Latest news with #HeritageFoundation
CNN
6 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Trump admin will soon propose to kill EPA's ability to make rules about climate pollution, sources say
The Environmental Protection Agency has drafted a proposal to reverse a landmark scientific finding that planet-warming pollution from fossil fuels endangers human health, and could release that proposal as soon as this week, according to three people familiar with the plan. Known as the 'endangerment finding,' the 2009 declaration has served as the basis for federal rules limiting greenhouse gas pollution from power plants, cars and trucks, and the oil and gas industry. The repeal, if successful, would take away the federal government's main way to fight climate change. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced in March the agency would reconsider the rule as part of a suite of proposals to overturn pollution rules the Trump administration considers to be burdensome to the fossil fuel and transportation industries. A proposal to 'update' the finding was first touted by Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint to overhaul the federal government and repeal many keystone regulations that have come to define life in modern America. An EPA spokesperson did not comment on when the proposed rule would be released. 'The proposal will be published for public notice and comment once it has completed interagency review and been signed by the Administrator,' the EPA spokesperson said in a statement. Environmental groups who have attended public meetings about the EPA's proposal have been alarmed at the lack of EPA staff in those meetings. Only one White House Office of Management and Budget staffer has attended the public meetings with stakeholders, a highly unusual move, said David Doniger, a senior federal strategist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Shaun Goho, the legal director for the Clean Air Task Force. 'There was only one participant on the government side, and there was nobody from EPA,' Goho told CNN. 'In my many years of experience doing these meetings, that is unprecedented. It raises questions about the role of EPA staff in this rulemaking. It raises questions about who is actually doing the work.' The EPA spokesperson did not answer CNN's questions about which agency is leading the rulemaking process. The draft, titled 'Reconsideration of 2009 Endangerment Finding and Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Standards,' was sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget on June 30, the EPA spokesperson said. It is widely expected the proposal will also seek to repeal rules that regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, since they stem from the finding, sources told CNN. The Biden EPA sought to tighten those standards to prod the auto industry to make more fuel-efficient hybrids and electric vehicles. CNN's sources said the EPA proposal is still in draft form, and could still change before its release. 'We're expecting that they will repeal all of the climate related vehicles standards, saying the predicate finding of danger wasn't made right or doesn't exist,' Doniger told CNN. The EPA appears to be making a legal argument in the draft that the agency went beyond its legal authority to use the Clean Air Act to regulate pollutants that contribute to climate change, rather than trying to make a scientific argument that climate change itself isn't harming humans, sources told CNN. The EPA plans to argue the Biden vehicle rule presented harm to public health by increasing vehicle prices, decreasing consumer choice, and slowing the replacement of older vehicles, according to one person with knowledge of the draft. 'Legally, it's misguided and creates enormous harms to the American people,' said Richard Revesz, a former Biden White House official and New York University environmental law school professor. Doniger said the effort inside the administration has been helmed by political staff including Jeff Clark, who heads the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the White House office that reviews regulations. Clark is the former Justice Department official who was investigated for aiding President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Clark served as assistant attorney general for DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division in the first Trump administration and served in the same office during the first George W. Bush administration. 'He's been on a crusade to block EPA regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act since then,' Doniger said. Doniger said the agency's proposed rule ignores the current reality of climate change, which is supercharging rainfall and leading to record global temperatures. 'For the administration to stand up and say in effect climate change isn't happening or there's nothing significant going on, so there's no need for government standards, this is mindbogglingly out of touch with reality,' Doniger said.
