Whitefish Energy, EPA Nominees

Missoulian: Whitefish firm's $300 million repair contract in Puerto Rico raises questions

Cantwell Statement On Whitefish Energy Contract

"Today I am calling on the Government Accountability Office to investigate the circumstances surrounding the multi-million dollar contract awarded to Whitefish Energy—a brand new company with two employees."

Corporations Division - Registration Data Search, WHITEFISH ENERGY HOLDINGS, LLC

A List of Carriers Currently Issued Out of Service Orders by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Missoulian: GOP senators advance Trump EPA nominees over Dems' objection

EPW Committee Moves Nominations Forward at Business Meeting
“Michael Dourson, nominee to be assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention at the EPA….

William Wehrum, nominee to be assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Regulation at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)”

“Regrettably, I am concerned that Dr. Dourson is not the leader that we need for that job. Never in the history of the EPA has a nominee to lead the Chemical Safety Office had such deep ties to industry. Never has a nominee had such a long record of recommending chemical safety standards that are as much as thousands of times less protective, thousands of times less protective than those recommended by regulators. Never has a nominee, to my knowledge, so consistently underestimated the risks of chemical exposures to the most vulnerable among us.”- STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE THOMAS R. CARPER, (pg 9).

Mining Pollution and Off-shore Oil

Missoulian: Cabinet mine foes use 'bad actor' law to fight Hecla permits

Zortmanand & Landusky Mines
“The 1993 and 1995 federal and state water quality complaints that resulted in the Consent Decree also resulted in a $2 million fine against Pegasus for alleged unlawful discharges to surface and ground waters. A review of agency files between 1977 and 1995 documented acid mine drainage from historic and contemporary mine workings, multiple releases of cyanide to surface and ground water from leaks, spills, overflows, and emergency cyanide solution disposals, and elevated metals in surface and ground water samples in many areas of the Zortman and Landusky mines.”

Missoulian: Interior to offer largest oil and gas lease sale in US

Secretary Zinke Announces Largest Oil &Gas Lease Sale in U.S. History

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Latest Incidents

Taxing Retirement

Missoulian: Trump shoots down retirement limit to pay for GOP tax cuts

Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump  11h11 hours ago

There will be NO change to your 401(k). This has always been a great and popular middle class tax break that works, and it stays!

Selling Cattle to China, Tax Cuts

Missoulian: Montana ranchers divided after Trump abandons plan to regulate cattle sales more fairly

China: Livestock and Products Annual
“While U.S. beef producers and exporters celebrate the return of U.S. beef to the China market, initial trade volumes will be limited by the number of U.S. cattle eligible for export to China. Overall, Post forecasts that while China’s domestic production will only see an incremental increase, imports in 2018 are forecast to increase by 15 percent to meet increasing consumer demand for this higher-end protein.”

Missoulian: Trump backs GOP budget as step toward massive tax cuts

Question: On the Amendment (Capito Amdt. No. 1393 )
“To help provide tax relief to middle-class Americans by reducing deductibility, for Federal tax purposes, of federal deductions, such as the state and local tax deduction which disproportionally favors high-income individuals.”

Trump on Iran Nuclear Deal, Religion, and Health Care

Missoulian: Tillerson: Trump will scorn but not bolt from Iran nuke deal

President Donald J. Trump's New Strategy on Iran

Missoulian: Trump touts support for conservative religious groups

Remarks by President Trump at the 2017 Values Voter Summit

“But I pledged that, in a Trump administration, our nation’s religious heritage would be cherished, protected, and defended like you have never seen before.  That's what’s happening.  That's what’s happening.  You see it every day.  You're reading it….Among many historic steps, the executive order followed through on one of my most important campaign promises to so many of you: to prevent the horrendous Johnson Amendment from interfering with your First Amendment rights.  (Applause.)”

26 U.S. Code § 501 - Exemption from tax on corporations, certain trusts, etc. (Johnson Amendment)

“(3) Corporations, and any community chest, fund, or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes, or to foster national or international amateur sports competition (but only if no part of its activities involve the provision of athletic facilities or equipment), or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals, no part of the net earnings of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual, no substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation (except as otherwise provided in subsection (h)), and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.”

Missoulian: The Latest: Industry warns against Trump health care plan
Remarks by President Trump at Signing of Executive Order Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition

Presidential Executive Order Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States

S.1569 - A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to eliminate the non-application of certain State waiver provisions to Members of Congress and congressional staff.

Zinke's Energy Speech, Bristol Bay Mining, Funding the Census

Missoulian: Zinke earns Four Pinocchios for domestic energy production claims
Zinke Speech at the Heritage Foundation (speech starts at 13:37, talks on energy 18:14)

Missoulian: Democrats call EPA's Bristol Bay move 'inconsistent with basic logic'

2017 Proposal to Withdraw Proposed Clean Water Act Restrictions on Mining Pebble Deposit
“EPA's 2014 Clean Water Act Proposed Determination would have placed restrictions on the discharge of dredged or fill material from the potential mining of the Pebble deposit in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed. EPA agreed to initiate a proposed withdrawal process pursuant to policy direction from EPA’s Administrator, and as part of a May 2017 settlement agreement with the Pebble Limited Partnership, whose subsidiaries own the mineral claims to the Pebble deposit.”

An Assessment of Potential Mining Impacts on Salmon Ecosystems of Bristol Bay, Alaska

“Even in the absence of accidents or failures, the development of a mine at the Pebble deposit would result in the destruction or modification of streams, wetlands, and ponds. Local habitat loss would be  significant, because losses of stream habitat leading to losses of local, unique populations would erode the population diversity key to the stability of the overall Bristol Bay salmon fishery (Schindler et al. 2010).”

Missoulian: Commerce Secretary: Billions more needed for 2020 Census

Hearing on the 2020 Census

Ohio Fish Kill and Farm Pollution

Heat map showing dead zones in Lake Erie, from the Old Women Creek Technical Bulletin #3

Missoulian: Ohio hands out fines over fish kills caused by farm manure

Lake Erie’s Dead Zone
“In the late summer, a hypoxic zone, an area with depleted oxygen, develops at the bottom of the central basin of Lake Erie. Massive algal blooms cause opaque green water to cover the surface of western Lake Erie every summer. These algal blooms are fed by agricultural and urban run-off.”