Latest news with #FreedomofInformationAct
New York Times
9 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
These Companies Avoided Clean-Air Rules. It Took a Single Email.
In March, the Trump administration created a novel way for companies to potentially avoid complying with environmental rules: Simply send an email to the Environmental Protection Agency and request an exemption. In response, representatives of at least 15 coal-burning power plants, four steel mills, four chemical facilities and two mines wrote emails to the E.P.A. this spring, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. All 15 coal plants were ultimately exempted from requirements to curb several hazardous air pollutants, including mercury, a neurotoxin that can cause developmental problems in infants and children. All four chemical facilities were exempted from restrictions on other harmful air pollutants, including ethylene oxide, a gas linked to several types of cancer. Those email exemptions were part of a broader wave of more than 100 granted so far by the Trump administration to facilities across the country, including oil refineries and sites that process a type of iron ore. The exemptions apply to rules that were set to take effect in the coming years. The Sierra Club, an environmental group, obtained the E.P.A. documents by filing a Freedom of Information Act request. Patrick Drupp, the group's director of climate policy, said in an interview that 'communities have a right to know if coal plants, chemical plants or steel plants are actively trying to get around regulations that are designed to protect those communities.' Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, said in an email: 'President Trump promised to unleash American energy to provide grid stability, lower energy costs for American families, and protect our economic and national security interests. These exemptions simply give facilities more time to abide by environmental standards.' Under an obscure section of the Clean Air Act, the president can temporarily exempt industrial facilities from new rules if their continued operation is in the interest of national security and if the technology required to comply is not widely available. For example, days before leaving office, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. issued a memorandum that allowed medical sterilization facilities to seek exemptions from limits on ethylene oxide emissions. Mr. Biden wrote that the move would prevent a 'serious disruption' to the supply of drugs and medical devices. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the country's largest federally owned utility, successfully sought two-year exemptions from the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for three coal plants in Tennessee and one coal plant in Kentucky, according to the documents obtained by the Sierra Club. The four plants will have until 2028, rather than 2026, to start complying with the Biden administration's stricter mercury rule. 'T.V.A.'s four coal plants remain a critical part of our operating fleet,' Scott Brooks, a spokesman for the utility, wrote in an email. 'This exemption will allow T.V.A. to keep running these assets in a cost-effective way and help ensure reliability for our 10 million customers.' Mr. Brooks said the four facilities would continue to comply with other 'previous and current environmental standards.' Alabama Power's James H. Miller Jr. Electric Generating Plant in Jefferson, Ala., also successfully sought an exemption from the stricter mercury rule. The plant was the nation's largest emitter of the greenhouse gases that are driving climate change in 2023, the latest year for which E.P.A. data is available. (While the mercury rule does not directly require utilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it could have that effect indirectly by making coal plants too costly to operate.) Representatives for Southern Company, the parent company of Alabama Power, did not respond to a request for comment. The documents also show that Eastman Chemical Company, a global chemical manufacturer, requested and received an exemption from the limits on ethylene oxide emissions for its facility in Longview, Texas. The plant released 155,483 pounds of ethylene oxide between 2008 and 2018, making it the country's fourth-largest emitter of the gas, according to Air Alliance Houston, an environmental group. Six East Texas residents recently sued Eastman over these emissions, accusing the company of knowingly exposing the surrounding community to a carcinogen. The lawsuit said that four of the plaintiffs had developed breast cancer after years of living near the plant and 'unknowingly inhaling' ethylene oxide, which is colorless and odorless, 'on a routine and continuous basis.' Eastman did not respond to a request for comment for this article. Last week, in response to questions about the lawsuit from a local outlet, News Channel 11, the company said in a statement: 'We empathize with these individuals and anyone facing a cancer diagnosis. However, as this is pending litigation, we are unable to comment further.' U.S. Steel, which was acquired by Japan's Nippon Steel last month, had mixed results in its quest for regulatory relief. The company requested and received exemptions for two facilities in Minnesota that produce taconite iron ore, which is used to make steel. But of the four steel mills for which it sought exemptions, only one facility, in Indiana, was granted a reprieve. 'Seeking the presidential exemptions reflects no change to U. S. Steel's original position that it supports revisions to regulations that are within E.P.A.'s statutory authority, based on sound science, and are technically feasible,' Amanda Malkowski, a spokeswoman for U.S. Steel, said in an email. She added that the exemptions for the taconite iron ore facilities were 'fair, reasonable and necessary. ' While the documents show that Citgo Petroleum Corporation and Phillips 66 requested exemptions for some oil refineries, they do not reveal the names of the facilities. In a proclamation this month, Mr. Trump granted each company exemptions for three refineries. The Institute for Energy Research, a free-market organization that supports fossil fuels, praised the president for issuing the exemptions while urging the E.P.A. to repeal the underlying rules. 'Given that the current regulations are unworkable and reliant on nonexistent technologies, the E.P.A. should move swiftly to revoke or revise them through proper administrative channels,' the organization wrote in a blog post on Monday. A coalition of environmental groups last month sued the Trump administration over its decision to exempt dozens of coal plants from the mercury rule. The suit accused the administration of failing to demonstrate that the rule would force the plants to close down, or that their closure would pose a national security threat.
