Senate Approves Trump Climate Skeptic to Run Environmental Enforcement at Justice Dep
Oct 15 2018 | 10:06:56
A climate change skeptic who once labeled President Obama's efforts to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions a communist plot is now the nation's top
environmental enforcement official.Thursday the Senate narrowly confirmed Jeffery Bossert
Clark, a lawyer who defended BP after the Deepwater oil spill, to be
assistant attorney general heading the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. The
office handles all environmental litigation, including bringing both
civil and criminal cases against corporations and people who violate
pollution control laws. It is responsible for enforcing the Clean Air
Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act and other major
federal environmental laws.During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, Clark repeatedly dodged questions about his views on climate change.In
a 2010 talk at the National Lawyers Convention, he said the Obama
administration's policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were
"reminiscent of kind of a Leninistic program from the 1920s to seize
control of the commanding heights of the economy." In the same
speech, Clark blasted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, claiming
that the agency's "overly ambitious agenda needs to be checked by
judicial review.""Jeffrey Bosson Clark's blatant hostility toward environmental
protection is good news for polluters, but awful news for the rest of
us," said EWG President Ken Cook. "The guy who defended the company that
caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history is not likely to
aggressively go after corporate environmental outlaws."