Document bBLwrvgRg5p4dVLdoX2Vxw13O

Message From: Sent: To: CC: Subject: Boris Epshteyn [bepshteyn@sbgtv.com] 6/4/2018 7:56:09 PM Wilcox, Jahan [/o=ExchangeLabs/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Recipients/cn=88fd588e97d3405d869bcae98d391984-Wilcox, Jah] Jonathan Helman [jrhelman@sbgtv.com]; Ferguson, Lincoln [/o=ExchangeLabs/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Recipients/cn=08cd7f82606244de96b61b96681c46de-Ferguson, L]; Beach, Christopher [/o=ExchangeLabs/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Recipients/cn=6bl24299bb6f46a39aa5d84519f25d5d-Beach, Chri]; Gunasekara, Mandy [/o=ExchangeLabs/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Recipients/cn=53dla3caa8bb4ebab8a2d28ca59b6f45-Gunasekara,]; Bolen, Brittany [/o=ExchangeLabs/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/cn=Recipients/cn=31e872a691114372b5a6a88482a66e48-Bolen, Brit] Re: Pruitt Background Brief Thank you! Best, Boris Epshteyn Chief Political Analyst Sinclair Broadcast Group Ex. 6 bepshteyn@sbgfv.com Please Note: The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not read, use or disseminate the information; please advise the sender immediately by reply email and delete this message and any attachments without retaining a copy. Although this email and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus or other defect that may affect any computer system into which it is received and opened, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that it is virus free and no responsibility is accepted by the sender for any loss or damage arising in any way from its use. On Jun 4, 2018, at 3:48 PM, Wilcox, Jahan <wilcox,jah3n@epa.gov> wrote: Thank you and congratulations on hiring Kaelan, he's tough but fair. From: Boris Epshteyn [mailto:bepshteyn@sbgtv.com1 Sent: Monday, June 4, 2018 2:37 PM To: Wilcox, Jahan <wilcox.jahan@epa.gov> Cc: Jonathan Helman <jrhelman@sbgtv.eGm>; Ferguson, Lincoln <fergusonlincoln@epa.gov>; Beach, Christopher <beach.chnstopher@epa.gov>; Gunasekara, Mandy <Gunasekara.Mandy@epa.gov>; Bolen, Brittany <bolen.brittany@epa.gov> Subject: Re: Pruitt Background Brief Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tiers 8&9 ED 002061 00082742-00001 Good afternoon! Here is the piece that ran on Friday: http://wjia.com/news/bGttom-line/interview-with-epa--administrator--scott-pruitt-paris--agreement Best, Boris Epshteyn Chief Political Analyst Sinclair Broadcast Group Ex. 6 bepshteyn@sbgfv.com Please Note: The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not read, use or disseminate the information; please advise the sender immediately by reply email and delete this message and any attachments without retaining a copy. Although this email and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus or other defect that may affect any computer system into which it is received and opened, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that it is virus free and no responsibility is accepted by the sender for any loss or damage arising in any way from its use. On May 30, 2018, at 6:47 PM, Wilcox, Jahan <wiScoxjah3n@epa.gov> wrote: Does someone have this stat available for Boris? Thank you! From: Boris Epshteyn [mailto:bepshteyn@sbgtv.coml Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2018 6:46 PM To: Wilcox, Jahan <wilcox.jahan@epa.gov> Cc: Jonathan Helman <rheiman@sbgtv.com>; Ferguson, Lincoln <ferguson.iincoin@epa.gov>: Konkus, John <konkus.iohn@epa.gov>: Abboud, Michael <abboud.michael@epa.gov>; Hewitt, James <hewitt.iames@epa.gov>; Block, Molly Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tiers 8&9 ED 002061 00082742-00002 <kl.QC.lsD3..Q!..@..&I.-.0.M>; Danieli, Kelsi <danieii.kelsi@epa.gov> Subject: Re: Pruitt Background Brief Sounds good! Question, when answering re Paris, the Administrator said the below: "BETWEEN THE YEARS 2000 AND 2014 BORIS WE CUT OUR C02 FOOTPRINT BY ALMOST 20 PERCENT." Could you share a source for that statistic? Best, Boris Epshteyn Chief Political Analyst Sinclair Broadcast Group .... Ex. 6......! bepshfeyn@sbgtv.com Please Note: The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not read, use or disseminate the information; please advise the sender immediately by reply email and delete this message and any attachments without retaining a copy. Although this email and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus or other defect that may affect any computer system into which it is received and opened, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that it is virus free and no responsibility is accepted by the sender for any loss or damage arising in any way from its use. On May 30, 2018, at 6:39 PM, Wilcox, Jahan </ilcoxJahan@epa.gov> wrote: Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tiers 8&9 ED 002061 00082742-00003 Thanks. Looking forward to Part 2! From: Boris Epshteyn [mailto:bepshtevn@sbgtv.cem1 Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2018 6:20 PM To: Wilcox, Jahan <wilcox.iahan@epa.gov> Cc: Jonathan Helman <rheSman@sbgtv.com>; Ferguson, Lincoln <ferguson.lincQln@epa.gov>; Konkus, John <konkus.john@epa.gov>; Abboud, Michael <abboud.michael@epa.gov>; Hewitt, James <hewitt.ames@epa.gov>; Block, Molly <block.rnoSiy@epa.flov>; Daniell, Kelsi <d3 niejLkeisi@ep3 .gov> Subject: Re: Pruitt Background Brief Afternoon, Folks, Thank you for arranging the interview and big thanks to the Administrator for his time. Here is part 1 of the interview. Part 2, re Paris, will run on Friday. http://wjia.corm/news/hottornhine/intetview~with~epa~adrninistrator~ scott-pruitt-controversies-and-agenda Best, Boris Epshteyn Chief Political Analyst Sinclair Broadcast Group Ex. 6 bepshfeyn@sbgtv.com Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tiers 8&9 ED 002061 00082742-00004 Please Note: The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not read, use or disseminate the information; please advise the sender immediately by reply email and delete this message and any attachments without retaining a copy. Although this email and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus or other defect that may affect any computer system into which it is received and opened, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that it is virus free and no responsibility is accepted by the sender for any loss or damage arising in any way from its use. On May 29, 2018, at 11:38 AM, Wilcox, Jahan <wilcox.iahan@epa.gov> wrote: WHO IS SCOTT PRUITT ... Scott Pruitt: Politics, baseball and Jesus. "Politics, baseball and Jesus. That's what Scott Pruitt and his friend and campaign manager Matt Pinnell talked about as they crisscrossed Oklahoma in 2006 trying to get Pruitt elected lieutenant governor. Politics, baseball and Jesus. With his energy and persistence, they have carried Pruitt to victory and nursed him through defeat. And they have him on the verge of running the agency many view as the embodiment of government regulation run amok, the Environmental Protection Agency." (Tulsa World, 01/16/17) Scott Pruitt's Back-to-Basics Agenda for the EPA. "His focus is neither expanding nor reducing regulation. 'There is no reason why EPA's role should ebb or flow based on a particular administration, or a particular administrator,' he says. 'Agencies exist to administer the law. Congress passes statutes, and those statutes are very clear on the job EPA has to do. We're going to do that job.' You might call him an EPA originalist." (The Wall Street Journal, 02/17/17) August 13th Edition, Batter Up With Scott Pruitt! "Scott Pruitt is now the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, but he used to own the triple a minor league baseball team in Oklahoma City. Major league baseball is looking for way to Sierra Club v. EPA 18cv3472 NDCA Tiers 8&9 ED 002061 00082742-00005 speed up the pace of the game, fearing kids don't think it's fast paced enough like the NBA or NFL. Dave Price talks to Pruitt about the experiment baseball tried to shorten commercial breaks in order to pick things up as a new way of thinking." (WHO-TV. 08/13/17) PRESIDENT TRUMP'S COURAGEOUS DECISION TO EXIT PARIS ... The Wall Street Journal: Trump Bids Paris Adieu The New York Post: in ditching Paris deai, Trump does right by America and the world GOP Lawmakers: https://bit.ly/2sosV4W Scott Pruitt, outspoken and forceful, moves to the center of power within the Trump administration. "Less than four months ago, Scott Pruitt arrived in Washington with few connections to President Trump's inner circle and took the helm of an agency where many employees were openly hostile to him. But the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency has emerged as one of the most influential policy architects in the president's Cabinet, a skilled and sometimes brash Tiers 8&9 lawyer who is methodically taking apart a slew of regulations and agreements affecting a range of issues, from manufacturing operations to landfills." (The Washington Post, 06/02/17) TOP '17 EPA ACCOMPLISHMENTS ... Eliminated, substantially or entirely, seven sites from the National Priorities List of contaminated sites; only two sites were removed the previous year. EPA also awarded $60 million in Brownfields cleanup grants to local communities. Awarded $25 million in water infrastructure loans; disbursed $1.4 billion in State Revolving Funds to improve our nation's water quality; and, awarded $100 million to Flint, Mich, for water infrastructure upgrades. Cleared the Agency's backlog of new chemical submissions -- containing 600 new submissions as of January 2017 -- and ensured that all new chemicals coming to market received a safety determination within about 90 days. <!--[if !supportLists]-x!--[endif]->Full Report: https://www.ep8.gov/sites/production/f1ies / 201803/documents/year in review 3-5.18.pdf CLEANING-UP TOXIC SUPERFUND SITES ... At Superfund sites, Scott Pruitt could flip his industry-friendly script. "In pressing for aggressive, accelerated cleanups, he is butting heads with companies while siding at times with local environmental groups. His supporters, and Pruitt himself, say it is evidence he is reinvigorating a core function of the agency. His critics see it as a political move, an effort to protect himself against charges that he constantly favors corporate interests. Yet Pruitt's attention is shifting the Tiers 8&9 conversation in some beleaguered communities. Residents say they don't care what his motivations are -- if those bring the results they've long sought. 