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Ex-Obama official files request for Epstein files. ‘People deserve the truth'
An ex-official from former President Barack Obama's administration is seeking the release of the Epstein files. Norm Eisen, who served as Obama's ethics czar, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, asking the Department of Justice to turn over documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019. 'The American people deserve the truth — not a government willing to refashion our democracy to shield one man from accountability,' Eisen said in a July 28 news release from the Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF), a watchdog group he founded, which submitted the requests. The appeal for disclosure comes as President Donald Trump's administration has been dogged by controversy surrounding Epstein. It began in early July, when the Department of Justice issued a memo stating that no so-called 'client list' exists and that Epstein died by suicide in his New York cell — a move that led many Americans to believe a cover-up had taken place, polls show. Since then, a number of news reports have shed light on Trump's past relationship with Epstein, who once described himself as Trump's 'closest friend.' On July 17, the Wall Street Journal alleged Trump wrote a 'bawdy' birthday letter to Epstein in 2003, in which he said, 'may every day be another wonderful secret.' And, on July 23, the newspaper reported that DOJ officials had previously told Trump he was named included in the Epstein files. In response, the president and administration officials labeled both stories as 'fake,' and Trump has sued the newspaper's publisher for defamation. Trump has also asserted he is being subject to a 'witch hunt.' Around the same time, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused Obama of orchestrating a 'treasonous conspiracy' involving the manipulation of intelligence on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Critics, including Eisen, described this as an attempt to distract from the Epstein controversy. Here is what to know about Eisen's FOIA request. The FOIA request filed by the DDF asks for the DOJ to disclose any documents related to Epstein that reference Trump. 'It is now widely reported that President Trump is indeed included in the Epstein files, and that he knows it,' Eisen said in the news release. 'That makes our request for these records more urgent than ever.' Specifically, the request calls for the release of any internal communications between DOJ officials concerning their handling of any references to the president. It asks for 'any communications…discussing or explaining the process of how department officials should approach or address references to Donald Trump or Mar-a-Lago appearing in any files related to the Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell cases, including any communications that describe how to flag, categorize, or memorialize mentions of President Trump.' Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, previously said that his office had received information that FBI officials had been instructed to sift through thousands of Epstein-related materials and 'flag' any records that named Trump. This is also not the first time DDF has sought the disclosure of material related to Epstein. On July 22, the organization filed several similar FOIA requests. A FOIA request is a formal appeal made to a federal agency to access government documents or information that is not publicly available. The process was established by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), enacted in 1966. Agencies are required by law to release any requested information, though there are some exceptions, including information related to national security and personal privacy. Processing times vary depending on the request, though some can be filed on an expedited basis — as the DDF's requests were. The DDF, the White House and the Justice Department did not immediately responded to requests for comment from McClatchy News. When asked by a reporter on July 27 whether a newly announced U.S.-E.U. trade deal was at attempt to move on from the Epstein controversy, Trump said, 'You got to be kidding me.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Obama Official Files Bombshell Demand for Epstein Files and Secret Trump Messages