CNN
6 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Trump admin will soon propose to kill EPA's ability to make rules about climate pollution, sources say
The Environmental Protection Agency has drafted a proposal to reverse a landmark scientific finding that planet-warming pollution from fossil fuels endangers human health, and could release that proposal as soon as this week, according to three people familiar with the plan. Known as the 'endangerment finding,' the 2009 declaration has served as the basis for federal rules limiting greenhouse gas pollution from power plants, cars and trucks, and the oil and gas industry. The repeal, if successful, would take away the federal government's main way to fight climate change. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced in March the agency would reconsider the rule as part of a suite of proposals to overturn pollution rules the Trump administration considers to be burdensome to the fossil fuel and transportation industries. A proposal to 'update' the finding was first touted by Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint to overhaul the federal government and repeal many keystone regulations that have come to define life in modern America. An EPA spokesperson did not comment on when the proposed rule would be released. 'The proposal will be published for public notice and comment once it has completed interagency review and been signed by the Administrator,' the EPA spokesperson said in a statement. Environmental groups who have attended public meetings about the EPA's proposal have been alarmed at the lack of EPA staff in those meetings. Only one White House Office of Management and Budget staffer has attended the public meetings with stakeholders, a highly unusual move, said David Doniger, a senior federal strategist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Shaun Goho, the legal director for the Clean Air Task Force. 'There was only one participant on the government side, and there was nobody from EPA,' Goho told CNN. 'In my many years of experience doing these meetings, that is unprecedented. It raises questions about the role of EPA staff in this rulemaking. It raises questions about who is actually doing the work.' The EPA spokesperson did not answer CNN's questions about which agency is leading the rulemaking process. The draft, titled 'Reconsideration of 2009 Endangerment Finding and Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Standards,' was sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget on June 30, the EPA spokesperson said. It is widely expected the proposal will also seek to repeal rules that regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, since they stem from the finding, sources told CNN. The Biden EPA sought to tighten those standards to prod the auto industry to make more fuel-efficient hybrids and electric vehicles. CNN's sources said the EPA proposal is still in draft form, and could still change before its release. 'We're expecting that they will repeal all of the climate related vehicles standards, saying the predicate finding of danger wasn't made right or doesn't exist,' Doniger told CNN. The EPA appears to be making a legal argument in the draft that the agency went beyond its legal authority to use the Clean Air Act to regulate pollutants that contribute to climate change, rather than trying to make a scientific argument that climate change itself isn't harming humans, sources told CNN. The EPA plans to argue the Biden vehicle rule presented harm to public health by increasing vehicle prices, decreasing consumer choice, and slowing the replacement of older vehicles, according to one person with knowledge of the draft. 'Legally, it's misguided and creates enormous harms to the American people,' said Richard Revesz, a former Biden White House official and New York University environmental law school professor. Doniger said the effort inside the administration has been helmed by political staff including Jeff Clark, who heads the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the White House office that reviews regulations. Clark is the former Justice Department official who was investigated for aiding President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Clark served as assistant attorney general for DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division in the first Trump administration and served in the same office during the first George W. Bush administration. 'He's been on a crusade to block EPA regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act since then,' Doniger said. Doniger said the agency's proposed rule ignores the current reality of climate change, which is supercharging rainfall and leading to record global temperatures. 'For the administration to stand up and say in effect climate change isn't happening or there's nothing significant going on, so there's no need for government standards, this is mindbogglingly out of touch with reality,' Doniger said.
Morocco World
2 days ago
- Business
- Morocco World
Morocco Tops North Africa in Economic Freedom, Ranks 101st Globally
