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Michael Regan was in a tight spot.

President Trump had just won North Carolina in the 2016 election, but Roy Cooper, a Democrat, had defeated the state's Republican incumbent in a tight race for governor. And as Cooper prepared to take office, the GOP-held General Assembly passed a series of bills to weaken the governor's power.

One of those measures was to require state Senate approval of the governor's Cabinet. Regan, nominated for secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, was to undergo a new confirmation process.

Before coming to the department, Regan spent more than eight years at the Environmental Defense Fund. Conservative groups pushed back on his nomination. The Civitas Institute called Regan "a very well-connected player in the worldwide radical environmental movement."

It didn't matter. Regan charmed lawmakers during his confirmation hearing and in private talks. He was unanimously approved at the committee level. Five days later, Regan was confirmed unanimously by the state Senate.

Regan will appear today before the U.S. Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee as President Biden's choice to lead EPA, and charming Republicans will be part of his task.

Back in 2016, then-state Sen. Bill Cook, a Republican, made the motion in committee that Regan be approved as DEQ secretary.

"He was a very personable guy," Cook, now chairman of the Beaufort County Republican Party, told E&E News. "Of the choices we had, he was the most reasonable."

Regan's path to confirmation as DEQ secretary did have a hiccup, although it was resolved soon enough.

Citing his environmental consulting firm and work at EDF, the North Carolina State Ethics Commission said Regan had "potential for a conflict of interest," although that potential conflict didn't bar him from service.

Regan then filed a supplement to his financial disclosure report, saying his firm had not won any business and was dissolved.

The Ethics Commission then said in a subsequent letter on Regan, "We did not find an actual conflict of interest or the potential for a conflict of interest."

Cook, who served in the state Senate from 2013 to 2018, said he was supportive of North Carolina's fishing industry, which meant he had to consult often with Regan as the state's top environmental regulator. He found Regan easy to work with.

"Personality can go a long way," Cook said. The former state senator added that he thinks Regan will do well as EPA administrator if confirmed.

"If he acts like he did when he was working with me, he will be OK," Cook said. "He will be reasonable, but he will be liberal."

As DEQ secretary, Regan interacted with industry groups whose members he regulated. He won friends there, too.

Preston Howard, president of the North Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, told E&E News there was some worry when Cooper picked Regan.

"He was coming from a group that we were regularly at odds with on policy matters. There is kind of a natural tension there with the environmental community and manufacturers," said Howard, who also served at North Carolina's environmental agency, including as its water quality division director.

Yet Regan was accessible when Howard had an issue to discuss. He recalls having several meetings with the DEQ secretary.

"Michael worked hard to engage the regulated community," Howard said. "I felt like Michael always told me the truth. When I asked him why he was doing this or that, he gave me a straight answer."

Gary Salamido, president and CEO of the NC Chamber, recalled how Regan reached out after he was picked to lead DEQ. The business group later supported Regan's confirmation.

"Michael reached out to us and said, 'Could I come out and meet with you folks?'" Salamido told E&E News. "He is a really good man of high character. We developed a friendship."

Even regulated companies have had kind words for Regan. He secured a massive settlement with Duke Energy Corp. to clean up close to 80 million tons of coal ash. The utility sent a tweet congratulating him after his nomination was announced.

Regan issued fines against hog farms in North Carolina. The North Carolina Pork Council released a statement yesterday saying it was "proud" that a North Carolina native had been nominated.

"Michael Regan took the time to visit our farms and learn about the pork industry and kept the door open for continued dialogue," the council said.

"It's a tough political environment here. It's partisan. Michael was able to put the relationship before the political here, and that benefited him," Salamido said. "He has the ability to reach a resolution but give certainty to the business community, even if it is not what they wanted."

Donald van der Vaart, who was DEQ secretary for Republican former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, returned to the department's career ranks after Cooper won the 2016 election.

But van der Vaart's membership on the EPA Science Advisory Board and his publishing of opinion articles irked the new Democratic administration. He was placed on leave, and he soon decided to go. His resignation letter addressed to Regan decried the "specter of politicization of science and law" at the department.

Still, van der Vaart said it was Cooper, not Regan, who spurred his exit. "I don't blame Regan for that," van der Vaart, now a senior fellow in environmental policy at the John Locke Foundation, told E&E News. "I don't think he has that political malfeasance in his system."

Van der Vaart said he is glad that a state regulator like Regan has been nominated for EPA administrator, considering that the states carry out most of the agency's environmental programs.

"He's a good guy and has plenty of energy," van der Vaart said about Regan. "He will grow into the job."

A problem for Regan was how North Carolina's DEQ handled the now-abandoned Atlantic Coast pipeline. The Republican Legislature hired private investigator firm Eagle Intel Services to dig into whether Cooper had engaged in "pay to play" politics on the project.

DEQ had signed off on a water quality permit for the pipeline, but critics allege that the governor made the decision to move forward. The department has denied that charge.

