EPA delays methane restrictions for oil and gas
This week, the Trump administration released an interim final rule that pushes back the policy's compliance deadlines.
It said it was doing so 'to address legitimate concerns … that certain regulatory provisions are not currently workable or contain problematic regulatory language that frustrates compliance.'
Under the interim final rule, companies will have 18 months before they need to install certain pollution controls.
Critics called it a corporate giveaway.
'Delaying implementation will simply give a handout to the worst actors who would be able to continue their polluting ways with zero consequences or accountability to neighboring communities,' said Mahyar Sorour, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Fossil Fuels Policy, in a written statement.
The Trump administration has also put the regulation in question on a hit list of Biden-era rules that it may reverse.
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- Yahoo
Trump says to name new labor statistics chief this week
US President Donald Trump said Monday that he would pick an "exceptional replacement" for his labor statistics chief, days after ordering her dismissal after a report showed weakness in the jobs market. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump reiterated -- without providing evidence -- that Friday's employment report "was rigged." He alleged that commissioner of labor statistics Erika McEntarfer had manipulated data to diminish his administration's accomplishments, drawing sharp criticism from economists and a professional association. "We'll be announcing a new (labor) statistician some time over the next three-four days," Trump told reporters Sunday. He added Monday: "I will pick an exceptional replacement." US job growth missed expectations in July, figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed, and sharp revisions to hiring figures in recent months brought them to the weakest levels since the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump ordered the removal of McEntarfer hours after the figures were published. "We had no confidence. I mean the numbers were ridiculous," Trump told reporters Sunday. He charged that McEntarfer came up with "phenomenal" numbers on his predecessor Joe Biden's economy before the 2024 election. - Hiring slowdown - Even as he called for more reliable data Monday, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett conceded that the jobs market was indeed cooling. But Hassett maintained in a CNBC interview that this softening did not reflect the incoming effects of Trump's flagship tax and spending legislation -- signed into law early last month. US employment data point to challenges as companies took a cautious approach in hiring and investment while grappling with Trump's sweeping -- and rapidly changing -- tariffs this year. The United States added 73,000 jobs in July, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent, the Department of Labor reported. Hiring numbers for May were revised down from 144,000 to 19,000. The figure for June was shifted from 147,000 to 14,000. These were notably lower than job creation levels in recent years. During the pandemic, the economy lost jobs. Over the weekend, Hassett defended McEntarfer's firing in an NBC News interview: "The president wants his own people there so that when we see the numbers they are more transparent and more reliable." Trump's decision has come under fire. William Beach, who previously held McEntarfer's post, said the move set a "dangerous precedent." The National Association for Business Economics condemned her dismissal, saying large revisions in jobs numbers "reflect not manipulation, but rather the dwindling resources afforded to statistical agencies." In addition to a successor to McEntarfer, Trump is also expected to name a replacement for Federal Reserve governor Adriana Kugler. Kugler's early resignation, effective Friday, allows Trump a vacancy to fill as he pushes the independent central bank to lower interest rates. German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil on Monday emphasized the importance of supporting "independent, neutral and proven institutions." He said: "It is right that independent institutions remain independent and that politics do not interfere with them." McEntarfer, a labor economist, was confirmed to the commissioner role in January 2024. abs-lob-bys/aha Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Former Obama adviser quips that Trump is ‘combing Fox News' for new Labor Stats chief after firing
After Donald Trump's pledge to nominate a new Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner in the next few days, former Obama adviser David Axelrod joked that the president is 'probably combing Fox News' for a replacement. Following a weak jobs report Friday that found not only did the U.S. economy add only 73,000 jobs in July but that the 258,000 fewer jobs were created in the previous two months, the president announced that he had axed the chief labor statistician Erika McEntarfer. 'I believe the numbers were phony, just like they were before the election, and there were other times,' the president told reporters over the weekend when pressed on his decision. Since then, Trump has repeatedly and baselessly claimed that the jobs report 'was RIGGED' and that McEntarfer – who was appointed by his predecessor Joe Biden – had manipulated the numbers to make him 'look bad.' While the president has faced some criticism from Republican lawmakers for firing McEntarfer, who was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate last year, White House officials were tasked over the weekend with justifying and defending Trump's rash move. Their efforts were met with mockery and ridicule from cable news outlets and editorial boards. The Wall Street Journal labeled the president's economic adviser the 'bureau of labor denial' while Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough claimed that Trump's aides had to 'put on their Baghdad Bob hat this weekend because there was no justification for' the firing. Axelrod, who now works as a CNN senior political commentator, took a decidedly snarky tone over the news that Trump would soon offer up a replacement for McEntarfer. Sharing a New York Times article that noted the president had told reporters he'd announce a new BLS commissioner 'over the next three or four days,' Axelrod tweeted Sunday: 'He's probably combing Fox News right now for a qualified replacement.' Of course, Axelrod – who served as a senior advisor to former President Barack Obama and helped run his two presidential campaigns – was referencing Trump's penchant for using the conservative cable giant to staff up his administration. Trump created a revolving door between Fox News and the White House during his first term in office, and his second term has seen roughly two dozen former Fox News employees take on roles in the administration – with several of them filling Cabinet-level jobs. Axelrod wasn't the only one who jokingly suggested that the president would look for a loyalist to lead the Bureau. George Conway, the former GOP lawyer who has become a leading anti-Trump critic in recent years, created a fake White House press release announcing that the president had named former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg to be the next Labor Stats chief. Weisselberg pleaded guilty to charges of grand larceny, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records in 2022. He also later pleaded guilty to perjury charges for lying under oath in a New York civil trial. In his newsletter, The Atlantic contributing writer Derek Thompson argued that Trump was waging a war against reality, adding that weak job growth wasn't 'the only inconvenient statistic that the Trump administration has tried to suppress in its first seven months.' As Thompson pointed out, the administration has also dismissed scientists in charge of vaccine evaluations at the CDC and gotten rid of experts who put together national climate assessments so insurance companies can gauge risk, not to mention the firing of McEntarfer. In a wild post on Truth Social Monday morning, Trump claimed that he was the victim of 'FAKE' numbers that were meant to hide the economic success of his tariff policies. 'Last weeks Job's Report was RIGGED, just like the numbers prior to the Presidential Election were Rigged. That's why, in both cases, there was massive, record setting revisions, in favor of the Radical Left Democrats,' he wrote. 'Those big adjustments were made to cover up, and level out, the FAKE political numbers that were CONCOCTED in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar!!! I will pick an exceptional replacement. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAGA!'
UPI
3 minutes ago
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White House seeks Christmas volunteers, performers
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