Rabat – Morocco continues to position itself as a key player in Africa's economic landscape, topping North Africa in economic freedom despite lingering structural challenges. According to the 2025 Nomad Capitalist Freedom Index , Morocco ranks 101st out of 196 countries, with a balanced yet partial score reflecting its progress and room for improvement. The index, compiled by the tax and migration advisory firm Nomad Capitalist, evaluates countries based on five pillars: financial freedom (30% of the score), asset protection (25%), human rights (20%), safety (15%), and quality of life (10%). Morocco achieved a 30/50 score overall, with consistent ratings across each category. Morocco's economic environment benefits from a clear legal framework that supports entrepreneurship. Article 35 of the Moroccan Constitution guarantees the freedom to do business and fair competition, while laws such as Law 104-12 on Competition aim to ensure market transparency and prevent monopolistic practices. The country's growing digitalization has made it easier to start a business, reducing bureaucratic hurdles. Targeted tax incentives also make Morocco attractive to foreign investors. Its stable monetary policy, controlled inflation, and strong international trade networks provide a favorable setting for entrepreneurs and investors alike. However, the road to greater economic freedom is not without obstacles. Administrative delays, legal opacity, a pervasive informal sector, and a rigid labor market continue to impede Morocco's full potential. Regional Leadership Within the Arab world and across Africa, Morocco stands out as one of the leaders in economic openness. It ranks first in North Africa, surpassing several regional peers thanks to fiscal reforms, robust public investment strategies, and deliberate efforts to attract international talent. Other reports, including studies by the Heritage Foundation, also highlight Morocco's openness to market economies and its relative stability in an era of global uncertainty — a quality particularly valued by businesses seeking predictable and secure environments. While Morocco's score remains below that of better-performing African nations such as Ghana or Cape Verde, which achieved scores around 39.5/50. Strengthening the rule of law, improving property rights protection, and enhancing the business climate further could propel Morocco higher in future rankings. For now, the county demonstrates both ambition and progress. Its challenge lies in translating political vision into tangible outcomes and ensuring that its economic freedom is not just robust on paper, but fully realized in practice. Tags: Economic Freedom IndexMoroccoMorocco economy
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Edwin Feulner, ‘Heritage Foundation's George Washington,' dies at 83
Weyrich went on to found several other conservative groups. Dr. Feulner ran Heritage from 1977 to 2013, and he became interim head again for a brief period in 2017. Two years ago, during a 50th anniversary celebration at Mount Vernon, the organization's current president, Kevin Roberts, called Dr. Feulner 'the Heritage Foundation's George Washington.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up As Dr. Feulner described it, the foundational principles of Heritage included 'free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional values and a strong national defense,' The New York Times reported in 2018. Advertisement The group was in the news during the last presidential election, when Kamala Harris and other Democrats argued that a Heritage document called Project 2025 would become a shadow agenda for Donald Trump's second term. Trump strenuously sought to dissociate himself from the nearly 900-page list of policies, which included doctrinaire right-wing positions on such politically delicate subjects as abortion. Advertisement What rarely came up during the public debate is how Project 2025 belonged to a long tradition of striking success that Heritage has enjoyed in shaping Republican presidential administrations. The document was the latest iteration of the Mandate for Leadership, a wish list for new presidents that Heritage has habitually issued around election cycles since Ronald Reagan took power in 1981. Dr. Feulner explained how the tradition got started in Project 2025's afterword, which he wrote, titled 'Onward!' In the fall of 1979, senior officials of the Nixon and Ford administrations, William E. Simon and Jack Eckerd, told Dr. Feulner that, upon assuming office, they had received no practical guidance on how to institute conservative policies on issues such as free markets, government size, and national security. They added that their briefings came from liberal predecessors or career civil servants who favored the status quo. Dr. Feulner and others at Heritage were early supporters of Reagan's. Long before Reagan beat Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election, Heritage decided to spend $250,000 to put together a guidebook for a Reagan presidency. The result, weighing in at 1,093 pages, was distributed by Reagan at his first Cabinet meeting, Ed Meese, later Reagan's attorney general, told the Times in 2018. Dr. Feulner described the document to The Washington Post in 1983 as 'the nuts and bolts of how you make the kind of changes that philosophers and academics have been talking about.' Heritage soon reported that about 60 percent of its suggestions had been acted on by the new administration in its first year in power. The foundation was generally a booster of Republicans, but it also saw its mandate as condemning Republicans when they failed to live up to principle. Advertisement In 1987, after Reagan signed an arms control agreement with the Soviet Union and praised reforms undertaken by Mikhail Gorbachev, Dr. Feulner told the Times that conservatives felt 'Ronald Reagan walked away from them in the end.' He was harsher still on George H.W. Bush, whose tax increases constituted a cardinal sin. Meese discovered what inducements were possible by staying loyal to the cause. After Reagan's second term, Meese joined Heritage as a fellow making an annual salary of $400,000. Soon after George W. Bush assumed office, Dr. Feulner dispensed the ultimate praise. 'More Reaganite than the Reagan administration,' he told the Times. He added that he and Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, spoke a couple times a week. A new measure of the power of the Heritage Foundation came in 2013, when Jim DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina, resigned in order to succeed Dr. Feulner. 