Eagle Intel's report said it had found no evidence that Cooper had benefited from the pipeline but that further investigation was warranted. Regan is mentioned several times in the document, including that he declined to be interviewed but would answer questions in a public hearing.

Van der Vaart said Regan could find himself in a similar situation at EPA, with officials elsewhere seen as calling the shots at the agency.

He noted that former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy is in the Biden White House running domestic climate policy, while Janet McCabe, who once led EPA's air office, has been nominated for deputy administrator.

"He is going to be between Janet McCabe and Gina McCarthy. Those people are two strong personalities who have a lot of experience," van der Vaart said. "I would find that difficult, not having unfettered access to my boss. I think there will be a lot of fettering going on."

Others believe Regan could be a success as head of EPA if he can operate as he did in North Carolina disagreeing with his opponents but maintaining those relationships to find compromise in the end.

The DEQ secretary is slated to have his confirmation hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee later today.

"He will be able to find progress on meaningful things for both parties," Salamido said. "It's old school. I think Washington needs a little more of that."

Howard said Regan is probably already making inroads with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. "I can just see now Michael making appointments with the people who have to confirm him. He can talk to those folks. He can talk to anybody," Howard said.

"Not every EPA administrator not the ones I've seen in 40 years can do that, but Michael can."

Reporter Timothy Cama contributed.

See the original post:
EPA: 'He can talk to anybody': How Regan works with Republicans - E&E News

Buehler, a longtime Republican, announced he's leaving the party after the Jan. 6 insurrection and a statement from the Oregon GOP calling the attack a "false flag."

PORTLAND, Ore. Knute Buehler, one of Oregon's most well-known Republicans, has announced he's leaving the party to become a non-affiliated voter. Buehler tried to gain statewide appeal as a moderate Republican nominee for governor in 2018 before he was ultimately defeated by Gov. Kate Brown by about 120,000 votes.

In 2020, he returned to politics with a more conservative lean. He ran as a Republican to represent Oregon's 2nd Congressional District, even embracing Pres. Donald Trump and his rhetoric. Buehler lost in the primary to Cliff Bentz, who went on to win that seat in the general election.

In January 2021, Rep. Bentz voted against certifying the presidential election results coming out of Pennsylvania, within just five days of being elected to office. This came on the same day pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

Several days later, the Oregon Republican party passed a resolution describing the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection as a false flag operation.

Buehler told KGW both of those events influenced his decision to leave the party.

"I don't know what the Republican Party stands for," he said. "It's almost become a cult of personality. Is it possible to re-correct? Absolutely. There's lots of potential both nationally and in Oregon if they do it right."

He's one of 6,145 Oregonians who switched their registration to leave the Republican Party in January, a decline of 0.8% from December 2020.

Likely referencing the "false flag" claim and the GOP selecting a QAnon believer to represent their party in the Senate race against Democrat Jeff Merkley, Buehler said, "Conspiracy theorists have been tolerated in the Oregon Republican Party and have not been dealt with effectively."

Continued here:
Knute Buehler on leaving GOP: 'I don't even know what the Republican Party stands for' - KGW.com

What, then, are the most plausible theories?

First, its worth rejecting a few unlikely possibilities. Congressional control is not the answer. The pattern holds regardless of which party is running Congress. Deficit spending also doesnt explain the gap: It is not the case that Democrats juice the economy by spending money and then leave Republicans to clean up the mess. Over the last four decades, in fact, Republican presidents have run up larger deficits than Democrats.

That leaves one broad possibility with a good amount of supporting evidence: Democrats have been more willing to heed economic and historical lessons about what policies actually strengthen the economy, while Republicans have often clung to theories that they want to believe like the supposedly magical power of tax cuts and deregulation. Democrats, in short, have been more pragmatic.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt first ran for president, in 1932, he did not have a fully coherent economic plan. He sometimes argued that reducing the deficit was the key to ending the Depression. Above all, though, he called for bold, persistent experimentation. As he explained: Take a method and try it: If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

Over time, he and his advisers came to champion the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. In an economic downturn, when companies and households are caught in a vicious cycle of spending reductions, the government needs to step in. The Keynesian approach has shaped Democratic economic policy ever since.

It has made Democratic presidents much more aggressive in responding to crises than Republicans. Not only was Mr. Hoover passive in the face of the Depression, but the first George Bush was slow to fight the 1990-91 recession, and the second George Bush was slow to begin fighting the 2007-9 financial crisis. Mr. Obama and now President Biden, when faced with an economic crisis, have been much bolder.

Michael Strain, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, told me that he believed the overall partisan pattern was mostly coincidence. But, he said, It is certainly a defensible posture that in periods of economic distress Democrats are more concerned about jobs than Republicans.

The past year has offered another case study. Mr. Trump repeatedly downplayed the coronavirus pandemic, and the country suffered. The economy would have experienced a downturn no matter who was president, but his scattered response aggravated the pandemic and the recession. In some other countries, life is much closer to normal. In the United States, Mr. Trump became the first president since Mr. Hoover to preside over a decline in employment.