'Scott Pruitt is probably the most important person right now in the lives of the people in this community,' said Dawn Chapman, who lives with her husband and three children near a controversial site northwest of St. Louis. The landfill there, known as West Lake, contains thousands of tons of radioactive waste from the World War ll-era Manhattan Project. Chapman and other activists are pushing for significant excavation. Pruitt has promised them he will issue a decision within days. There are signs he might seek more extensive -- and expensive -- removal than EPA staff have recommended in the past. As is the case in Texas, the companies on the hook for the cleanup contend that years of scientific evidence show capping the waste in place would be safer, cheaper and completed sooner. 'Depending on the decision [Pruitt] makes,' Chapman said, 'he will probably forever remain the hero or the villain in the eyes of this community.'" (The Washington Post, 01/23/18) EPA wants to do partial excavation of contaminants at radioactive West Lake Landfill Superfund site. "In a long-awaited decision that appears to be a compromise, the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday recommended partial excavation of the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton to remove radioactive waste linked to the Manhattan Project. The EPA said the proposed remedy, which it calls "Excavation Plus," is expected to take five years to implement and will remove the "majority" of radioactivity by digging to a depth of about 16 feet, while installing an engineered cover system for long-term protection. 'The consideration here was timing, it was certainty, it was respect to human health that was being protected,' EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt told the Post-Dispatch in a phone call Thursday morning." (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 02/01/18) After Harvey, EPA Administrator vows bold response to polluted sites around Houston. "Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has visited Texas twice since Hurricane Harvey, vowed Thursday to have 'an Tiers 8&9 answer' by next month for a permanent solution to clean up the San Jacinto River Waste Pits. 'What was concerning about that site in advance of the storm, and is a concern today, frankly, and that is that the response, the capping that's taken place, this agency's had to work through remediation efforts every year since 2011," he said in a Chronicle interview." (The Houston Chronicle, 09/22/17) EPA approves plan to stabilize San Jacinto waste pits. "The Environmental Protection Agency has approved a plan to stabilize the riverbed near the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund site to address the hazards of a 20,000-square-foot area where Hurricane Harvey gouged a pit about 12 feet deep." (The Houston Chronicle, 10/20/17) Pruitt is working on the redevelopment of Superfund sites in East Chicago and an area of land near the Seattle Seahawks' practice facility. "Thirty-one of the country's most contaminated sites are likely to be available for building new housing, business or other development soon after they are cleaned up, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said today, a step that's part of Administrator Scott Pruitt's push to accelerate the cleanup and make the land available for community use... Another example on the list is a Superfund site on the coast of Lake Washington and close to the practice facility for the Seattle Seahawks. It was contaminated by coal tar and creosote from manufacturing until 1969 and a cleanup plan is expected to be finalized in 2019. The owner of the land wants to redevelop it for 10 buildings with retail and residential units, according to an EPA fact sheet." (ABC News, 01/17/18) REFORMING OBAMA'S AGENDA... EPA moves to repeal Obama's Clean Power Plan coal regs. "EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced Monday that the Trump administration is moving to scrap the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration's signature regulatory program to curb emissions from coal-fired power plants. Pruitt made the announcement at an event in Hazard, Ky., casting the previous policy as unfair. "That rule really was about picking winners and losers," Pruitt said. "The past administration was Tiers 8&9 unapologetic, they were using every bit of power, authority to use the EPA to pick winners and losers on how we pick electricity in this country. That is wrong." (Fox News, 10/09/17) EPA, U.S. Army Move to Rescind Obama's 2015 "Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule." "The Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Army, and Army Corps of Engineers (the agencies) are proposing a rule to rescind the Clean Water Rule and re-codify the regulatory text that existed prior to 2015 defining "waters of the United States" or WOTUS. This action would, when finalized, provide certainty in the interim, pending a second rulemaking in which the agencies will engage in a substantive re-evaluation of the definition of "waters of the United States." The proposed rule would be implemented in accordance with Supreme Court decisions, agency guidance, and longstanding practice. 