One of President Donald Trump's most persistent legal foes is going after the Epstein files. Norm Eisen—the former White House ethics chief under former President Barack Obama and a longtime critic of Trump—has filed a sweeping Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demanding the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation hand over any files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein that may reference the former president. 'The govt's credibility is hanging by a thread—& now they're pushing a lie the MAGA base isn't even buying!' Eisen wrote on X. 'We filed FOIAs to find the truth, because the Epstein files are real, & so is the Trump regime's threat to democracy.' 'The public needs to know what these files say about the most powerful man in the world—and what Trump's appointees in government, such as Bove, Bondi, and FBI Director Kash Patel, knew and when they knew it," Eisen added in a Substack post. The president has faced a revolt among his conspiracy-minded supporters since the Justice Department and FBI concluded in a July 6 memo that Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial in prison, rather than being murdered, and that no 'client list' of wealthy co-conspirators exists. The news has sparked a backlash and calls for Attorney General Pam Bondi to resign. 'Trump, of course, wants us to talk about anything but this,' he said. Earlier this month, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard accused Obama of cooking up intelligence on Russian election interference in a 'treasonous conspiracy' against Trump, which critics have assailed as a thinly veiled attempt to distract from the controversy. Filed through Eisen's watchdog group, the States United Democracy Defenders Fund, the bombshell request requests any Epstein-related documents that have been reviewed by Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, FBI Director Kash Patel, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Eisen's FOIA filing also asks for any internal communications between Bondi and associates that discuss how to 'approach or address references to Donald Trump or Mar-a-Lago' and materials produced in any meetings in which the case was discussed. Bondi told Trump earlier this year that his name appears in the materials. Trump has denied she did so. The DOJ has so far refused to comment on the matter. Eisen has been a persistent Trump foe: He filed one of the first emoluments lawsuits against the president and served as special counsel for the Judiciary Committee during his first impeachment, writing an insider account about the proceedings, A Case for the American People. Eisen, a co-founder of the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has spent years scrutinizing Trump's business entanglements, foreign profits, and alleged abuses of power. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The DOJ declined to comment.
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
California dairy farmers get $230 million to help cover costs of bird flu losses
The federal government has paid California dairy farms more than $230 million to subsidize losses in milk production resulting from bird flu, records show, an amount that the dairy industry expects to climb higher as more claims for damages are processed. The H5N1 bird flu has swept through more than 75% of California's 1,000 dairy farms since August 2024, sickening cattle and leading to steep dropoffs in milk production. Farmers were able to get relief under a U.S. Department of Agriculture program known as the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program, or ELAP. The program usually provides assistance for farmers impacted by wildfires, drought and flooding but was opened up for dairy farmers last year as bird flu began ravaging their cows. U.S. Department of Agriculture records show that 644 payments were made to 359 California dairy farms between November 2024 and June 2025 totaling $231 million. The average per farm payment was about $645,000, and ranged from $2,058 to the Pereira Dairy Farm, in Visalia, to $4.4 million to Channel Islands Dairy Farm, in Corcoran. Those payments are expected to go much higher, however, as more claims are submitted and processed. Many of the payments issued in May and June were for outbreaks in 2024, suggesting there are more to come. The relief payments were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by Farm Forward, a nonprofit group that advocates against factory farming. The group asserts that the subsidies help prop up industrial-scale dairy operations that perpetuate the spread of bird flu. 'These are mega industrial operations that are fueling an outbreak,' said Andrew deCoriolis, Farm Forward's executive director. 'Bird flu spreads in exactly the kinds of environments that we're paying to preserve.' Anja Raudabaugh, the chief executive of the industry's largest state trade group, Western United Dairies, said the payments have 'ensured our dairy communities and their workers stay employed and healthy. Until we get approval of a dairy cow vaccine, weathering this storm has only been possible with the assistance of the milk loss payments.' Jonathan Cockroft, managing partner of Channel Islands Dairy Farms, said while the payments helped with the roughly 30% drop in milk production his farm experienced, his losses exceed the $4 million he received. He said the virus caused cows to abort their pregnancies, and often prevented them from getting pregnant again. A dairy cow that doesn't give birth doesn't produce milk. In other cases, he said the udders were so scarred by the disease that the cows were unable to produce milk at levels prior to infection. 