The rest is here:
Opinion | Why Are Republican Presidents So Bad for the Economy? - The New York Times

WASHINGTON Rep. Greg Pence, R-Ind. joined House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Congressman Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) and 83 House Republicans to introduce the Keystone XL Pipeline Construction and Jobs Preservation Act. This legislation authorizes the construction and operation of the Keystone XL Pipeline following President Joe Bidens decision to rescind the border crossing permit.

The Biden Administrations decision to rescind this permit negatively impacts hardworking American families in our district and beyond. Pipelines like the Keystone XL Pipeline remain the safest and most environmentally friendly way to move fuel to heat our homes, float our ships, and power our cars. Canceling this pipeline has already cost thousands of working Americans their jobs. First, the liberal agenda goes after the Keystone XL Pipeline, but next theyll attack the over 44,000 miles of pipelines Hoosiers rely on in the Crossroads of America, Pence said in a statement.

Pence also joined Scalise and more than 30 members of the House Energy Action Team to strongly condemn the Biden administrations 60-day moratorium on issuing oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters.

For more on this story, see Thursdays Republic.

See more here:
Pence joins House Republicans in seeking to restore Keystone XL Pipeline project - The Republic

Warning: Disturbing stuff ahead.

Theres a conspiracy theory called Frazzledrip. Even for QAnon types, its pretty fringe, which is saying something. Recall that the central belief in Q-world is that theres a secret cabal of Satan-worshiping, sex-trafficking pedophiles running the government.

Frazzledrip is worse. It is the name of an imagined video of a young girl on Huma Abedins laptop in a folder labeled life insurance. Abedin, the ex-wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, was an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

According to Vice, the nonexistent video shows Clinton filleting off the young girls face. The two women take turns wearing the girls face as a mask to terrify the child so blood is suffused with adrenochrome. They drink her blood as part of a satanic ritual.

Oh, Frazzledrip also believes Clinton murdered New York City police officers who saw the video and covered up their deaths as suicides.

Now, you dont have to be a Clinton fan Im certainly not to recognize this garbage as evil and insane. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon-friendly Republican representative from Georgia, disagrees. She endorsed the theory on her Facebook page in 2018.

Greene has spread other wicked stuff: Mass school shootings were false flag operations, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be shot for treason. Etc.

And yet, to listen to some Republicans, it would be too divisive to excommunicate Greene or other QAnon-aligned Republicans because the party must unify.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy plans to have a conversation with Greene. Hes under pressure to at least take her off the Education Committee, but some Republicans fear he wont even go that far because, Politico reports, Greene represents an energetic wing of the party and hell feel he cant afford to risk punishing one of Trumps favored office-holders.

The Hawaii GOP recently tweeted out support for QAnon, saying it was largely motivated by a sincere and deep love for America. When newly elected Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) appeared on a QAnon streaming site, the National Republican Congressional Committee responded to criticism by noting his opponent appeared on Russia conspiracy network MSNBC.

Meanwhile, these same people think real heretics in need of canceling are Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and nine other Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, who reportedly said that QAnon just believes in good government. Various state parties have moved to censure Cheney and others for supporting impeachment.

So, in the name of fighting cancel culture, Republicans who condemned a president who tried to topple the Constitution to hold power must now be canceled yet Republicans who think Clinton drinks the blood of children must not be canceled or even criticized in the name of conscience.

Indeed, QAnon is being recast into a kind of oppressed religious minority with an inalienable right to its beliefs and any attempt to curtail it would put America on a slippery slope to tyranny.

Tucker Carlson, a prime-time host at Fox News (where I am a contributor), recently ran a long montage of pundits not politicians fretting over QAnons influence. After mocking them for making such a fuss, Carlson declared, Theres a clear line between democracy and tyranny, between self-government and dictatorship. And heres what that line is. That line is your conscience. They cannot cross that.

Government has every right to tell you what to do, Carlson said, citing things like laws against rape, murder and jaywalking. But, he insisted, No democratic government can ever tell you what to think. Your mind belongs to you. It is yours and yours alone.

Once politicians attempt to control what you believe, he continued, they are no longer politicians. They are by definition dictators. And if they succeed in controlling what you believe you are no longer a citizen, you are not a free man, you are a slave.

This is all nonsense.

Sure, the government can police behavior like rape and murder. But it doesnt have every right to tell you what to do. See the Bill of Rights or, for that matter, conservative objections to the individual healthcare mandate.

Sure, government cant make you violate your conscience (if your conscience says you should rape or murder, youre out of luck, though). But government can and should try to make you believe some things. It should try to convince you that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and necessary. It can tell you the correct date of election day.

This isnt dictatorial by any definition. Its telling the truth, and truth-telling is supposed to be the first obligation of both politicians and pundits, because democracy doesnt work without the truth. And neither will the GOP.

@JonahDispatch

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Column: Where QAnon goes, so goes the Republican Party - Los Angeles Times