it's e.p.a. is making it easier for big polluters to poison american families that it will verify food water watch will join us to discuss how he's doing it and what americans might be able to do about it and we're five months into the trump presidency and trump is just as vicious and vulgar as ever and it's politics panel shelby and the guys here who will join me to discuss with trump's temperament makes him one fit to perform his duties as president. pro d.p.a. moved on tuesday to rescind a clean water rule that was designed to limit pollution in about two thirds of all the nation's bodies of water move comes months after trump signed an executive order in february instructing pruitt to start the process of legally rolling back the water rule even though the rule had not yet taken effect as a result of lingering legal questions republican party and trump's base hailed this move as a big win over so-called job killing regulations that quote would have put backyard ponds potholes and prairie poth

operates and we just have to watch and we have to encourage anybody has any contact with an e.p.a. employee they have to tell us what's going on you know and whether that there's all different ways people are doing that i think people are paying attention and it's going to take constant calling out what they're doing in terms of you know whether or not career folks can do their job so what can the average citizen do who is concerned about being poisoned by some of these chemicals for example you know we're concerned about the loss of potential loss of clean water clean air. livestock yeah i mean it is it's a tough one right it's a very very personally the most immediate thing in terms of what you buy you know you can look for products that are food products that are produced without the stuff so you can look for gannett you can look for folks who say i don't use this stuff bigger picture which is what you need to do is well there's an election coming up and we can't keep sending back to congress folks that would support these kind of cuts to the e.p.a. so depending where you live y

i think i'm right in this, e.p.a. was never constituted it's just a collection of programs put under a, you know, under a name. the whole department itself hasn't been really reviewed. can't do it all at once. these are the debates we should have as the authorizing committees so appropriators aren't called upon to do both jobs. loren: when it comes to the e.p.a. the administration wanted a $2.6 billion cut using the annualized level which would be a significant reduction, similar reduction in the head count at the e.p.a. what visions did that take to the e.p.a., how comfortable are you with the request they've made? >> here's how i approach it. i think you have to look at what's the core mission of ey have e.p.a. i reference things like brown fields. and those things. that you have this enormous backlog yet we know it's essential to the environment and to the economy of community after community after community to get those cleaned up and put back into product i use. -- back into productive use. so part of what we're

and under e.p.a. rules, dupont and chemours' release-of-genx into the water may be perfectly legal, that's because it's a by- product of another substance. >> there is a loophole that needs to be looked at by congress to make certain that we have safe, good drinking water in this country. >> reporter: state inspectors are now testing the current levels of genx in wilmington's water and the e.p.a. is also investigating. >> we as citizens of this nation need to know what those chemicals are, so at least we can make decisions for our own families as to whether we should drink the water or not. >> reporter: chemours says it will no longer release the by- product of genx into the cape fear river, and they believe that product has not had an impact on the safety of drinking water in wilmington. anthony, today the north carolina department of health said it will take a look at cancer rates, specifically in this region. >> mason: jericka duncan. thank you, jericka. the co-owner of a massachusetts pharmacy, ba

. >> reporter: a three-year study by north carolina state university and the e.p.a. out this past fall showed an elevated presence of gen x in wilmington's tap water, but the disclosed until this month. >> i ask all of you to keep this going until our water is clean. >> reporter: last week's city council meeting was standing room only. >> why has this been allowed to go on for so long? i've been drinking this water my entire life. >> reporter: the long-term health effects of gen x are unknown, but studies submitted by dupont to the e.p.a. show it caused tumors and reproductive problems in lab animals. lisa grogan's son nathan battled a rare kidney cancer. she like many other parents of children in cancer in the area aren't pointing fingers but are wondering whether toxins in their drinking water were the cause. >> because of what our kids have been through, i think it's hard to people to look at us and say, the water's probably okay, we're not willing to accept that risk. >> reporter: amy herman's son jacob had leukemia. >> it just seems odd that we're having to figh

you know, when republicans are sticking up for e.p.a. cuts, the e.p.a. budget, that's an indication that this budget, which was designed by mull vainy, trump's o.m.b. director, you know, is not going to be enacted. it's interesting to see republicans and democrats united on capitol hill in some critical areas where they say, why should we be cutting, you know, meals on wheels or food stamps? the government should be helping people who can't afford food to make sure they don't starve. but i do expect like some of the budget cuts to the state department or u.s.a. to go forward, because they can't reject everything that trump has, especially because it is a republican congress after all. host: dan lippman, final question for you. obviously this town still trying to grasp the shooting that took place last wednesday in alexandria, virginia. anything that we can expect this week from members of congress on that front? gerry: i think they're still working through what they wanted to achieve with more security. most congressmen, they don't want to have a capitol

