environment and American jobs,” he said in a separate statement.

Pruitt has rolled back a slew of Obama-era regulations limiting carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels.

He was also instrumental in convincing Trump to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord - a global pact to stem planetary warming through emissions cuts.

While acknowledging the planet is warming, Pruitt has questioned the gravity of the problem and the need for regulations that require companies to take costly measures to reduce their carbon footprint.

Before becoming head of the EPA, he was Oklahoma’s attorney general and repeatedly sued the agency he now runs to block federal environmental rules.

(Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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