'There's no question in my mind that I have more influence now on public policy than I did as an individual senator,' he told National Public Radio in 2013. DeMint was associated with the Tea Party, which Heritage had helped to finance and organize. During the 2016 presidential campaign, as other members of the Republican establishment turned against Trump, DeMint pursued a collaborative relationship with the campaign. When Trump won, Dr. Feulner became head of domestic policy for the incoming president's transition team. Heritage was ready with a database of thousands of loyal conservatives to appoint to political offices. 'By betting long odds on Trump, he succeeded,' Daniel Drezner, then a columnist at The Washington Post, wrote of DeMint. 'Heritage has easily been the most influential think tank in the Trump era.' Advertisement In 2017, during a White House dinner for grassroots leaders of the conservative movement, Dr. Feulner was the only think tank official invited — and he sat next to Trump. 'In some respects, Trump the nonpolitician has an incredible advantage, even over Ronald Reagan,' Dr. Feulner told the Times in 2018. Reagan 'knew there were certain things government couldn't do,' he added. Trump, on the other hand, has had a different mentality: 'Hell, why can't we do that? Let's try it.' Edwin John Feulner Jr. was born in Chicago on Aug. 12, 1941. His father was a self-made success in real estate, getting a college degree in night school and later helping to develop downtown Chicago. His mother, Helen (Franzen) Feulner, doted on Eddie, the eldest son, as her favorite, his three younger sisters later told Lee Edwards, author of 'Leading the Way: The Story of Ed Feulner and the Heritage Foundation,' a biography. He grew up saying grace before meals and serving as an altar boy at a local Catholic church. In 1963, he earned a bachelor's degree in English and business from Regis University, a Jesuit institution in Denver. While there, he experienced an ideological awakening while reading Russell Kirk's book 'The Conservative Mind' and Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn's 'Liberty or Equality.' In his spare time in Washington, he studied by correspondence for a doctorate in political science from the University of Edinburgh. He earned the degree in 1981. As a young man, he was an aide to two Republican members of the House of Representatives: Melvin Laird, from Wisconsin, and Philip Crane, from Illinois. Advertisement The Heritage Foundation was launched by a $260,000 donation from beer baron Joseph Coors. His seed money for Heritage was 'arguably the most consequential that's ever been spent in the world of public policy,' John J. Miller wrote in a remembrance for The Wall Street Journal in 2003. Richard Mellon Scaife, a banking and oil scion, became another major early donor. But wary of charges that Heritage was a tool of a few rich men, Dr. Feulner built a substantial membership list with the help of Richard Viguerie, a conservative marketer. By 1984, The Washington Post described Heritage's annual budget of over $10 million as 'the biggest of any think tank in Washington, left or right.' In 2023, its revenue was $101 million. The Times reported that Dr. Feulner's 2010 salary was $1,098,612. In 2005, The Washington Post found that Heritage swerved from criticizing the government of Malaysia to praising it around the time that a Hong Kong consulting firm cofounded by Dr. Feulner and advised by his wife, Linda, began representing Malaysian companies. In a statement, the Heritage Foundation denied that its reports were influenced by Feulner family business interests or any other external factor. Dr. Feulner's survivors include his wife; his children, Edwin III and Emily V. Lown; and several grandchildren. Flush with power in 1984, Dr. Feulner told the Times about the value of political irrelevance. 'The years in the wilderness gave us the time to work out challenges to the prevailing orthodoxy,' he said. He saw 'intellectual ferment' happening on the left — new ideas, new institutional energy. 'Now we are in the mainstream,' he cautioned, 'and we will suffer for that like the liberals before us.' Advertisement This article originally appeared in
USA Today
3 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Heritage Foundation founder Edwin Feulner dies at 83
Edwin Feulner, founder and longtime president of the influential U.S. conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, has died, the foundation announced in a statement. He was 83. Feulner, a Chicago-born political scientist, founded Heritage in 1973 and became its president in 1977, a position he held until 2013. Republican President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Citizens Medal in 1989. The foundation's statement, released on July 18, did not specify when Feulner died or the cause. Current Heritage president Kevin Roberts and Board of Trustees Chairman Barb Van Andel-Gaby, wrote in a joint statement that Feulner founded Heritage to plant "a flag for truth in a town too often seduced by power." "What started as a small outpost for conservative ideas became - under Ed's tireless leadership - the intellectual arsenal for the Reagan Revolution and the modern conservative movement," they wrote. Heritage continues to deeply impact American conservatism - including being the institution that created Project 2025, widely considered the policy blueprint of President Donald Trump's quick-moving second term. Senator Mitch McConnell, a longtime leader of Congressional Republicans, wrote on social media that Feulner "was a great man" and that "his dedication to promoting peace through strength at the end of the Cold War offers a particularly enduring lesson." Representative Steve Scalise, a Republican and majority leader in the House of Representatives, wrote on social media that Feulner "was one of the architects who built the conservative movement in this country." The Excerpt: Trump, Project 2025 and the plan to remake government (Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
