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"Just making s**t up" — David Roberts sounds off on the EPA "To say members of Congress didn’t anticipate a specific pollutant is just f**king comical." Aaron Rupar and Thor Benson Feb 16 The Mill Creek Generating Station, a coal-powered power plant in Louisville, pictured on Saturday. (Jon Cherry/Getty) PN is supported by paid subscribers. Become one   On the heels of Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency announcing that it’s repealing the endangerment finding — the legal foundation for the federal government’s regulation of greenhouses gases — we checked in with the always-colorful David Roberts to get some expert insight on what it means. Roberts, author of the excellent  Volts newsletter   and a longtime friend of Public Notice, pointed out that rescinding the endangerment finding is one thing; surviving the inevitable legal challenges is another. “How the fuck are they going to do that?” Roberts said. “If you can get the Supreme Court to rule that carbon ...

  David H. Koch in 1996. He and his brother Charles are lifelong libertarians and have quietly given more than a hundred million dollars to right-wing causes. Photograph by Richard Schulman / Corbis Some critics have suggested that the Kochs’ approach has subverted the purpose of tax-exempt giving. By law, charitable foundations must conduct exclusively nonpartisan activities that promote the public welfare. A 2004 report by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, a watchdog group, described the Kochs’ foundations as being self-serving, concluding, “These foundations give money to nonprofit organizations that do research and advocacy on issues that impact the profit margin of Koch Industries.” The Kochs have gone well beyond their immediate self-interest, however, funding organizations that aim to push the country in a libertarian direction. Among the institutions that they have subsidized are the Institute for Justice, which files lawsuits opposing state and federal re...