Jonathan Larsen Profile picture
Sep 18, 2020 14 tweets 5 min read Read on X
BOMBSHELL: The EPA set a deadline of MONDAY for Oklahoma tribes to respond to Gov. Kevin Stitt's request for the EPA to give HIM control over environmental regulations on tribal lands.

@tihuachang has details in his exclusive report:

tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…
Ti-Hua previously reported that Stitt had quietly made the request to the EPA after the Supreme Court gave the tribes sovereignty over eastern Oklahoma.

Now, we have Stitt's letter ... and it goes farther than anyone knew.
A former EPA official told us that Stitt's request included language that would let the state permit fracking...

...and the dumping of mercury, PCBs and other hazardous waste on tribal lands...

...throughout the ENTIRE state.
The EPA hasn't yet told us what outreach they did to let tribes know about Monday's deadline.

But in an earlier statement told us they're in consultations with tribes "that asked to meet."

Here's the hitch...
We don't know which tribes, if any, even KNEW about Stitt's request.

But at least one tribe told us they did NOT.
Who DID Stitt tell?

Big Agriculture and Big Oil.

Ti-Hua first revealed Stitt's request late last month... thanks to audio of Stitt posted online by the Oklahoma Farm Bureau.
tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…
Now it turns out that Big Oil knew even earlier than that.

On July 22--the same day Stitt WROTE his letter--the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma got a copy of it and posted it online.

They loved it.

thepetroleumalliance.com/petroleum-alli…
Now, it's possible some tribes knew about this deadline...

...IF Stitt told them about his request to the EPA...

...and IF the tribes knew that they had the option of weighing in.

But Stitt's request and the EPA's deadline never appear to have been made public.
Which means now anyone who wants to object to the tribes losing environmental regulatory sovereignty...

...has only three days to make their case to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler...

...who worked for Inhofe for 14 years.
Prior to publication, we shared details of Stitt's letter with tribal and environmental groups, including @350.

Here are the responses we got.
UPDATE: NRDC senior attorney responds to @tihuachang's story, Tweeting that when Wheeler worked for Inhofe...

...he actually HELPED Inhofe with the midnight rider that made Stitt's request possible.

EPA has responded. We expect to update our story tonight and will post when it's up.
Here's our update.

EPA says the deadline was posted on an EPA site for tribal consultations and that notifications were sent.

The Ponca tribe was as of tonight checking its emails but had not yet located it...
The tribes were apparently first notified Aug. 25.

As we reported, state business leaders knew at least as early as July 22.

The EPA has not said why it never announced the deadline to the general public.

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More from @jtlarsen

Sep 2
NEW: Sen. @JDVance recanted his Trump critiques, but the media haven’t asked him about how he disparaged evangelical Protestants.

I went back to old Vance interviews and essays and found multiple examples.

Now Catholic, Vance hasn’t recanted it.
🧵
You can find an easy-to-read article version of the info in this thread…

…as well as subscribe and support my reporting, here:
thefuckingnews.substack.com/p/vance-dispar…
Some highlights.

Vance told Religion News Service in 2016 that for “a fair number” of Bible Belt Christians, Christianity is “a cultural tchotchke.”

Like fishing or country music. Image
Read 7 tweets
Aug 10
NEW: In 2016, JD Vance wrote that he didn’t see “significant” combat.

Or “real” fighting…

…without explaining why he added those qualifiers, which left room to infer that he saw minor action.

There are other instances, too, including the RNC.
🧵
I’ll thread some highlights, but you can read the full article here:
thefuckingnews.substack.com/p/vance-wrote-…
Image
Vance has gone after Gov. Tim Walz for “stolen valor” after Walz referred to weapons that he carried in war.

The Kamala Harris campaign today said Walz “misspoke.”

But Vance, too, has been ambiguous about his service. Image
Read 10 tweets
Jul 31
I see the Buttigieg-for-veep star is rising, so I wanted to remind folks about my reporting on him in the 2020 campaign.

Here's a guide to the most notable stories, but I'll thread some of the details. thefuckingnews.substack.com/p/the-buttigie…
Image
Indiana state law lets county officials destroy campaign-finance records after a few years.

I learned that Buttigieg's first mayoral filings were gone.

He refused to release his copies and AFAIK never has.
documentcloud.org/documents/2494…
I learned that Buttigieg allegedly fired a city attorney for failing to deep-six a state police investigation of Buttigieg's police chief.

I would later learn a lot more about this investigation, which Buttigieg claimed exonerated his chief.
web.archive.org/web/2023092722…
Read 25 tweets
Apr 22
On Tuesday, Mike Johnson was praying over what to do about Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Johnson gave his news conference saying Ukraine was worth losing his speakership.

Here’s what happened in between.
thefuckingnews.substack.com/p/johnsons-com…
Image
You can read the full article, and support this and upcoming reporting, by subscribing at .

And a big hat tip to @NastyOldWomyn, who flagged the key piece of this one.

Here's what we know...thefuckingnews.substack.com
@NastyOldWomyn As I reported on April 10, the Ukrainian point man for The Family--the prayer breakfast people--had met with both Johnson (January) and Zelenskyy (April)...

...pushing a new rationale to support Ukraine: "Religious freedom."
thefuckingnews.substack.com/p/dying-for-us…
Image
Read 6 tweets
Mar 31
Speaker Mike Johnson is calling it "abhorrent" for Pres. Biden to name today "Transgender Day of Visibility Day."

Because it's Easter.

Johnson said Biden "betrayed the central tenet of Easter." Image
Trump's campaign said Christians -- but also Catholics! -- believe today is "for one celebration only"...

..."the resurrection of Jesus Christ."

But is it? Did Biden REALLY betray Easter's central tenet...? Image
"Easter" only appears in the Bible 22 times. Each time, with an 'n' at the end.

The actual WORD "Easter" appears in The Bible 0 times.

Which means that Biden is celebrating Easter today more literally and explicitly than The Bible does. And... Image
Read 6 tweets
Mar 5
The House impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is expected to go to the Senate this week.

I dug into the staffers who put together the House impeachment report. THREAD...
Image
Image
(BTW, all of my stories on this can be found at . If you need a family-friendly URL, there's .

Either way, you can make sure not to miss future reporting by becoming a subscriber. Thanks!)

Back to the thread...thefuckingnews.substack.com
jonathanlarsen.substack.com
The top staffers in the Mayorkas impeachment have had ties with, and training from…

…multiple right-wing and even theocratic groups.

Some leaders of those groups have used lies to dispatch political foes.
thefuckingnews.substack.com/p/mayorkas-imp…
Image
Read 25 tweets

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