LeBrun: With Trump’s EPA pick, New York is on its own for environmental protection – Times Union

Trump’s picks for Cabinet posts range from bad to worse, featuring crackpot generals, climate change disbelievers, Wall Street hucksters and a gaggle of inexperienced big political donors who now will be rewarded for those checks by running our government. Which brings us to the only credible answer for New York’s environmental protection during at least the first two years of Trump’s administration, until the mid-term election. Gone will be a Judith Enck coming up from New York City, where she is the EPA’s regional administrator until Jan. 20, to give hope and clarity to the victimized residents of Hoosick Falls over polluted drinking water, or bring news of an enforcement action against crude oil storage facilities and air monitoring to the residents of the Ezra Prentice homes alongside the Port of Albany. In Cuomo’s favor is his embracing one of the most ambitious and progressive energy plans in the nation, one scheduled to reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050, and that will ultimately mandate a complete break from fossil fuels. […] is Cuomo really ready for the next chapter of Oilbany? Because it’s coming. […] cross fingers that by the time the Alberta sands come rolling in, we’ve got it right. Because with Trump’s EPA, nobody will have our back.

Source: LeBrun: With Trump’s EPA pick, New York is on its own for environmental protection – Times Union

Casey Seiler: Looking to EPA’s tidbits – Times Union

If that comes to pass, any state leader looking to the EPA for robust rule-making in the years ahead, or getting angry or frustrated when such guidance is not forthcoming, would be like a high school football crowd booing the kid on the sidelines with two broken legs for not being a more effective tight end. A 2014 investigative report by The New York Times on the cozy relationships between the fossil-fuel industry and a cadre of Republican attorneys general noted that a three-page letter sent by Pruitt to the EPA in October 2011 — accusing the federal government of overestimating the amount of air pollution from natural gas drilling — had been written by lawyers for a major energy company that has been generous to Pruitt’s political efforts. In an amazing coincidence, these letters have on several occasions coincided with state legislative hearings where many of these same state officials have faced heated questions on the Cuomo administration’s initially lackluster response to these water contamination crises. In June, the state Senate’s Republicans failed to take action on the Climate and Community Protection Act, which would have moved Cuomo’s clean-energy goals from the realm of executive agency policy to the province of harder-to-undo state law. Like the reproductive rights portion of the governor’s Women’s Equality Agenda, the Dream Act and numerous campaign finance reforms, it’s a measure that appears unlikely to find favor when the GOP maintains control of the chamber next year.

Source: Casey Seiler: Looking to EPA’s tidbits – Times Union