the e.p.a.o decide when to create new regulations as a result no new contaminants have been regulated sense so what can you do to avoid p.m.c. is when our federal government isn't doing its part so you can avoid anything that says teflon on it unless it's the classic album teflon don from rapper rick ross that's sacred or you can call your representatives to tell the e.p.a. to get tougher on chemical regulations. or you can be like me and started these areas because. this is the first time anyone's ever said this but kept. speired me. for a while this is not a way to go for that and. there are your headlines from the future coming up next month jeff bezos feels good about self are reading a whole article about how other half lives. and in august trump sells ugliest third of american citizens to abu dhabi. and you might have heard the new york times has had a bit of a rough go of the truth recently so you'll read this in a couple of weeks. new york times claims to be growing as new ten page corre

toxic substance that has yet to be regulated under the state drinking water and once upon a time the e.p.awas required to regularly regulate chemicals but after complaints from water utilities congress decided in one thousand nine hundred six to leave it up to the e.p.a. to decide when to create new regulations as a result no new contaminants have been regulated sense so what can you do to avoid pm sees when our federal government isn't doing its part so you can avoid anything that says teflon on it unless it's the classic album teflon don from rapper rick ross that's sacred or you can call your representatives to tell the e.p.a. to get tougher on chemical regulations. or you can be like me and start the d.c. area is because. this is the first time anyone's ever said this but kept. speired me. this exactly to go back to. you know your headlines from the future coming up next month jeff bezos feels good about self for reading a whole article about how other half lives. and in august. trump shows ugliest third of american citizens to abu dhabi. and you might of heard the new york times has h

well according to the documents that have been provided to the e.p.a. we're seeing the same types of cancers in rats as we saw with c eight we're seeing the same types of reproductive immune system effects as well as other toxic effects to the eyes of the longs to the skin of animals that are exposed to this to these to this chemical genex it's the exact same types of harm we saw animals being exposed to see eight experience so it's eerily similar in to end of the toxicological effects on the animal poor animal subjects the been exposed to this chemical what we're being told is that they don't have any idea how this actually affects humans who are exposed to it through drinking water and chronically which is frightening absolutely frightening what's the potential effect the size of the population how many people could potentially be affected here chris. well what we understand is that right now the water systems that are in wilmington north carolina that is the cape fear public utilities association that water system as i understand it serves upwards of

charlie: an enemy of e.p.a. al: pruitt is awful, they're dismantling the scientific review boards there. they're getting rid of the scientists and replacing them with industry-friendly scientists. this is a disaster. i'm fighting as hard as i can. i write in the book that i don't -- i have three grandchildren now. and i don't want them in 50 years to say to me, grandpa -- charlie: why didn't you do more? al: you were a senator. you nuclei mat change was happening. why didn't you do more? and also why are you still alive, because i'd be 116 then. charlie: they would ask that. al: what are you doing alive, it's all the money we invested in n.i.h. charlie: my first question is, why are you alive. and second question, way back when you had a chance to do something and you didn't. al: i'm fighting as hard as i can. i blame the koch brothers. charlie: there's a lot of blame to go around, is there not? al: the republican party, john mccain in 2008 was for putting a price on carbon. and we can't get our republican colle

inform the e.p.a. so just seven years the company had to file sixteen reports on the toxicity of the chemical that they told both regulators and the public was much safer nothing to worry about no problems here gin axes been associated with a dangerous health effects and test rats including cancer changes to the immune system and problems related to reproduction in january two thousand and thirteen dupont said in a report that rats exposed to varying amounts of genex over a two year period form cancerous tumors in the liver in the pancreas and the testicles rats also develop benign tumors a kidney disease and liver failure even worse is that the dupont scientists who signed off on the report said well they're probably more relevant to human health assessments really which the company has taken as the green light to dump these chemicals in the cape fear river in north carolina and again just like ca being dumped into the ohio river valley what we're beginning to see this genetics chemical popping up in