'We are taking significant action to return power to the states and provide regulatory certainty to our nation's farmers and businesses/ said Administrator Scott Pruitt. 'This is the first step in the two-step process to redefine 'waters of the U.S.' and we are committed to moving through this re-evaluation to quickly provide regulatory certainty, in a way that is thoughtful, transparent and collaborative with other agencies and the public.'" (Press Release, 06/27/17) REFORMING EPA... EPA staffing falls to Reagan-era levels. "The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) staffing is now lower than it was in former President Reagan's final year in office. An EPA spokeswoman said Tuesday that, as of Jan. 3, the agency had 14,162 employees, down from about 15,000 at the beginning of last year. That's even lower than the 14,400 employees the agency had in fiscal year 1988, Reagan's final year." (The Hill. 01/09/18) Pruitt moves to shake up EPA advisory boards by removing conflict of interest. "Scientists who receive grants from the Environmental Protection Tiers 8&9 Agency will no longer be allowed to simultaneously serve on the agency's nearly two dozen advisory boards, an unprecedented directive EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said would increase the scientific integrity behind its rule-making. 'Whatever science that we are involved in here at the EPA shouldn't be political science/ Pruitt told a group of reporters Tuesday. 'We want to ensure that the American people have confidence ... in the process and that the advisers that we have in each of these respective capacities are providing independent, arms-length input to us as we make decisions.'" (USA Today. 10/31/17) Administrator Pruitt Issues Directive to End EPA "Sue & Settle." "In fulfilling his promise to end the practice of regulation through litigation that has harmed the American public, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued an Agency-wide directive today designed to end "sue and settle" practices within the Agency, providing an unprecedented level of public participation and transparency in EPA consent decrees and settlement agreements. 'The days of regulation through litigation are over,' said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. 'We will no longer go behind closed doors and use consent decrees and settlement agreements to resolve lawsuits filed against the Agency by special interest groups where doing so would circumvent the regulatory process set forth by Congress. Additionally, gone are the days of routinely paying tens of thousands of dollars in attorney's fees to these groups with which we swiftly settle.'" (EPA Press Release, 10/16/17) WAR ON LEAD ... EPA's Scott Pruitt declares 'war on lead,' three years after Flint water crisis began. "EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has begun an effort to 'eradicate' lead poisoning from drinking water, more than three years after the crisis in Flint, Michigan, started. Pruitt hosted a meeting Jan. 8 for state and local officials at agency headquarters in Washington to obtain feedback on ways to update the 1991 Lead and Copper Rule, a federal mandate that dictates how communities test for lead in drinking water. It has not been revised in more than a decade." (The Washington Examiner. 01/23/18) Tiers 8&9 EPA will move to label chemical found in drinking water 'hazardous.' "Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt says the agency will move to regulate as 'hazardous' a type of harmful chemical found in the drinking water of millions of Americans, calling it a 'national priority.' The type of chemical is commonly known as PFAS or PFOS and is used in nonstick pans, making furniture and carpets stain resistant, absorbing grease in products like pizza boxes as is contained as well in firefighting foam commonly used at airports. EPA first published rules about the chemical in 2002 when the 3M company agreed to phase them out. The EPA studied the health effects of exposure for several years and published a health advisory in 2016." (ABC News, 05/22/18) EPA moves toward updating lead water pipe standards. "The Trump administration is moving forward on potentially updating the 26-year-old standards meant to keep lead out of drinking water. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt reached out to groups representing states and municipalities in a Thursday letter, inviting them to meet next month about potential revisions the agency is considering to what's known as the Lead and Copper Rule." (The Hill. 12/14/17) Jahan Wilcox EPA Strategic Communications Advisor Work Cell! Ex. 6 i i______________________________________) Work Email: vvijcox.jahan@epa.gov <05.30.18 - Pruitt Brief.docx> Tiers 8&9