Good news, everyone! On Friday E&E’s Robin Bravender broke the news that the White House has, for now, put Scott Pruitt’s plan for a Red Team attack on climate science “on hold,” according to a source with knowledge of a meeting between EPA and White House staff.
It seems that despite the president’s own support for Pruitt’s kangaroo court, there remain issues to be “ironed out.” When asked for comment, EPA spokesperson Liz Bower said the agency “will share updates if/when they become available." (That “if” is perhaps the most exciting two letters we’ve read in a while.)
That said, given the sustained pressure for Pruitt to use the red team to attack the endangerment finding from denial organizations, we still expect it to happen at some point. And when it does, we’re confident Pruitt will get pilloried in the press.
Which is perhaps one reason why the EPA has hired a Republican opposition research and PR firm (with taxpayer money, mind you). A triple-bylined story at Mother Jones reported on Friday that Definers Corp. received a $120,000 no-bid contract for news analysis and a briefing service.
Many are wondering why EPA would need a group that specializes in using media to “validate [a clients’] narrative,” as their marketing materials report, with patently partisan leadership affiliated with a creepy Bill-McKibben stalking group Scott Pruitt has worked with before, just to collect news stories? Is it perhaps related that, as the NY Times reported, Definers’ Vice President is filing FOIAs for records from government climate scientists to try and root out “resistance” figures? Or that, as Katharine Hayhoe and Bob Kopp told Twitter, Definers also FOIA’d various non-government authors of the National Climate Assessment?
The MoJo has another hint. In addition to their opposition research and public relations work, one of Definer’s employees also happens to have started the Need to Know Network. This news-looking website, Mother Jones pointed out, has praised Pruitt on multiple occasions.
And Pruitt certainly needs the PR help, given the extraordinary unpopularity of his pro-polluter agenda. These days, thanks to Pruitt and his political appointees, the EPA office building is so full of shit that last week there was literally “poop exploding out of water fountains.”
But we’d just like to point out that a six-figure contract certainly seems like a lot of money to simply serve up news clips, especially when there is already a free daily newsletter Pruitt could subscribe to, with a comprehensive list of the day’s climate news!
Of course, there’s probably a lot there he doesn’t want to read...
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