David Schnare, former fatal scientology practice approver, EPA worker and climate scientist harasser, is out of the EPA. According to InsideEPA, his resignation was spurred by infighting among appointees and being frozen out of the decision-making process. Schnare complained about his treatment at the EPA to the Daily Caller’s Michael Bastasch. Surprisingly, it sounds as though the problem is between Schnare and Pruitt’s team, with Pruitt et al keeping Schnare out of important meetings.
Among Schnare’s concerns were that Pruitt never met with most of the transition team, that Pruitt has no experience with the EPA and hasn’t hired anyone who does, and that Pruitt never even received the transition plan that the transition team put together ( which means that Myron Ebell, for all his sound and fury, had even less influence than we thought when we reported on his interviews as nothing more than “an attempt to remain relevant”)
Schnare has promised to write more about resignation, and it sounds as though it’s his ideological allies among the political appointees who are to blame. Which means his eventual bean-spilling (self-serving as it will certainly be) may end up being yet another blotch on Trump’s already polka-dotted hiring record.
Speaking of which, the bigger personnel news on the Hill is that Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination will be debated by Congress this week. His record on the environment is pretty thin, and for good reason, reports Rebecca Leber in Mother Jones. While Gorsuch doesn’t have a history of striking down environmental protections, he does seem to have a penchant for preventing environmental suits from going forward. So his approach to the the lawsuits sure to come before SCOTUS on Trump’s environmental assault may be to wave them away before they even get a chance to argue.
Proving yet again that there’s Gorsuch thing as a good Trump nomination.
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