'There's a whole other version I'm not sure the public understands, which is the huge impact on reproduction,' he said. He also noted many animals died — especially when the outbreak first hit last fall, and the newness of it combined with the blazing heat of the Central Valley felled 10% to 15% of many California herds. Joey Airoso, a dairy farmer in Tipton, received a $1.45-million subsidy for an outbreak at his farm last October. He said the outbreak has cost him more than $2 million 'just on milk income and that does not include the over $250,000 of extra care costs' required to treat cows with medicines, extra staffing and veterinary consultations. And it doesn't cover the cost of the cows that died — which can't produce milk or be sold for meat. The average dairy cow costs about $3,500, Cockroft said. Jay Van Rein, a spokesperson for California's Department of Food and Agriculture, said the loss payments are 'the most realistic way for producers to recover and to avoid huge disruptions in the food supply of these products.' USDA officials didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but a former top USDA official who left the agency in January said it was important to provide dairy farmers relief once the agency identified H5N1 bird flu in a handful of Texas herds in March 2024. By then the disease had been spreading for weeks, if not months, making containment to one state impossible. 'This was a once-in-a-lifetime event, and we knew that we were going to need to support producers, and we knew that the quicker we could get some assistance out to them to help them test, the better off we were going to be, and the faster we'd be able to bring the infection under control,' he said. Farm Forward's DeCoriolis and others, however, say these programs perpetuate an agricultural industry designed around containing hundreds, if not thousands, of genetically similar animals into confined lots — veritable playgrounds for a novel virus. He also noted the federal relief programs don't come with any strings attached, such as incentives for disease mitigation and/or biosecurity. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization in Canada, said handing out subsidies to farms without trying to understand or investigate the practices they are using to quash the disease is a mistake. 'What are they doing on the farms to prevent reinfection?' she said. The USDA payments were based on a per cow milk production losses over a four-week period. According to Farm Forward's data, several farms received more than one subsidy. While roughly half received just one payment, 100 farms received two payments, 58 received three, 19 received four and two received six separate payments. At one farm in Tulare County, four USDA payments were submitted once a month between November 2024 and February 2025. At another, payments stretched from December 2024 to May 2025. Rasmussen said the multiple payments most likely stemmed depending on specific circumstances at the dairies involved. Cockroft of the Channel Islands Dairy said he and other farmers have seen waves of reinfection and milk tests that remain positive for months on end. He said he knew of a farm that was in quarantine for nine months. When herds are quarantined, animals are not allowed to be transferred on or off site. In California, a farm is under quarantine for 60 days after initial virus detection. It can't move out of quarantine until tests show its milk is virus-free — for three weeks in a row. Van Rein, the state agriculture spokesperson, said the average time under quarantine is 103 days. He said that of the 1,000 herds in California, 940 are not under quarantine; 715 of those had previously been infected and released from quarantine. A quarantined farm can still sell milk, however, even if the milk tests positive. Pasteurization has been shown to kill the virus. The relief payments are another sign of how the U.S. government supports the agricultural industry, which is considered by some to be vital to the national interest. 'We've decided politically that this is an industry that we want to support, that was hit by something that obviously wasn't their fault, and we're going to help them, because it was a disastrous thing that hit the industry,' said Daniel Sumner, an agricultural economist at UC Davis. 'If we thought about these payments as we're using our tax money to help somebody who's in need, because their family is poor, that's not the case.'