. >> is the plan to eliminate the e.p.a. in four years? >> no, sir. there are important roles they will continue to serve and it is important we fund those and prioritize those. larry: it came as a trump administration took the steps to roll back another obama administration environmental policy. today the e.p.a. and the armies corps of engineers outlining the clean water rule. it defined which waterways are covered by the clean water act. president trump ordered the e.p.a. to review the rule that critics called too strike. alison: coming up at 5:00, the warning the u.s. is giving syria's pres country's military could pay a heavy price. >> vandals strike headstones that stood for tentureries. -- centuries. alison: how you can use the ride sharing app to get someone else a you don't see every day. a new island. off the coast of north carolina off cape point. not far from the cape hatteras lighthouse. locals call it shelly island because it's a great place for seashells. how about that? larry: beautiful. a small bug that is causing big problems. rooseve

at the time milton clark was a toxicologist for the e.p.a. the government agency responsible for environmental protection. with his colleagues he wrote a report condemning dallas practices. just as much right before the report's publication the corporation with six. she didn't pressuring the acting chief of the e.p.a. in washington. we went into shock we had never heard of such a thing ever but the company that we were regulating they would have the right to review a report comment on it before it's released and where did they ask you about that and it was critically important to say that people were at risk but they did not want to just basically want to squash the report ok and eventually the final report they prevailed and so they truncated it down and removed critical sections and all the conclusions were taken away. pressured by his superiors milton clarke was forced to censor the report. the result pollution in midland michigan would continue for thirty years with impunity. and the executives that would continue denying the dangers. the

we're ending the intrusive e.p.a.egulations that kill jobs, hurt family farmers and ranchers, and raise the price of energy so quickly and so substantially. in order to protect american jobs, companies and workers have withdrawn the united states from the one-sided paris climate accord. [applause] and i won't get into it, but believe me, that really put this country at a disadvantage. number one, we weren't playing on the same field. it kicked in for us and it doesn't kick in for others. the money that we had to pay was enormous. it was not even close. and maybe we'll be back into it some day. but it will be on better terms. it will be on fair terms. not on terms where we're the people that don't know what we're doing. so we'll see what happens. but i will tell you, we are proud of it. and when i go around there are so many people who say, thank you, you saved the sovereignty of our country. you saved our wealth, because we would have a hard time getting to this newfound wealth and that's not gonna happen with our cou

the e.p.a. man who, in the past, has sued to stop environmental regulations, and who supports withdrawing from paris. >> paris is something that we need to really look at closely. it's something we need to exit, in my opinion. it's a bad deal for america. >> brangham: and in march, the president signed a executive order undoing obama-era climate change regulations. last week at the g-7 summit, mr. trump would not pledge to support the paris deal, a move that frustrated many european leaders. that sentiment was repeated today by jean claude juncker, the president of the european commission, who strongly criticized the idea of the u.s. walking away from the agreement: >> ( translated ): the americans can't just leave the climate protection agreement. so this notion "i am trump, i am american, america first" and i'm going to get out of it-- that won't happen. >> brangham: the original paris accord was signed by the obama administration, along with 195 other countries, back in 2015. it voluntarily c

at that time we had a lady who was the -- was the director of the e.p.a. and i -- i -- at that time i -- in the first year of the obama administration, and i remember getting ready to go to copenhagen to explain to people that they have been lied to. we had obama at that time going over, we had hillary clinton going over, we had john kerry going over and all the rest of them saying that we and the united states were going to pass a cap and trade. i and i wanted to make sure they knew we were not going to be passing cap and trade. lisa jackson was the first obama designee to be the director of the e.p.a. and i looked at her and i said, you know, i have a feeling that as soon as i leave town, that you're going to have ab endangerment finding so you can start regulating this stuff. she kind of smiled. sure enough, i said when that happens, it has to be based on science. so tell me, what science will you base this on? and she said, well, it's going to be based on the ipcc, ipcc stands spoke the intergovernmental panel on climate change. that's the united natio

chief strategist steve bannon, and e.p.a. administrator scott pruitt successfully led the argument to get out of the agreement. secretary of state rex tillerson and the president's daughter, ivanka, tried but convince mr. trump to stay in. in a statement, the leaders of italy, france, and germany said they regret the president's decision and urged other nations "to speed up their action to combat climate change." the heads of most major u.s. corporations also wanted mr. trump to stay in the paris accord. elon musk, c.e.o. of tesla and spacex, tweeted that he is departing two presidential councils added, "climate change is real." g.e. c.e.o. jeffrey immelt tweeted that he's disappointed and that industry must now lead and not depend on government. president trump did not mention president obama by name, but criticized his administration for failing to put america first when it negotiated the deal. >> i was elected to represent the citizens of pittsburgh not paris. >> reporter: in a statement, mr. obama responded, "even as this