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
N.S. reform of care of people with disabilities behind in housing ‘complex' cases
HALIFAX – There's been a surge in the number of Nova Scotians with complex disabilities stuck in temporary housing, according to recent figures released by the province. This rise in what are called 'temporary shelter arrangements,' or TSAs, operated by for-profit and non-profit agencies has occurred despite a plan by the province to decrease their use over the past two years. The Department of Social Development describes the temporary housing as being needed whenever a person with a complex disability is in urgent need of housing, and options for a permanent home have been 'explored and exhausted.' Usually, the person is placed in an apartment, with one-on-one care, but without a long-term plan to improve their lives. 'The infrastructure to shift away from the temporary model is slow. It's not happening as quickly as anticipated,' said Harman Singh, director of Breton Ability Centre — a non-profit agency in Sydney, N.S. that houses people with disabilities, which has been asked to oversee eight people in temporary shelters. The province introduced a sweeping, five-year reform plan for the care and housing of people with disabilities in 2023. It was the result of a landmark court decision that found there was systemic discrimination against people with disabilities. The plan called for a sharp decrease in the number of people with disabilities in temporary housing arrangements by 2025 but the opposite has occurred. The recent government update on the plan, referred to as 'The Remedy,' indicated there were 89 people in the temporary arrangements in early 2024, but as of April 1 this year, there was a 49 per cent increase to 146 people. This contrasts with the plan's target of reducing the number of people in temporary housing by 40. Singh said Breton Ability is gradually closing down its larger facility with 68 residents but has been asked to increase temporary shelter arrangements. Some of the arrangements are lasting for years, she added. The lack of permanent solutions isn't working well, as it makes it difficult to attract staff or to spend money needed to ensure the housing arrangements are suitable, she said. For example, Singh said in one case her agency has been housing a person in a temporary apartment since 2021, but it has been unable to invest in much-needed upgrades due to uncertainty about whether they are expected to stay there permanently. If the arrangement were permanent, 'we could look at long-term renovations to the house, seek grants from different departments and we would look to raise funds to make the backyard more suitable … we would look at all these different factors and make it better,' said Singh. Data released to The Canadian Press through the Freedom of Information Act from January 2024 to last month show the majority of temporary shelter arrangements were provided by five private-sector agencies for 94 people. They received $34 million in 2024, and $20 million for half of 2025, according to the documents. Some people in TSAs cost about $150,000 to up to about $500,000 annually, the records say. However, a separate freedom of information response from the Department of Social Development to The Canadian Press for the same period says there were no records of 'audits or reports on safety and quality of care' done on these private agencies. They also said they wouldn't provide estimates of how long people are remaining in the TSAs. In its recent annual report on the plan, the province said it wasn't meeting deadlines for decreasing the numbers because there had been delays in hiring and training staff to oversee the conversion of the system. The department said in an email Friday that so far 24 of the 146 people in the temporary shelter arrangements — about 16 per cent of the total — have been assigned staff to plan their future care and placements in the community. Maria Medioli, director of the provincial disability support program, said in an interview Thursday that the five-year plan — which has committed over $200 million in spending over the first two years — is the first major effort to deal with the TSA issue. Medioli said some of the growth in TSA numbers has been the result of people with 'deeply complex issues' being discharged by a care home or a hospital without any destination, and the alternative is homelessness. Asked about oversight of service providers, Medioli said the department receives financial statements from the private-sector service providers but doesn't 'generally audit providers unless there is a reason.' She added there has been one complaint of financial irregularities by a private-sector provider that is being investigated, but no complaints of safety or quality problems. 'I don't like them (TSAs). They are temporary. … It was done in an emergency and we didn't have the infrastructure to make it anything but temporary. Through the (plan) we're building that infrastructure,' she said. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. However, Kim Long, vice chair of the Disability Rights Coalition, said in an interview Thursday that her group is concerned by the growing numbers. 'I'd like to know where (the government) is in the process of establishing a baseline of health and safety. … The thing that we're most concerned about is what is that experience (of living in a temporary shelter arrangement) like?' Long said her advocacy organization wants to hear directly from families and people in temporary shelter arrangements, to learn how the arrangements work and 'what they are experiencing.' 'We need to hear in order to get the full story behind the numbers,' she said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2025.