in their blood because it takes years and years for it to actually filter out but not only does the e.p.a. have no regulation for monitoring the same way they monitor lead and arsenic but no new contaminants have been regulated by the e.p.a. under the safe drinking water act since one thousand nine hundred. since they're found in a zillion and one things we use every day like shampoo cleaning products nonstick cookware makeup in short all the things i used before my mom visits my studio apartment to show her that i'm a self-sufficient adult who cooks our own meals and showers regularly those are the things that are slowly killing me on the inside about ninety eight percent of americans have seas in their blood which means people have seas are like that h.p.v. have chemicals everyone has it but it's not just cleaning and grooming products they can be found in there also in things like firefighting foam like this foam that overflowed when a fire alarm was tripped in an airplane hangar in santa clara california the same type of foam into groundwater from military bases across the u.s. . and

power seems to influence washington i know in the right likes to admit that but it's true last year e.p.a. or environmental protection agency agency decided that glideslope eight which is in the round up which many people believe including the believe that the world health care is a was not a carcinogen they ruled that now been ruled this is not a carcinogen however the inspector general of the e.p.a. is now investigating possible collusion between one side and a recently retired top u.p.a. that's all so so the guy who decides whether or not something gets. the box gets checked to say might of might be have been in the pocket of somebody. else like this collusion and corruption is happening within the people who are supposed to keep us safe i know that's crazy to great and they're. well i mean what here's the thing that people have to understand it doesn't mean it can't be sold in california but a lot of people know in california there's there's signs everywhere like there are chemicals used on this law and. may cause cancer or most cops birth defects so they tell people like it's being u

and so the department of transportation is also working with e.p.a. and with department of defense, army corps of engineers, with fish and wildlife and many other departments in an effort to see how we can work better together to facilitate and speed along some of these infrastructure projects. mr. culberson: i guess what i'm driving and, you're right, it does need to be carefully examined and thought through. the president was right. he was elected to think big, act bollly. what can we do to speed it up? we've had councils before to look at these things. you have the authority to cut through red tape and no committee is better equipped than the appropriations committee to support you in that effort. the chairman's got your back. we got your back. what can we do to help speed that up in order to really act quickly and boldly? secretary chao: well, the president has also made it very clear that he would like to reduce the infrastructure regulatory process from 10 years to two years. so he's very results oriented and we are looking at that. mr. culberso

and of course having his e.p.a. chief, scott pruett, another big skeptic. so i feel like there was a shift in tone toward maybe acknowledging that carbon emissions, reducing those is a good thing to work toward and maybe not through this deal but another deal. scarlet: maybe evolution in that deal. bloomberg's white house reporter shannon peteypiece and bloomberg "business week's" eric roston who wrote the cover story. it is on newsstands tomorrow. or i should say right now. eric, congratulations. julia: we were talking about the international response to this decision. brake obama nt has made a statement. and the nation that is reap the benefits in jobs and industries created. i believe the united states of america should be at the front of the pack. but even in the absence of american leadership, even if this administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future. now, it depends on definitions of course. but there were two countries that didn't sign up. syria and nicaragua. nicaragua because they wanted more stringent controls. scarlet: t

the white house says the stance has evolved, e.p.a. director scott pruitt not saying if the president believes the science. >> yes or no, does the president believe climate change is real and a threat to the united states? >> what is interesting about all the discussions we had through the last several weeks have been focused on singular issue. is paris good or not for the country? reporter: pruitt defending trump's decision to withdraw from the agreement signed by 200 countries to fight climate change, saying it would hurt the economy and criticize the worldwide outrage. >> the world applauded when we joined paris. you know why? they knew it would put the country to economic disadvantage. >> i was elected to represent the citizens of pittsburgh, not paris. >> the mayor of pittsburgh speaking out joining the dozen of american leaders vowing to comply with the paris accord. >> pittsburgh is the example of what is at the heart of the paris agreement and how the city was facing economic collapse was able to come back through innovation an

. >> woodruff: the former e.p.a. administrator, not your predecessor, sorry, the former e.p.a. administrator, gina mccarthy said today, "she said this is an embarrassing day for the united states." she went on to say, "make no mistake, because of this reckless decision, our businesses will lose business opportunity, we will seed technology breakthroughs to countries that will take over our leadership role and the rest of the world will question whether the u.s. can be trusted." >> that's pretty apocalyptic. that's oy apocalyptic to the point of straining credulity. these are smart people, but they are not omniscient. i think their prophesies of doom and gloom are entirely unwanted and inappropriate. again, we have to get back to the fact that this power, the power to enter into binding international agreement, this is a shared power. this is something that was decided, should be a shared power, at the constitutional convention some 230 years ago. as i explain in my new book that came out this week called "written out of history," these powers that are vested in the fghtd have t